Overview

Hired in 1996, James Marcus made his start at Amazon when it was still a 50 person ""futuristic mom-and-pop grocery,"" selecting all the books featured on its homepage from a crude wooden office desk made of discarded doors. By the time he left the company in 2001, Amazon had grown into an 8,000 strong, multi-continent Dot-Com sensation, shipping hundreds of thousands of books, bikes, hacksaws and asparagus pots a day. But the center could not hold: By 1999, the Dot-Com bubble began deflating as the tech boom waned and fat pockets across the country - and Silicon Valley in particular - shriveled. Covering everything from Marcus' initial interview with Jeff Bezos and company picnics, to pointed commentary on stock-option wealth and editorial integrity, Amazonia is anything but conventional business history. Part memoir, part chronicle, part insider scoop, Amazonia is an entertaining and insightful look at the tensions between editorial and business sensibilities, art and commerce, technology and humanity. A funny, engaging business memoir. Reminiscent of Michael Lewis' perennial classic Liar's Poker or Julia Salamon's The Devil's Candy.

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9781565848702

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We were at the beginning of an era when the suspension of disbelief was required on a daily basis: within twelve months, to choose just one example, Americans with an eye cocked tyoward the markets would be asked to believe that Amazon, a two-year-old-bookseller, was worth more than the combined valoues of Sears and U.S. Steel. - From Amazonia

Amiable memoir of Amazon.com's dizzying rise and eventual earthbound return. Marcus's debut aptly captures his sense of riding an unforeseeable whirlwind. From 1996 to 2001, he was employed as Senior Editor at Amazon. He was the 55th hire, personally interviewed by founder and future billionaire Jeff Bezos, whom the author depicts as superficially easygoing but obsessed with a Culture of Metrics : Bezos believed that endless analysis of Amazon's business numbers would insure its explosive growth-and, in fact, it did. Marcus found the halcyon early days at the perpetually expanding company a constant whirlwind of 60-hour weeks and eccentric, wonky co-workers, many of whom, like the author, temporarily became paper millionaires during the Boom. Marcus perceptively discusses the challenges in representing books through the ultra-mutable online medium and describes how Amazon and Bezos struggled to stay ahead of the maelstrom. (For instance, they developed a top-secret auction capability to compete with eBay.) Many such initiatives failed to deliver-online success seemingly depended on First Mover status-even as dot.com raconteurs like Henry Blodget hyped the company and ensured its stock would soar. As the company grew, Marcus became conscious of how few site visitors actually read his careful reviews: We were creators, and we were clerks, he ruefully notes. Even before the 2000 market crash, he realized the site's drive to personalize itself to the needs of all customers would ultimately hobble his editorial vision, as data-mining programs overtook hands-on efforts. Bezos was named Time's 1999 Person of the Year, and the company's employee population exploded, but they couldn't outrun the millennium: by June 2000, the stock had plunged, as erstwhile cheerleaders like Blodget ran for cover and its credit was assessed as degrading. After the company laid off 15 percent of the workforce in 2001, the burned-out but wistful Marcus decided it was time to go. Rarely surprising, but amusing and intelligently written: a good exploration of how Amazon survived the crash and earned its longevity. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

James Marcus was employed as Senior Editor at Amazon.com from 1996 to 2001 during which time he edited the site's homepage and Literature & Fiction area.

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