The Trouble With Amazon
Source: Colin Robinson at thenation.com
Jeff Bezos loves numbers. In a speech in May to graduates at his alma mater, Princeton University, he recounted a childhood memory: when, driving with his grandmother, a heavy smoker, he calculated by how many years her addiction would reduce her life expectancy. Announcing the result from the back seat, he expected praise for his deft math. But his grandmother just burst into tears.
The Amazon founder’s geeky obsession with numbers evidently formed early, and despite the glimmer of discomfort revealed by his Princeton anecdote, his fervently quantitative take on the world clearly still predominates. In a letter accompanying the 2009 Amazon annual report, for instance, he sets out a mind-boggling 452 goals for the company in the coming year. The word “revenue” is mentioned only eight times, yet revenue growth is central to the Amazon story. Expanding both internationally and across other products—nonbook sales represent 75 percent of total Amazon turnover—Amazon’s global business has increased fifteenfold over the past decade, 28 percent last year alone. Sales in 2009 topped $24.5 billion. To put that in perspective, in 2008 total sales by all US bookstores were less than $17 billion. Amazon is today, by some margin, the largest bookseller in the world.
Of all the goals in the report, Bezos proudly points out, no fewer than 360 deal directly with customer needs. The customer has always been king in the Bezos ethos, and the formula for keeping the king happy is straightforward. “Amazon gives the customers what they want: low prices, vast selection and extreme convenience,” he told a shareholders’ meeting. On these terms, Amazon’s success is stellar. It has more than 2 million titles on sale; bestselling books are routinely discounted by 50 percent or more; and it ranked first in BusinessWeek’s “customer service champs” awards last year. But dig beneath the surface of the numbers and a more complex picture emerges, one suggesting that, stats notwithstanding, readers and writers may ultimately not be best served by Amazon’s race to become the biggest, cheapest and most convenient bookseller around.
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Readercon is the ultimate sci-fi experience, but only if you read.
Source: Arafat Kazi at thephoenix.com
Readercon is one of the best-curated sci-fi/fantasy conventions in America. You probably don’t know about it. Unless you have a bald spot and a ponytail, in which case you’re reading this with Tor and cackling about how everybody’s going to have bald-spotted ponytails by 2254. You’re also part of a privileged breed, the special kind that Readercon’s made for: you love speculative fiction, and you actually read books.
If you’re saying “That’s me!,” hold your chromium horses. Readercon 21 is over. It happened this past weekend at the Burlington Marriot (beautiful bus ride on the 350 from Alewife Station) and Readercon 22 ain’t till next year. 500 of America’s brightest sci-fi fans have already been there, done that. Even better—a hundred and fifty writers, editors, critics and publishers, with guests of honor Nalo Hopkinson and Charles Stross and—best for me, because I’m an unabashed fan—a guest list that included Paolo Bacigalupi, author of The Windup Girl.
Arif Abdullah, ex-president of the Gettysburg College Sci-Fi Club, says: “I am all a-twitter when I think of Readercon. I don’t know what excites me more—the vintage books at the Bookstore, or the amazing panels and readings, or simply the fact that unlike Comic-Con, I don’t have to deal with a thirty foot Transformer statue or sweaty cosplayers when I want to talk about the philosophy, ethics and consequences of science! Oh joy!”
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Local author featured at Comic-Con 2010
Source: Catherine Kolonko at delmartimes.net
Biotech executive-turned-children’s-author Douglas E. Richards enjoys writing about science fiction as much as he did reading it when he was the age of his literary audience.
A Carmel Valley resident and creator of the “Prometheus Project” trilogy, Richards is scheduled to appear at Comic-Con International in San Diego to talk about his books that feature the unusual adventures of a brother and sister of middle-school age who must battle an alien world to save themselves, their parents and all that they believe in. The 48-year-old author is among a group of guest writers invited to attend the annual event in San Diego that attracts lovers of comics, science fiction and fantasy worldwide.
“It’s really exciting to be a part of that,” Richards said in a recent interview from his Carmel Valley home. He considers it an awesome honor to be in the same group as Stan Lee, Ray Bradbury and other well-known artists who are slated to appear at Comic-Con 2010, which runs from July 22 – July 25.
Kids seem to enjoy the fast pace of the Prometheus Project series, “Trapped, Captured, and Stranded,” written for ages 9 to 14, said Richards. He has heard from teachers and parents that the series is even popular among youth who typically don’t favor the written word – educators call them reluctant readers. Teachers are desperate for books that boys will want to read and apparently what they like is the action and adventure of the Prometheus Project series, Richards said, noting that girls and even adults enjoy the stories too.
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