This forum usually has posts about the ethics of writing and publishging, this one is about the ethics of book buying. Rather than launch with my own opinions, I'll pose it as a question.

I read this recently on NHI Reviews Online in reply to one of the authors they reviewed that wanted to know why they didn't include an Amazon link to his/her book:

We always encourage people to deal directly with publishers, especially small press publishers who often cannot afford the discounts demanded by bookstores, some of which (not all) take a long time to pay their supplier. Books carrying an ISBN can normally be ordered through various online and other bookstores, but you will usually find that the cost of delivery is considerable. We always, where available, provide links to the publisher and/or author's website. If you wish your readers to purchase from a specific supplier, then your own website should be the place to put that information."

There was a thread recently about supporting local bookstores in the face of high street shop oppression

-- does the same really apply to online or mail order book buying?

-- would you as an author or potential author mind if you got less per book via Amazon or some such alternative, so long as the book was sold?

-- or is it a worthwhile ethical exercise to support the small presses and the author no matter what the sacarifice of convenience?

-- or, ??? anything else??



<Added>

Here's the original link for NHI Reviews:
http://www.nhi.clara.net/revfaq.htm

Personally, I like to support the smaller presses and independant stores, when I buy literature or music.

I wouldn't mind it if people bought my book and I got less money. I'd just be thrilled I was published and being read by an audience.

In order to lodge books with Amazon so that they can be delivered immediately they demand a discount of 60% (with postage paid by the publisher). Otherwise the book info on their website says that this is a 'hard to find' title and there's a wait of up to four weeks, also an extra charge of £1.99. It's easy to see that the profit to be made by selling through Amazon for a small publisher with an edition of say 1,000 would be miniscule. Often a book is cheaper through the publisher's own website, sometimes they don't even charge postage. (Flambard?) So in answer to the question I'd say yes, take the trouble to order the book from the publisher, even if it means the method of payment is not so convenient. It's not easy for small presses, and they need all the support they can get. They're the ones who publish the less commercial and cross-genred work, so we're on the same side. And I'd say exactly the same even if I didn't have a personal interest/reason for doing so.

Thanks for your insight, Nell. Your experience with this side of things is very helpful. The more I learn about small presses, and how the heavyweights like Amazon don't make allowances and ask for pretty much the same discounts and contracts they demand from the larger publishers, the more amazed I am. I'm not ready to say it is a deliberate attempt to keep the small guys out of business or low on the totem pole, but the effect is the same.

That said, in this internet-connected day and age, there really should be no small press that has already has a website that shouldn't invest in some sort of online bookshop page. The costs of hosting are going down all the time (so if you know anyone at a small press who thought about it a while ago and nixed the idea because of costs, tell them to look again) and with PayPal allowing payments with little more info exchange than an email address, they can drum up business.

It's important to support them no matter how they accept payments, I absolutely agree. But also sending a short note to a favourite small press publisher asking them if they've looked into things like taking online payments via PayPal, etc., could just be the boost they need to compete with the big guys on a more even footing.

- Smith

Skeetr, that's a good thought, and I'm sure small presses would appreciate it- whenever we publicise a book here on WW we always try to link to a site where you can buy the books direct if poss. So keep up the pressure/suggestions to publishers. Nell, it's good to know the reality of this re Amazon- puts selling your books on there into a new perspective.

Well, if anyone else feels as strongly about this and wants to buy from a small press that isn't set up for purchases yet, suggest they take a look at the Yard Dog Press website to see how they have handled it.

The only ethics about buying a book of Amazon is to buy it from a registered seller rather than from Amazon warehouse itself.
If you buy secondhand, the author/publisher has already received whatever was due - and you'll have your book within a couple of days.
Buy it from Amazon itself - like I did before Christmas - and you will keep getting emails about delays.
Registered sellers on the site have the goods ready to post; much of the time Amazon warehouse does not, despite there being a law about advertising goods you do not actually have.

Amazon are pretty ruthless, but they're only 6% of the market. Books I want are rarely discounted anywhere. Personally I find either of my nearby, small independent bookshop infinitely more convenient: most books arrive by noon the next day, I don't have to wait in for a parcel that may or may not arrive, I save £4 or whatever in postage, and I get a health-giving 10 minute walk to pick it up.

I would never buy a book second hand if it's available new, as I'd be depriving the author of a sale they'd otherwise have had - and that'll be me soon. That's the realisation on which PLR was founded, after all. Just as I never use pirated software. I do buy out-of-print books 2nd hand, but on Abebooks, not Amazon, as their search facilities are so much better.

Emma