Amazon.com has announced that they will no longer allow Print On Demand books to be sold on their site… unless they are printed by Amazon’s own POD service BookSurge. It’s no secret that the big A has been struggling to gain a foothold in the booming POD world. But they haven’t been able to. Many of the other services out there just do it better (something about focusing on your core business…) and they offer a better community.
So, for once, Amazon can’t walk in the room and sweep away business from its competitor fast enough. What’s the answer? Take away your competitor’s avenues of distribution! Just don’t allow other businesses to play in the same room as you. Way to go Amazon, ya big bully!
All I can hope for is that this sets the stage for some really smart enterprising person to step in and make a strong business out of opening the doors Amazon just shut and locked. Hmmmmmm….
This small independent shopis located in Mountain Brook, just off Highway 280. Their store web presence seems to always be in flux but they do seem to do a better job of keeping their MySpace presence more up-to-date. They have a full coffee bar and the bookstore staff always seems very knowledgeable and helpful. It’s popular with a handful of book clubs and local folks.
It’s a nice small bookstore to peruse. They do a good job of keeping the most recent titles in stock, but nothing too far back.You’ll have to call about the hours, as they don’t keep them posted.
***Sadly this bookstore closed up in 2016. I’m leaving this post up as an archive ***
I stumbled across a used bookstore over in the Irondale area of town, so I thought I’d share. It’s called Doggone Books and enjoys the fortuitous traffic-inducing location of being two doors down from the Whistlestop Cafe (yes, THAT Whistlestop Cafe).
Birmingham’s southside is home to a new used bookstore. Greencup Books is holding its official “grand opening” this Friday night. The doors open at 2pm with a reading/signing by Tony Crunk and artist Peter Wilm. They will be signing their joint publishing project Stories from Real Life.
Greencup Books sells mainly used books culled from collections and sales all over the South East. But there are a few new titles on hand too. Some from their own small-press imprint Absnth Inc. So that’s pretty cool too.
