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James Patterson Calls for Boycott of Amazon

Often an outspoken critic of Amazon, James Patterson was interviewed on Bloomberg tv earlier this week, and he didn’t have anything nice to say about Amazon and its negotiation tactics against Hachett.

Now that it is clear that Authors United has failed to sway the public or influence Amazon’s board of directors, Patterson suggests that authors should use their immense power to get their books pulled from Amazon’s warehouses. Surely that will make Amazon see the error of their ways, right?

If you believe that then I have a bridge I would like to sell you.

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Comments


William D. O’Neil October 15, 2014 um 9:44 am

Aux armes mes amis!

I love this call to the barricades issued from the veranda of his estate.

Nate Hoffelder October 15, 2014 um 9:51 am

Me, too.

Syn October 15, 2014 um 1:12 pm

OMG, I know. But then, he’s obviously ok but he’s looking out for the peons not so well off. These people are to funny. How is it only Amazon’s fault and more importantly, do they have ALL the facts on whats going on between Hachette and Amazon? If not, then why is it Amazon that must bend over?

I think Amazon had a valid point about more books (Equals more money duh!) sold at a lower price point equal more sells. I refused to buy any agency books while Agency was in place and went to indie authors. I still buy Indies but I’ve bought a lot of former agency books now that they lost the power to inflate the price.


Timothy Wilhoit October 15, 2014 um 9:49 am

Amazon’s "maltreatment" of authors is like a religious war, e.g. the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan? That’s a dreadful analogy and I suspect he will come to regret making it.


fjtorres October 15, 2014 um 9:53 am

Let’s take him at his word.
Let’s not buy any Authors United books from Amazon.
Or anywhere else.

Hope Castle cleans him out at their next poker game.

Juli Monroe October 15, 2014 um 10:07 am

Seconding that hope!

mrsmac October 15, 2014 um 12:49 pm

Let’s not buy any Authors United books from Amazon.
Or anywhere else.

Agree. I stopped buying any of their books when the first ad came out. I’ve found other authors I like just as well, and sometimes even better.


DaveMich October 15, 2014 um 11:35 am

Perhaps Mr. Patterson would like to step up to the plate and go first.

Mike Coville October 15, 2014 um 2:49 pm

Patterson does so many things right, it saddens me to see his lack of a backbone. He needs to man up and stand on his principles. The second the interviewer suggest he should pull his books from Amazon, all Mr. Patterson could do was show his "but, but, but…"

I say if you don’t like how a company conducts business, don’t do business with them. If you continue to benefit from doing business with Amazon… SHUT YOUR PIE HOLE! I can’t stand spinless hypocrites.

fjtorres October 15, 2014 um 3:03 pm

But…but…but… 😉
He doesn’t actually own the books anymore, you know.
And he has no say in who gets to sell them.
(Since his books get monster advances they never earn out on, he doesn’t even lose royalties.)

He is literally trying to have a say in something he has no legal or moral rights on anymore. He took the paycheck and gave up the copyright.


Greg Strandberg October 15, 2014 um 1:08 pm

How many of you have justified unlawful or unethical actions by your employer so you could keep paying the rent? Does this sound so odd in that light?

James needs to eat too, and the thought of him not having that waterfront mansion anymore is just something I don’t like to think about.


Syn October 15, 2014 um 1:14 pm

I bet if you could look back, I bet Indie books took off during Agency. I would be very surprised if that wasn’t when it picked up steam.

fjtorres October 15, 2014 um 1:30 pm

Amazon’s domination is in fact due to the Conspiracy.
It killed the more prominent generic epub bookstores and once Nook moved hardware to near-cost pricing they foreclosed the market or generic readers. Add in Amazon’s indie title support and the market fell into their laps.

With enemies like those you hardly need friends.
Though it helps. 🙂


Common Sense October 15, 2014 um 7:00 pm

I switched to indie books when they implemented the agency model and never left. That lowered my internal price point quite a bit, so that I rarely buy an ebook over $5 and most aren’t over $2.

So if he wants to pull all of their books from Amazon, go right ahead, I would have never purchased them in the first place.


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