[Holly-L] Amazon warning

[Holly Lisle]

> Well, they never gave him any info on the book, we just got
> an e-mail saying that they could not ship the book because
> their bank was reporting our card was invalid (Bob didn't
> fill in the whole line).  Well, to say the least, we were
> concerned to learn that they were trying to charge us for a
> book we had not yet ordered.  Bob has had them cancel our
> account from their records, after he explained to them what
> they did.  (They didn't even apologize!)

Certainly poor business practice on their part.
 
> It is no great loss to us, however.  Whenever we did price
> checks, the cost of the books was much higher (with S/H)
> than in the local stores with tax.  Besides, a great big
> beautiful bookstore is going in just a hop, skip, and a jump
> down the road from where we live!!!  A Barnes and Nobles, at
> that!!!

Sadly, they ain't the same.  Amazon and indie bookstores are 
keeping midlist authors and writers' backlists alive -- chains like 
Barnes and Noble are killing them.  I go to B&N, and Borders, and 
Books-A-Million, but I also buy from Amazon because they keep 
every title you've ever written that's in any form of print available.  
You can't get that from the chains -- _their_ idea of good bookselling 
is five hundred copies of the three biggest books in any genre, and 
one or two of the most recent titles of a few other writers.  Great if 
you're the author of one of the big three, and not so great if you're 
anyone else.
 
Holly

         Holly Lisle -- never give up on your dreams
         -------------------------------------------
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 reader page -- http://elwood.pionet.net/~shangri/holly1pa.htm/
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