Go Indie! Bezos would have liked that phrase at one time.

By Angela K. Durden

The most current circulation numbers I could find predated Jeff Bezos buying The Washington Post. Can't seem to find any stats from after the 2013 purchase by Nash Holdings, a company Bezos set up to acquire the paper. Up until that date, the numbers were declining quickly. Would it be too far off target to suggest the numbers are worse now? Probably not.

As if the newspaper business isn't chapping his backside enough, Amazon (which, rumor has it, has never made a profit) is pushing a price war to get sales volume up.

This is particularly disturbing to the Big 5 book publishers. Amazon is playing games with the book business. If you are an author published with one of the Big 5 or their subsidiaries, you will want to read this disturbing report here.

Of course, as a small publisher, my sales volume does not put me in his sites. But then I have to ask, "If many of the buttons consumers click are set by automated algorithms, whose to say I'm not losing out on sales, too?"

Independent bookstores are making a comeback. I know because I have one in my neighborhood I've been buying from for years. Business is picking up for Eagle Eye Bookstore. People like to talk to people. The owner, Doug Robinson, is president of SIBA, a trade association for indie book stores.

Want to find an independent bookstore near you? Take a look at this list here.

At one time, Bezos would have appreciated the phrase "Go Indie!"
Too bad Jeff wants to rule the world.
Photo credit (WikiCommons)

Read more from Angela K. Durden here.

And here.