Author Sherman Alexie joins ‘Colbert Report’ to encourage Amazon boycott
Jun 5, 2014, 6:37 AM | Updated: 8:53 am
Local author Sherman Alexie says you shouldn’t be shopping at Amazon – for anything.
The National Book Award winning author joined “The Colbert Report” and fellow Hachette published author Stephen Colbert to rail against Seattle-based Amazon on Wednesday night’s show.
Amazon has slowed deliveries of many Hachette titles, and made pre-ordering popular upcoming books impossible because of a standoff over e-book prices. Alexie tells Colbert that while the situation doesn’t have a big impact on the giant publishing company, it could definitely hurt authors in the long run.
“(Amazon is) doing it because they want a monopoly. They control 40 to 50 percent of the book market, and they want more,” Alexie says.
Alexie is encouraging a boycott of everything Amazon, from books, to groceries and shoes. And he told Colbert you should be rooting for the authors – the ones really hurt by Amazon’s standoff with Hachette.
“Good,” said fellow author Colbert. “Because I was on my side, but I wanted to make sure.”
