As Publishing students and faculty, we know all too well that Amazon is everywhere and really, everything. It seems that there isn’t anything that the company hasn’t touched or will get a hold of and as a country that thrives on business, this has been and will continue to be a game changer. Most importantly to us in the publishing industry, Amazon’s book selling and manufacturing has decreased the value of books, forcing publishers and book sellers to compete at a level where they aren’t comfortable and where they’re taking a loss just to be on the same playing field. Still, Amazon thrives because they don’t just sell books, they sell the tablet that you can read the books on, the case for that tablet, the bookmark for that book, etc. Amazon not monopolizes business, and it’s hurting business.

To read more on Amazon, visit here for George Packer’s New Yorker article, “Cheap Words”.