[marsavar]

As someone who worked for the world's largest trade book publisher a decade ago, let me tell you that dealing with Amazon is the worst. They squeeze publishers' profit margins to the absolute minimum, and they aggressively force them to accept terrible deals because they have the upper hand.

Amazon has been horrible for the book industry. Please buy your books elsewhere!

[sambeau]

Can I take this opportunity to recommend the lovely http://bookshop.org and http://uk.bookshop.org

[GJim]

https://www.hive.co.uk/

An online retailer that allows you to send a cut of the profits to a local independent bookshop of your choosing.

No connection. Just a satisfied customer.

[sambeau]

And while I’m at it:

https://libro.fm/

for audiobooks.

[calimoro78]

Book industry or just the publishers? Show me a single author who loves publishers

[KwanEsq]

Don't worry, Amazon screws authors directly too when they self-publish, by using the cudgel of Kindle Unlimited to choke possible competition in ebook sales.

https://bsky.app/profile/glynnstewart.com/post/3leu7lzvy622g

[frereubu]

It does rather feel like the shoe is on the other foot now. Go back a few decades and publishers were the ones rinsing bookshops for all they were worth. Two wrongs don't make a right of course...

[like_any_other]

Amazon has been more than just generically horrible - they use blatantly anti-competitive contracts (as if their near-monopsony position wasn't bad enough):

"Amazon fixed online retail prices through contract provisions and policies" that "prevent third-party sellers that offer products on Amazon.com from offering their products at lower prices or on better terms on any other online platform, including their own websites,"

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/05/amazon-sued-over...

[belter]

Frugal is the business term :-)