As the Amazon and standoff enters its fourth full day, hundreds of writers will lose more sales since Amazon has stopped directly selling books by the publisher.
To help ease the financial strain, Macmillan author John Scalzi issued A Call for Author Support this morning. After ruling out a boycott, Scalzi listed a number of book buying alternatives online–urging readers to buy books by Macmillan writers who are affected most directly by the stand off.
Here’s an excerpt: “I have friends who are deeply worried right now about what this thing is doing to them, and they should be worried, because it’s going to hurt them if it drags out. Amazon is not the entire sales universe, to be sure, but it’s a significant chunk, especially for genre writers who build their communities online and sell a large percentage of their work online (and thus through Amazon) because of it…So rather than focus on what should happen to Amazon or Macmillan, here’s an idea, and here’s my point: let’s us focus on the writers, who are getting kinda screwed here. ”
To get you started, Scalzi posted these ideas: “Barnes and Noble. There’s Powell’s. IndieBound will hook you up. Specialty bookstores have their own web sites. You can often buy books online from the publishers themselves. Hell, even Walmart.com sells books.”
Add your favorite online or offline bookseller in the comments section. Let’s give readers more options during this difficult time for the industry…