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 Author's Guild versus AmazonBy: Mark Morgan on 4/10/2002; 7:29 AM From geekspace comes this little missive about how offended the Author's Guild is at Amazon's prominent placement of used books right next to current new editions. I can kind of see the Guild's point...oh, no, really, I can't see the darn Guild's point. Life as an unpublished author is interesting, and life as a published author must be more interesting still. Seeing a big company like Amazon sabotage your new book sales must not feel great. But I live in town with the greatest place on Earth which works exactly that way. I can't count the times I've lurked around the shelves for a couple of weeks waiting for a new book to come into being used so I can buy it. How is this different? Am I betraying the people who claim to defend my rights? Bizarrely, the Guild hasn't bothered to put any details of their complaint on their website. I was hoping to get some more insight into how they are thinking. I've never thought of used bookstores as something bad. If Amazon morphs into a gigantic used bookstore, is that bad?
RE: Author's Guild versus AmazonBy: Mark Morgan on 4/15/2002; 7:42 AM Aha! Finally! "Amazon.com is pushing its used book service more aggressively than ever, notifying customers shortly after they purchase a book to see whether they'd like to re-sell the book using Amazon. Amazon actively works to divert customers shopping for new books into its used book marketplace by placing prominent used book ads on each title's main web entry. " Is this a problem just because Amazon is so ubiquitous? How is this different than a big bricks and mortars bookstore that offers new and used? If Powell's Books was to buy out Barnes and Nobles and turn it into a world-spanning new and used bookstore, would the Guild have a fit at them, too?
 RE: Author's Guild versus AmazonBy: Rachelle King on 4/15/2002; 7:17 PM Probably. Everyone has a sell-out/in beef with something or someone everywhere. Used bookstores, in my humble opinion, make education and ideas more accessable to low-income peoples-especially college students. I could never afford the cost of books for college if it weren't for used books, and I could never afford to own all the "spare time" literature I possess if it weren't for used bookstores. Authors and the book industries in general make more then their profit from the original sales of a book. I highly doubt the the resales of an authors works really damages their checking accounts all that much. Most authors aren't in it for the money, anyways. [I know I'm not.] If you are lucky enough to have a big publishing house backing you up, then you are probably getting your dues. If you self-distribute your work, then you are probably not in it for the money anyway and you have another job that pays your rent.
RE: Author's Guild versus AmazonBy: Mark Morgan on 4/18/2002; 6:18 AM SF writer, ubergeek, and my new best friend Cory Doctorow gets into it.
RE: Author's Guild versus AmazonBy: Mark Morgan on 4/18/2002; 11:27 AM Dori Smith, O'Reilly author, has the most complete brief overview I've seen so far. Read the link, and tell me if you don't think that Safari pay lending library isn't an odd thing.
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