When I ask writers, authors, or publishers about Amazon, I get a variety of responses:

• I love Amazon. I just ordered laundry detergent from them, and it was really cheap.
• I try not to order from them but shop locally.
• Amazon always knows what I will be interested in when I am browsing for something to read.
• They make ordering so easy, and delivery is so quick!
• They get me mad because they have the wrong cover for my book, and they won’t change it.
• When I search for my book, they list the old edition first and I can’t get them to flip it to the new edition. Ugh!
• They’ve made self-publishing so easy. It is a dream.

Quite the spectrum. When people think of Amazon, they think of books first, which puts them in a Kleenex or Xerox situation from a branding point-of-view. But as you might know, Amazon is way past books and publishing.