There’s been a loud bang echoing through the publishing world in no time . After the co-owner of booklocker and writers weekly Angela Hoy, ended a phone conversation with an amazon rep last month, she published the warning that amazon was giving an ultimatum to POD and small press publishers: to do all printing using booksurge, or else the ” the button to buy ” on their site will be disabled. There’s more, POD publishers who come to an accommmodation to use amazon’s booksurge must pay for the privilege.

These publishers will pay amazon to print their books together with an upfront fee for the new set of books, plus a 48% take from every sale.To prevent their purchase buttons not staying active is to enter the amazon’s advantage program, that costs $ 29.95 a year, plus transport costs and 55% of all sales to amazon (see this analysis, as well as a complete overview of the subject and lots more Make Money Online related articles, which together were done by angela hoy and her husband Richard on their website, writer’s weekly). Publishamerica, which refuses to yield to amazon’s demand, has published a release on their website explaining why it will never comply with their “strong arm” strategy.

Amazon contends that using machines from their own warehouses to print books will save time, readying titles to be sent out a lot faster. It also lets them combine the title with another product to be delivered in the same package using their prime shipping time, they also claim that it makes more sense to print books on site to save on transportation and fuel costs. But we say: this may be legal, but to raise booksurge’s market share at the price of other publishers looks, sounds and resembles a monopoly and that’s not a good deal for anyone. Although we have relationships with lots of POD and small press publishers, and definitely sympathize with their situation, we are specifically worried about , how this undermines the independent author, who will pay the price for this at some point.

What options do we have to publish now?, with corporate amazon dictating all the rules this undercuts the concept which is behind POD. Perhaps the signs were on the horizon once amazon bought booksurge, the question is why was it neccessary for them have a on demand services?. More than 80 online blog comments, newspaper editorials and forum contributions have all come the same consensus which is, it may not be illegal however it’s unethical and a strategic Make Money Online mistake to exert enormous pressure on the POD publishers and writers. Hoy as with publishamerica, says she will not succumb to amazon’s plan and she’s urging the others to join forces to defend themselves. Top players such as authorhouse , iUniverse, xlibris and Lulu have however stayed largely silent in public.

Meanwhile the internet is buzzing activity and there seems to be a clear agreement judging by headlines:

‘Amazon’s grip tightens on print-on-demand publishers.

‘Amazon to force POD publishers to use booksurge.

‘Amazon pulls a microsoft’.

‘Amazon turns the screws on small publishers’.

‘Is Amazon getting greedy’? And a personal favorite

‘Use booksurge or die?

One independent author has even published a petition online. Writers have deluged message boards and blogs with comments about this problem and what the implications are for their books. The vast majority are unhappy, but there are a number of pragmatists, who view it as business as usual. Amazon’s just doing what most other businesses are doing a case in point, how microsoft is dominating the software market, some issues raised include: ‘Can books be ported directly over from a POD publisher to booksurge?.Over at the Lulu forums, writers note that Lulu’s standards are different, in order to be published by booksurge would mean that authors would be forced to buy a booksurge publishing package , even if they wanted to publish with Lulu.

The ceo of lulu said in the Wall Street Journal that he believed booksurge’s prices were “somewhat higher” than other printers. Is it truely about faster service to the customer or are they looking for another way to make more money by printing more books? (It should be said that amazon / booksurge have approached publishers for a while now to try to get them to do their printing through booksurge without much success).There’s frustration over being forced to use booksurge’s services even though they are content with their current publisher, a fact that if books were printed by booksurge writers would have to set up once more with LSI / Ingram their competitor, to be distributed to bookstores, just more costs. A amazon boycott of not doing business with the company, stopping the purchasing of books through their website and the removval buttons from websites, blogs, newsletters and so on are in the pipeline.

Okay, Amazon.com is a business and chooses to do what’s in its best interests, possibly more people would be won over had they produced a better argument. Comparing this issue to its earlier decisions, to include reader reviews and to let used books to be resold over all the objections of publishers just doesn’t work why?. Regarding reviews, amazon permitted outsiders to provide these assessments (interestingly, before this, anyone could review a book at amazon, now you must be a registered member of theirs to do this .), the same goes for selling used books – these books are sold by people who are not part of amazon, however amazon has realized the profits to be made, because it now owns booksurge. So authors have less choice, POD publishers face more charges, and at the end of the day, who gets less?. The much proclaimed customers amazon keeps pretending to care about of course. This maybe big business in action for you, but it’s not good business.

Amazon.com is a great part to our success, and as amazon’s model changes promoting the selling of books will change also. It’s no secret that angela hoy from book locker has been quite outspoken about the current decision by amazon to have all their POD publishers print books via booksurge. You can look up some of her past contributions on this subject by visiting her writers weekly website. In the middle of this media storm is angela, she’s taken some time to answer our questions on this subject, so let’s see what she had to say:

Question 1.: You’ve filed a lawsuit against amazon, what made you do this?

Answer : I believe that what’s being done here constitutes a violation of anti-trust rules , and places myself and other POD publishers and writers in danger. Someone had to stand up and be counted.

Question 2. : Is it possible to discuss the nature of this litigation ?

Answer : Here is a link to a PDF file of actual lawsuit: http://antitrust.booklocker.com/

Question 3 : Do you think you can win against this giant?

Answer : Yes, I absolutely believe i can.

Question 4 : Plenty of people say that amazon is a monopoly, do you have the same feeling , and is there anything that can be done against this mamoth ?

Answer : The only method to stopping this type of behaviour , by a business which controls the online book sales market is taking it to court. That’s what we are forced to do.

Question 5. : There has been some recent talk that amazon may have ambitions of being a publisher. Do you think that will ever be possible? what are the outcomes of this, if it becomes reality?

Answer : Amazon is already a publisher , not only did they become one after purchasing booksurge, but also admitted in its 10-K SEC filing that publishers were their competitors.

Question 6. : There are already plenty of individual authors with their own works affected by this decision, many of whom haven’t even fully considered the consequences of this Make Money Online move. What can the single author do to protect themselves against this giant?

Answer : What many authors don’t realize is that some may already be working for amazon , the confidentiality clause in the amazon / booksurge contract is aimed at stopping any disclosure of the relationship and that these authors’books will probably be printed by booksurge without their consent. Writers who have done background research on booksurge online, might have serious concerns about the quality of their books that has the author’s name printed on it. Personally, under no circumstances would i let booksurge print anything with our name on it, We have had a history of quality problems with them. From time to time, i monitor what they’re doing , so i bought a book from them the other month and the quality was terrible. The back cover was not centered, some of the photos were so dark, authors were totally unrecognizable black shadows everywhere, then there was a horrible glue blob on the cover and so on .

Question 7. : What else can we do to fight this giant online?

Answer : POD authors and publishers need to talk about these issues today , and continue to keep speaking out against it. Amazon is hoping that things will die down “and that it will all be forgotten about soon Unfortunately, when that day comes, some POD publishers and self-publishing authors may very well be out of business as a result of Make Money Online actions today.

Question 8. : If they’re permitted to do this, what do you think will occur in the long term ? will their next announcement of a roll-out be about their publication model?

Answer : They’ve already implemented this model by taking the current action. The buy buttons to publish america books approx 30K titles have already been disabled by them.

Question 9. : What shocked you the most concerning this action ?

Answer : It didn’t take any consideration at all for us to decide to fight this tt’s just not right and someone had to do something about this situation. We expected some coverage in the writing and publishing industry and on blogs but what we didn’t expect was the overwhelming support we got worldwide by writers, publishers and book purchasers. People are furious with amazon, i’ve conducted more interviews in the last six weeks than I’ve done all my life altogether plus, we’ve received e-mails a lot more on this subject than on any other topic we’ve covered over the last 11 years in writers weekly. Every voice is important and you can make a difference! trust me amazon is being forced to listen to what people saying!