Mike,
There are many sources of my books, Barnes & Noble for the Nook, Angus & Roberts in Australia, Kindle from Kindle, ACX for the audiobooks.
They are typically not in bookstores, except the new line of Amazon Books stores. Shipping two publisher copies to a thousand physical locations no longer makes sense for most of us. It never made sense for sailing books, which is why International Marine, the publisher of most books on our shelves, went out of business as I was typing page 153 of "Alone Together" three years ago. An unhappy moment.
The Internet--you're not against that--is the current efficient source for all books, worldwide. Independent used booksellers provide access to the great books we never had before.
Amazon, of course, dominates. It sells my books around the world, with the country suffix .UK and so on. I get paid on time. I get mail from Iceland and Serbia. I am read in Patagonia and Paris. That is new and revolutionary and possible only with Amazon. A company which, whatever its faults, also saved The Washington Post, whatever its faults.
A miracle is a miracle. I push a button on my computer and a new book arrives in two days for $20. I push a button and a 50-year-old obscure classic is plucked form a shelf from some independent collector in Texas or Arkansas or North CArolina, wrapped in the local newspaper, packaged in an old Kmart box, and sent to me for $8.95. There was a time when I thumbed library card catalogs for that, with never a broad notion of the scope of knowledge available.
Without Amazon there would be no inventory of out of print sailing books, because House publishers cannot keep inventory because of tax issues. Print-on-Demand solved that. It is access to used books via Internet (Amazon advertisers) and Print on Demand for current stuff that allows niche topics to thrive as books that don't just disappear, as once they did.
Meantime, ebook and audiobooks have taken off. Why? Apart from preference, it's too expensive to ship a physical book very far. The postage for single copy of my books to Canada is $20. To Australia it is $55. In the Continental US, $2.31 (media mail). Reading habits are therefore altered.
But of course, after this celebration of the new world order, you can always buy a book from me. Autographed, even. Or with a note. I'm happy to do it for friends here, but it's a duty not an efficiency.
By the way, here's my new video on books for Christmas season:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWhBb9Yrqn4&t=90s
I have received in the past a few requests for books inscribed as gifts, so we have set up a system this time.
Provide the name of the recipient and a message, or guidance for a message, and I'll do my best to write something and sign it. Send to:
Phyllis Wade
Olmstead Williams Communications
10940 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 1210
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Enclose the mailing address and a check made out to East Wind Productions, Inc. for $23 ($18.95 plus $4 postage via media mail).
Regards,
Christian