In the writing world, some publishers consider themselves POD, which means print on demand, and these companies can print small quantities of books quickly and efficiently. Print on demand publishers can mean a number of things for you. First, POD services are sometimes used by publishing houses to print advanced reader copies. They’re also sometimes used by small presses as a more economic solution to printing.
The type of POD service I want to talk about today, though, is self-publishing. For a fee, POD companies will print a small copy of any book you pen, even if it is poor quality. …read more

I finally got around to checking out one of the advertisers here, CreateSpace. At first glance it appears CreateSpace was perhaps set up to compete directly with Lulu.com – unless you want premium services, there are no fees to upload your book, etc.
What I didn’t realize until I got to the bottom of a page is that the company is owned by Amazon, the giant online bookstore.
Because I’ve been following Angela Hoy’s Booklocker lawsuit against Amazon for insisting self-publishers use Amazon-owned BookSurge if they want to be treated well at the online bookstore, I sent her a quick email …read more

(www.thegoldenpencil.com)
Joe Wikert does it again, this time by pointing to a new blog called Self Publishing Today. The author is Ray Robinson who is with Dog Ear Publishing, a company that offers a variety of self-publishing services.
The blog looks good. For example, on August 25, Robinson posted Self Publishing Hits – The Lace Reader, Brunonia Barry and Lorna Page. He tells the story of self-published fiction that went mainstream with a 2 million dollar advance. But he does more than just report that fact. If you read the whole entry you’ll find all sorts of marketing hints.
On August 19th, …read more

(www.thegoldenpencil.com)
On July 31, 2008, BookLocker filed their response to Amazon’s expected motion to dismiss BookLocker’s suit against the online retailer for its insistence self-publishers use Amazon owned BookSurge to receive preferential treatment on the virtual bookstore. The announcement was made to the blogosphere on Angela Hoy’s Amazon BookSurge Antitrust Lawsuit Clearinghouse blog.
This is the blog to read if you want to really understand the issues. There are links to of BooklLocker’s original complaint, Amazon’s motion to dismiss and to BookLocker’s response, all in one place. It will take some reading, but it’s worth it.
For example, footnote 4 on BookLocker’s response …read more

(www.thegoldenpencil.com) A while back I tracked the top five or ten posts here and they rarely seemed to change much. Today I looked and wow! Here are the top five with some comments by me:

Testing Lulu.com – this must be part of the ever-increasing interest in self-publishing.
Should The Government Monitor ‘Net Content? An Odd Couple Posting – could it be people are finally getting interested in protecting the Bill of Rights? I hope so!
Publisher Problems With Amazon Continue to Grow – Shame Shame! – with self-publishing on the rise, interest in this issue only make sense.
The tag Work at Home …read more

Most of you will remember I sent a letter to Jeff Bezos as part of my response to SPAN’s decision to back Angela Hoy’s BookLocker suit against the giant etailer.
Yesterday or the day before, an email wandered in in response. Here it is in part:
Hello from Amazon.com.
My name is Peg Anderson of Amazon.com’s Executive Customer Relations. Jeff Bezos received your e-mail and has asked me to reply on his behalf.
Given your interest in Amazon Print On Demand, I want to make sure that you had an opportunity to read a letter we published about what we’re changing and why. …read more

Okay, I’ve sent an email, signed a petition and helped spread the word about Booklocker’s suit against Amazon. All those will help, and if I’m willing to back them up by shopping with someone else, I’d really be on track. I’d put off that decision, knowing how easy it is to shop at Amazon. Plus, for me, there’s the whole business of affiliate income. I don’t make a ton, but enough to buy a tank of gas now and again.
Today push began to come to shove. I was working on my own book (!) and wanted to buy and review …read more

SPAN, the Small Publishers Association of North America, has publicallty taken a position in favor of Angela Hoy’s BookLocker suit against Amazon for its insistence that small and self-publishers use Amazon-owned BookSurge for printing if they are to receive favorable listing on the online retailers sites. The announcement, titled
Amazon/BookSurge Antitrust Lawsuit Campaign describes how and why their Board of Directors voted to support the class action antitrust lawsuit, BookLocker.com, Inc. vs. Amazon.com, Inc.
But they went much further than offering support; they also started a campaign to “generate public pressure to compel Amazon to reverse its policy.” Included in that …read more

Angela Hoy’s Amazon BookSurge Antitrust Lawsuit Clearinghouse points to an article at Investor’s Business Daily by Doug Tsuruoka called Amazon Deals Have Short Shelf Life.
The gist is many of the retailers who have partnered with the online bookseller are unhappy and are leaving Amazon to start their own etailing websites. The only publisher mentioned is Borders, and there’s no indication in the article that this trend has anything directly to do with the callous way Amazon is is forcing POD publishers to use Amazon-owned BookSurge. And there may not be a connection.
But it’s tempting to at least wonder if …read more

A press release wandered in yesterday titled: Australian Book Printer Challenges Amazon.com’s Booksurge for Market Dominance
Although I don’t see anything in the press release that leads me to believe Booktasia is really different than Amazon’s BookSurge, it’s interesting that they at least allude to some of the problems some self-publishers have had with BookSurge, most specifically, allegations of poor quality with pages falling out. In fact, it seems almost as if they are acknowledging the premier position BookSurge is now in because they were purchased by Amazon.
What they seem not to be addressing is Amazon’s power as a seller of …read more