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The guilty shop

Like many others, I use Amazon, but feel a bit guilty about it.

I know I'm not alone in this, as I regularly get asked why my www.popularscience.co.uk popular science/science fiction book review site has links to buy books from Amazon.

The reason is simple - I get paid a small affiliate fee if someone uses one of the links at no cost to the purchaser, and it's the bookselling site with such an affiliate system that has the widest reach.

However, as some people really didn't seem to like me using Amazon, I thought I'd add a second option and now am providing a link to UK bookseller Foyles as well. And here's the thing. Quite a lot of people have clicked through to Foyles... but no one has bought a book from them.

The fact is that no one else offers the same combination of low prices and rapid delivery as does Amazon. So, while it gives you a nice warm glow to order from an independent bookshop (and I certainly try to buy from them whenever I'm in bricks-and-mortar shopping mode), it's hard to resist the practical benefits of visiting the Amazon site.

Quick example - up to now I've managed to resist reading Wolf Hall and its sequels, for reasons that will require another blog post. But I was so impressed with a review of the third book in the trilogy, that I thought I ought to give the books a try. I decided this at 10pm on Wednesday evening. By lunchtime on Thursday, Amazon had delivered my copy.

I'll probably continue to feel guilty... but it's not going to stop me using them.

I also get affiliate fees if you click through to Amazon simply by using these links to Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com. 

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