Amzon: A good reason to keep Barnes and Noble as a viable alternative

You can generally tell when a company reaches monopoly status, or very near it, when it starts to loose contact with the people who helped carry it to the top—the suppliers and clients. Another indicator is when that company looses sight of its understood mandate (i.e. to serve the public—meaning all the public) and starts to act cavalierly. That, in my experience, describes Amazon.

My first experience came when I published my second novel, Journey to Big Sky, through CreateSpace (a subsidiary of Amazon Corp.). However, when it was listed on both Amazon.com and Amazon-Canada there was no product description—the kiss of death for any novel. I pointed this out to CreateSpace but got no where, and, of course, there is no way you can contact Amazon apart from their carefully controlled means (which doesn’t include complaints of this nature).

To be truthful I didn’t press it because I wasn’t really satisfied with the way I had written the story, and so I reworked it from beginning to end and published it as Nor All Thy Tears: Journey to Big Sky—once again through CreateSpace.

This time around it did get listed on Amazon.com with an all important product description, but Amazon-Canada listed it as “Unavailable,” which, if anything, is worse than no product description. Moreover, Amazon.com has yet to include it under “Canadian gay fiction,” even though it is about a Canadian politician set it Toronto and Ottawa. In other words, it couldn’t be more Canadian if it was wrapped in the flag and drizzled with maple syrup!

Meanwhile, it is rated #3 on Barnes and Noble`s “Romantic Fiction” list of approximately 64,000 titles—of all genres. I conclude therefore that the novel is not without merit.

Needless to say I’m biased in favour of Barnes and Noble as my book carrier of choice, but I believe it is in every writer’s interest to keep B&N as a viable alternative. Mine is not the only novel listed on Amazon without a product description. I’ve come across quite a number in my search for stories to review, and because of it the authors have lost the exposure I could have given his/her novel.

So, given that one can’t complain to Amazon, what can be done? Well, I’ve redirected all my “Go here to purchase” links to Barnes and Noble. Admittedly this isn’t going to drive Amazon into bankruptcy, but if everyone did the same it could make a difference in Amazon’s attitude—for the better one hopes.

Please think about it.