{"id":2501,"date":"2016-03-03T19:54:14","date_gmt":"2016-03-03T18:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/?p=2501"},"modified":"2024-11-15T10:10:35","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T09:10:35","slug":"amazon-und-der-lokale-buchhandel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/2016\/03\/amazon-and-the-local-bookstore\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon and the local bookstore"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

On the blog edel & electric<\/em>\u2014which I quite enjoy reading because it regularly touches on interesting topics\u2014there was once a post about Amazon and the book trade. (Update: The post and blog are now offline and no longer accessible.) I let myself be carried away and wrote a somewhat polemical comment, after which I received feedback suggesting that I should revisit the topic. A good idea, I think, because the discussion raises many fascinating questions. I\u2019ll try to outline the topic briefly\u2014and then properly polemicize again.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The central question that keeps coming up is whether it\u2019s morally acceptable to shop at Amazon. For book bloggers and authors, there\u2019s also the question of whether it\u2019s appropriate, wise, or sensible to link to Amazon (this is the issue discussed in the post mentioned above). Ultimately, this also concerns the role\u2014or decline\u2014of local and independent bookstores. Is it worth supporting your neighborhood bookshop? Can you? And why should you?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

There are several interest groups, each with its own perspective on these questions: consumers, publishers, authors, retailers, and booksellers whose livelihoods depend on them. As a book blogger, I count myself among the consumers. In my comment, I outlined my position quite thoroughly, so I\u2019ll restate it here and share my personal impressions. I\u2019m happy to be proven wrong and look forward to your arguments, comments, and thoughts.<\/strong> I\u2019m not a particularly loyal customer myself\u2014I use a wide variety of online shops (including Amazon) and am always open to trying new things.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I see this entirely from a consumer\u2019s point of view, and from that angle, it\u2019s hard to make a case for the local book trade. Looking at the bookstores within an hour\u2019s drive from me, I see no reason to visit any of them. Everything they display in their shop windows I can just scroll through in Amazon\u2019s Top 100 lists. Hidden gems? None. Classics? No. Beautiful editions? Nope. Serious literature? Not around here. Maybe a cheap edition of Anna Karenina<\/em> or a Jane Eyre<\/em> volume from Manesse sitting forlornly on a shelf\u2014that\u2019s about it. I\u2019ve gone book-hunting several times, visiting three small bookstores, and each time I found the exact same selection in front of me: three times the Amazon Top 100. When I\u2019ve gone in with a specific title in mind, I\u2019ve been met by unfriendly, utterly clueless staff fumbling for ten minutes in some outdated system to find what Amazon pulls up as the first result within ten seconds of typing the title. Then comes the announcement that it will take a week to arrive. That\u2019s not an exaggeration\u2014it\u2019s happened multiple times.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I\u2019ve also always wondered\u2014who really needs \u201cadvice\u201d when buying books? I mean genuine guidance that goes beyond ordering something, requiring real expertise. Surveys suggest that a significant portion of Germans read regularly, but I\u2019m convinced that 95% are perfectly content with Amazon\u2019s bestseller list. Depressing as that may be for book lovers, that\u2019s the reality. A book with an interesting blurb and a nice cover goes into the cart and gets consumed casually on the side. Books compete with high-end video games, film and television, Netflix subscriptions, Amazon Prime Video, sitcoms and series, The Bachelor<\/em> and I\u2019m a Celebrity\u2014Get Me Out of Here<\/em>. Books still have their place, but nowhere near the importance assumed in the literary world. Maybe a light romance for the beach or the bus. But you certainly don\u2019t need a bookseller\u2019s advice for that. And heavy readers already know what\u2019s coming out from publishers\u2014they don\u2019t need someone to pull some random title off a shortlist. And besides, a bookseller will mostly recommend what\u2019s already in stock.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Once upon a time, there were mom-and-pop stores. People went there to shop, were personally served, and when a few extra grams of sausage were sliced, they were asked, \u201cShall I leave that on?\u201d The result was that customers always felt slightly cheated\u2014just a little, but enough to leave the impression they\u2019d spent more than intended. Then the first supermarkets opened. Customers wandered through aisles and ended up buying more too\u2014because something caught their eye on the shelf. And again, they spent more, but felt better about it, because it wasn\u2019t being pushed on them. Supermarkets won out\u2014more convenient, faster, and leaving people with a better feeling. Sales models evolve, new ones replace old ones, driven by both market forces and human convenience and psychology.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As for Amazon\u2019s labor conditions and its enormous influence on the publishing world, that\u2019s not a question of where someone places a hyperlink (that maybe three people will click on). It\u2019s a political issue, and it will be resolved\u2014or not\u2014at the ballot box. If the majority fails to change it, then the outcome must be seen as desired, part of the will of the people\u2014even if they\u2019re unaware of it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As for me, I don\u2019t link to any retailers on my blog. I also don\u2019t list ISBN numbers. If one of my readers can\u2019t manage to find a book at their bookseller of choice, then they\u2019re doomed never to get it. And I\u2019m perfectly fine with that.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I\u2019d love to order books directly from the publishers\u2014from the source itself. But that often doesn\u2019t work either. My last direct order through a publisher\u2019s website ended up being processed via a bookstore, which then took over a week to ship. And when I look at the outdated, non\u2013mobile-friendly, ugly online portal of my local bookseller, I don\u2019t even want to try. Not to mention affiliate programs\u2014who orders from such obscure, untrustworthy sites anyway? I might as well skip the links entirely. Sure, I could pick up the book the next day, but every online shop will deliver it right to my door. It\u2019s a weak argument, but it\u2019s hard to refute.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I have no problem with brick-and-mortar bookstores dying out completely. Judging by their selection, that\u2019s already happened for me. If we were talking about stores like the Connewitzer Verlagsbuchhandlung in Leipzig, that would be a different story. But such bookstores are as rare as winning the lottery.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What\u2019s your take on this? Do you boycott Amazon? Do you buy only online or only in bookstores? What does this issue mean to you?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the blog edel & electric\u2014which I quite enjoy reading because it regularly touches on interesting topics\u2014there was once a post about Amazon and the book trade. (Update: The post and blog are now offline and no longer accessible.) I let myself be carried away and wrote a somewhat polemical comment, after which I received … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Amazon and the local bookstore”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"Amazon und der lokale Buchhandel - lesestunden","description":"Auf dem Blog von edel & electric, den ich ziemlich gerne lese, weil dort immer wieder interessante Themen angesprochen werden, ist ein Beitrag erschienen, d"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"_slim_seo_primary_term_category":0,"_slim_seo_primary_term_post_tag":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-market-publishers"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/amazon.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}