Resisting Amazon: Lydia Davis

In her new book, Our Strangers, Lydia Davis delivers another delicious collection of exquisite short fiction. One of the most renowned and accomplished writers presently working, her stories are deft, inventive, and endlessly artful - ranging in topics from tiny insects to marriage. The book comes out in October, and we can’t wait.

But here’s the interesting thing about this lovely book. Like so many of us, Lydia Davis has beaming increasingly appalled by the business practices of (as we call it in the shop) the Evil River. She writes: Many years ago, my eyes were opened to Amazon's unsavory business practices--its poor treatment of employees, its stranglehold on competition, its destruction of small businesses, its violation of the very notion of community. I have not bought books or anything else through Amazon since then. So it seemed completely unreasonable that I was still allowing them to sell my own books, and I vowed that with my next one I would end that.

To which we say: Amen.

Of course, things were not as simple as they might sound. Lydia’s agent tried to place the book with conventional publishers, but they were all unwilling or unable to promise it would not be sold on Amazon, due to the logistics of book distribution systems and Amazon’s retaliatory nature. (For more on the terribleness of Amazon, we recommend Danny Caine’s brilliant How To Resist Amazon and Why.)

Nevertheless, she persisted. Lydia found a willing partner in bookshop.org, who have committed to publishing the book and to making sure that Amazon gets no share of any profits arising from its sales. The book will be available exclusively through independent bookstores, libraries, and bookshop.org.

All of which seemed worth celebrating. So please consider pre-ordering a copy of Our Strangers from us, or any other independent bookshop. We’ll give the last word to Lydia: I am delighted that ... Our Strangers will be able to avoid the grasp of the marketplace bully and sell my book in the time-honored way--through independent bookstores that value community and engage in a humane, respectful conversation with readers.