Amazon’s 1-click ordering system is causing an uproar in the publishing community. If you’re not familiar with the system, it allows account holders to skip the whole shopping cart rigamarole and instantly charge products to their default payment method. Click once and zippo, you own the product!#911477, Courtesy of Stock.xchng

Anyway, the latest publisher to sound off is the British unit of Hachette Livre (commonly referred to by us authors as “Hatchet Livers”). They’re calling Amazon a bully for demanding a bigger percentage of the revenue that is currently shared between the publisher, author, retailer, printer, etc.

In retaliation, Amazon has removed the 1-click buttons from thousands of popular titles, which means that Amazon book buyers must now click that mouse button at least three times to purchase a coveted book through Amazon’s open marketplace (which links them to third party booksellers).

As an author, I have mixed feelings about this dispute. I can see why publishers are upset, as they already sell books to Amazon at a huge discount (which gives the publisher the opportunity to potentially move a lot more books, but at a significantly lower profit margin). Why should Amazon, a company that is already a major player in the bookselling market, use their clout to make it even more difficult for publishers and independent booksellers to stay in business (can anyone say Wal-Mart?).

On the other hand, I realize that a fairly high percentage of my own books are sold via Amazon. I’m happy that Amazon promotes my books, 1-click or not (incidentally, neither of my books have a 1-click ordering option available).

The vast majority of authors are no-names whose books rarely appear on the shelves of brick-and-mortar bookstores. We receive miniscule—if any—royalty payments. Whatever the discount Amazon negotiates with our publisher, we shrug and say, “Well, at least my book is being promoted in cyberspace and there’s an opportunity for it to sell.”

I’m going to do some more thinking about this issue, but I’d love to hear from you. Has Amazon gotten too big for its britches?

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