Quote:
Originally Posted by pilotbob
I can't imagine if you owned a business that you wouldn't do what you could to increase market share and sales.
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I do own a business -- two, in fact. And, yes, you are correct that I do what I can to increase my businesses. Sadly I do not have the market power that Amazon has; I face lots of good, energetic competition. I do not fault Amazon for
wanting to dominate the publishing world; as a consumer who can be (and likely would be) adversely affected by such dominance by Amazon, I do not support its efforts.
I think supporting Amazon's efforts to increase its business is detrimental to the general public's well being. I'd like to insure that there is always healthy competition in the publishing world because I would hate to have some corporation dictate what I can read and what you can say because it has monopoly power. Equally important, I do not want Amazon to gain such economic power in publishing that it can dictate pricing. Right now, it is selling for less; once it has monopolistic power in the ebook (or pbook) world, it may decide that $9.99 best sellers should become $49.99 books and all we can do is pay the price or not buy.
I do not begrudge Amazon's attempts; I just choose not to give them my dollars to help them along (and besides, I really do think the Kindle is badly designed even if it does function well). Consequently, I have not bought a book -- p or e -- from Amazon for years, preferring to pay a little more if necessary to competitors.