Blockheads, Rejoice!

I know I'm still supposed to be sore at Amazon.com, but yesterday the cold hard ball of ice in the middle of my heart melted a little when I received an email newsletter from Lawrence Block. Seems that Mr. Block has unleashed a virtual treasury of his work for the Kindle, including a new Kindle-only collection of intros and afterwords called Introducing Myself and Others. It's a fantastic idea, because Block is one of those writers whose intros/outros, etc. are alone worth the price of admission. (The others who come to mind are Harlan Ellison and Jack Ketchum.) This new collection is only $3.98, and includes introductions for books that haven't even been published yet -- namely, forthcoming reprints of Block's early smut pulp novel Campus Tramp and Hellcats & Honey Girls, a collection of three "erotic" novels he co-wrote with Donald E. Westlake.

Block's also released other rarities, such as Cinderella Sims, Ronald Rabbit is a Dirty Old Man, and my favorite of the lot, his pulp action thriller The Specialists. All $3.98 each, all highly recommended. My Kindle is officially allowed back in the house.

The Whole Amazon eBook Price War Came to Mind...

... when I read this passage in Gavin Lambert's short story, "The Slide Area":

She scratches her nose with a jewelled and freckled finger. "Are you sure you haven't read The Case of the Black-Eyed Blonde?"

"Absolutely."

"Then I shall have to take it on trust. With an opening paragraph like that I think..." She breaks off vaguely, fumbling in her crocodile bag and giving the assistant a quarter.

The assistant says: "Thirty-five cents, please."

She takes an alarmed step backwards. "You mean it's one of the expensive ones?"

"It's thirty-five cents."

The Countess replaces the book in the Westerns rack. "Much too expensive," she says firmly, "when no one knows if it's really good. I adore pulp literature but one must retain one's sense of values. Where is your selection of twenty-five cent crime novels, please?"

Reprinted in David L. Ulin's Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology (Library of America, 2002).

Amazon Hostage Crisis: Day Six

As reported elsewhere, Amazon and Macmillan (my publisher) are in the middle of a brutal e-book price war. Now I'm not a business reporter, nor do I understand the intricacies of the economics of book publishing, but it seems pretty clear that Amazon is acting like a bunch of petulant, greedy assbags.

It pains me to say this, because I love all booksellers, great and small. If you sell books, you're on the side of the angels as far as I'm concerned. I've been a happy Amazon customer since 1997. I even remember the first book I ordered: Walter Mosley's Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned. And that was the first of many, many Amazon orders. Just ask my wife.

But last Friday night, Amazon unceremoniously ripped the "buy buttons" from every single Macmillan title, including my three novels from St. Martin's (The Wheelman, The Blonde, Severance Package) and my fourth, out in April (Expiration Date). There were early rumors that Amazon might restore those buttons, but as of now (8 a.m., Thursday morning), there's nothing doing.

What's gone unreported thus far are the hundreds of thousands of victims of this price war -- the collateral damage, if you will.

I'm not talking about writers or readers. Though they, too, suffer.

I'm talking about the books.

Imagine pallets and pallets of unsold Macmillan titles, waiting for a reader to 1-Click them to life. Yes, of course you can purchase Macmillan books from other chain stores, indie shops and online dealers. Which is great, and I encourage you to do so. The books sold in those stores are lucky. They have the chance to be sold and enjoyed. Polybagged and shelved lovingly. Even loaned to friends and family.

Not so with copies held hostage by Amazon.

So for the past two days I've tried to mount negotiation/rescue efforts using the popular social network "Twitter." You can follow my earliest attempts below. But I encourage you to also make your voice heard. Do not let these books go gently into the remaindered good night. Free my books! Free all Macmillan books! And God have mercy on the souls of their captors.

My opening volley, from early on Day 5.

There are reports of hostages being freed, but not my books.

The first reports of mistreatment of captive titles.

Here, I follow the advice of a hostage negotiator.

I attempt to bargain with the captors; my requests are met with stony silence.

A report from inside the Amazon compound reveals shocking conditions.

And then... nothing.

The movement to free the hostages expands to local churches.

The exact number of hostages is impossible to determine.

A request to send in supplies and bibliophiliac aid goes unanswered. Amazon, why do you want these innocent books to suffer?

For more updates, check my Twitter page. And pray this is resolved soon.

UPDATE: War is over. If you want.