Amazon Pulls All MacMillan Books, including Hiroshma book

[Charlie P.]

Further Update: As noted in one of the posts above, certain authors who spoke out against the book-ban were being attacked as "greedy bastards," etc., before they found even their non-MacMillan books added (albeit in some cases only briefly) to the Amazon book ban.

The blame-the-target of the attacks game seems to continue on certain Amazon discussion groups, as in the case of Don DeLillo's "Point Omega," delayed in release by the Amazon black-list. We are becoming witness to the old circular logic, in which the victim of an attack becomes a villian because he became a victim, a victim because he was a villian.

Yesterday, a discussion thread called for a "Delayed Release Boycott" of DeLillo, on Amazon.com.

This is my response:

Have any of the above [in a call for a boycott of DeLillo's "Point Omega" by Amazon customers] been paying any attention at all to what was really going on here? The authors of books had nothing to do with the iPad-Kindle fight. None of us knew that a dispute existed between our publishers and Amazon, never did anything whatsoever to provoke the war, and did not even know it was coming until Amazon killed the "buy" buttons on our books. For eight days, authors were being boycotted [literally banned] by Amazon. We were the grass, caught beneath the feet of two elephants fighting. And now - can this be real? Are customers really lashing out at an author, calling for a further boycott of his books?

Do some research and find out how powerless writers really are against such forces, before you join the wrecking crew and magnify the harm that has already been done. Imagine how it must feel, first to be damaged by a boycott from [the world's largest] internet book-seller, and then to be threatened with further boycott by customers angered by the damage done by the book-seller (and in some cases even by [some branch of] a publisher). Double boycott, one after another. Novel concept.

What silly new act of jackassery can we humans think of next?

- - Charles Pellegrino

[Charlie P.]

We may still have a continuing problem. Despite my publisher's efforts last week to get the "usually ships in 2 - 4 weeks" tag removed from "The last Train from Hiroshima" - an effort that included another printing shipping to Amazon six days ago, Amazon continues to tag this book with an unusual and unreasonable delay. So, this could actually be the the start of week three, of the black-list, for me and several other authors who spoke up.

I'll post more information, as soon as we have a clearer picture of what, exactly, is going on. Meanwhile, I have been notified that "Last Train" is going to be on the New York Times best seller list (non-fiction hardcover books), for a third week. The continued high ranking probably owes much to John Bachelor, who has been inviting me nightly to speak on his show. He noted the other night that with the continued, monopoly-bound growth of Amazon (now in control of 75% of internet book sales in the U.S., according to the Author's Guild), mine may be the last book in America that will be able to become a New York Times best seller without Amazon.

- - Charlie P.

[lizwaters]

Amazon is a book STORE, and it is a convenient one. With that said, for them to exclude such important books from their stock or even to arbitrarily delay their delivery is bad business. "Last Train from Hiroshima" is an incredibly important book, as well as beautifully written, eloquent and carrying a message of hope that is NOT to be denied. I purchased it from Audible, and finished listening to it last night. Now I plan to run up to my INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE to purchase a paper copy for my shelf. Shame on Amazon; I cannot describe how disappointed I am in their stupid behavior. Congratulations to Mr. Pellegrino

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

This must be an Amazon US vs MacMillan thing?
Amazon Europe appears not to have changed their sales policy.
About an order I placed today:

Francis Kennis
(address deleted)
Belgium

Delivery estimate: 24 Feb 2010 - 25 Feb 2010

Dispatch estimate for these items: 22 Feb 2010

1 "Last Train to Hiroshima (John MacRae Books)"
Charles Pellegrino; Hardcover; £13.56

Sold by: Amazon EU S.a.r.L.

BTW.
Amazon Europe (Amazon EU S.a.r.l.) is headquartered in Luxemburg.

UPDATE 21 febr 2010:

Amazon.co.uk items (Sold by Amazon EU S.a.r.L.):
1 Last Train to Hiroshima (J... £13.56 1 £13.56
Shipped via Taxipost (estimated arrival date: February 24, 2010).
Item Subtotal: £12.79
Shipping and handling: £4.98
VAT: £1.07
Total: £18.84
Payment Total: EUR 22,39**
This completes your order.

UPDATE 23 febr 2010:
The postman delivered the book today.

[Darb]

On a quasi-related note, this thread has a good article spotlighting the ongoing problem with scathing anonymous reviews on Amazon.

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