海角大神

If Amazon is the Hercules of the book world, the leviathan who overshadows all, then publishing is its Achilles鈥� heel.

Despite its almost mythical dominance in book retailing, Amazon has struggled mightily to crack the publishing business. While it sells millions of copies of other publishers鈥� books, Amazon can鈥檛 quite seem to get its own books off the ground and onto the bestseller charts, according to a recent Wall Street Journal piece that examined the online retailer鈥檚 publishing woes.

Case in point: Penny Marshall鈥檚 memoir, 鈥淢y Mother Was Nuts.鈥� The memoir by the actress and director was published by Amazon and was slated to be one of its biggest titles for fall. 鈥淚n its first four weeks of sale it has sold just 7,000 copies in hardcover, according to Nielsen BookScan,鈥� reports the Wall Street Journal. 鈥淏y comparison, actor Rob Lowe鈥檚 memoir, 2011鈥檚 鈥楽tories I Only Tell My Friends,鈥� published by Macmillan鈥檚 Henry Holt & Co., sold 54,000 hardcover copies in its first four weeks.鈥�

Granted, there could be many reasons for the memoir鈥檚 failure to sell. 鈥淢arshall hasn鈥檛 been in the limelight for a while,鈥� writes the WSJ, and, of course, not every memoir strikes a chord. But there鈥檚 one considerable culprit for the slow sales of 鈥淢y Mother Was Nuts" and every other book Amazon publishes: 鈥渋ts severely limited availability.鈥�

If readers wanted to find 鈥淢y Mother Was Nuts鈥� in a bricks-and-mortar store, or simply stumble upon it, the way some books are discovered, they would be hard-pressed to do so. The memoir wasn鈥檛 stocked in any of the almost-700 Barnes and Nobles stores across the country, nor in Wal-Mart or Target stores. Most independent booksellers don鈥檛 stock the book, and the e-book version wasn鈥檛 carried by stores operated by Sony, Apple, or Google. Just about the only place a reader is guaranteed to find the memoir is at Amazon.com.

That鈥檚 largely due to a deliberate boycott of Amazon books by retailers resentful of the mega-online retailer鈥檚 Herculean dominance of the books market. In a move called a 鈥渄eclaration of war,鈥� Barnes and Noble announced early this year its decision to yank Amazon-published books from its shelves.

鈥淏arnes & Noble has made a decision not to stock Amazon published titles in our store showrooms,鈥� Barnes & Noble chief merchandising officer, Jaime Carey, wrote in an email in February 2012. 鈥淥ur decision is based on Amazon鈥檚 continued push for exclusivity with publishers, agents, and the authors they represent.鈥�

The tactical move was 鈥渁n attempt to cut off access for the online books behemoth that [Barnes and Noble] says 鈥榰ndermined the industry鈥� by signing exclusive agreements with publishers, agents, and authors,鈥� according to a February 2012 Chapter & Verse post.

Amazon is feeling the pain now: the Penny Marshall memoir is the first big Amazon title to be published since the boycott began. And though all retailers are not boycotting Amazon books, 鈥渢he company鈥檚 status as a competitor is clearly a factor for some,鈥� writes the WSJ. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to be a showroom for Amazon,鈥� Mitchell Kaplan, owner of three Books & Books stores in Florida, told the Journal.

Authors are taking note. After a string of deals with authors like Deepak Chopra, Timothy Ferriss, and James Franco in the spring of last year, Amazon, which entered publishing quietly in 2009, appears to be struggling to attract big names. The Barnes & Noble boycott, it seems, has slowed the number of big-name books Amazon has been able to sign. 聽

鈥淚t鈥檚 panic time,鈥� Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor of media studies and law at the University of Virginia, told the WSJ. 鈥淭he notion that a company as powerful as Amazon has such a tremendous amount of influence on what we read, how much money authors make, and the formats that books appear in is really scary to the book industry and other industries as well.鈥�

In other words, the Herculean Amazon鈥檚 very strength has become its greatest weakness.

Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.