Reflections on the Evil Empire of Amazon

A column on Salon.com that was forwarded to me by a friend recently got me to thinking about my relationship with the evil empire of Amazon. The post by successful e-book writer Art Edwards reveals many of the same doubts that most of us ‘old school’ writers feel about the new world of electronic books and publishing.

http://www.salon.com/2012/11/18/letti...

My own experience is that I am certainly grateful for the opening that self-publication has provided to me and my work. I may have been able to get The Walker on the Cape published through a traditional publisher but I didn’t want to wait three years to do it. And I have had the opportunity to really understand the publishing/marketing business along the way. I have a lot of sympathies for publishers, especially small ones. They cannot afford to take too many chances nor make even one mistake.

I do however remain a skeptic when it comes to the idea that we will all become e-readers in the not too distant future and that the end of the printed book is nigh. Yes there will be a lot more books available in electronic versions but I think that we will continue to have a printed book universe, smaller but maybe more intense, as we move forward.

As for me even though I now have two books in e-print and available on the devil spawn, Amazon, I do not own an e-reader and I have no plans to get one, even to review my own books. I do not like them, any of them, and still want to curl up with a printed version of my favourite books. Can you even curl up with a Kindle?

Thoughts anyone?

Mike Martin is the author of The Walker on the Cape, a Sgt. Windflower mystery.

www.walkeronthecape.com