Michelle's corner

Some time ago, Nick Higham interviewed Mal Peet. It was one of the more memorable interviews for me because they talked about the average wage of an author and Amazon's part in things - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30259716

Mal made a public statement about his income as an author going down, and when queried as to why he thought that was, covered Amazon as a, "Janus headed thing," doing both good and bad. He also listed other things such as people reading fewer books, wanting to get their stories from the screen instead. I see his point. He also lists a shift from fiction to non-fiction. Something that didn't make sense to me, however, was that he said that Amazon are shifting more, "copies," which didn't quite gel with his thought that people are buying fewer books.

A number of other things challenge that, for example after so many people read the now infamous, "50 Shades," novels they made a film out of it and when the film was launched, it propelled Shades back to the top of the book charts again. The Harry potter books are another case in point, although I don't have any actual figures to hand.

I have indirectly had a brush with Amazon recently and, yes, it has buggered things up. Not anywhere nearly as seriously, however, as it has done so for these people by suspending and then deleting their account... https://alexzolo.wordpress.com/

"We have eight full time and four part time employees who all have families that depend on our business, not to forget our multiple partners and suppliers. We have spent five hard years building this business from the ground up with a single goal in mind; to provide only excellent service to our customers. We have major investments in our infrastructure, and so far we have been very proud of our success. By no means are we rich, but this business has been helping our employees pay their bills and purchase basic necessities."

The crime they committed to lose their entire market place? They don't really know, and Amazon isn't telling them.

They aren't alone. Amazon's practice also made the Seattle Times ... http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2019705292_amazonseller18.html

There are also pages upon pages of other people from 2010 to the present day moaning about their accounts being shut and not being treated anywhere near fairly... (web archive version as the original was deleted)  https://web.archive.org/web/20111231154044/https://www.amazon.com/seller-account-suspended-jeff-bezos/forum/Fx381N3DWYJYIGD/TxEVLB3PU19O1Z/1?asin=B000X86ZAS

Amazon seems to behave in increasingly random and inexplicable ways. They stunned the literary world last year when they blocked a book because it contained too many hyphens... http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/dec/18/amazon-book-hyphens-graeme-reynolds-high-moor-2-moonstruck

This is the kind of thing that makes you sit up and wonder how such a company made it to such a prominent position in the market place when it makes such dumb decisions.

Well, part of the answer to that one is us. You and me. The shoppers who fall for the very heavily researched lure of the buy button. What we want can be ours at the click of a button and they have deliberately made it oh, so very easy.

Suppliers, however, aren't the only ones losing out. Nichole Gracely spoke out about how being homeless is better than working for Amazon... http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/nov/28/being-homeless-is-better-than-working-for-amazon

Amazon isn't stopping there, either. They know that our population is ageing at one end, and lazy at the other. (UPDATE - overworked and underpaid more likely) They are positioning themselves to deliver everything to our doors... http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/20/amazon-cutting-grocery-prices-profits

There is a question I'd like to ask Suzanne McGee if I ever get the chance. Last year she mulled over Amazon's spat with Hachette costing her a couple of hundred dollars that she wouldn't otherwise have spent... http://www.theguardian.com/money/us-money-blog/2014/sep/07/amazon-tantrum-hachette-cost-me-212-dollars

The question is this ... Was the pleasure she had in being at the book store, shopping, browsing, perusing, being with other people, greater or less than whatever she does with the time that ordering from Amazon saves her?

As for me, I've been shy of the Amazon processing farm for a while now. They're way, way down on my shopping source list. I use them as part of my research and see if I can get what I want, elsewhere. Usually, I can, as evidenced by saving nearly 50% on the price of a flash gun for my camera... http://msknight.com/technilife/?p=321 ... and also forty pounds on my HP Stream (Amazon wanted to charge a premium for the all-silver version) ... I was also able to get a reconditioned Samsung Note 10.1 at roughly two thirds of the price by shopping at other electrical retailers.

My personal conclusion is that Amazon are just bad for everybody; their staff, their suppliers AND their customers. It's worth shopping around even on the internet, or finding another mechanism to bring your books and your goods to market.