ABE, Alibris and Devil Amazon!

Archive: Online bookselling

Just found out today that Amazon is kicking out 'aggregators' from Amazon Marketplace and zShops.

That is to say that ABE and Alibris are gone. At least ABE. Alibris has its own inventory of used books, which can stay.

Fine with me.

Certainly as a buyer.

I want to be able to respond to, complain about, reward an individual seller. Not a middleman selling through a middleman.

As a seller.

We had ABE list some of our books via Amazon and got tossed out ABE's program twice. The advantage was that with ABE's huge quantity of feedback some people would see:

Pages white, unmarked, binding firm. Clean and bright dust jacket.

For $10.50 from ABE and $10.00 form us and buy ABE's copy because they'd bought “from” ABE before.

Often out copy, being cheaper would sell first. Hastily we'd rush to ABE and delete the book. But an ABE/Amazon order would arrive ten hours later. That is what got us tossed out of ABE's Amazon program.

And it has been a terrible nuisance with Alibris and I don't remember asking Alibris to list our books on Amazon.

I've read some mad, bad, weirdly paranoid messages by used booksellers affected by this who think this is some subtle scheme on Amazon's part. Amazon only allowed ABE and Alibris to list books so they could snatch their dealers when Amazon pulled the plug. Well, there's never been any sign that the average schmoe, book dealer or grocery store bagger has any realistic notions about how the world works.

For me the worst part of the marriage is that it seemed as if all those damned penny booksellers migrated from Amazon to ABE. Thankfully ABE established a minimum price and commission. I wish Amazon had a fifty cents minimum commission.

ABE has brought us money without Amazon. They still will.

Same with Alibris.

Sure Amazon would love to be the supreme seller of all things in the universe. But I think they have better ways of achieving success than the kind of silly games that emerge from the mind of paranoiacs.

Maybe they'd sell more books if they worked more at finding and building quality inventory and less at writing about “devil Amazon” and suggesting that sensible people fight against their bottom line by boycotting Amazon.