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| Read the current Monday Report below! |
The ULA Monday Report!
This week's report by LENNY FLANK
I Hate Corporados
Most of you have heard me talk previously about "print
on demand" publishing, which I do through Red and
Black Publishers and Mikey does with his book
"Antiquity of Man". One of the reasons POD publishing
can work for small publishers, is that it gives access
to Amazon.com, the largest bookseller in the world,
and at Amazon, it gives small micropublishers equal
status with the publishing giants, allowing us to sell
our books at the same terms and with the same
visibility that Simon and Schuster gets.
Well, now Amazon has thrown a Microsoft-style power
play and fucked things up for all of us POD publishers. . .
Most of the print-on-demand outfits, like Lulu.com,
PublishAmerica or iUniverse, do all their printing at
a company called Lightning Source. And since
Lightning Source also does POD directly for publishing
companies, that's where I get all my printing done
too.
A few years ago, Amazon bought its own POD printer,
called Booksurge (and a smaller division called
CreateSpace). Booksurge was, alas, crushed into the
mud by Lightning Source, and has limped along for
years, unable to compete with Lightning Source's
better quality and cheaper pricing.
Well, this week, right out of the blue, Amazon decided
to do something about that, in the most brutally
bully-like way possible -- it announced that as of
April 1, it would no longer offer any print-on-demand
books that aren't done through its own POD printer.
No, that was no April Fool's joke. Publishers that
refuse to move from Lightning Source to Booksurge will
find the "Buy Now" button on their titles' Amazon
pages removed, disallowing buyers from buying directly
through Amazon, and eliminating the Free Shipping and
Amazon Prime options for them. It's a HUGE
disincentive for anyone to buy the book.
Unfortunately for us small publishers, Amazon has us
by the balls. The vast majority of my sales (and I
suspect of Mikey's too) are through Amazon.com . So
if Amazon.com refuses to sell my titles, I am well and
truly screwed. It's the proverbial "offer you can't
refuse".
Not coincidentally, it will cost me more to sell books
through Amazon that it does now through Lightning
Source. Lightning Source lets publishers choose the
discount rate for the book (the percentage of the
cover price that goes to the bookstore). All my
titles are set at a 25% discount, meaning Amazon gets
25% of the price, and I get the rest (minus the
printing costs). Amazon's POD operations, though,
will accept nothing less than a 40% discount, meaning
that 15% of the cover price which USED to go to me,
now goes to Amazon instead. I can either (1) raise
the cover price 15% to make up the loss, or (2) eat
that 15% and smile about it.
So basically, it's "pay Amazon more, or kiss your book
market goodbye". And yes, at least one of my titles
has already had its "Buy Now" button "disappeared".
Lulu and iUniverse have already given in.
PublishAmerica is, at last word, refusing. No word
yet on whether their titles have started disappearing
from Amazon yet. In the final analysis, though,
PublishAmerica will have to give in too. No POD
publisher can afford not to sell through Amazon. They
have us right by the short hairs, and there's
absolutely nothing any of us can do about it.
It's strongarm bullying of the very worst sort. It
may even be illegal under US antitrust laws -- but
that will take years to thrash out, and doesn't help
us in the meantime.
So . . . .
I'll be spending the next few weeks crying "uncle",
and moving my titles from Lightning Source to Amazon's
"CreateSpace" POD option.
Fucking bastards.
I hate corporados.
===============================================
Lenny Flank, Editor, Red and Black Publishers
http://www.RedandBlackPublishers.com
===============================================
CLICK HERE TO READ THE PREVIOUS MONDAY REPORT!
GO HERE TO ENTER THE MONDAY REPORT BOX.
This week's report by LENNY FLANK
I Hate Corporados
Most of you have heard me talk previously about "print
on demand" publishing, which I do through Red and
Black Publishers and Mikey does with his book
"Antiquity of Man". One of the reasons POD publishing
can work for small publishers, is that it gives access
to Amazon.com, the largest bookseller in the world,
and at Amazon, it gives small micropublishers equal
status with the publishing giants, allowing us to sell
our books at the same terms and with the same
visibility that Simon and Schuster gets.
Well, now Amazon has thrown a Microsoft-style power
play and fucked things up for all of us POD publishers. . .
Most of the print-on-demand outfits, like Lulu.com,
PublishAmerica or iUniverse, do all their printing at
a company called Lightning Source. And since
Lightning Source also does POD directly for publishing
companies, that's where I get all my printing done
too.
A few years ago, Amazon bought its own POD printer,
called Booksurge (and a smaller division called
CreateSpace). Booksurge was, alas, crushed into the
mud by Lightning Source, and has limped along for
years, unable to compete with Lightning Source's
better quality and cheaper pricing.
Well, this week, right out of the blue, Amazon decided
to do something about that, in the most brutally
bully-like way possible -- it announced that as of
April 1, it would no longer offer any print-on-demand
books that aren't done through its own POD printer.
No, that was no April Fool's joke. Publishers that
refuse to move from Lightning Source to Booksurge will
find the "Buy Now" button on their titles' Amazon
pages removed, disallowing buyers from buying directly
through Amazon, and eliminating the Free Shipping and
Amazon Prime options for them. It's a HUGE
disincentive for anyone to buy the book.
Unfortunately for us small publishers, Amazon has us
by the balls. The vast majority of my sales (and I
suspect of Mikey's too) are through Amazon.com . So
if Amazon.com refuses to sell my titles, I am well and
truly screwed. It's the proverbial "offer you can't
refuse".
Not coincidentally, it will cost me more to sell books
through Amazon that it does now through Lightning
Source. Lightning Source lets publishers choose the
discount rate for the book (the percentage of the
cover price that goes to the bookstore). All my
titles are set at a 25% discount, meaning Amazon gets
25% of the price, and I get the rest (minus the
printing costs). Amazon's POD operations, though,
will accept nothing less than a 40% discount, meaning
that 15% of the cover price which USED to go to me,
now goes to Amazon instead. I can either (1) raise
the cover price 15% to make up the loss, or (2) eat
that 15% and smile about it.
So basically, it's "pay Amazon more, or kiss your book
market goodbye". And yes, at least one of my titles
has already had its "Buy Now" button "disappeared".
Lulu and iUniverse have already given in.
PublishAmerica is, at last word, refusing. No word
yet on whether their titles have started disappearing
from Amazon yet. In the final analysis, though,
PublishAmerica will have to give in too. No POD
publisher can afford not to sell through Amazon. They
have us right by the short hairs, and there's
absolutely nothing any of us can do about it.
It's strongarm bullying of the very worst sort. It
may even be illegal under US antitrust laws -- but
that will take years to thrash out, and doesn't help
us in the meantime.
So . . . .
I'll be spending the next few weeks crying "uncle",
and moving my titles from Lightning Source to Amazon's
"CreateSpace" POD option.
Fucking bastards.
I hate corporados.
===============================================
Lenny Flank, Editor, Red and Black Publishers
http://www.RedandBlackPublishers.com
===============================================
CLICK HERE TO READ THE PREVIOUS MONDAY REPORT!
GO HERE TO ENTER THE MONDAY REPORT BOX.
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