Comments from the article: Let BookSurge Print Your Books, or Else...

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

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From what I understand, POD authors sell very little on Amazon. Why are they so upset? I turn to Amazon only when I'm looking for a specific book, let's say a cheap version of a well known book. Amazon has always supplied me with what I was looking at a good price. I think that the POD authors are getting alarmed over nothing. They know they have to peddle their books on their own. Amazon and Barnes & Noble are not going to do it for them. To have their names available on these famous sites may, they think, give them a certain cachet. But it's all an illusion.

Anonymous

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Hi Angela,

I'm back again. I've been thinking about the big publishing houses. Many of them do not print with traditional methods any longer but with POD publishing methodology. Will they also have to print their books with BookSurge or be doomed to never have a Buy Now button on Amazon again? I can't imagine that they will cave in to BookSurge. Have they been asked to sign this contract, too? Has anyone talked to them? Do we know if they have been affected?

I asked my local POD publisher what she thought about this whole mess. Her response was that Amazon is not the only place to purchase books on line. The fact of the matter remains, however, that Amazon.com often offers the best price even if others compete by offering free shipping on orders over $25. The fact remains that when most people think of buying books on line, they think of Amazon.com.

There have to be thousands of authors, like me, feeling as if their hands are tied until this mess gets cleared up. The POD publishers also must feel this way. What the position of the big houses? Do they feel "jailed"? Why don't you find out for us?

Keep up the good work.

Sincerely,

Nina

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Angela:

To me, there is one really big reason Amazon should not do the Book Surge arrangement and that is it's bad for their and the book business long term. I've been toying with the idea of publishing some niche books and bringing some books into print. But the economics of BookSurge make it unfeasible. So those various ideas will not see the light of day and of course no sales will follow. To jump start Book Surge Amazon needs to make it a competitive product, not put a damper on the whole print on demand industry. They should know more than anyone. it's the best product/producer that gets the business. Bullying doesn't make what they have a good deal.

Of course the sad thing is, while they are hurting themselves in the long run, the are hurting lots of authors and publishers as well. And that's a shame.

keep up the good fight,

Marshall
**********************
Marshall Glickman
Green Living Books known as "Yr_Satisfaction_Guaranteed" on Amazon.com
www.greenlivingbooks.NET • 802-348-7441 • PO BOX 88 • Williamsville, VT 05362
- Author of BEYOND THE BREATH: Extraordinary Mindfulness Through Whole-Body Vipassana Meditation
(Tuttle Publishing) http://tinyurl.com/26bjss (<Double click the link to find out more]
& THE MINDFUL MONEY GUIDE (Wellspring Ballantine/ Random House)
http://tinyurl.com/29zcab (<Double click the link to find out more]

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Dear Angela,

I came across your excellent web site in the wake of the Amazon announcements - so some good has come of it! I have even signed up for the short story competition, although Arthur Koestler said that a publisher who writes is like a cow in a milk bar (he wasn't a very good writer, but you get the drift).

I am quite appalled by Amazon's behaviour. If they get away with it (and I have some doubts about that), they'll put a lot of us out of business.

Regards,

Peter Danckwerts
TIGER OF THE STRIPE
Book Publishers
http://www.tigerofthestripe.co.uk
Our new language imprint, Tiger Xenophon
http://www.tigerxenophon.com

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Hi Angela,

The Amazon situation is not surprising. There is a growing market for self-published authors out there and Amazon is capitalizing. But, I must say, I don't need Amazon to help me sell my book. Amazon is but a small part of my marketing and promotion campaign, if not the smallest. Besides, my online book sales will be directed to booklocker.com, Inc. anyway. Any sales beyond that from B&N or any other outlet is just a bonus. Marketing and promotion is up to the author in this business and relying on other sources to sell your book is just crazy. In my opinion, it's not a big deal if you are actively creating other, more creative outlets for exposure and sales.

Angela, you are appreciated for being an effective investigator and journalist in keeping your clients and customers abreast of this troubling situation. Thank you for speaking the truth and for your unwavering spirit.

Peace,
Robert J. Beck
www.robertjbeck.com

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Hi Angela and Richard:

I wanted you two to know that since the Amazon/Booksurge pain in the rear broke, I have felt a great deal of empathy for you and what you are going through.

Here you are, providing very high quality products and services, and these people with their dubious scheming put a stinking elephant in the middle of your porcelain shop.

The questions surrounding binding and cover quality are not trivial for me. Books have always been an important part of my life. I buy them, and I do not borrow them from libraries, because if the book is worth reading in the first place, then it is worth thinking about and consulting later on. Certain classics I have had in the same paperback editions since I was a child, and despite my having opened them hundreds of time, they are still of a piece. In other instances, you read the darn thing once and already you have pages dropping out. I have seared into my memory which of my books lasted and which are like garbage dumps.

It's nothing less than a question of respect for culture. People should want to be proud of their work, anyhow, and if this Booksurge printers really puts out such poor quality, who would want to be associated with them in any case? The quality of Booksurge books sold through Amazon most certainly does reflect on Amazon. I think of it like this; if Barney's department store carried an expensive wool sweater that fell apart at the seams after one wearing, it might be most clearly the designer/manufacturer's fault, but Barney's buyers should have vetted the item so customers wouldn't be offered poor quality. The sweater is not there because the designer put it there personally; it's there because the powers that be at Barney's decided it should be there. The situation with Amazon and Booksurge is similar.

I have faith that no matter how this turns out, you will find creative ways to surmount it. But it bugs me, a lot, that you loose time with your beautiful family, fighting this battle.

If at any time in all this there is something I can do to help, just say the word and I will be there helping.

Scott

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Okay, I am a nano-sized publishing company and currently under Amazon's radar until they get around to mashing the crumbs down but I intend to fight, not switch.

Amazon is not the only marketing source. Looking at it from the wrong end of the telescope, they only account for 15% of the books sold. That means 85% are sold via other means. Small publishers have shown an incredible ability to turn every "it can't be done" into someone doing it smashingly well and opening the way for the rest of us. Part of the reason each of us chose to start our book related business was to have control of our own destiny. Now Papa Amazon is, in essence, saying, "No, we own your destiny."

Excuse me, but why would I allow anyone to "take over" my business? Why would I let anyone coerce me into providing a shoddy product that is more expensive than I produce now? Is that good business sense? Is Amazon that big a deal? Amazon didn't invent the written word. Amazon didn't invent the press. Amazon didn't create the content of the product they sell. Millions of books were sold long before Amazon appeared and millions of books continue to be sold without any "assistance" from Amazon.

There are other online book retailers, and I'll bet right now, there is some heavy duty overtime being put in at a B&N, Borders, Powell's, even MSN and Google's Live Book Search, looking for ways to serve Amazon's soon to be disenfranchised.

And more importantly, there is all that amazing ingenuity within the people of the book. I had the smarts and ability to create my business so I have the smarts to finds venues to sell my product without the big A. And I know the rest of you do, too, because I look to your websites, blogs, books for guidance and inspiration all the time. What if each of us came up with just one way to sell a book and shared it? Just working off of Angela's site alone, that would be what? A hundred thousand ways? Even factoring for duplicates, I think I would find enough ideas to keep my books moving for the next decade or so. How about you?

Just because we have found ourselves cast in a bad science fiction film (the created is now threatening annihilation of the creators), we don't have to follow Amazon's script. We have the opportunity to write our own ending.

C/U: The monstrous beast writhes and twists as it chokes to death on its own greed.

Cut to: Rag tag mob tossing their pens, pencils and laptops in jubilation.

VO: "Once again the world is safe for every person who dares to dream and has the courage to fight for it. "

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It's amazing. I consulted with corporate, educational, institutional, municipal and religious organizations for the better part of 40 years, trying to smarten up their managers about the most profitable (if for no higher purpose) way to treat employees, customers, etc.

It was often discouraging to see how amazingly stupid so many could be, and how willingly they'd jump into the same organizationally debilitating traps as their predecessors, whose attitudes and thought processes they, themselves, had despised when they had been subordinates. I've seen "top management" make such stupid decisions that they lost whole fields of enterprise, sometimes sinking the business, itself.

I've been away from such consulting work for several years, and had grown to think that all my work, all my peers' work, over decades of attacking the monster, must have made industry smarter, if only by osmosis. Wrong again. Greed and arrogance are pervasive--thus, major banks collapse, industries stumble and China picks up another ball . . . and Amazon, like so many foolish organizations before it, thinks that it is immortal and invincible. (Osborne computers . . . Packard Motors . . . Admiral Corporation . . . Zenith Radio Corporation . . . Motorola . . . Hmmmmm-------Amazon . . . who is next, do you suppose?)

Kevin

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Dear Angela,

Thanks for your generous response.

Last week was "shock and awe". This week will be anger and book people ready to start planning to avenge themselves on the beast that has chosen to eat its young.

Looking at the situation, all writers and publishers need to remember that Amazon didn't create the POD publishing industry. That was done by the guys and gals (like you) in the trenches who grabbed onto each technological advance and kept a sharp eye on the horizon to spot the opportunities being offered by Lightning Source and others. All Amazon did was build some virtual bookshelves.

Publishers and authors must remember they drove the business to Amazon. Great book reviews, word of mouth, press releases, radio interviews, web sites, all those myriad of activities done to spark interest in a potential purchaser/reader are what caused those Buy Now buttons to be pushed.

It's time to institute what I call the Mab effect. In the 1998 film Merlin, Mab sets out to take over the world. At the end of the film, instead of being given the fear-driven homage she demands, Merlin (Sam O'Neill) calmly tells her, "We will forget you, Mab," and they all turn and walk away. And that is what we need to do.collectively turn our backs on Amazon and drive the POD industry in a different direction. We own the industry, not them.

Let's turn our attention to locating new virtual bookshelves and sending our traffic to them and away from Amazon. They obviously don't need us and we definitely don't need them. It's a new day and we can build a new world on a more stable foundation than corporate greed. With our ingenuity, spunk, and determination, we can rewrite Amazon's story into just another sad case study for future MBAs.

Cheers!

leeglbeagl - at - bohobooks.com

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

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