Amazon.com putting the screws to POD publishers - Writers Forum

lin · 03-28-2008, 11:43 AM

This is of interest not just to people who self published or went through lulu or whoever, but anybody published with small presses that use POD technology to print their books and place them on amazon.com

One of the main allures of POD publishing has been the "amazon connection" and it's become almost the definition of what "published" means or what a "real book" is.

Now amazon is starting to jerk the "BUY" button from POD books (meaning those published by lightningsource, the only major POD printer) and only allow direct sales of books published on their BookSurge subsidiary.

I've been in the amazon offices and met execs and middle-management there. I've been screwed out of promised money by them...the kind of deal where you could win in court but it wouldn't be worth a couple of hundred bucks.
They are an arrogant company with very little conscience. Hopefully this idiocy will be reversed, but it's certainly a chilling wind for self-publishers.

Amazon.com Telling POD Publishers - Let BookSurge Print Your Books, or Else...

Shawn · 03-28-2008, 12:17 PM

I hate POD publishers that require upfront costs. If they really wanted to make money, they'd put more into encouraging people to market their books with them, regardless of where they print them. More merch, more money.

I say start up a bookseller stall at a farmer's market. That way you can get your literature and over-sized cucumbers at the same time.

The bad part about that is the patrons are illiterate.

lin · 03-28-2008, 01:32 PM

Why should you hate them if they don't affect your life?

If somebody wants a book out, they can get it this way: quick and cheap. This has been over a LOT in other threads.

This policy at amazon doesn't just affect though. It affects any book published using that technology. You get accepted at Bewrite or Whiskey Creek or Rebel Base or many others and you could be losing your amazon sales because they want you to publish with their own publisher.

THAT is what this about, not approval of publishing methods.

lin · 03-29-2008, 04:28 AM

Hmmm all the posting here about conspiracies and commies and primaries and this is about the world's largest book-seller about to disenfranchise anybody who uses laser technology for books unless they drop their printer and go to amazon's subsidiary printer and no writers have a comment on it?