Good News for POD Authors & Publishers
Amazon Settles with Booklocker! I just learned this outcome yesterday. Booklocker.com is the publisher with whom I published my novel, Ruthe’s Secret Roses. Angela publishes the widely read weekly ezine, Writers’ Weekly, and have often been known to go to bat for authors to get a fair deal from traditional as well as POD publishers.
Here’s the start of their press release:
“As many of you probably remember, in March, 2008, an Amazon / BookSurge representative called us on the phone and told us we (and other Print on Demand publishers) must start paying Amazon to print our books. If we didn’t, they would remove our “buy it now” buttons from Amazon.com.
NOTE: Amazon recently retired the BookSurge name (that was not a surprise), and is now doing their POD business under the name CreateSpace. Other than the name, not much appears to have changed.
After the phone call, we publicly cried foul, and alerted the publishing industry about the threat. We subsequently heard from other publishers who had received the same ultimatum, including a university press. A media firestorm erupted and many authors and publishers alike screamed “monopoly”, launching an online revolt. Several, including myself, boycotted Amazon.com, and publicly shared their anger about the Amazon / BookSurge (now CreateSpace) Ultimatum.
Our publicity efforts forced Amazon to finally make public what targeted POD publishers claimed to have been told through what some considered intimidating phone conversations. Until that point, Amazon hadn’t appeared to want to put anything in writing. . . . .”
You can read the rest of this release here.