Saturday, August 25, 2012

Of buying and books and boycotts and bastards

In February, one of my favorite contemporary authors was put through a miserable period of stress thanks to Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  Ms. Seanan McGuire tells her story much better than I would, so please go here to read it.

I stopped buying from Amazon years ago, when they said they'd continue to sell magazines about dog-fighting even though dog-fighting is illegal, and I was glad of that when they unfairly de-rated LGBT authors.  But I've been a Barnes & Noble customer for ten years, and continued to buy from them, reasoning that it was a one-time error and wouldn't happen again.

Well, it did.  In fact, they're doing it right now, and so I am done giving them any of my money.  I pre-ordered the book I want from Books-A-Million, and will happily wait until September 4th to read it.

My discretionary spending isn't much.  It's a drop in the ocean compared to what Bastards & Noble get daily, let alone yearly.  Still, it's my drop, and I will not put it in their ocean until they stop this tactic.  *sigh*  It's very discouraging that they feel the need to put profit ahead of author relationships, but I guess that's the way the world is going.

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