Publishers big and small in Canada, as elsewhere, are “preparing to boost their business by selling directly to consumers from their websites, a move that has booksellers spooked about being squeezed by their own suppliers,” reports Marina Strauss in a Globe & Mail story. Things seem to have become particularly heated now that giant conglomerate publishers Penguin and Pearson Education will begin sales from their websites within the next year. “Everybody seems to think they’re a bookseller now,” says Pat Joas, a bookseller and president of the Canadian Booksellers Association, “. . . you’re sort of looking over your shoulder all the time thinking, ‘What’s next?'” But Strauss reports that “even though Penguin.com trumpets markdowns,” Penguin Canada president Ed Carson says the move is not “meant or even designed to compete with the retail business.” He says, “I don’t think any publisher has visions of becoming Amazon or Chapters. We certainly don’t.” Joas doesn’t seem to buy it. “It sets a dangerous precedent,” she says. “At the very least, we can assume that it’s going to threaten the livelihood of many booksellers.”