From WNYC in New York, this is On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone. This week, an unlikely showdown between on one side, mom-and-pop

bookstores, Barnes & Noble, and Walmart, and on the other, the world's largest online retailer

and honed and highlighted self-help guru Tim Ferriss.

The four-hour work week is possible, but you need to completely unplug and reset.

That's Ferris on a previous bestseller, the four-hour work week.

Ferris's books have sold over two million copies combined, which is why Amazon signed him

this year to a reported seven-figure contract.

Amazon released his latest, The Four-Hour Chef, this past Tuesday, enabling Ferris to bypass

traditional publishers and cut those dinosaurs out of the supply chain.

Getting rid of everything, all the static, all the noise, all the interruptions

that interfere with getting you to that ideal lifestyle. But those dinosaurs declined to play dead.

Instead, they are largely refusing to display or in many cases even sell the new book. The showdown

underscores a moment when publishing seems either on the brink of collapse or reinvention.

Forget about what's popular and really look at what works and what is consuming your time.

Now, booksellers don't not sell books. In the 1970s, they stocked Nixon's memoirs despite

protests, and in the 80s, they stopped the satanic verses despite bomb threats.

I ask New York Times reporter David Straitfeld, who covers the industry, what makes Tim Ferriss so special?

It's nothing personal about Ferris, but Ferris is the first time that Amazon is really making a major effort to have a major bestseller. They want that

book to sell not only digitally, but in its physical version. And so this is the first time

the booksellers have really had an opportunity to hit back against Amazon.

But Amazon can sell the physical book just as easily as it would sell a digital one.

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