Wy'east Book Shoppe & Art Gallery

We would like to call your attention to a new policy which IndieCommerce is adopting.  Many of you have likely seen the recent developments in the news about some bricks-and-mortar booksellers declining to stock books published by Amazon and its publishing imprints.

While Amazon is seeking to distribute its print catalog through conventional means, it seems that they are simultaneously pursuing a strategy of locking in ebook exclusives which other retailers are not allowed to sell.  IndieCommerce believes that this is wrong, and that any book title for sale should be available to all retailers in the same formats and on the same basis.  So, IndieCommerce has made a decision not to list these titles for sale through IndieCommerce sites.

The full text of the new policy follows.

In order to help promote fair and open access to book content in all forms, IndieCommerce, the for-profit subsidiary of the American Booksellers Association, announced today a new policy regarding available inventory. Under the new policy, only publishers' titles that are made available to retailers for sale in all available formats will be included in the IndieCommerce inventory database. This decision was made to support publishers committed to fostering a diverse and robust publishing industry -- and to making books as widely available to consumers as possible -- and in support of the bricks-and-mortar retail sales channel, which offers an essential -- and unique -- venue for discovering and marketing new titles of both established and debut authors.

All retailers using the IndieCommerce platform are free to stock any published books from any publisher in their stores and/or to fulfill any customer orders through another source. This policy change in no way affects that ability. Bookstores using IndieCommerce have the option of adding any title to their individual store's online database and/or fulfilling orders through other means. However, please understand that Amazon published books will be completely removed from the IndieCommerce search on wyeastonline.com this week.