Comments on: Amazon Muscles Print-On-Demand Services

By: Flexoril » Amazon Muscles Print-On-Demand Services

Flexoril » Amazon Muscles Print-On-Demand Services — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:27:17 +0000

[…] Blurb..Amazon’s Print On Demandread more | digg […]

By: www.ubraniaroxy.pl » Blog Archive » Build A Book On Facebook With Blurb

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:44:06 +0000

[…] asked about Amazon’s recent foray into on-demand print services, CEO Eileen Gittins expressed a lack of concern that it would cut […]

By: Build A Book On Facebook With Blurb

Build A Book On Facebook With Blurb — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:37:24 +0000

[…] asked about Amazon’s recent foray into on-demand print services, CEO Eileen Gittins expressed a lack of concern that it would cut […]

By: Fiction Scribe » Blog Archive » Give Amazon.com the Bird

Fiction Scribe » Blog Archive » Give Amazon.com the Bird — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:59:51 +0000

[…] Amazon Muscles Print-On-Demand Services by Duncan Riley, TechCrunch […]

By: Aaron Shepard

Aaron Shepard — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:45:39 +0000

You might be interested in the post on this issue on my Publishing Blog, “Amazon Declares War on Lightning Source.”

http://www.aaronshep.com/publishing/blog.html

Aaron Shepard
Author, Aiming at Amazon
Webmaster, Sales Rank Express

By: Author

Author — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:50:29 +0000

A good case can be made that what Amazon is attempting to do violates anti-trust laws. Waiting for federal anti-trust action would take many years–years to get the Justice Department to act, years of trials, years of fussing over what the court decision means. Notice how long it took to deal with Microsoft’s tactics, despite the fact that the corporations they were bullying were large and powerful. None of us can afford that long a wait.

Action at the state level, however, could move much faster, particularly if it involves off-the-record contact and a somber warning from those who can make trouble for Amazon. Amazon is headquartered in Seattle about a ten minute drive from the office of the Antitrust division of the Washington state attorney general, also in Seattle. Here’s the contact information:

Office of the Attorney General

Antitrust Division

800 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2000

Seattle, WA 98104-3188

http://www.atg.wa.gov/Antitrust/default.aspx

Telephone: 206-587-5510

Fax: 206-464-6338

Note the remark on that web page that “The Antitrust Division only processes complaints that involve either Washington State residents or businesses located in Washington State.” Amazon is in Washington state, so it matters not where you are. You might also want to raise the issue with your state attorney general’s antitrust office, asking them to get in touch with their colleagues in Seattle. If you’re a publisher, encourage your authors to write. If you’re an author, encourage other writers to contact them.

By: Cyndy Aleo-Carreira

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 02:20:56 +0000

Why is this even a story? They didn’t say you had to use them. They said if you want to be able to take advantage of Amazon’s shipping discount you had to use them. No one is banning the other POD service-printed books from the site, but it’s apparently a slow weekend, so everyone has to whine about big, bad Amazon. They don’t make money on free shipping. They exist to make money. If they aren’t making a profit SOMEWHERE on an order, who is it helping?

By: Publishing Update « Moultrie Creek Online Historical Society

Publishing Update « Moultrie Creek Online Historical Society — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:55:24 +0000

[…] Posted March 30, 2008 TechCrunch reports Amazon announced this week that they will only sell print-on-demand books from their […]

By: Amazon’s Blatant Disrespect of Their Best Customers

Amazon’s Blatant Disrespect of Their Best Customers — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 11:54:32 +0000

[…] Amazon Muscles Print-On-Demand Services by Duncan Riley, TechCrunch […]

By: Marti

Marti — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 03:33:57 +0000

Jon, this is NOT fantastic news. An author who publishes through Lulu can do their own editing and formatting and produce a very professional looking book. Then (until now) they could purchase their own ISBN for less than $100 and get the book listed on Amazon. If that same author is forced to go through BookSurge, their minimum package is $499, and the author doesn’t retain the same sort of rights and freedoms with their own work.

By: Amazon launches their weapon of mass destruction, steps on the long tail of independent authors | Business is Personal

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:04:55 +0000

[…] the Wall Street Journal, TechDirt, Washington Post, TechCrunch, Computerworld and Publisher’s Weekly. And so […]

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 09:20:44 +0000

Fantastic news with fantastic timing… I was researching this just a few hours ago! This is great because Amazon is THE book seller, having them print and ship your books all in one shot will save a small fortune to small book publishers.

Jon

By: Julie

Julie — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:40:37 +0000

One reason that this will raise prices is due to the fact that small publishers who rely on POD technology may have to use two services in order to get full distribution. Small publishers who used LightningSource (or a service that uses LSI) to print books will be forced to reformat their books for BookSurge. This costs money. Yes, it most likely will drive up the cost of POD books.

By: Angela

Angela — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:08:37 +0000

This is bad news for people using Lulu and the other POD services.

I don’t know whether this is a quality issue - presumably with BookSurge Amazon could require further editing with books it feels don’t meet their quality guidelines - whereas with other POD books, they have no control over the books.

It will be interesting to see how this affects the POD industry.

By: ventureblogalist

ventureblogalist — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:57:47 +0000

this analysis is wrong. POD for vanity publishers is just one part of the market.

By: Clive

Clive — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:53:14 +0000

This is appalling news. I discovered a few weeks ago that the “Buy Button” had been turned off at Amazon UK for my recent SF-satire, REBODY. I got nowhere trying to follow this up, but after reading the piece by Writers Weekly, now all becomes clear.
Booksurge’s prices for printing are way higher than the major provider, Lightning Source. Booksurge’s contract terms are horrible too. Basically if you go with Booksurge as a POD company you’re going third-rate-expensive.
Amazon’s action is disgraceful; I will be immediately contacting relevant government trade bodies to complain and I urge you to do the same.
Also I believe we should start to BOYCOTT AMAZON - buy books from their market resellers instead or better, from another online seller such as B&N. Make them feel the pain!

By: Amanda

Amanda — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:23:12 +0000

What about CreateSpace? From what I understand, BookSurge is more of an involved expenditure. You’re hiring them to design the book and everything else. If you’re an author and a designer (or have a designer), CreateSpace would be much, much better. I hope they stick with CreateSpace too cause I’d never pay BookSurge to do all of the fun stuff for me.

By: Eric Locken

Eric Locken — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:35:55 +0000

This could have serious implications for Amazon, this will clearly upsets many authors and could possibly anger some bloggers.

Authors are not only Amazon’s lifeblood, they probably drive considerable traffic and sales to Amazon, as a considerable number are affiliates and indeed customers themselves.

By: NBB

NBB — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:15:46 +0000

This is seriously unfortunate. Last year my team decided to go DIY on a book project. We used a great on demand service to publish and used Amazon to market the book and control the distribution. The POD world is indeed expanding and becoming more interesting, and Amazon’s step to stifle competition with BookSurge is a definite setback for independent publishers. I wasn’t impressed with BookSurge when I checked it out, it seemed unwieldy and expensive compared to other options out there - my guess is that more folks will simply cut Amazon out as their distribution method and turn to alternatives like Barnes and Noble instead.

By: snyggast

snyggast — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:12:35 +0000

Where’s the news on Amazon’s Elastic IP Address?

http://developer.amazonwebserv.....nalID=1346

By: Aaron Shepard

Aaron Shepard — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:54:27 +0000

BookSurge printing prices are not higher than other POD publishers. What is higher is the discount that publishers are required to give Amazon — 48%. By contrast, Lightning Source publishers can give as little as 20% to wholesalers, giving Amazon even less than that.

Aaron Shepard
Author, Aiming at Amazon: The NEW Business of Self Publishing

By: Eric Locken

Eric Locken — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:44:12 +0000

As a:

1. Customer

2. Shareholder

3. Affiliate

4. Supplier (via Lulu / Lightning Source)

I am completely disgusted, my shares will be sold today as there is a lot of negative press around this already.

1, 3 and 4 will be following very quickly if this news is true.

By: NickeyD

NickeyD — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:53:31 +0000

POD technology is getting better every year. No surprise Amazon starting to play with it a bit.

By: andrian

andrian — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:48:58 +0000

http://www.geocities.com/poi243

By: contentwords

contentwords — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:01:53 +0000

From what I have read at Writers Weekly your first sentence is plain wrong -Amazon have not announced that it will only sell print-on-demand books printed by its own print-on-demand service BookSurge. Instead a sales person on a call said they have an “eventual desire” to move toward that point. They may be trying to push this through without announcing it (to be honest they don’t even look like they are being that tough), but they may not even go that far if the self-publishers kick up enough fuss. Meanwhile Amazon’s print on demand program is offering more choice to the mainstream publishers who are probably glad to escape Lightning Source’s monopoly - as smaller pod publishers should be too. Amazon does have a great big share of online book sales, but it seems to me that it is generally cautious about flexing any monopolistic muscle. Without Amazon there would be precious few of these small-scale print-on-demand publishers who are now flourishing and I suspect the larger publishers would be even further behind the digital wave than they are now. Some small print on demand publishers may have a battle to fight with Amazon now, but the bigger picture is that Amazon has done and continues to do a hell of a lot for publishers and for readers of books. Amazon’s print on demand division is increasing reader choice and allowing publishers to gain more revenue from good books by prolonging their sales.