Is Amazon Evil

Amazon's cheap books are easy on our wallets, but publishers have been deeply undercut by the rise of a corporate behemoth with predatory pricing schemes, and blatant profiteering.

...A Corporate Behemoth That Will SELL You Ebook Versions of FREE Publications, WITHOUT Informing the Publisher, SEE HERE...

Today an estimated 75 percent of online book purchases in the United States are made through Amazon, and its overall market share in book sales is astonishingly high. Some publishers make more than half of their sales through Amazon. So when Bezos rang the death knell for the physical book, people paid attention. Even before the Kindle, Amazon wielded enormous influence in the industry. Now it is positioned to control the e-book market and thereby the future of the publishing industry.

What happens when an industry concerned with the production of culture is beholden to a company with the sole goal of underselling competitors? Amazon is indisputably the king of books, but the issue remains, as Charlie Winton, CEO of the independent publisher Counterpoint Press puts it, “what kind of king they’re going to be.” A vital publishing industry must be able take chances with new authors and with books that don’t have obvious mass-market appeal. When mega-retailers have all the power in the industry, consumers benefit from low prices, but the effect on the future of literature—on what books can be published successfully—is far more in doubt.

...A few weeks ago, Amazon came under fire for selling an e-book that was essentially a “how-to” guide for pedophiles. Among other things, it apparently provided instructions on how to get children to cooperate with a sexual predator...

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