POD (Print On Demand) is Big Business!
Talk about Blackmail! Amazon now refuses to sell over 23,000 books published by PublishAmerica because Amazon wants to print the books themselves. PublishAmerica refuses that demand.
See press Release below:
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For Immediate Release
Frederick, MD March 27, 2008 - As it continues to revolutionize the book publishing industry, PublishAmerica finds itself confronting Internet retail giant Amazon.com due to that company's strong-arm tactics.
Recently, Amazon presented the Frederick, Maryland based publishing company with an ultimatum, demanding the right to print each of PublishAmerica's almost 30,000 titles via their recently acquired in-house digital printing facility, BookSurge. If PublishAmerica does not comply, Amazon said it will retaliate by disabling the "Buy" button on all of its PublishAmerica listings. (This Amazon has now done.) This demand would force PublishAmerica to submit 60,000 separate book files (text and cover), and redo each of them in order to conform to Amazon's complicated technical specifications.
Additionally, Amazon is also demanding a larger profit-per-book amount of each P:ublishAmerica book that they sell. This move would result in dramatically lower royalty payments for PublishAmerica's family of authors who sold books through the Internet retailer. When it attempted to increase its charges at earlier occasions, Amazon representatives suggested that any such extra expenses be passed on to authors. This is a suggestion that PublishAmerica executives find unacceptable.
In a letter issued to the company's authors, PublishAmerica's management said, "Not surprisingly, PublishAmerica refuses to be swayed by anyone's strong-arming tactics, big name or otherwise, especially given the fact that budging would mean an additional expense on the publisher's side of tens of thousands of dollars, on top of the unacceptable royalty losses for our authors. PublishAmerica never charges its authors as much as a single penny, ever. We are not going to change this winning policy under the threat of anyone's intimidation, nor are we willing to involuntarily accept any royalty cuts on behalf of our authors."
PublishAmerica will not comply with Amazon's ultimatum, and will not allow that company to dictate who will print PublishAmerica's books, and at what conditions.
Each of PublishAmerica's titles will continue to be available to Amazon, as will future releases. Amazon may access to PublishAmerica books in the same manner it has in the past through at least four separate venues. One of those venues is Lightning Source, a daughter company of the world's largest book wholesaler Ingram, which prints PublishAmerica books for retailers. PublishAmerica prints its additional sales volume in its own in-house digital printing facility, also located in Frederick, Maryland. PublishAmerica will continue its strong relationship with other retailers including Barnes and Noble, Borders, Waldenbooks, Books-A-Million and many other chain and independent bookstores, plus other major online vendors such as BarnesandNoble.com.
PublishAmerica is the home of 30,000 talented authors. PublishAmerica is a traditional publishing company whose primary goal is to encourage and promote the works of new, previously undiscovered writers. Like more mainstream publishers, PublishAmerica pays its authors advances and royalties, makes its books available to all bookstores in both the United States and Europe, and never charges any fees for its services. PublishAmerica offers a distinctly personal, supportive alternative to vanity presses and less accessible publishers.
END
To comment on this strong-arm tactic to Amazon, try this: Click here. (They'll probably disable that e-mail address soon as well).
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