Fewer Offerings At Higher Prices

The Independent Publishers Guild is against Amazon's purchase of The Book Depository.

They have told British regulatory authorities that the merger of the two entities would create a pallid, blockbuster-only monster and that would not be good for the reading public.

It's bad enough as it is, with the major publishing houses looking for the next DaVinci Code or Harry Potter, and not bothering with anything else. Should Amazon, the biggest book seller on the planet, eat up a smaller vendor, it will only get worse.

For a small indie publisher, getting noticed is tough enough. The IPG claims that Amazon, being so large, would simply ignore their clients and the reading public would have little to choose from if they wanted something besides the same plot as the last five thrillers published by the majors.

Amazon, being so large, is driving the local bookshops out of business, and the cozy relationships developed between owner and the rep from the indie publisher is being killed in the process.

Without an actual shop in which to display their wares, the indies are at a serious disadvantage when facing competition from the big houses with their big publicity budgets.

Allow Amazon to keep growing, goes IPG's thinking, and you'll be hard-pressed to find a brick and mortar shop in the U.K. All that the indie publishers are offering would fade into the background, while the big publishers use their financial might to muscle their books to the forefront.

Don't let Amazon continue to grow, ask the members of the IPG. One fine day, if things aren't stopped now, we'll wake up to a world where the indies are gone out of business due to lack of sales and readers will be deprived of the little gems that make literature such a pleasure.

And just in case the government regulatory agency doesn't see that same future, let's not forget the whole monopoly, price-gouging thing. Amazon's cheap now, sure, but when they're the only game in town?