Those of us that love small bookstores have been griping about the way the big chains have been driving them out of business for awhile now. In a way, it is gratifying to see the big chains are now trying to kill off their competitors. From this MSN article:
“Barnes & Noble is really complicit in pushing the industry to emphasize blockbusters and best-sellers,” says indie author April Hamilton, who has successfully self-published two novels using tools provided by Amazon.com. Horowitz says Barnes & Noble has contributed to “homogenizing America’s tastes.”
After watching the super chains like Walmart, Target, Home Depot, etc. kill off many small town stores, I know that such market forces are inevitable… But ARE they? Perhaps, what we are seeing in epublishing is a change in the paradigm?
This is something that should be important to all of us genre writers and publishers. What have you found or where do you think we’re going?
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