Shelly King says:

Thanks, Scott, for your concern! But I don’t think this is a disaster for my upcoming book. I’m actually not worried about Amazon removing my Pre-order button. I don’t like it, of course, when the world’s largest book retailer isn’t letting people order my book. But I’ve been in Silicon Valley for 20 years so disputes between retailers and suppliers aren’t new to me. Also I try not to worry about things I can’t control:-)

Though this is painful in the short term, I stand by my publisher for my long-term interests. What’s good for readers isn’t necessarily just cheap books, but also an economic environment where publishers can afford to take chances on books of high literary quality that may not sell a zillion copies or debut authors like myself who haven’t found an audience yet. It’s already hard enough to make a living as a writer (I’ve yet to quite my day job at a major Silicon Valley company), and if the margins for publishers get even smaller then that’s only going to hurt authors. My longterm interests are in alignment with my publisher’s, so I’m standing with them. This is a negotiation and I think Amazon is unfairly using their position.

Many of my author and bookseller friends are very anti-Amazon (not Keith, obviously!). I’m not, even now. They are the local bookstore for places without the population to support a local bookstore or vibrant library. They’ve done wonderful things to help authors find success outside of traditional publishing. I don’t judge anyone for where they buy their books or how they read them. I’m just happy when people are reading.

If there’s a silver lining in all of this, it’s that this negotiation has enlightened many readers on how publishing works. With this additional transparency, people are able to make clearer decisions about their purchasing power. And my future readers are all taking Amazon’s advice and turning to Amazon’s competitors.