Friday Links: Thoughtful Posts, Stupid Posts, and Posts I Just Don't Agree With

Happy Friday all!

Start with the good:  Ever called a book trashy?  Well, what makes a book trashy?  Do you read trashy books or do you apply the term only to genres that you don't read?  Persephone Reads has a great post about the use of the word Trashy.

The Stupid:  No need to edit when you write young adult novels, folks!  This was just an oddly insulting post to young adult writers from a young adult writer.  Guess whose books I won't be reading?

Posts I just don't agree with:  An independent bookstore in Seattle is refusing to host an author or carry books from an author who is using Amazon's publishing services because Amazon pulls away from his business and is not a friend to the independent bookseller.  I find the most maddening part of the post to be the line:  "Neither of us will change our minds. I'm the owner of the Bailey Brothers Building and Loan. You are working for Mr. Potter. And Mr. Potter is always buying."  Don't do that.  Don't cast yourself as good and the other person as evil and refuse to allow that there is any grey in the situation.

I'm not saying that Amazon is all good and light.  Far from it.  However, I think Amazon does a lot of things right.  It does things that make me want to buy more books than I previously did.  It makes it possible for me to buy more books than I previously did by offering up books I can't find in bookstores.  Refusing to stock books they publish is simply spiting your own customers.  Are your customers going to look at the spine of the book and see Amazon and think to themselves, "What is this Amazon thing?  Maybe I should check it out!"  No.  More likely they'll think to themselves, "I want that book that my local bookstore is not selling, well, I'll buy it at Amazon."