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August 16, 2005: USA Today Reports on Amazon.com
"Many publishers say Amazon's benefits outweigh its pitfalls, but one gripe is widespread: Amazon has driven up sales of used books — great for thrifty readers, but bad, they say, for authors who depend on royalties.
"That's done more to hurt publishing, big and small, than anything, and readers don't think about it," says Fran Baker, a romance writer who runs her own publishing company, Delphi Books, in Lee's Summit, Mo., outside Kansas City.
Amazon, though, has seen used books spur sales of new books. "We've found customers that do buy used books are more likely to come back and buy (new books) from that publisher or that author," Greely says. "It's a way of introducing customers to new genres, new areas of interest."
