Becoming An Enemy Of The Literati

The major publishing houses and Apple took on Amazon's attempt to corner the e-book market and the U.S. Department of Justice took them to court on charges of price-fixing. And won.

The literati are no fans of Amazon, to say the least. The discount retailer has grown so big that it can now set prices for publishers, rather than the other way around. To make matters worse, independent booksellers find that their expensive shops have become nothing more than showcases for Amazon, where customers can browse the wares and then whip out a smartphone to buy at a discount from Amazon.

People who love books really, really hate Amazon.

By and large, these are the same people who voted for Barack Obama and continue to support him.

Until now, perhaps.

Painfully few businesses are adding jobs these days, so it is difficult for the President of the U.S. of A. to find an establishment where he can stage a photo opportunity to deliver good news on the economy. In what will prove to be a very awkward moment, his people arranged for an event at an Amazon warehouse in Tennessee. Amazon has just announced that it is going to add thousands of jobs, many of them full time with benefits, and Mr. Obama plans to stand inside a big building and trumpet this as an example of all that is right about the business world.

If only Amazon had a better reputation. To laud Amazon as a job creator is akin to lauding Mussolini for making the trains run on time. Sure, it was an important issue, but there are all those other problems that the Italian dictator created along the way.

Publishers hate Amazon. Book sellers hate Amazon. And it gets worse, with Overstock.com engaging in a price war with Amazon. The other online discounter is adding books, and it promises to sell for less than Amazon. All that means is even fewer customers for the brick and mortar indie seller, and more pressure on publishers to cut costs, i.e., pay their authors less money.

The President is in a tight spot, of course, because Jeff Bezos supports his campaign and any politician can tell you that you have to take care of your donors. That fact only makes the Justice Department lawsuit more painful, implying a Chicago-style quid pro quo in which political support is exchanged for protection from competition.

There is the other uncomfortable fact that Amazon has been accused of dodging its fair share, using every available loophole to avoid paying taxes at local and federal levels. It can be difficult for a President to speak out against the rich, and then applaud one of them as an example of how business should be done in America.

Will the President speak at the Amazon fulfillment center? The American Booksellers Association is mounting a protest, asking its members to write and demand that Mr. Obama not endorse Amazon. There is nothing laudable about what Amazon is doing, in their opinion. It sounds very nice to be able to say that a company pays X% above average warehouse wages, but when that salary is coming at the expense of an independent bookstore owner, it loses that cheerful tone.

Timing is everything. It's looking like the timing is wrong for the literati, who love books, hate Amazon, and wish the politician they support would support them in turn.

Are they all a bunch of Republicans, do you think?