Has everyone in France "had enough" of Amazon?

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Retail bookshops for the most part have all the protection they need. First they usually 'buy' on Sale or Return - and how the books get returned makes them usually unsaleable elsewhere - you can see it happening in supermarkets - just throw them any old how into a big box. Net loss to the publisher and author. Plus retailers demand and (used to) get 40% markup on little or no risk.

Retailers demanded 'formula' books for higher sales - hence a few writers got in excess of fair space for rewriting their books with ' a twist'.

Authors would net 10% on the RRP, Publishers would take all the risk of publishing and printing new books - big sales covering low sales items, and even no-sale items.

None of it illegal, none of it bad management in reality - but I for one wouldn't go into retail in a fit. But a good way to get books covered and available? No is isn't.

Amazon and others like Barnes & Noble make a vast swag of books of all kinds available, and have also added to the second hand book market by adding offers from such suppliers as alternative buys. Yes they ask there 30% on RRP, but at least ' promote by presence' most books including self-publishing.

We as a Publisher don't even think about approaching bricks n' mortar stores with our products as it simply isn't worth the effort and hassles of dealing with them.

Bookshops and I'm afraid even the old format libraries are doomed. Our local library now has minimal books but lots of computers. It's now called a Mediateque, and that's about right.

Developing technology is now even allowing us to have our large format books in downloadable format, so our printing and stockholding costs are nil. Net result far lower prices for those who want them. Better for the customer and better for us.

I too am of the age of being a bibliophile with more than 3,000 large format hardbacks in my collection, and I still seek and find in Puces, and anywhere I can find them, but I know we are a dying breed. New technology, and new reading habits - and why not?

Cloud sites now provide incredible storage space for nothing (currently) and there's your library folks, no need to even have a bookshelf!

I still love the feel of a book, and still have a problem reading off iPads and Computer scereens, but this is the way of the present, and not even the future.

Even Amazon will be looking to their business model if they aren't already. You heard it here, it won't be long before Amazon has a giant Cloud site just for downloading from and no more physical supply. Rent and read or buy and read onto your own equipment. Fascinating stuff.

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The only actual paper books I buy now are the ones my kids need for school. Otherwise I buy books for Kindle. The publishing lobbies are shooting themselves in the foot trying to put off the inevitable instead of adapting their business model. It'll happen anyway and probably more painfully.

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I love books, have a huge collection and have been a die hard for the printed page. Until I got a pad, now I never buy printed books.

You can't stop progress to keep bookshops in business... likewise any type of business. If its available online and its 30% or so cheaper that's how life is in 2013 and beyond.

Anyhow... we all love books but my daughter and her kids will give a hoot because it will be a download, she has given up buying paper books for over two years now and CDs and DVDs they are downloads or streamed.

Book stores like CD shops will be a thing of the past. The transportation pollution and paper making will all go.

These people need to get real or end up in a long forgotten past...not to far off.

Its like trying to keep a cassette shop in business... a joke.

Long live Amazon.

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A senior French MP was suggesting last year that all internet purchases should be taxed to the extent that the price paid by the customer was finally the same that would be paid in the nearest locally equivalent shop. Not quite sure how the French would actually govern this one either. Look at their car industry which is on its last legs. They have just added a tax of 8000 euros onto any new car from I think 1 January 2014 that is over 200 grams on the pollution scene. All those cars happen to be German, British or American. French protectionism is costing jobs. The UK has today announced record levels of businesses

www.cityam.com/article/1380848811/number-uk-businesses-hits-record-high?utm_source=website&utm_medium=TD_news_headlines_right_col&utm_campaign=TD_news_headlines_right_col

Anyway I bought books on Amazon UK today but they always seem to be actually sent from Paris. The new Harris novel on the Dreyfus Affair in English was much cheaper on their UK website.

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I've read several stories on this, including a very subjective French one. I am an author of expensive social science works that are quite considerably discounted by Amazon. The difference is that with the discounts people actually buy them and I get some royalties. Apart from that I imagine publishers like Springer and OUP know damned well the books will be discounted so the high prices are probably set higher than they need be to start with.

I used to but from Chapitre.com but since Amazon.fr have undercut their prices guess where I buy?

Discounting on any number of products apart from books is now so common that it seems like a silly little niggle rather than anything to do with reality. It is where I disagree with you Peter: "One day, perhaps, the French Left will also emerge from its 19th century thinking. " In my view the entire political class of all 'colours' and persuasions will join the same world as the rest of us who live lives dependent on limited incomes out of which the French government takes huge great chunks. FN, UMP or whoever would do more or less the same.

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Good morning, Peter!
I *love* living in France and intend to end my days here, God willing - but the political classes seem so anti the people they were elected - or employed - to serve! I am not a fluent French speaker so have to rely on English language commentaries to understand - in part - what is happening amongst the political classes. And I despair, sometimes! Perhaps the idea of "serving" the population never made it into the French political psyche - and I think it has largely disappeared in the UK too unfortunately. "Snouts in the trough" is the phrase that comes to mind!

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Graham, I couldn't agree with you more. A great example of a successful small UK bookshop is Toppings in Bath. They organize events, with several authors coming every month, and the shop itself is like an Aladdin's Cave for booklovers. I love going there when visiting family, who live just up the hill from the shop.

As for your wider points, from the 50s on, the UK suffered a series of industrial and economic shocks which, in part at least, shook it out of its complacency. According to the FT, the UK is now 8th in the WEF international competitiveness table, just behind Germany at 6th. France just slipped from 15th to 21st, industrial leaders are calling for drastic action on competitiveness , while Hollande fiddles and France burns.

It is, in my view, inevitable that France will suffer similar shocks to those in the UK and the longer it takes for that to come about, the greater will be the pain for French society. Germany, under Schröder, went through major industrial reform; France needs to take similar but stronger medicine. As you say, both sides have been extraordinarily complacent to date, but it looks now as if industry, at least, is beginning to recognize the problem. One day, perhaps, the French Left will also emerge from its 19th century thinking.

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Personally, I *do* have doubts about Amazon's fiscal practices, but that apart, for me Amazon is the best thinbg since sliced bread. In the UK, way back in the 70's (I think!) the same arguments about books and bookshops were heard following government's decision to end retail price maintenance. Up to that time, books could only be sold at the publisher's retail price. There were cries that this would bring about the end of the world, that bookshops would totally disappear. I am sure that loads of little bookshops *did* go to the wall - but look at the UK now - there is a vibrant book loving community. And small bookshops - as well as the mega book stores - are thriving. And because of that word so detested in France - competition - bookshops offer a much wider range of services - ordering a book is now quick and easy - no more ordering and maybe having to wait 3 weeks or more for BookCentre to get round to sourcing and supplying the book. 3 days is now much more the norm.

Despite its "phony" socialism, the French Government (of both left and right) is in thrall to the all-powerful trades unions (representing a miniscule number of members) and to Big Business. The unions - instead of working with employers to create efficient, profitable businesses - are locked into 19th century work practices and their protection. Big Business might pretend to like the competitive free market, but, in reality, they love the cosy protectionism - and the easy profits that produces. France is *so* like Britain in the 70's!! But change MUST come, because us - the poor bl**dy* infantry - are beginning to get truly fed up with being ripped off in every direction. Well, *that* is *my* rant for the day done :-)