The arguments for promoting electronic books and reading devices just astound me.
An Amazon spokesman told the [Wall Street Journal], "Authors get the most publicity at launch and need to strike while the iron is hot. If readers can't get their preferred format at that moment, they may buy a different book or just not buy a book at all."*
Readers that prefer paperbacks don't get
them at the release of the hardcover. They have to wait an average of 12 to 18 months. Oftentimes, the audiobook is released a few months after the hardcover.
These arguments on behalf of the consumer are incredibly lazy and untrue and self-serving. Amazon.com has lost all credibility with me as they try to sell their Kindle reader and increase their profit stream at the expense of reader, booksellers, bookstores (of whatever ilk), authors, and publishers.
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*From the
Thursday 10 December 2009 issue of
Shelf Awareness, as a response to news that Simon & Schuster will be delaying the release of E-book versions of frontlist authors until a few months after the release of the hardcover edition of the same.