17 April 2009

If Not Amazon, Then Where?

On Tuesday, Ember mentioned the #amazonfail debacle that occurred over the Easter weekend. (Link goes to the Dear Author ‘amazon’ tag, which lists all the articles they ran regarding the issue.)


Amazon had been stripping titles of their ranking according to metadata that often included the terms ‘gay & lesbian’ and ‘erotic.’ It wasn’t an across the board deranking, but it did affect nearly 58,000 titles. To this point, I still have no idea whether it was a software glitch, some French programmer with a language problem, or the work of an insidious hacker. Amazon is sure as heck not spilling the beans. The upshot was that authors of gay and lesbian literature, both fiction and non-fiction, as well as authors of heterosexual erotic fiction, had their titles virtually buried for at least two full days, if not longer.

One of the most telling things about the entire 48 hour orgy of idiocy – from my perspective, at least – was that Amazon decided that the authors who were targeted by this issue didn’t deserve a direct and sincere mea culpa. Yes, there was the “embarrassing and ham-fisted” statement, but it did skirt the whole issue of ghettoizing, however inadvertently, an already marginalized category of literature.

The upshot is that I don’t shop at Amazon anymore. I’ve never been comfortable with the way they do business. I don’t like the mega-corp model, even though I get the economics of them. Instead, I’m choosing to do my book-buying from other independent stores. My online shop of choice is Powells, a bricks and mortar store in Portland, OR that also has a pretty extensive online catalog. I’ve also looked into Alibris and Borders, B&N and Books*A*Million are also options. I understand that some UK buyers have moved to BookDepository, as well.

If you’ve recently made the decision to spend your book dollars elsewhere, what’s your shop of choice?

15 comments:

Jennifer McKenzie said...

Oh, Barnes and Noble. They have that "free shipping with $25" titles offer and that sold me.
Plus, I can get a lot of the same books (including some small press) there as well.
I love it.
Amazon? No books. No more.

Elaina said...

I love Overstock. They have everything and are super fast and cheap shipping!

Julie Robinson said...

I actually prefer going to a bookstore to purchase book rather than shopping on-line. But when I do shop on-line, I will try a different venue, like B & N. However, I did not know about Overstock. I'll have to check them out. Thanks,
Julie

Dana Marie Bell said...

Borders! They are very romance friendly, they have the free shipping if over $25, the books come in good time AND condition, and I've been happy with them.

Anonymous said...

I live in Canada, so Amazon is not my first stop anyways, Chapters is. I will however definitely be rethinking shopping with Amazon. Also with my love of e-books....and no Kindle (cause, oh look, doesn't work right in Canada and it is proprietary!) I am shopping more at MBAM and Fictionwise.

Sela Carsen said...

I had never even considered Overstock as a book-buying option, Elaina! Thanks for the tip.

Natasha, I'm glad you brought up Chapters. They're part of the same company as Borders, right? Or B&N? I wondered about Canadian purchasers.

Anonymous said...

Chapters is a Canadian owned company. I don't know if it is part of B&N or Borders. I didn't think it was...hmmm

Alexia Reed said...

Like Natasha, Chapters or Coles (although Coles is part of Chapters). I can only think of once that

Unknown said...

I go to the Borders store/online or B&N. No more shopping at amazon. I will have to check out overstock also. Have a great weekend Ladies.

Crista said...

B&N has been my main bookmonger for years, both online and in store. Yeah, the $25/yr that I pay for the discount card sting a bit every year, but it more than pays for itself within a few months.

Julie Robinson said...

I can see I'll have to check out Border and Chapters.
Julie

Julie Robinson said...

Christa, I agree. My B & N card expires at the end of this month. I went last year without it and really missed out on savings. The company kept sending me letters to reapply saying, 'Julie you are one of our best customers . . .'

I tried to get by with just the Borders card, which is free. But now that I've won a Sony eReader from The Wild Rose Press (another contest is going on now), I have discovered ereading to be a pleasure, and my hubby is happy with the 'invisibility' of these books. So I've been doing more shopping on Fictionwise and directly buying from the companies, like TWRP or Ravenous Romance, to name a few.

Julie

Katie Reus said...

I'll probably still shop at Amazon for hard to find books, but I LOVE B&N online and the brick and mortar store! The people there are always helpful! Thanks for the tip about Overstock Elaina, never even thought about getting books from them :)

kirsten saell said...

I've only ever bought one book through Amazon--Stacia Kane's Personal Demons. I still get three emails a month suggesting I might like every single Urban Fantasy ever written. Granted, I didn't give them much else to go on, but dude, give it up already.

Me? I'm an ebook convert--I buy from Sony, unless I can get SONYpdf or epub formats direct from the publisher. I have to practically force myself to read a print book nowadays.

Sela Carsen said...

When the finances bounce back, I'm definitely going for the Sony. I never wanted to be beholden to Amazon for all my purchases. I just need Sony to do that cool Whispernet thing so we can upload magazine subscriptions. There's plenty of time for them to upgrade before I get around to buying one, though. *gg*