Don’t Buy My Books

This is how I felt when I heard this morning that Amazon.com had a book available for sale on Kindle that goes against the grain of moral and ethical decency. The book itself has already received far too much attention, and I don’t care to give it any more by naming it. The disturbing issue to me, was not that someone published the book using Amazon’s DTP, but that Amazon CHOSE not to pull it off. They do have a clause where they advise they have the right to distribute, or withhold distribution of what they see fit, so by their choice not to pull the product, they were condoning it.

5.1.3 Digital Book Rejection. We are entitled to determine what content we accept and distribute through the Program in our sole discretion.

According to the information floating around the internet, Amazon chose not to pull the book because Amazon doesn’t condone censorship. I don’t condone censorship… but this is an issue BEYOND censorship. Amazon is not a governmental agency, they are a retailer who felt that keeping a book on their virtual shelves was more important than the outcry of their customers. In a way, I see the issue as a product recall issue. Over the years, products are released which have a problem and the products are then recalled due to public outcry over the harm they can cause. This is a product that SHOULD be recalled. So Amazon’s stance does not make sense to me. There is a lot of talk of boycotting Amazon, and although they have pulled the title now, in a kind of now you see it, now you don’t, way, I feel that their responsiveness in this particular situation was lacking. It is not the first time the mega-giant has moved slowly to rectify a situation. Nor do I expect it to be the last.

I’m caught in a bit of a quandry, because my books Misfit McCabe and Nowhere Feels Like Home are readily available through Amazon, and not found in your brick and mortar stores. So, I’ve decided to ask people to purchase the print versions through my website bookstore and the ebooks through either Barnes and Noble or through Smashwords.com

If you’d like to read two well thought out, but somewhat opposing viewpoints on the entire issue, stop by Kimberly Kinrade’s blog and Lori Reed’s blog.

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2 Comments on “Don’t Buy My Books”

    1. Thanks Carol. If they had reacted sooner, the public outcry wouldn’t have been as great. And it shouldn’t have taken that long to make the decision,

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