Banned Booksellers Week has begun with a bang. David Streitfeld's piece in the New York Times has kicked off what some hope will be a defining moment in the history of online bookselling. For the week of November 5 to 11, 2018, booksellers around the world will remove their inventory from Abebooks, an Amazon company, in a show of support for their brethren in South Korea, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Russia who were told they can no longer sell on their platform. Many were angered at the flippant response provided by Abebooks as to why the booksellers were removed claiming...
A Tale of Two Cities: Amazon opens a bookstore while Indiebound adds a ‘Buy Now’ button
Photo: Sam Machkovech Here comes the next tremor in the book universe. Amazon.com, the world's largest online bookseller, has opened it's first physical bookshop! Amazon Books has opened in Seattle's University District just a few miles from Amazon headquarters. It's 5,000 square feet with a majority of the space dedicated to the almighty book. By combining new display tactics (all books are face out!), a largely crowdsourced inventory, and a seamless ebook purchase option Amazon Books is open for business. After all the years Amazon was paving the way to sell books online, completely upending the bookselling and publishing fields in...
More Independent Resistance: This time from the Antiquarians
In mid-April 2014 the Austrian antiquarian bookseller Norbert Donhofer was elected president of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB), an umbrella organization compromised of twenty- two national associations, including our own ABAA, representing thirty-four countries and around 1,800 individual affiliates. In his first interview as President he noted that the most important project he was working on at the moment was "a strategic part-time cooperation with AbeBooks." He went on: The aim is that ILAB booksellers listing on AbeBooks are highlighted on the Abe homepage as the world's leading experts. This would be an enormous advantage for all ILAB...
Introducing the Kindle Flare
[youtube]http://youtu.be/fDBzQkWeQ5g[/youtube] The Onion has the scoop on Amazon's latest release, the "Kindle Flare," a new tablet that will "loudly and repeatedly" announces the title of the book you're reading. A spokesperson for Amazon says "the Kindle Flare’s repetitive shouting will appeal to fans of print, who miss the ability to display a book’s cover to strangers." It also offers the revolutionary new technology "auto-explain" for the user who has a little shame about their reading choice. "Auto-explain" offers a rationalization for the book you're reading while also boasting about a high-brow title that you also like. God bless the Onion. h/t Poets and Writers.
Amazon vs. The Big 5: Infographic
Talk about an elephant in the room. via Infographic Plaza