Amazon puts the Squeeze on POD Publishers

Angela Hoy of Booklocker has decided to play David to retail bookselling Giant Amazon.com.

In the biblical account, a young shepherd boy went toe to toe with a warrior giant… and won by flinging a stone with his simple, yet effective sling shot. Let’s hope Mark Riffey is right. In his post he says, “David and Goliath plays out every day, if David is clever enough.”

Well, Angela Hoy is pretty clever… and she wasn’t afraid to load a smooth stone into her slingshot and take aim… by posting the article Amazon.com Telling POD Publishers – Let BookSurge Print Your Books, or Else… on her Writer’s Weekly Web Site and then including a link to the page in her weekly email newsletter.

The firestorm has been smoldering for a while now and it appears Angela is ready to go to battle. She begins the article with the following:

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.

If you have children, you may have been exposed to the Pixar flick “A Bug’s Life”. In the tale, a colony of ants are held captive by their fear of a gang of big, powerful grasshoppers. The ants spend their summer gathering food for the grasshoppers and feel powerless to change. However, one little ant does stand up to them… and in the end, the ants win their battle against an oppressor they thought they couldn’t defeat. Here’s a quote from the movie listed on IMDB:

[Hopper has just drowned three dissenting grasshoppers in a pile of seeds]
Hopper: You let one ant stand up to us, then they all might stand up! Those puny little ants outnumber us a hundred to one and if they ever figure that out there goes our way of life! It’s not about food, it’s about keeping those ants in line. That’s why we’re going back! Does anybody else wanna stay?
[grasshoppers shocked - all the grasshoppers "rev up" their wings]

THAT my friends is why Angela isn’t afraid! This is why she’s taking the message to her popular email newsletter audience. If you’re an author with a POD book or two, you shouldn’t be afraid either. Angela goes on to say in a post script:

There is no reason to panic. Not having an active “buy” button on Amazon.com is not the end of the world.

After selling print books for eight years, it has been our experience that “chance purchases” of self-published books on Amazon.com are not the norm. Authors slap books up on Amazon.com all the time, don’t market them, and sell zero copies. For most self-published authors, sales are almost always author-driven, meaning the bookstore link you use in YOUR marketing efforts is what’s driving your sales, not just simply having your book listed on Amazon.com.

We know from experience that the customer is going to buy your book from where you tell them to buy your book. If you want your customers to qualify for free shipping, you can send them to BarnesandNoble.com, and tell them their order might qualify for free shipping (many people don’t know BarnesandNoble.com offers free shipping!).

THESE ARE THE ACTION ITEMS WE ARE GIVING TO OUR BOOKLOCKER.COM AUTHORS:

1. Remove all Amazon.com links from your marketing materials – website, ezine, blog, email signature, press releases, articles — everything.

2. Change those links to your book’s page on BarnesandNoble.com. To obtain that link, search for your book’s title at http://www.bn.com. All Booklocker.com print books are on their website.

3. If/when the booklocker.com “buy” buttons are turned off on Amazon.com and you feel your button absolutely must be on, please contact Angela to discuss how we can help you participate in their Advantage program.

4. Don’t forget to contact Amazon to tell them what you’re doing in response to their horrible actions!

It’s not enough to just quit buying from Amazon… write and let them know WHY you’re not buying. Let them know you don’t approve of their “bullying” tactics.

What I see… once I go to the time and effort to “switch” my links from Amazon to Barnes and Noble… I probably won’t take the time to switch them back. It’s obvious that the long term consequences of this action have yet to dawn on the executives at Amazon.

The firestorm is building… the ants are responding…..here is a list of other bloggers  taking up the fight. If you want to add your post to the “cause”… then post a comment to this post and I’ll add your post to the cause. If you’ve got your own blog, copy this list and post it on your blog as well. The more links to these posts… the more “traction” this cause will get.

3-31-08 UPDATE: Over the weekend, this story has really gained traction. Here’s a new list of blogs reporting on this story:

1. A New Amazon Mandate? Say it ain’t so, Jeff by Morris Rosenthal
2. Amazon Forcing POD Publishers to Make a Hard Decision, Virtualbookworm
3. Amazon Tightens Grip on Printing by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, Wall Street Journal
4. Amazon Tightens Noose on Print-On-Demand Publishers; Insists They Use Company’s Own Service by Rafat Ali, The Washington Post
5. Amazon to Force POD Publishers to Use BookSurge by Jim Milliot, Publishers Weekly
6. Amazon changes rules for print-on-demand publishers by Linda Rosencrance, Computerworld
7. Amazon pulls a Microsoft by Robert L. Mitchell, Computerworld Blogs
8. Amazon Puts the Squeeze on Publishers by Betsy Schiffman, Wired Blog Network
9. Amazon Gets Demanding with Print-on-Demand Publishers, O’Reilly Radar
10. Amazon.com puts the screws to small publishers, Valleywag
11. Amazon’s POD monopoly, booktwo.org
12. Is Amazon Getting Greedy? , open…
13. Oh, REAL nice, Amazon.com, Beatlegirl’s Blog
14. Market Report — In Play,MSN Money
15. Amazon Muscles Print-On-Demand Services by Duncan Riley, TechCrunch
16. Amazon & BookSurge, words count
17. Urgent News for Authors, The Holistic Writer
18. Monopoly – It’s Not A Game by Jean-Marie Hershey, Print CEO Blog
19. Of oil lamps, Print on Demand, and e-book machines: Amazon’s Bezos as a would-be Rockefeller by David Rothman
20. Deal Breaker? Amazon – BookSurge – POD – No Choice?, Workboxers
21. Amazon.com’s POD land grab, BookFinder.com Journal
22. Amazon Changes POD Tactics, Removes Velvet Gloves by Kassia Krozser, Booksquare
23. Amazon The Monopoly, PersonaNonData
24. Amazon Muscles Print-On-Demand Services, web2bite.com
25. Use BookSurge or Die? by Victoria Strauss, Writer Beware
26. Amazon/Golliath takes on the little guys by Helen Gallagher, Release Your Writing
27. Amazon Bullies POD to Use Booksurge — or Else., Shadowhelm’s Journal
28. Amazon Says It Will Only Sell Print-On-Demand Books That It Gets To Print, Techdirt
29. Amazon deletes competition, LibraryThing
30. What’s Amazon Up To Now? by Tawny Taylor
31. Amazon Shaking the POD World Big Time, Juno Books
32. A hearty “F$%k you!” to Amazon by Elf M. Sternberg
33. A Call to Bloggers: Stop Supporting Amazon, Inhabitatio Dei
34. Amazon to Force POD Publishers to Use BookSurge, Media Mensch
35. Self Publishers and Amazon, Writerly Stuff
36. Amazon Tightens Grip On Printing, booktrade.info
37. Amazon to Block Other POD Services from Using Amazon Marketplace, Dear Author
38. Amazon trying to screw small presses?, lupabitch
39. Dear Amazon, What are You Thinking? by Monica Valentinelli, Words on the Water
40. Will Amazon Hurt Small Pagan Publishers?, The Wild Hund
41. Amazon and us by Gill Polack
42. Will Amazon Become the Google of the POD Industry? by Deborah Woehr
43. Down with The Zon! by Celia Kyle
44. Beyond the POD grab: The IDPF should fight Amazon’s new eBabel, look for anti-trust violations, and reach out to Google by David Rothman, TeleRead
45. Amazon blocking books of competitive publishers?, electronista
46. We are not amused–veinglory, PODPeople
47. Bully on the block?, The Pearlsong Letter
48. The monopolists: You need to worry about Amazon too by Eion Purcell
49. Amazon owns the marketplace: return of the distributor, Thudfactor
50. Is Amazon trying to monopolize the empowering Publish-On-Demand market?, Chris Boese’s Weblog
51. 500 pound gorilla, Idle musings of a bookseller
52. Bye-Bye “Buy Buttons” for POD Authors?, The Backroom at Dehanna.com
53. Amazon Making a Big Mistake by Cheryl Pickett
54. Amazon to force POD publishers to use Booksurge, Murder by 4
55. Amazon.com’s dirty little deed, pds_lit
56. Amazon’s Stupid Anti-Competitive Move, Principled Profit
57. Amazon Bullying POD Writers and Publishers Unfairly, A-ha
58. A Call to Bloggers: Stop Supporting Amazon, Resurrection Life
59. Amazon.com Is On Drugs, Thought Patterns
60. Amazon launches their weapon of mass destruction, steps on the long tail of independent authors by Mark Riffey
61. Amazon puts the Squeeze on POD Publishers by Easy Author Web Sites
62. An Important Lesson from Amazon on How NOT to Treat Your Customers by Virtual Impax
63. Backlash Over Amazon Monopoly Tactics by Deborah Woehr
64. Amazon plus BookSurge WTF?, by AuthorNation.com
65. Just Remember Amazon.com that karma is a beautiful thing, by Jupiter Gardens
66. Amazon Trying to Screw Small Press by Lupabitch
67. Amazonian bullying, Satima’s Blogspot
68. Amazon May be on Receiving End of Internet Justice, Small Business Trends
69. Amazon Situation Continues and Lesson #1, The Publishing Answers Blog
70. Amazon Chaos by Marshall S. Thomas
71. That Amazon decision, PETRONA
72. POD Publishers Told to Sell Directly Through Amazon, They Have to Use Booksurge, PublishersLunch
73. Maybe Amazon’s problem is obvious?, The Snoozeletter
74. No longer an Amazon customer, The Books of My Numberless Dreams
75. Are They Nuts? by Heather S. Ingemar
76. Amazon not playing fair, Synthstuff
77. Amazon attempting to squeeze POD industry, Terry Heaton’s PoMo Blog
78. Amazon.com Takes On Digital Book Printers, Graphic Arts Online
79. Boycott Amazon!, PlainTalk
80. Amazon.com Hates Small Press? by JM, Fiction Scribe
81. Telling the 900-pound Gorilla Where not to Sit, Quaker Pagan Reflections
82. Dear Amazon, What are You Thinking by Words on the Water
83. Amazon punishes Bloomsbury on terms Publishing News
84. POD Publishers Outraged by Amazon’s New Restrictions by Law X
85. Amazon to Force POD Publisher to Use BookSurge by Publisher’s Weekly
86. Do Not Panic…yet by DIY Publishing
87. Calls to boycott Amazon over greedy, bully-boy tactics on POD by the Red Ferret Journal
88. Amazon to force POD authors to use BookSurge by WWG Blog
89. POD Publishers Outraged by Amazon’s New Restrictions by Law Librarian Blog
90. POD Publishing by Tim Wordstall
91. Amazon coercing publishers to use Book Surge? by right reading
92. Amazon.com’s New POD Policy by Forensics and Faith
93. Is Amazon Seeking to Dominate Small Presses? by Wandering Author
94. Amazon puts squeeze on book self-publishers by Social Media
95. Amazon/BookSurge Issue by Vixen Writer
96. Amazon.com Telling POD Publishers… by Pete Ashton
97. The Eight Hundred Pound Gorilla by Daily Brief
98. Amazon May be on Receiving End of Internet Justice by Small Business Trends
99. BookSurge: The Good, The Bad, and The Downright Ugly by the Writer’s Buzz
100. POD hardball … by Prester Frank
101. Continuing to Update the Amazon/BookSurge Story by Julie’s Web Journal
102. Amazon Flexes Its Market Muscle by Dear Author
103. Amazon.com Telling POD Publishers – Let BookSurge Print Your Books, or Else… by Red Wolf
104. Amazon as Standard Oil: Jeff D. Rockefeller’s telephone crew in action against POD competitors by Teleread
105. Amazon not playing fair by Synthstuff
106. Amazon attempting to squeeze POD industry by Terry Heaton’s PoMo Blog
107. More on Amazon and POD publishing in More Words Deeper Hole
108. Amazon Deals Blow to POD Companies by A Writer’s Life

Be Sociable, Share!

•