Exclusive: Amazon's Business Model Verges on the Criminal
Author, actor and comic Charlie Higson has spoken out against Amazon after this week's revelations that the online seller charges publishers the full 20 per cent VAT on eBooks in the UK.Amazon are so little that authors and publishers find it hard to make money on digital editions. He also called into question the ethics of the online seller and producer of the world's most successful eBook reader, the encourage.
According to the report
"Unluckily, the business model of Amazon is verging on the illegal. They don’t pay tax here, they’re all based abroad because of the way they ship their books," he explained.
"They cut the margins so small that it becomes quite hard for publishers to make money. And for writers to make money. It’s my living selling books."
"It’s unbelievable that during more people will read your books and can get access to books if they don’t have a local bookshop or are not usually out looking for books. It is a vast way for getting books into people’s hands," he told us. "But, although it’s not unlawful what Amazon does, aspects of it seem a little wicked.
"It makes it very tricky for publishers."Charlie Higson was lately tasked with condensing the scheme and subject of each of the 12 full Ian Fleming James link novels into 140 typescript for Twitter.
