Show me your Hachettes!
Posted May 24, 2014
on:I tweeted this earlier today:
You should totally go through your house and find all your Hachette books and post a photo! On your blog, on twitter, on facebook, on tumblr, anywhere! I was hoping my stack would be as tall as I am, but alas, it wasn’t. Means I need more Orbit books!
Want something from Orbit, or Little Brown, or Yen Press, or any other Hachette imprint? Order it from your local bookstore. Don’t have a local bookstore or don’t live near one, or are homebound or don’t drive, or for whatever other reason can’t get to a bookstore? Indiebound.com has you covered. Find a store near you, or find a store that’s not near you but sells the book you want, they will mail it to your house. Many indie bookstores also have the capability to get you an e-book too. Oh, it’s a small press Kindle file you’re looking for? Allow me to introduce you to Weightless Books (Small Beer Press, Apex, Lightspeed, Prime, Tachyon, Wyrm and about a bazillion more small press publishers). Happen to be a shopping mall that has a Books-a-million? Not my personal favorite, but if you pre-order on their website they’ll cut you a discount on pre-orders for upcoming Hachette and Hachette imprint titles. Barnes and Noble can probably hook you up too, my family buys a boatload of Yen Press manga through them. Heck, give Paperbackswap a try if money is tight and you don’t mind trading title for title.
Don’t let anyone stop you from getting the books you want. Will it take a few more mouse clicks (or oh god, picking up the phone!) to get the book you want? Yes. Will you be charged for shipping? Yes. Will it cost you a little more? Yes.
And for spending a little more time and money, you’ve sent a message to the biggest e-tailer on the planet that you don’t like their behavior, and you’ll be taking your money elsewhere. If you shop via indiebound, you’ve also supported local businesses, which is nice too.
Amazon is putting the squeeze on Hachette. Who knows who they’ll put the squeeze on next? They’ve got the power to do that, and more. And as consumers, we have the power to spend our hard earned dollars elsewhere. For Hachette titles, and for anything else we want.
I’m not telling you where to spend your book buying funds*
I’m not judging you for how you spend your money or where you buy your stuff.
I’m just telling you there are other options out there.
(Full disclosure: They are my vendor of last resort, but I buy plenty of stuff on Amazon. I should buy less there. Also, plenty of the books in my photo were sent to me at no charge for promotional purposes by Hachette Book Group. They spoil me rotten.)
*actually, I am. When at all possible, please buy from an independent bookstore or e-tailer. You have no excuse.
18 Responses to "Show me your Hachettes!"
Yeah – I’ve been pretty disturbed by some of Amazon’s behavior, lately. It’s definitely worth looking into alternatives, even if it’s a penny in the ocean: it’s still my penny!
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The same Hachette that was sued by the Justice Dept. for price collusion?
The same Hachette that publishes the blatantly racist N. K. Jemisin? (Take any of the stuff Jemisin has said about white people and replace the word ‘white’ with Jew, or Mexican. or Asian, and see how it sounds. Just because you hate Caucasians doesn’t make you any less of a bigot.)
That Hachette? Fuck ’em.
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[…] response to the current Hachette/Amazon debacle, Andrea over at The Little Red Reviewer posted a picture of herself with all of her Hachette and Orbit books from her shelves. I thought it […]
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1 | bellmk
May 24, 2014 at 4:58 pm
I love this idea!
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