Literary lions unite in protest over Amazon’s e-book tactics

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The New York Times reported on literary lions uniting in protest over Amazon’s e-book tactics.

“Sons of Wichita” by Daniel Schulman, a writer for Mother Jones magazine, came out in May. Amazon initially discounted the book, a well-received biography of the conservative Koch brothers, by 10 percent, according to a price-tracking service. Now it does not discount it at all. It takes as long as three weeks to ship.

“The Way Forward: Renewing the American Idea” by Representative Paul Ryan has no such constraints, an unusual position these days for a new Hachette book.

Amazon refused to take advance orders for “The Way Forward,” as it does with all new Hachette titles. But once the book was on sale, it was consistently discounted by about 25 percent. There is no shipping delay. Not surprisingly, it has a much higher sales ranking on Amazon than “Sons of Wichita.”

Should we be surprised that Amazon is manipulating sales of books? No, not when we are experiencing the same on Facebook where you are shown what Facebook thinks you want to see. But should we accept such manipulation by big corporations?

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