Frustrated by the contract lapse between Amazon and IPG, author Jim Hanas has decided to remove the Amazon buy button from his website for the book Why They Cried.
Hanas explains how the removal from Kindle has affected him in a post on Google+: “This is frequently described in the press as ‘removing the buy buttons,’ but in my case — since my book has no print edition — it is much worse. My book page has vanished entirely. Reviews, summary, everything.”
Hanas is “kicking the Amazon habit” altogether. He continued in the post: “I blew my entire Amazon gift card balance on — and this is the delicious part — a Kobo Touch eReader. That’s right. Amazon doesn’t handle these directly, of course, but you can spend gift card balances with Amazon merchants, which is how I was able to buy the Kobo. It should arrive in a week and then, as a reader at least, I’ll be Amazon-free.”
eBookNewser has more about the struggle: “Earlier this week, Amazon failed to renew its contract with the Independent Publishers Group — a group that distributes books for more than 400 indie publishers — removing almost 5,000 books from the Kindle store after the company.
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