Amazon, Take II

There is a great deal of monopoly-like behavior that is making me grit my teeth lately. There is, of course, the MSN-Yahoo potential merger that would give MSN even greater control of online communication than they already possess and limit the choices for individual users. MSN already has enough access to our lives without further growing their presence. Then there is the deal with Amazon and BookSurge.

While Amazon is claiming that their move to consolidate printing of POD titles through the Amazon-owned BookSurge is all about serving the customer, that excuse is too transparent and flimsy to be displayed in public. What Amazon’s poorly disguised goal appears to be is monopolizing the POD and small press publishing market by leveraging its powerful online presence in order to undercut BookSurge’s competitor Lightning Source.

Publishers who refused this “deal” will reportedly have the buy button removed from their Amazon listings. If they want to sell through Amazon, they will be required to pre-print five copies to store in Amazon’s warehouse and sign up for Amazon’s Affiliate program, which would mean they would have to pay both a percentage of sales and an annual fee to Amazon.

The Author’s Guild is reportedly looking into antitrust laws to address this issue.

However, attempting to strong arm small presses and POD publishers is apparently not enough for Amazon. They have now issued a statement that if a publisher sells a book at a deeper discount on the publisher’s website than is offered on Amazon, they will pay the publisher 50% of the publisher’s discounted price rather than on the price sold at Amazon. This would mean if a title was offered for $15 on the publisher’s website and $20 on Amazon, Amazon’s bean counters would only pay the publisher $7.50 rather than the $10 they contractually owed.

Apparently, no one’s ever explained to Amazon’s executives the phrase “getting too big for [their] britches.” Maybe someone should?

On the plus side, PublishAmerica has refused to cave to Amazon’s demands and their books are now no longer available for purchase directly through Amazon. Maybe Amazon’s strong arm tactics will finally put the United States’ scammiest publisher out of business?

Regardless, this is going to be an interesting year in publishing.

I’m going to remove the Amazon search feature from The Commune. While I do that, here’s a few extra links for your reading pleasure:

Amazon faces anti p.o.d. surge, theBookSeller.com, 09APR08

New publishing policy at Amazon angers authors, Seattlepi.com, 09APR08

Inquiries Concerning Amazon.com's "Print on Demand" Policy, Washington Attorney General's Public Notice, 08APR08