Independent bookseller sets up a website to campaign against Amazon, despite being a judge for the Best Translated Book Award sponsored by the online retailer

An American independent bookseller has set up a blog “Against Amazon”, despite being a judge for an award sponsored by the online retailer.
The move re-ignites a row which erupted in October over Amazon’s sponsorship of US literary prize the Best Translated Book Award, run by the University of Rochester’s translation website, Three Percent. Melville House, a US publisher whose work has previously won the award, declared it would be boycotting it in future because Amazon had agreed to give the award $25,000 in sponsorship, enabling the award to carry a cash prize for the first time.
But award organiser Chad Post said that he wouldn’t be making any changes to the Amazon sponsorship deal. “Jeff Waxman, of 57th Street Books, is one judge of nine for fiction, and as a young, outspoken bookseller, he’s entitled to his opinion,” he said. “My goal – as it was in 2007 when I started the Best Translated Book Award by myself with absolutely no funding – is to bring attention and admiration to translators and the beautiful books they translate. The fact that this April we’ll be giving $5,000 apiece to two international authors and two translators makes me very happy. The books and the translators are the most important thing here … In the end all the Melville House and Jeff Waxman stuff will hopefully bring more attention to the awards. But I wonder how they’d feel if their complaining about a minor piece of a massive pie ended up hindering the possible readership for these books. That wouldn’t be all that cool.”
The 25-strong shortlist for the 2011 Best Translated Book Award is due to be announced at the end of January.
Amazon.co.uk did not respond to a request for comment.