There’s some interesting things going on in the world of POD publishing. Word on the ‘net is that Amazon is starting to strong arm smaller publishers that use POD technology to maintain their booklists.
Representatives from Booksurge, Amazon’s print-on-demand subsidiary, has reportedly been contacting POD publishers and telling them that if they don’t use BookSurge’s services, the “buy” button on their books’ Amazon listings will be removed. For most of these publishers, this mandate puts them in a difficult position. Switching their entire booklists to meet BookSurge's requirements would be a major expense, plus it would require them to maintain two formats, one for Amazon and one for other outlets.
Publishers Weekly has reported on it and BookLocker’s Angela Hoy has posted about her own experiences on Writers Weekly. I’ve contacted a couple of the smaller publishers listed in the online reports to find out their side of the story. I’m waiting to hear from them. I’ll keep you posted to the best of my ability.
29 March 2008
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6 comments:
Whoah.
Amazon resorting to strong-arm bullying ala Microsoft?
This disturbs me on levels that have nothing to do with writing.
Yes. It just sends shivers up and down the spine, doesn't it?
Power grabs such as this may just undo the progress PODs were making.
Scary.
Some people are already starting to advocate a boycott of Amazon. I'm not 100% certain it's quite time to do that. I need more information.
If there is a boycott of Amazon, would you participate? Where would you buy your books from? If you were to boycott Amazon, would you also refuse to sell your books there?
There is a boycott Amazon group on FaceBook at:
http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=14042765829&success
Thanks for letting us know, James.
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