Quote:
Originally Posted by darryl
You can't expect to have your cake and eat it to. If you are boycotting Amazon don't whinge about not being able to buy their exclusive products. Authors are not going exclusive with Amazon because a gun is held to their heads. It is because they are better off financially by doing so. And even on its exclusive products, Amazon's prices are very good.
Personally I think those boycotting Amazon are acting irrationally, though I do of course respect their right to do so. If you are taking a stand on something you regard as principle, then you must be prepared to accept the consequences. Just stop whinging about those consequences.
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I would say that authors agree to the exclusive because they think they will be financially better off. There have been many authors who try it and find out that the reality doesn't match the sales pitch. Amazon is modeled on the somewhat predatory business model of Walmart which involves squeezing suppliers as much as possible. In this situation, the authors are the suppliers.
As I've said elsewhere, exclusives have been around for a long time. I see nothing wrong with Amazon tying pimping a book to it being exclusive to Amazon. As long as they don't run into anti-trust issues, they can do as they like. If they squeeze the authors too much, that will just cause another ebook store to jump in. Competition is a good thing.