Ursula K. Le Guin

This past Tuesday, the SF&F (Science Fiction and Fantasy) legend and notorious literary feather-ruffler continued her long campaign against Amazon, this time, as explicitly as possible, via a blog post entitled "Up the Amazon with the BS Machine or Why I keep Asking You Not to Buy Books from Amazon."

In it, she immediately declares that she and Amazon "are not at war." With that said, she proceeds to insist her indifference with regards to Amazon as a house goods supplier or even tool for those looking to self-publish

Independent booksellers have launched a new weapon in their two-pronged offensive against online retailers such as Amazon and the supermarket chains who pile books high and sell them low.

In a neat piece of entrepreneurial oneupmanship, the Bookindy app uses Amazon's own technology to upstage it, answering its inventor's question: "Can you promote local independent bookshops on the very system that's designed to destroy them?"

The app is an extension for the Google Chrome browser which, when downloaded, changes slightly how the Amazon website looks when you open it up.

Adult trade publishers with a “change is good” attitude are finding success in today’s market. From promoting literacy to experimenting with new marketing initiatives, such as social networking sites and author videos, and new distribution formats, such as e-books and digital downloads, industry leaders are now acting upon, not resisting, the significant turn the publishing world has been taking. Data indicates that while monthly sales fluctuate, overall, sales are still up, and many publishers are proactively striving to keep them that way. Last month, The Association of American Publishers (AAP) reported that adult hardbound book sales totaled $2.8 billion in 2007, a 7.8-percent increase

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