It was revealed last week that Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’ pay packet is increasing roughly by $231,000 (£165,453) every minute in 2018. That’s roughly four times what the average American worker makes in a year and makes him far-and-away the world’s richest man with a fortune of $132bn (£94bn). That’ll increase by the time you’ve read this story.
And with the firm paying just £7.4m in tax off UK turnover of £1.46bn in 2016, it’s hard for the indie bookshops, pillars of the community as they are, to compete—especially with Amazon’s book revenue well into the billions.
The way I see it, the Alliance will be a sort of ‘social Amazon’, working to strengthen booksellers’ power and market presence
That’s why Big Issue founder John Bird – alongside our #WhyBooksMatter campaign – is throwing his support behind the Independent Bookshops Alliance in parliament on March 29.
Around 130 indie sellers have joined forces to offer publishers a better way to collectively bargain with them, allowing the same access to tax breaks, exclusive editions and competitive prices enjoyed by the big boys.
Simon Key, founder of Wood Green’s Big Green Bookshop, has become the figurehead of the movement after penning a post on his blog outlining his plans to give indie sellers a louder voice in the industry.
“The idea has been in my head since November time but with all the business of running a bookshop over Christmas, I chose to put up the blog post in January and it has snowballed from there,” he says.
