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POD Braces Itself Against Amazon
OMNIpotusCOM writes "As we've previously discussed, Amazon is in the process of taking the 'Buy' buttons off of published on demand (POD) books that were not created by Amazon's in-house publisher, BookSurge. PODdy Mouth has been reporting reactions throughout the week (including an open letter from Amazon), culminating today in letters to Amazon and their board by the Author's Guild, Small Publishers Association of North America, and the Publishers Marketing Association. Possible lawsuits are looming ... is it enough to change Amazon's mind?"
What is up with Amazons latest strategy?
In the past there was always products sold by amazon, and then a link to 'used & new' which I never touched because when I go to amazon, I'm looking specifically to by a NEW item from amazon themselves, and for amazon to take direct responsibility if there are any fuck ups.
Now they are trying really hard to blur the lines between their own products and those of other vendors.
I only noticed this after I bought an item which I had no reason to believe was *not* coming from amazon, when I got an email saying:
Would you like to leave RIP_U_OFF_4_THE_LULZ feedback on your recent purchase?
This is not a good direction, but hey, they practically have a monopoly on cheap online books so what am I gonna do.
I am gonna go way, WAY out on a limb here and say "No".
No major company would willingly piss off this many people and customers without carefully considering how it would affect them (Not if it plans on remaining a major company).
They probably have estimates of how many lawsuits are likely, their probability of success, how many donuts they are gonna eat during the trials...
That said, SHOULD they change their mind? I think that forcing your customers into one path tends to piss them off, especially if your forcing them into a path that is extremely profitable for you (AKA MS Vendor lockin).
It might work in the short run, but it could damage Amazon's brand name.
I steal signatures. This one used to be yours.
What happens if books are available on POD and in a conventionally printed form. There is nothing to stop BookSurge offering out-of-print classics through POD.
What's to stop Amazon only allowing POD versions of these books to customers. You may want a high-quality leather-bound Shakespeare, but Amazon may only let you have a POD paperback!
Also, what about authors who already have POD contracts with other publishers. They are condemned never to appear on amazon searches, which a lot of people use to find books on esoteric subjects thinking they cover most available material.
And I hope to free more chapters in the coming week. Amazon may not care about losing my Nmap book, but I hope enough people stand up to Amazon that they really feel the effect!
-Fyodor
I imagined Amazons battling the Prince of Darkness ...
You know what they say about opinions. They're all fabulous!
The savings are not THAT much more than what you can get elsewhere. I stopped buying anything from Amazon when they patented the 'One Click Buy' way back and I have bought nothing from them since. I've payed a couple of bucks more here and there for books, but hardly enough to make it worth doing business with such an ethically bankrupt organization.
I don't understand. Isn't this the very definition of monopolistic no-nos? Company with great majority of market in one area leverages that for dominance in another market. Why isn't the DoJ already involved? Or will it be once we stop having a "Corporations are always right!" administration (if that ever happens)?
Amazon isn't going to make the customers made with this. They are going (in theory) to make their customers happy. Because they have less stock to carry they can offer lower prices and if they put printers around the country they can offer faster shipping. They did make the POD industry mad but I would imagine that is a chance they are willing to take. I don't buy own POD books so at the end of the day this doesn't change my relationship with Amazon. (I did write a POD book which is affected by this but I haven't sold any copies on Amazon so there is no effect.)
POD isn't really about self publishing, even though it lends itself well to it. It's about books always being "in print", no matter how obscure or small the demand.
I, for one, do not welcome our pant-shitting underlords. You're Fired!(tm)
Amazon is currently, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, the worst possible online bookstore, except for all the alternatives. From a customer point of view, the web site is comically bad. From a small publisher point of view, they seem at best hostile. They're good for many things, and I'll continue to use them, but one-stop shopping for books is no longer something they're willing to provide. Yes, this will hurt certain publishers, in the same way many publishers are hurt when Barnes & Noble, Wal-Mart, and the local grocery store won't stock their books. But for the moment, they're free to sell what they want. Small publishers know that certain outlets are unavailable to them, so this is really nothing new.
Amazon is a distributor and should remain one. ... or else !! ... or else !! ...
Today they start dictating the printer from whom I get my book printed
Tomorrow they will tell me what I can write
and since they are SO BIG, i really have no chance ( or no guts) to ask them go FISH
Insight into much, Influence over nothing !
It would be one thing if the BookSurge pricing model was exactly the same as Lightning Source's. But it isn't. LS basically gets paid by the page (i.e., the price you pay them has a direct relation to how much it costs them to print it), whereas BookSurge works on a percentage-of-cover-price basis. This is the case even when you buy books from them directly for distribution via other channels (direct sales, or review copies, etc.); they offer you "substantial author discounts" (up to 30%).
For non-fiction, this can make quite a difference, since there the cover prices vary much more than with fiction.
Although Lightning Source has sent me an explanatory email, it seems the "buy" button of my book on computer programming is still available.
A large number of POD books (not all of them, by any means) are printed by vanity presses (see PublishAmerica). While it sucks for the legitimate self-published and POD authors not to have their books available, I can't say I'm too sad that there is one less venue for these other "publishers" to take advantage of authors.
I've recently self-published my book Zero to Superhero at Lulu.com, and the masterplan was to have it distributed by Lulu to Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble etc. One hundred dollars and 18 weeks later, and Lulu still hasn't had my book distributed to Amazon as promised. Or anywhere for that matter.
Saturday I discovered that Amazon will no longer accept books from other POD publishers, so even if Lulu were to finally act to fulfill their promise and my order, they can't. Lulu has yet to reply to my email asking for answers either, and the online help was useless.
I'm not sure what to do at this point. Most of my sales have been directly from my own website, but I would've liked to have my book available at the internet's largest book retailer as well (or at least my $100 back).
SEO Copywriter. Just Say ON
Letting Amazon get away with this will only lead them to greater conquests until they control all publishing in the country. Do you want Amazon telling you what to write, read and think? Also, if you agree to their contract, they dictate what can be charged for your book, and forbid you from giving deeper discounts on your own (such as to a non-profit through your website). Unless, of course, you like dictatorship. Monopolies.