Amazon Troop (Book) Surge

Letter from the Washington State Attorney General

2008-04-24T15:09:00.002-05:00

Well, I guess the battle is over as far as the state of Washington is concerned. Following is an email we received from them, and it looks like the course of action they have taken is to do nothing. We are disabling the form to email them, because it obviously is a moot point by now. Amazon has stated that it will carry books from non-BookSurge publishers as long as the author sends a minimum of five copies to Amazon for inventory. So I suppose that is a compromise, and it's probably about as good as we're going to do. But we still encourage you to use the form in the previous post below to email the Dept. of Justice in Washington. Will they do anything? Doubtful. But we might as well keep yelling and see if anybody listens.

Here is the email:

Dear Mr. Work:

The Washington Attorney General’s Antitrust Division has received many complaints regarding the new “print on demand” or “POD” policy recently implemented by Amazon.com. We want to thank all of those who have brought this matter to our attention and who have provided information and insight into the questions. We appreciate the concerns that have been expressed.

We have reviewed each of these complaints and we have contacted Amazon to explore the concerns that have been raised. Amazon responded to our inquiry by directing us to a publicly posted “Open Letter to Interested Parties” in which they describe their new policy.

The “Open Letter to Interested Parties” is posted on the Internet at http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-printondemand. Some of the complaints that we have received state that Amazon is refusing to sell books printed by Lightning Source or other POD publishers, and will only sell POD books printed by BookSurge. In its “Open Letter to Interested Parties”, Amazon addresses this question:

Do I need to switch completely to having my POD titles printed at Amazon?

No, there is no request for exclusivity. Any publisher can use Amazon's POD service just for those units that ship from Amazon and continue to use a different POD service provider for distribution through other channels.

Alternatively, you can use a different POD service provider for all your units. In that case, we ask that you pre-produce a small number of copies of each title (typically five copies), and send those to us in advance (Amazon Advantage Program-successfully used by thousands of big and small publishers). We will inventory those copies. That small cache of inventory allows us to provide the same rapid fulfillment capability to our customers that we would have if we were printing the titles ourselves on POD printing machines located inside our fulfillment centers. Unlike POD, this alternative is not completely "inventoryless." However, as a practical matter, five copies is a small enough quantity that it is economically close to an inventoryless model.
The complaints that we have received have come from across the country. It appears that the markets involved are national in scope. Thus, it may be more appropriate to refer this matter to one of the federal antitrust agencies for review.

For these reasons, and based on the information that has been provided to us, the Attorney General’s office does not plan further action on this matter. However, and as noted before, this is not a conclusive legal opinion and anyone feeling that they have been harmed and wish to pursue a remedy should consider consulting with private counsel.

If you have additional information or have evidence that what Amazon is representing is not true, please feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

Brady Johnson
Assistant Attorney General
Antitrust Division
Washington State
Office of Attorney General

New Mission: Put it in the Feds' Hands

2008-04-09T11:21:00.004-05:00

We received a comment from the Washington state Attorney General's Media Relations Manager (it can be read by clicking the Comments link beneath the last blog post). She said that they had received many complaints and that Amazon had been asked to respond. Victory (sort-of)! However, she also said the following:

If it is determined that the markets involved are national in scope, it may be more appropriate to refer this matter to one of the federal antitrust agencies for review.

Therefore, we think the next it makes sense to start over, now directing our emails toward the Department of Justice. The form below sends an email to the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice that is almost exactly the same as the one used for Washington state.

If you would like to contact the Dept. of Justice directly, here is the info:

E-mail: antitrust.complaints@usdoj.gov
Mail: Citizen Complaint Center
Antitrust Division
950 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Room 3322
Washington, DC 20530
Phone: 1-888-647-3258 (toll free in the U.S. and Canada) or 202-307-2040

Please Respond to the State of Washington

2008-04-07T12:35:00.003-05:00

Today we received an email from the Washington state's attorney general's office with the following text:

In order to properly process your complaint, we will need you to fill out the attached complaint form and provide us further information. I have also attached the link to our online form from our website which contains the same form for a speedier transmittal.

https://fortress.wa.gov/atg/formhandler/ago/AntitrustComplaint.aspx

So it looks like to "officially" submit a complaint, you have to use the form on their site. So now we ask that you please use the above URL to submit your compliant (although you can certainly feel free to continue using our email form as well). This issue seems to be dying down considerably, and no action has been taken. If you care about this, you need to continue to help us make noise. Otherwise, Amazon will win...and independent authors and publishing companies will lose.

Write the Government About Amazon's Illegal Activity - We've Made it Easy!

2008-04-02T15:37:00.003-05:00

Want to make a difference in the fight to stop Amazon.com's anti-competitive activities? Amazon isn't going to pay much attention to you or me...but they will listen to antitrust lawyers of the state of Washington. We've made it easy to let Washington state's government know that you do not approve of what Amazon is doing. Just type your name and email address in the boxes below and click Submit to send an email to monopoly@atg.wa.gov. The text contained in the email is below the form. You can also add your own personalized text to the message with the text box labeled Personalized Message. The Washington state Attorney General's web site states that they recommend including an address and phone number, so you might want to at least put that information in the Personalized Message text box. If you would like to submit a more detailed complaint, please use the form at the following URL: https://fortress.wa.gov/atg/formhandler/ago/AntitrustComplaint.aspx

SORRY, THIS FORM HAS BEEN DISABLED. THE WASHINGTON STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL HAS MADE UP ITS MIND NOT TO PURSUE THIS MATTER, SO THERE IS NO POINT IN CONTINUING TO CONTACT THEM.

Name:

Email:

Personalized Message:

Type the following verification code into the box:

To whom it may concern:

I have great concern about actions currently being taken by Amazon.com. Amazon has traditionally made its platform open to independent authors using publish-on-demand (POD) services provided by numerous companies. Now, Amazon is moving to exclude any author who does not use Amazon's own POD service, Booksurge. Many, many authors have had problems with Booksurge, including not getting paid. In addition, authors who do make the transition will be forced to charge more in order to cover the costs of using Amazon's printing services in addition to the fees Amazon charges for selling products on its web site. To force all indepenent authors to use a single, inferior service, a service owned by the same company providing the marketplace, that will also result in higher prices for consumers, seems to be a good fit for the following anti-competitive activity described on your web site:

Business mergers and monopolistic practices that would result in reduced competition and harm to consumers.

Amazon controls such a large portion of the print-on-demand book market that by forcing authors to use its print-on-demand service, it is reducing the number of POD options to one. The harm to consumers comes in the form of products of poorer quality (as evidenced by the large number of complaints about the Booksurge service) and higher prices.

I respectfully ask that you take a serious look at this new practice by Amazon.com and make a fair judgement about whether or not the company is in violation of the antitrust provisions of Washington's Unfair Business Practices-Consumer Protection Act.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

If you'd like to contact the Washington state Attorney General directly, here is the contact info:

Office of the Attorney General, Antitrust Division
800 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2000
Seattle, WA 98104-3188
Telephone: 206-587-5510
Fax: 206-464-6338
monopoly@atg.wa.gov
http://www.atg.wa.gov/Antitrust/default.aspx

7 Really Good Reasons to Boycott Amazon.com

2008-04-02T10:57:00.000-05:00

There have been a lot of sort-of timid posts and articles about Amazon's initiative to force self-published authors to use its Booksurge service. This is not one of them. So here are seven really good reasons to boycott Amazon:

1. Amazon is being anti-competition and anti-free market. Look, I'm a free market kind of guy, and you could certainly argue that in the name of capitalism Amazon has the right to do whatever it wants. But the fact is, Amazon is about to do major damage to the self-publishing movement. It has put itself in the position to basically be able to put lots of authors and small publishing companies out of business. There's nothing free market about that.

2. Amazon is being un-American and anti-free speech. If Amazon is allowed to force publishers to use its service to sell books, how long will it be before Amazon begins trying to control the content of those books?

3. Ultimately, monopolies are bad for consumers. If Amazon is allowed to continue at its present pace, eventually it will be impossible to compete against. When there is only one game in town, the owner of that game gets to make all the rules.

4. Self-published books are going to be more expensive. Publishers using the Booksurge service will now have to pay Booksurge its fee AS WELL AS a very large percentage of the sales price to Amazon. To stay afloat, self-publishers are going to have to charge more.

5. Amazon has poor customer service policies, such as forcing consumers to pay shipping costs for defective merchandise returned to market sellers. Or putting resellers' accounts "under review" and not making payment on merchandise sold for weeks, even after merchandise has been shipped and approved by customers. To learn more, check out this site: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/online/amazon.html

6. Amazon doesn't need your money. The company's sales for the fourth quarter of 2007 totaled $5.7 billion. It's time to spread the wealth around a bit.

7. There are other alternatives. Amazon isn't the only place to buy books and other merchandise. I just bought $80 worth of books from barnesandnobel.com and got a great price on each one. There are also hundreds, if not thousands, of other sites where you can buy books, music and electronics.

Your life will not be made any more difficult by not using Amazon.com, so why not shop elsewhere and help us make a statement that we will not be bullied by giant corporations attempting to become monopolies?

Lightning Source Have Spoken

2008-04-02T08:27:00.000-05:00

"We are aware of the concern this is causing the publishing community."

AuthorHouse/iUniverse caved in. They signed the Amazon contract.

2008-04-01T14:19:00.000-05:00

Lulu Signed On?

2008-04-01T14:18:00.000-05:00

According to a statement posted to a Lulu forum by a Lulu employee, it looks like Lulu signed the Amazon contract.

AmazonTroopSurge.com Launches to Support Publishers Abandoned by Amazon.com

2008-04-01T08:28:00.000-05:00

AmazonTroopSurge.com (www.AmazonTroopSurge.com) is a new blog launched to provide news, commentary, and links to other sites involved in the movement to expose Amazon.com's recent anti-competitive, anti-free market initiatives.

Last week, print on demand ("POD") authors began receiving communications from Amazon.com stating that if they did not switch their publishing service to BookSurge, a POD service purchased by Amazon.com in 2005, then the buy button on their book pages would be disabled. The authors' books can still be purchased from resellers, but no new POD copies could be sold.

Self-published authors who have used the BookSurge service have had numerous negative experiences, including missing pages in books, breaches of contract, and unpaid royalties, among other issues. A search in Google reveals links to many such stories. Forcing publishers to rely on a POD company with a spotty record, rather than other companies with whom they have good working relationships, is a clear abuse of Amazon.com's power.

AmazonTroopSurge.com is just one of numerous blogs and web sites that are actively discussing this issue. There is also a petition hosted at ipetitions.com, which can be accessed from the blog. Word throughout the industry is that April 1st is the deadline for all POD authors to switch to BookSurge, or their ability to sell will be disabled. If Amazon.com is allowed to do this, it will have serious ramifications for the future of self-publishing.

AmazonTroopSurge.com (www.AmazonTroopSurge.com) invites anyone interested in a free exchange of ideas and the right of authors to publish themselves as they see fit to visit our blog and become part of the community.

For additional information, contact us via email at amazontroopsurge @ gmail.com.

Still No Word From Amazon

2008-04-01T08:11:00.000-05:00

"With no official statements from BookSurge or Lightning Source a lot being written is speculation."

http://printceoblog.com/2008/03/still-no-word-from-amazoncombooksurge-on-what-they-plan-to-do

Amazon and Anti-Trust Violation?

2008-03-31T13:37:00.000-05:00

ATS Reader Mail --

A good case can be made that Amazon is violating anti-trust laws.Waiting for federal anti-trust action would take many years--years toget the Justice Department to act, years of trials, years of fussingover what the court decision means. Notice how long it took to dealwith Microsoft's tactics, despite the fact that the corporations theywere bullying were large and powerful. That would certainly beeffective, as Microsoft's current woes illustrate. But none of us canafford to wait that long and the squabble would not be good forwriters or publishers.Action at the state level, however, could move much faster,particularly if it involves off-the-record contact and a somberwarning from those who can make trouble for Amazon. Amazon isheadquartered in Seattle about a ten minute drive from the office ofthe antitrust division of the Washington state attorney general.

Here's the contact information:

Office of the Attorney General, Antitrust Division
800 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2000
Seattle, WA 98104-3188
Telephone: 206-587-5510 Fax: 206-464-6338
http://www.atg.wa.gov/Antitrust/default.aspx

Note the remark on their web page that "The Antitrust Division onlyprocesses complaints that involve either Washington State residents orbusinesses located in Washington State." The state level is where mostactions against business misbehavior takes place, because it's quickerand cheaper at that level. Amazon is in Washington state, so itmatters not where you live, even outside the U.S. If Amazon can makethis policy stick here, they'll export it to their web stores inEurope and Asia.

If you're a publisher, encourage your authors to contact them. If you're an author, encourage other writers and friends to contact them.Be courteous and factual, explaining what it means from yourperspective. To make clear just how serious this is, you might want tocall, followed by a fax and/or letter.

You might also want to raise this issue with your state attorneygeneral's antitrust office, asking them to get in touch with theircolleagues in Seattle. Lawyers listen to lawyers.

Remember the reason Amazon thinks it can get away with this. A coupleof years ago, they got away with dropping Adobe PDF ebooks,substituting an ebook format they'd acquired by buying out a third-rate company much like BookSurge. Amazon must not merely loose thisbattle, it must get so badly burned it doesn't try this again.

BookSurge Monopoly

2008-03-31T09:21:00.001-05:00

There is now a petition available - PLEASE take a moment to sign!

Amazon BookSurge Monopoly Petition

Breaking News Amazon Deadline for Digital Publishers?

2008-03-31T09:04:00.001-05:00

The WONDERFUL folks at Writers Weekly have the posted the following on Amazon and BookSurge.

BREAKING DEVELOPMENT:

Monday, March 31, 2008: We have heard from more than one source that tomorrow, April 1, 2008, is the deadline that some POD publishers to sign the contract with Amazon/Booksurge, or risk having their buy buttons removed from Amazon.com

ATTN: AuthorHouse/iUniverse, Xlibris and Lulu - DO NOT CAVE IN!!! Join the proud and strong POD publishers who have refused to be bullied into paying Amazon to print their books! If you submit to this horrible action, you will hurt yourselves and your authors, and do a grave injustice to the entire industry!

Please email aditional information to amazontroopsurge@gmail.com

BookSurge POD

2008-03-29T22:13:00.000-05:00

Use BookSurge or Die?

BookSurge? The Choice Isn't Yours..

2008-03-29T22:04:00.000-05:00

Deal Breaker? Amazon - BookSurge - POD - No Choice?

Amazon? Greedy?

2008-03-29T22:00:00.000-05:00

Is Amazon Getting Greedy?

"Reports have been trickling in from the POD underground that Amazon/BookSurge representatives have been approaching some Lightning Source customers, first by email introduction and then by phone (nobody at BookSurge seems to want to put anything in writing). When Lightning Source customers speak with the BookSurge representative, the reports say, they are basically told they can either have BookSurge start printing their books or the "buy" button on their Amazon.com book pages will be "turned off."

Amazon Tactics Change

2008-03-29T21:51:00.000-05:00

Amazon Changes POD Tactics, Removes Velvet Gloves

March 28th, 2008
by Kassia Krozser

It is not surprising that Amazon has told publishers that it’s their POD (print-on-demand) service or no sales through Amazon.

Amazon POD Force

2008-03-29T21:48:00.000-05:00

Amazon to Force POD Publishers to Use BookSurge

by Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 3/28/2008 8:34:00 AM

BookSurge, Amazon’s print-on-demand subsidiary, is making an offer that most publishers would like to refuse, but don’t feel they can.

Computer World Keeping the Amazon POD Buzz Alive

2008-03-29T21:45:00.000-05:00

Amazon changes rules for print-on-demand publishers

Online retailer requires POD publishers to use its BookSurge printing service

Would Amazon Blackmail Publishers?

2008-03-29T00:22:00.000-05:00

Interesting discussion on Amazon's BookSurge.

"Most POD (Print On Demand) publishers do not own printing equipment. Instead, they pay a printer to print a certain number of copies. Amazon, happens to own one such printer. It's called BookSurge."

Amazon and Anti-Trust Violations?

2008-03-29T00:12:00.000-05:00

Is the POD blogging community turning up the heat on Jeff Bezos and Amazon? I'm starting to hear a lot of roar about anti-trust violations.

A great post by David Rothman -

Jeff Bezos and friends have already bullied e-publishers into dumping non-Amazon formats for the books sold within its main store.

Now we have this month’s POD power grab, the talk of the blogosphere and beyond. “Amazon is a latter day mill owner,” writes consultant Michael Cairnes, former president of R.R. Bowker, in his PersonaNonData blog. I agree. The new deal from Amazon is that you’d better use Jeff’s BookSurge if you want his big store to carry your print-on-demand books.

Is there any other nastiness that Amazon can pull off on the E front? Plenty, and ideally the International Digital Publishing Forum, the main e-book trade group, will stop being polite and speak out to get Amazon to respect mainstream e-book standards. I’d suggest the same outspokenness from the Association of American Publishers, with which IDPF often cooperates on such matters as industry statistics.

Bullying ahead for IDPF’s big constituencies?

The more Kindles are sold, the more Amazon can bully e-publishers and exert new pricing pressures. Not to mention gouging publishers in the future on promo expenses. That wouldn’t be the best of news for the publishers in the IDPF.

Amazon’s growing influence may also set back the IDPF’s .epub standard for e-books, and that could hurt tech companies, including Adobe—which has been a big .epub supporter.
Nor will Amazon’s pushiness in E help public libraries, which right now can’t even lend Kindle books.

Bringing .epub rendering to the Kindle

Simply put, Amazon as it exists today is a threat to all the main constituencies of the IPDF, and it’s high time that the group mount a major campaign to commit Amazon to making its Kindle able to render .epub natively—without translation.

Just remember the successful Toys “R: Us lawsuit, a strong reminder that Jeff and friends don’t always play fair. Amazon’s adoption of .epub for the Kindle would be one way to show good faith, especially if Jeff Bezos were open to the future use of nonproprietary DRM—or if that can’t be happen, no DRM, which I consider the better solution anyway. While other companies, too, need to do .epub, Amazon is the gorilla and should stop thumping its chest and set a better example. Mobipocket’s ability to import .epub is no substitute for native .epub rendering on the Kindle, which could happen in a very short time via firmware updates.

Dirty tricksters in the format area, not just disgraceful treatment of Toys R Us

No, I’m not absolutely dismissing Microsoft or Google or Ingram as Amazon competitors, but Amazon stands out not only because of its size, but also as a dirty trickster. Having led people to believe it would be supportive of the IDPF’s standards, it even went out of the way to introduce a new form of eBabel to try to make captive customers of the Kindle owners.

The IDPF, then, should pursue these issues in public, and meanwhile members such as Overdrive, which already deals with Amazon through a reliance on the Mobipocket format, should resist the temptation to suck up to Jeff Bezos and partner with Amazon in new ways that harm causes like .epub. Repeat after me, guys. Toys “R” Us. Toys “R” Us. The more willing companies are to tolerate the Kindle’s flouting of industry standards, the more vulnerable publishers will be to bullying of the kind that the toy company suffered.

Need to monitor Amazon for possible antitrust violation

Meanwhile the IDPF should protect its constituencies by systematically monitoring Amazon for noncompetitive practices in the E area.
No, I’ll not accuse the IDPF of violations of anti-trust laws—that is for lawyers and judge to determine. But Amazon’s handling of the POD issue suggests that Amazon is well worthy of close watching.

Reaching out to Google—and vice versa

Finally, as I’ve already suggested, Google and the IDPF should both reach out to each other. Google. one of the few companies with the clout to balance out Amazon, could be an .epub powerhouse—to the benefit of both its shareholders and the IDPF. Even Adobe would benefit since Google’s involvement would be a reminder to the world that .epub is a true nonproprietary standard, regardless of Adobe’s extensive participation in its creation. What’s more, being networked oriented, Google could help the IDPF introduce new wrinkles to .epub such as reliable interbook linking and a shared annotations standard. I’ll soon be posting an item by Tamas Simon, a TeleBlog regular, who complains of .epub’s shortcoming and logically points to Sophie strengthens in the network area. I hope the IDPF will listen while at the same time taking care that it does not become an arm of Google, which, by the way, is apparently not even an IDPF member at this point.

Detail: If POD is any indication, Amazon may be less attentive on issues such as QC than it would with a more competitive situation. Read publisher Mary Z. Wolf’s complaints of past quality problems with Amazon’s POD arm. An indication of Amazon’s similar attitude in the e-book area? In fact, as Jon Noring can document, Amazon’s Mobipocket and Kindle formats are hardly optimal for the highest quality STM publishing.

And a repeat of the usual disclosure: I own a small slice of stock in Google for retirement investment purposes, although this has not prevented me from bashing Google on such issues as corporate watermarks on every page of public domain books.

Mouths Are Moving and BookSurge Troops Are Marching..

2008-03-28T13:48:00.000-05:00

Folks, the word is starting to spread about Amazon and their stronghold on the POD community. Here are recent comments from the LuLu Forums.

"It is unclear at this point whether Amazon is directing its strong arm at all pod publishers, which would include thousands of small presses, or if they are targeting the major self-publishing venues in particular. Still no comments from Lulu I see.

Anyway, yes, this will have an unpleasant impact on the authors specifically -- authors who are struggling as it is:

Formatting files twice if they want mainstream distribution and distribution with Amazon.
Pod venues that have wizards for formatting assistance would need to make substantial upgrades. Not to mention conversion of all their existing files -- time, manpower = $$$$$
The cost increases to support, in essence what would be double distribution, would have to pass onto the author in some fashion or another.

Or Amazon could realize the damage that this will do in the long run and rethink the entire greedy and ludicrous idea, which is what this seems to be about anyway, greed and monopoly.

I would very much like to here Lulu management's take on this.

But, in any event, I am certain that the blogs will be lit up about this for some time to come, hopefully we will know soon enough how bad the fallout is going to be for us authors."

-------------------------------------

It has been confirmed in a Wall Street Journal article that Amazon.com is doing this.

They have the following regarding Lulu:

Publishers will "have to abide by Amazon's pricing," said Bob Young, CEO of Lulu Inc, a print-on-demand publisher based in Raleigh, N.C. Mr. Young said he believed BookSurge's prices to be "slightly higher" than other printers. An Amazon spokesman declined to comment on that issue.

"A significant number of our authors do request for their books to be available on Amazon," said Mr. Young, who hasn't yet decided whether he will agree to Amazon's terms.

Hopefully we will hear something official from Lulu regarding this. What would work out the best would be for them to find a way to offer authors the option of LSI distribution which will get you into Ingram or BookSurge which will get you into Amazon.com and Baker and Taylor as well as a package where you can get into both (admittedly this will probably cost more money as Lulu will have to pay for set up in two different systems - but hopefully it won't be too much more).

More chatter on this -

BookSurge Troop Surge..

2008-03-27T15:43:00.000-05:00

This was published today by our friends at Writers Weekly -

March 27, 2008

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

Some Print on Demand (POD) publishers are privately screaming "Monopoly!" while others are seething with rage over startling phone conversations they're having with Amazon/BookSurge representatives. Why isn't anybody talking about it openly? Because they're afraid - very, very afraid.

Amazon.com purchased BookSurge, a small POD publisher/printer back in 2005. Amazon also lists and sells titles for the largest POD printer, Lightning Source, which is owned by Ingram (the large book distributor). According to their website, Lightning Source serves more than 4,300 publisher clients and has more than 400,000 titles in their system.

You'd think Amazon's purchase of BookSurge might have made things a bit uncomfortable between the two companies. However, they continued to work together, getting books on demand to Amazon.com's loyal customers. Things appeared to be cruising along just fine, but perhaps not anymore.

Reports have been trickling in from the POD underground that Amazon/BookSurge representatives have been approaching some Lightning Source customers, first by email introduction and then by phone (nobody at BookSurge seems to want to put anything in writing). When Lightning Source customers speak with the BookSurge representative, the reports say, they are basically told they can either have BookSurge start printing their books or the "buy" button on their Amazon.com book pages will be "turned off."

The book information would remain on Amazon, and people could still order the book from resellers (companies that list new and used books in Amazon's Marketplace section), but customers would not be able to buy the book from Amazon directly, nor qualify for the coveted "free shipping" that Amazon offers.

Don't believe it? I didn't believe it either. I am Angela Hoy, the co-owner of POD services company BookLocker.com and publisher of WritersWeekly.com. I am well-known in the industry for my activism performed through WritersWeekly Whispers and Warnings. Over the years, we have helped writers recover tens of thousands of dollars in fees from deadbeat editors and publishers, helped them negotiate better contract terms, assisted writers in obtaining payment after their copyrights have been violated, and even assisted police in collecting evidence to prosecute criminals who have preyed on writers. I am also the author of 11 non-fiction books.

Still doubting the reports could really be true, I emailed an Amazon/BookSurge representative who's been trying to get us to talk to him by phone. John Clifford of Amazon/BookSurge called me at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 26, 2008.

My first comment was to tell him we heard a rumor that POD publishers who didn't use BookSurge would have the "buy" button on their Amazon.com book pages turned off.

He said, "What? Who told you that? That's not true!"

I told him I'd heard some rumors from the "POD underground."

He said he'd previously tried to talk to my husband, Richard Hoy, the President and CEO of BookLocker. I explained that we had a very bad experience with BookSurge in the past and that he was, naturally, hesitant to do business with them again. (Google the words BookSurge complaint without any quotes to see other customers' comments about them as well.)

He claimed the people who worked for BookSurge back then are probably all gone (but that didn't explain the more recent complaints). He made his sales pitch, talking about percentages and such, and said many POD publishers are resisting their attempts to convert to BookSurge. Mr. Clifford also said BookSurge's aim was to help Amazon customers get their books faster.

What he didn't say was that Lightning Source not only packages books for Amazon customers in boxes that feature an Amazon.com return address label, but also drop-ships those orders directly to Amazon customers at Amazon's request. Hmm...

He stated several times that books not converted to BookSurge's system would be "taken down." Since that wasn't exactly what we'd heard, I asked about books that perhaps weren't selling well, that aren't good candidates for converting to BookSurge (books that would remain for sale through Lightning Source, but would never be converted to BookSurge due to the time/expense involved).

Contrary to what he stated at the very beginning of our conversation, Mr. Clifford finally admitted that books not converted to BookSurge would have the "buy" button turned off on Amazon.com, just as we'd heard from several other POD publishers who had similar conversations with Amazon/BookSurge representatives.

Mr. Clifford said authors of those books could participate in the Amazon.com Advantage Program, meaning they would have to pay Amazon $29.95 per year PLUS 55% of the list price of their book, as well as buy and then send those books to Amazon directly for them to warehouse and ship to customers.

I explained to him that we had more than 1500 books in print and that it would take quite awhile to convert all of those over to BookSurge's system. He said as long as the relationship was "moving forward" that the "buy" button would remain active on our authors' books that had not yet been switched.

Another comment Mr. Clifford made was that their eventual desire is to have no books from other POD publishers available on Amazon.com.

WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?!

I have to wonder if Jeff Bezos is even aware of what is going on within his organization. Here is Amazon's Vision Statement, taken directly from their website:

"Our vision is to be earth's most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online."

What it doesn't say is, "Our customers can buy any print on demand book they might want online...as long as we also get paid to print it."

Nobody likes being backed into a corner, and saying "do this or else" naturally breeds angry rejection and hostility. If we did agree to sign the contract, pulling and transferring files to Amazon/Booksurge would take an enormous amount of time and money. From the POD publishers we've talked to, and from our own experience at BookLocker, we could all be looking at a dire and immediate threat of revenue cuts if we refuse to sign the Amazon/BookSurge contract. Most importantly, there could be an outcry from and potential financial hardship on the authors, who are completely innocent in all of this.

In BookLocker's opinion, and the opinion of all the fellow Lightning Source customers we talked to, the Amazon/BookSurge proposal does not appear attractive at all (yes, we obtained the contract and the file submission specifications). Amazon/BookSurge would make money two ways on Amazon.com sales - first the fee for printing the books, and then 48% of the list price of each sale through Amazon.com. Lightning Source allows its customers to set their own discount rate for Amazon and other retail sales, and does not force POD publishers or authors to pay "48%."

Furthermore, it could take the larger POD publishers months to submit their book files to Amazon/BookSurge, at a considerable cost and number of man-hours. This makes the deal even less attractive. Finally, while the initial list of books submitted by POD publishers could be submitted to Amazon/BookSurge for free, the contract states future books would cost $50 each to process. The cost for individual authors to publish through BookSurge is considerably more, with an average publishing package cost of more than $1,000.

Since Amazon/BookSurge does not offer Ingram distribution (Ingram distribution is considered imperative in the industry for bookstore sales), any company that accepts the Amazon/BookSurge deal, who desires to keep offering Ingram distribution, may need to maintain two copies of the book files. Since the Amazon/BookSurge current specs don't match the Lightning Source specs, future book files, both interior and cover, may need to be formatted separately. So, they would have to pay double the setup fees and might have to do double the formatting work as well...or pay designers to do double the formatting work.

Likewise, self-published authors who believe they must have Ingram Distribution AND an active "buy" button on Amazon to be successful may need to pay double the setup fees (to a POD publisher AND Amazon/BookSurge), and also may need to create two separate sets of formatted files.

In the event where two versions of a book might be available, Mr. Clifford said the Amazon/BookSurge version of the POD book would trump (override) the version offered by Lightning Source on Amazon.com.

AMAZON WAS BUILT BY BOOKS....That Were Written By AUTHORS

When authors get wind of this, we believe they are going to be livid. Authors are also readers. They love books. We suspect they buy from Amazon in droves. I, myself, have been an Amazon junkie for years, not only heavily promoting Amazon.com in my non-fiction books for writers and on our very popular website, WritersWeekly.com, but also listing my own books for sale there, ordering other authors' books, DVDs and numerous other products as well. I pulled up our Amazon customer account and looked at our receipts. We've spent $1508.81 at Amazon.com in the past six months. Multiply that by the number of authors this will affect...authors who, like me, have a multitude of websites to choose from when doing their shopping online.

In addition, authors participate in the Amazon experience, via blogs on the website, by posting reviews about other books, and more, activities that help to continually make Amazon bigger and better. Authors are a loyal bunch! For years, they've been faithfully sending their readers to Amazon.com, again and again, even when they earned lower royalties for doing so.

It's not inconceivable to think that this group, if shoved against a wall like this, won't simply pledge their allegiance elsewhere. Let's face it, BarnesandNoble.com offers free shipping on orders of $25 or more, too. Authors can change the links to their book pages on their websites, in their ezines and press releases, and even in their email signatures to their book's page at BarnesandNoble.com. Authors can spend their own money elsewhere as well (as I plan to do). I imagine BarnesandNoble.com will be very happy to process the extra book sales that could result from all of this.

Amazon.com might also upset countless companies that have Amazon Affiliate bookstores on their websites (many authors have these, too!). If Amazon/BookSurge were to follow through with turning off the "buy" buttons for thousands of POD titles, customers following those links from other websites could be confused and annoyed. After clicking on a link, they would find no easy way to purchase the book directly from Amazon, and no way to obtain free shipping on that book, even if they're willing to buy more products to meet the $25 free shipping threshold. One would think Amazon must know the free shipping strategy works to upsell customers on additional products. That's why they offer it. Without it, these customers could have no incentive to buy more products because the product they surfed in to buy does not qualify.

One has to wonder if traditional publishers will be next? Will Amazon eventually require all books sold through Amazon.com to be printed by BookSurge?

Let's all hope and pray this situation is one huge, misguided idea from some mid-level management person and not corporate policy being dictated from the office of Jeff Bezos.

What can you do? Let Amazon know what you think about this "offer" by Amazon/BookSurge.

The names of their Officers and Directors are here: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-govManage

Amazon's Investor Relations Team email address appears near the bottom of this page: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-faq

Their address is:

Amazon.com, Inc.
P.O. Box 81226
Seattle, WA 98108-1226

Next, tell your author friends, your book buyers, your website visitors, your ezine subscribers and everyone else about this situation. Amazon.com was built on books. Books are written by authors. Unfortunately, it appears authors may ultimately be the innocent pawns in this power struggle.

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This is very interesting.. More to come!

ATS