I saw another author's site the other day. A new book was coming out. On the front page of the site were some big bright links saying, 'Buy here.' Links that went through, if I recall, to Amazon and Barnes &amp; Noble.

Hm, I thought. Is that really a good idea?

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Occasionally I'll link to Amazon here in order to prove a point, as I did <a href="http://davidhewson.com/blog/2010/01/02/book-theft-myth-no-2-its-about-price/" target="_blank">recently about book pricing.</a> You'll also find a link to my reissued second book <em><a href="http://davidhewson.com/Books/standalones/epiphany/epiphany.html" target="_blank">Epiphany</a></em> in eBook, because the spot that takes you is <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/8007" target="_blank">the only place you'll find it</a>. But mostly I don't link to retailers for several reasons. Firstly, if someone knows how to read they surely know how to buy a book. They don't need me to tell them 'available in good book stores everywhere', not least because given the economic climate none of us can take that for granted anyway.

More importantly I don't feel it's fair to point buyers to a particular retailer. I'm grateful to anyone who sells my books, be they small independent, mass chain, online giant or a supermarket. I really don't want to be seen favouring one over the other. It's up to you where you buy your books, not me. And yes, I hope you'll support your local independent book store if you have one (if you fail to support it, you can guarantee you <em>won't</em> have one before long). But if price or convenience sends you elsewhere that's your business.

Even more importantly, though, I think it's important for writers to stand back from the retail environment and focus on what we're supposed to be doing: writing. That's <em>all</em> I do to be honest. I don't sell books or market them. I have no truly worthwhile opinion on what makes a good cover (though I may know a bad one). I'm ignorant about the ins and outs of the Google Book agreement and, shameful as it may be, I'm really not sure I can be bothered to take the time to understand what it's about.

Something changed in the publishing world over the last decade. Authors, occasionally to our own detriment, have become 'empowered'. We run web sites and write blogs such as these. We podcast and pontificate (as I'm doing now). We're increasingly encouraged to become our own marketing departments as promotional budgets shrink within publishers themselves.

I'm with all that... up to a point, the point being where it begins to encroach on the thing I really love, which is writing. Putting up links to retailers seems to me intrinsically unfair. It will also generate pleas from other retailers asking, with some justification, 'Why not me?' And what about foreign markets? Do we need a link for each and every country (few of which will, of course, benefit any independent booksellers out there)?

Sorry. I don't have the time or the energy to deal with all that. I'm too busy trying to produce another book. There are plenty of places out there willing to sell you my work, as <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;safe=off&amp;client=safari&amp;rls=en&amp;q=%22David+Hewson%22+books&amp;aq=f&amp;oq=&amp;aqi=" target="_blank">a quick Google</a> will show. You decide, please.