Palin: Wrong woman, wrong message

Today I found an article that most closely voices my grave concerns about Palin as a vice president or [shudder], president of the United States

Opinion

Palin: wrong woman, wrong message

Sarah Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.

By Gloria Steinem

September 4, 2008

Here's the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party -- are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women -- and to many men too -- who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the "white-male-only" sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes.

But here is even better news: It won't work. This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.

Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton's candidacy stood for -- and that Barack Obama's still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."
More: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-steinem4-2008sep04,0,5990544,print.story or http://tinyurl.com/695owy

Imagine if men were forced to live under the same rules they try to force onto women: Sorry, no condoms, vasectomies, or hand jobs allowed, because they allow "potential babies" to die. Sorry, you have no right to sue if your employer discriminates against you because you didn't find out that he was cheating you. Sorry, you must justify why you should be allowed to sue the person who assaulted you at the ATM machine because having your wallet out was highly provocative, you should have known better than to behave in such a tempting fashion.

By the way, since when is an anti-abortion person "pro-life?" These same people believe it is acceptable to use capital punishment for convicted felons, even in cases where there is significant and reasonable doubt that the person was even guilty. These same "Pro-life" people believe it is okay to use guns to kill people who are possibly threatening their home. These same "pro-life" people believe it should be illegal for women to have physicians remove growing cells from their bodies, cells which are incapable of surviving outside of that body, yet these "pro-lifers" believe it is acceptable to maim and murder wolves from helicopters. If all life is "sacred" (a religious term), then shouldn't these people be pacifist vegans? Well, they're not. Their mission is actually all about hypocrisy, privilege, and entitlement.

The right for any woman, for any family, to choose whether and when to bring a child into this world is the TRUE "pro-life" stance, the true "pro-family" set of morals. I was brought up to believe that religious tolerance is not optional, is an essential core belief of our country, which means that if a woman, if a family's religion does not allow birth control, does not allow women to make private medical decisions with their physicians, does not allow abortion, then that woman or family has the right to practice that religious belief. It does NOT mean that they are allowed to force their religion on others who do not share those beliefs.

Vote to put "religious freedom" back into the practice of this great country of ours. Vote against the bullies, against those who want laws and constitutional amendments to force their religion, to bully those who do not hold power.

More on Hidden Abuse in Upscale Marriages...

I've been reading the book entitled Not to People Like Us: Hidden Abuse in Upscale Marriages by Dr. Susan Weitzman. See information about the book here: Not to People Like Us: Hidden Abuse in Upscale Marriages or http://tinyurl.com/4yfpw4.

The more I discuss this book with friends and colleagues, the more women I find who are, or have been, held hostage in abusive, upscale marriages. If you live in the Chicago area, you may be interested in a meeting regarding the formation of a confidential study/support group for those in or recovering from abusive upscale marriages. Call Dr. Beckman at 847-446-1251 to find out more or email her at webmaster@jeannebeckman.com.

To find out more about Dr. Beckman, visit her website at http://www.jeannebeckman.com

Hidden Abuse in Upscale Marriages

This is a cross post with another blog, Bully Fatigue (http://bullyfatigue.wordpress.com)

Hidden Abuse in Upscale Marriages

Welcome to my blog where I share thoughts about the impact of bullying on the lives of both adults and children.

There are many types of bullies. For my first quick post, I will share the latest book I will be reading entitled Not to People Like Us: Hidden Abuse in Upscale Marriages by Susan Weitzman. Here’s what www.nottopeoplelikeus.com said about this book

Not to People like Us: Hidden Abuse in Upscale Marriages is the groundbreaking book written by Dr. Susan Weitzman after many years of research on upscale violence. The first book of its kind to lift the veil of silence on abuse in upper educated and upper income families. Founder and Director of The Weitzman Center and practicing in Chicago, Dr. Weitzman has been featured on Oprah (called the “national expert on abusive relationships”), 20/20, National Public Radio, Fox news and in People magazine, The New York Post, Self Magazine, and The Chicago Tribune, offering her expertise on the dynamics and dangers of abusive relationships.

Please come back (to bullyfatigue) to visit as I share what I learn in this book.

Will they stop at nothing? Seizure of property without due process

No person shall be ... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

---Fifth amendment to the Constitution of the United States

…No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

---Fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States

In communities across America, families are discovering that political bullies are seizing private land through various stealth maneuvers, including eminent domain, for corporate profit, for political buddies, to keep out less desirable neighbors, and/or "just because." In many communities, growing families who have worked hard with careful investment and sweat equity to improve their homes find out that, without any notice, rules have been changed that either prevent them from expanding their homes to fit their growing families, prevent older families from recouping their investments when selling to fund their retirement or health care needs, or seize their home outright through eminent domain.

Do you think this is only about stopping teardowns? Think again. One family in Winnetka that had lived in a cozy (tiny in real estate terminology) old home on a quiet family street (of 50 foot wide lots) for two generations found their request for rebuilding an old decrepit detached garage on the same rear corner spot it had stood on for the life of the home was denied by village officials who stated that the garage should be moved away from the side property line into the children's narrow play space of their back yard. This family sadly gave up their multi-generation family treasure and moved to a larger, newer home with a usable garage. Their neighbors were crushed to lose this family. Other families of older homes were shocked to discover their right to expand their old homes (with updated kitchens, a fourth bedroom, or a second bathroom) had been secretly taken away with zoning changes purportedly designed to "prevent teardowns." A young family moved into a cozy home in a family neighborhood in Winnetka with the explicit expectation that the plain, century old home could be expanded as their family grew. They found out too late that they could not add on enough to their home to make it the permanent home of their family, so they sold it within two years and moved across town to a reasonably-sized new home on the site of a teardown. Some of these old homes have crumbling brick foundations without footings, basements with ceiling clearances below 7 feet, buckling structural elements, bedrooms smaller than 9X9, and powder rooms so tiny that people have to sit sideways on the commode. Some have inefficient radiator boilers built more than a century ago that are covered with asbestos and were converted from coal (and are currently burning oil delivered to a tank in the basement). Do these old homes have character? You bet! They are quite the characters!

One former village official privately stated that he believed these selectively applied rules amounted to a "I have mine, you can't have yours" philosophy. Those who wish to suppress building homes to accommodate the needs of families in the 21st century use the bullying, pejorative term of "McMansions" for homes with similar styles and square footage as older homes that belong to the privileged few. So much for a sense of community...

According to the Chicago Tribune, Kenilworth just approved an ordinance to have the entire community gain historical landmark status

Over the objection of some residents, Kenilworth's Village Board voted 4-1 Tuesday night to ask that the entire town be placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

More than 200 residents signed a petition last week demanding a November referendum be held on the proposal, with many fearing the honorary designation could lead to unprecedented restrictions on what they can do to their homes.

"The problem is people don't recognize where you are on a slippery slope until it's too late," said resident Kelli Kobor, who led the petition drive. More

The preservation zealots and bullies, who seem to be busy minding everyone else's business, make expansive improvements to their own homes and take property tax freezes (see http://whoa60093.com, an evolving site run by volunteers trying to stop Winnetka's bullying tactics), yet wish to prevent anyone else from making similar improvements, are now using "historical preservation" to take away individual property rights of those who lack the political clout of those chosen few. The typical tactics seem to include complete distortion of caucus "statistics" which they claim represent voter sentiment, stealth changes to zoning codes and other community documents, flagrant and subtle violations of open meeting act laws, hiding of conflicts of interest of voting officials, and complete ignoring of the legal rights and voiced complaints of the very community of people they were elected to represent. How can they do it? In addition to the above strategies, their other tactic is to silence those who wish to speak up by threats or actual "swiftboating" those who dare to challenge the bullying. Additionally, no matter how many legal challenges the unfortunate community members manage to make, the legal pockets of the bullies are always deeper, because the taxpayers are forced to pick up the tab.

Can you afford to speak up? You can not afford to not speak up.

Martin Niemoeller stated

In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.

If you care about your community and neighborhood but you don't speak up now, you may not have any caring neighbors remaining when they come after your street and your home.

Response from DOJ regarding antitrust complaint against Amazon

I received this email response today from the department of justice regarding my complaint that Amazon is violating antitrust laws in their move to force POD publishers to use Amazon's inferior Booksurge printer.

Dear. Dr. Beckman

Thank you for contacting the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. The Citizen Complaint Center has reviewed your complaint, and we have forwarded it to the appropriate legal staff for further review. We have your information on file and should the legal staff need further information, they may contact you in the future.

We appreciate your interest in the enforcement of federal antitrust laws.

Sincerely,

Citizen Complaint Center
Antitrust Division
Department of Justice

-----Original Message-----
From: Dr. Jeanne Beckman [mailto:bullies@jeannebeckman.com]
Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2008 5:31 PM
To: ATR-OPS Citizen Complaint Center
Subject: Amazon.com

To whom it may concern:
Please investigate Amazon for antitrust and restraint of trade over its print on demand (POD) requirements that authors and publishers will not be able to list and sell their books on the Amazon website unless they use Amazon's Booksurge.

I have great concern about actions currently being taken by Amazon.com. Amazon has traditionally made its platform open to independent authors using publish-on-demand (POD) services provided by numerous companies. Now, Amazon is moving to exclude any author who does not use Amazon's own POD service, Booksurge. Many, many authors have had problems with Booksurge, including not getting paid. In addition, authors who do make the transition will be forced to charge more in order to cover the costs of using Amazon's printing services in addition to the fees Amazon charges for selling products on its web site. To force all independent authors to use a single, inferior service, a service owned by the same company providing the marketplace, that will also result in higher prices for consumers, seems to be a good fit for the following, as described in the Sherman Antritrust Act:

An unlawful monopoly exists when only one firm controls the market for a product or service, and it has obtained that market power, not because its product or service is superior to others, but by suppressing competition with anticompetitive conduct.

Amazon controls such a large portion of the print-on-demand book market that by forcing authors to use its print-on-demand service, it is reducing the number of POD options to one. The harm to consumers comes in the form of products of poorer quality (as evidenced by the large number of complaints about the Booksurge service) and higher prices. I respectfully ask that you take a serious look at this new practice by Amazon.com and make a fair judgement about whether or not the company is in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Sincerely,
Dr. Jeanne Beckman

Have you contacted the attorney general in Washington or the U.S. department of justice (DOJ) yet?

jb

Update on Amazon Strong-arm tactics

Wondering why you should care about Amazon's bullying? Please read a previous post: Why readers should care what Amazon is doing

Here's an article by Angela Hoy about the Amazon Bullying

Sent: Friday, April 04, 2008 3:15 PM
Subject: Amazon Tightens Grip on Long Tail; Info Requested

Last week Amazon announced that it would be requiring that all books that it sells that are produced through on-demand means be printed by BookSurge, their in-house on-demand printer/publisher. Amazon pitched this as a customer service matter, a means for more speedily delivering print-on-demand books and allowing for the bundling of shipments with other items purchased at the same time from Amazon. It also put a bit of an environmental spin on the move -- claiming less transportation fuel is used (this is unlikely, but that's another story) when all items are shipped directly from Amazon.

We, and many others, think something else is afoot. Ingram Industries' Lightning Source is currently the dominant printer for on-demand titles, and they appear to be quite efficient at their task. They ship on-demand titles shortly after they are ordered through Amazon directly to the customer. It's a nice business for Ingram, since they get a percentage of the sales and a printing fee for every on-demand book they ship. Amazon would be foolish not to covet that business.

What's the rub? Once Amazon owns the supply chain, it has effective control of much of the "long tail" of publishing -- the enormous number of titles that sell in low volumes but which, in aggregate, make a lot of money for the aggregator. Since Amazon has a firm grip on the retailing of these books (it's uneconomic for physical book stores to stock many of these titles), owning the supply chain would allow it to easily increase its profit margins on these books: it need only insist on buying at a deeper discount -- or it can choose to charge more for its printing of the books -- to increase its profits. Most publishers could do little but grumble and comply.

We suspect this maneuver by Amazon is far more about profit margin than it is about customer service or fossil fuels. The potential big losers (other than Ingram) if Amazon does impose greater discounts on the industry, are authors -- since many are paid for on-demand sales based on the publisher's gross revenues -- and publishers.

We're reviewing the antitrust and other legal implications of Amazon's bold move. If you have any information on this matter that you think could be helpful to us, please call us at (212) 563-5904 and ask for the legal services department, or send an e-mail to staff@authorsguild.org.

Feel free to post or forward this message in its entirety.

Copyright 2008, The Authors Guild. The Authors Guild (http://www.authorsguild.org) is the nation's largest society of published book authors.

If you're interested in signing a petition with a complaint to the attorney general in Washington, Helen Gallagher has a link on her blog at http://releaseyourwriting.blogspot.com/2008/03/amazongolliath-takes-on-little-guys.html

jb

Martin Luther King died but was not silenced

April 4, 2008
Forty years ago today, racist bullies thought they would silence the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Junior. Since that time, there have certainly been gains in the civil rights movement, but there has also been stagnation.

Today, we still have classrooms that are segregated, by "ability" although those "slow learning" classrooms in many cities are predominantly students of color. These students are denied full access to a curriculum that competently teaches basic reading and math skills as well as critical thinking. If the school fails to provide a curriculum from which a student can derive reasonable benefit, the student is punished by being held back to suffer through the same failed curriculum a second time. Almost half of all students EVER held back will never graduate from high school.

• To read a blog about the difference between resource and segregated classrooms, please see http://www.dimsapproach.com/2007/08/self-contained-versus-resource-classes.html or http://tinyurl.com/4nhczm

Without having been taught these basic and critical thinking skills, students grow up and cannot read the diverse information and opinions available on the Internet that would help them to fully participate in the political process. We still have voter intimidation and caging (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkSc6xUs92I&feature=related to silence the voices of those who would dare question the policies of current political officeholders.

Stand against the bullies, Dare to ask why, Dare to ask why not.
JB

Why should readers care what Amazon is doing?

With the great accessibility to purchasing almost any book online that Amazon seems to be providing, why should the buying public care whether a small POD publisher or a monolithic Amazon provides the book?

I am a citizen who tries to advocate for doing "the right thing;" I am a parent who has to advocate for my children when we face convoluted bureaucratic decisions that affect my children's ability to benefit from their public education; I am a psychologist/technology expert who advocates for disabled students on a daily basis; and I am an author who chose to use a small POD publisher (VirtualBookWorm.com) so that I could quickly get my message to families about how to find and utilize the necessary technology to learn and be productive in school.

If I think of the hours I spent writing and editing my book, I will probably never see a a profitable return on those unbilled hours, yet the profit I have already seen is in the thank yous from the families who were able to use information in my book to advocate for their technology.

My book is not the type of book that big book publishers would probably ever pick up, because I don't have a big name and it is not a riveting read for a diverse audience like best sellers tend to be. Instead, I wrote it to be a tool, a sharing of information, a voice from a fellow parent to help families through the bureaucratic mazes.

Without POD publishers, my kind of book would never be available for families. If Amazon succeeds in their monopolistic takeover of POD publishing, every little person who had a belief that his or her book might make a difference in the world would be shut out.

So, even if you are not part of the publishing world except as a reader, please speak up to stand united against this latest bully in town.

What can you do? Find out the name of the publisher of the book you want to buy, and go to the publisher's website to purchase it directly from the publisher. The author benefits, the publisher benefits, and you've supported a process that has given regular citizens a voice. If you're thinking about ordering something from Amazon, consider whether there are other ways to find the book you want. Local independent bookstores are a great place to find passionate readers who love to share their favorite books, and they will also gladly order almost any book still in print.

For an update on the Amazon situation (because it's not over yet), please read (including the comments) http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-amazon-does-damage-control-on-its-print-on-demand-demands/

jb

Growing too big for quality service?

We've all seen it: Small dot com companies growing by leaps and bounds because they found an underserved niche. Amazon has grown because it is the "go to" place for finding books, including those not regularly found on small bookstore shelves due to the small audiences those books serve. However, Amazon has decided that it is big enough to push around small POD (print on demand) publishers by requiring them to use Amazon's printer, thereby cutting competition to Amazon's POD (Booksurge) and increasing profits . If Amazon is successful, those authors without connections to conventional publishers who try to publish their books through POD publishers will essentially lose their voice. Here's what Writers Weekly said

BREAKING DEVELOPMENT:

Monday, March 31, 2008: We have heard from more than one source that tomorrow, April 1, 2008, is the deadline that some POD publishers to sign the contract with Amazon/Booksurge, or risk having their buy buttons removed from Amazon.com

ATTN: AuthorHouse/iUniverse, Xlibris and Lulu - DO NOT CAVE IN!!! Join the proud and strong POD publishers who have refused to be bullied into paying Amazon to print their books! If you submit to this horrible action, you will hurt yourselves and your authors, and do a grave injustice to the entire industry!

Sunday, March 30, 2008: Somebody started an online petition to combat Amazon's actions here. Please sign it online to show your support. (Note: Donations are NOT required by that site to sign the petition.)

Saturday, March 29, 2008: Whiskey Creek Press is a traditional publisher that uses POD technology. We were alerted by one of their authors that they appear to be the latest Amazon/BookSurge "buy" button victim. We checked and it appears numerous Whiskey Creek Press print books are now only available through resellers. The Kindle versions are, of course, still for sale directly through Amazon.

Friday, March 28, 2008: As of Thursday, the "buy" buttons for the vast majority of PublishAmerica books were removed from Amazon.com. The books can now only be purchased by resellers.

PublishAmerica issued a press release today that states, "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."

~~~~~

Some Print on Demand (POD) publishers are privately screaming "Monopoly!" while others are seething with rage over startling phone conversations they're having with Amazon/BookSurge representatives. Why isn't anybody talking about it openly? Because they're afraid - very, very afraid.

Amazon.com purchased BookSurge, a small POD publisher/printer back in 2005. Amazon also lists and sells titles for the largest POD printer, Lightning Source, which is owned by Ingram (the large book distributor). According to their website, Lightning Source serves more than 4,300 publisher clients and has more than 400,000 titles in their system.

You'd think Amazon's purchase of BookSurge might have made things a bit uncomfortable between the two companies. However, they continued to work together, getting books on demand to Amazon.com's loyal customers. Things appeared to be cruising along just fine, but perhaps not anymore...

more: http://www.writersweekly.com/the_latest_from_angelahoycom/004597_03272008.html

Take a stand against bullies! I have pulled all my book links from my two websites and blog that went to Amazon. I think this would be a great time to create a consortium of POD publishers who have their own web bookselling business, negotiates contracts with visa/paypal/ and actual printers, etc.

Essential marketing secrets that Amazon forgot

Here's a detailed article from http://attractionbiz.com/2008/03/30/the-essential-marketing-secrets-that-amazon-forgot/

March 30, 2008

The Essential Marketing Secrets that Amazon Forgot

Amazon has made a SERIOUS mistake in the way they conduct business and may be the mother of all Branding Boo Boos!
First, you need to understand a term to understand the gravity of the situation for Amazon.

POD stands for Print On Demand. Instead of printing thousands of copies of a book and hoping they sell, these publishers can print only the number of books that actually are sold. That’s a great business model, however Amazon has decided that the only POD books they want to sell on their site are the ones printed by their own POD service: Book Surge.

Angela Hoy is the publisher of the Writer’s Weekly which she uses to promote her POD publishing business, Booklocker.com. Last Friday, Angela launched a firestorm when she reported that Amazon is putting the squeeze on POD publishers.

FIRST MARKETING SECRET THAT AMAZON FORGOT: Customers are the life blood of any business.

Angela Hoy reports spending over $1500 with Amazon last year. Sure, that’s just a tiny drop of income in the Olympic sized pool of profits generated by Amazon… but she’s a customer none the less and their bullying tactics really rubbed her the wrong way. They’ve lost her as a customer… but wait … that brings us to Marketing Secret Number 2.

SECOND MARKETING SECRET THAT AMAZON FORGOT: A satisfied customer will tell 3 friends… a dissatisfied customer will tell 16.

In Angela’s case, she’s the editor of the largest ezine publication for freelance writers in the world, so instead of telling 16 friends she’s using her newsletter to tell over a hundred thousand. She’s ignited quite a firestorm.

THIRD MARKETING SECRET THAT AMAZON FORGOT: People hate doing business with a bully...

There's more:

In the spirit of Web 2.0, I’ve included a list of sites reporting this story. Feel free to grab the list below and add it to your own blog. If you want to add your post to the “cause”… the post a comment to this post. The more links to these posts… the more “traction” this cause will get.

• A New Amazon Mandate? Say it ain’t so, Jeff by Morris Rosenthal
• Amazon Forcing POD Publishers to Make a Hard Decision, Virtualbookworm
• Amazon Tightens Grip on Printing by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, Wall Street Journal
• Amazon Tightens Noose on Print-On-Demand Publishers; Insists They Use Company’s Own Service by Rafat Ali, The Washington Post
• Amazon to Force POD Publishers to Use BookSurge by Jim Milliot, Publishers Weekly
• Amazon changes rules for print-on-demand publishers by Linda Rosencrance, Computerworld
• Amazon pulls a Microsoft by Robert L. Mitchell, Computerworld Blogs
• Amazon Puts the Squeeze on Publishers by Betsy Schiffman, Wired Blog Network
• Amazon Gets Demanding with Print-on-Demand Publishers, O’Reilly Radar
• Amazon.com puts the screws to small publishers, Valleywag
• Amazon’s POD monopoly, booktwo.org
• Is Amazon Getting Greedy? , open…
• Oh, REAL nice, Amazon.com, Beatlegirl’s Blog
• Market Report — In Play,MSN Money
• Amazon Muscles Print-On-Demand Services by Duncan Riley, TechCrunch
• Amazon & BookSurge, words count
• Urgent News for Authors, The Holistic Writer
• Monopoly - It’s Not A Game by Jean-Marie Hershey, Print CEO Blog
• Of oil lamps, Print on Demand, and e-book machines: Amazon’s Bezos as a would-be Rockefeller by David Rothman
• Deal Breaker? Amazon - BookSurge - POD - No Choice?, Workboxers
• Amazon.com’s POD land grab, BookFinder.com Journal
• Amazon Changes POD Tactics, Removes Velvet Gloves by Kassia Krozser, Booksquare
• Amazon The Monopoly, PersonaNonData
• Amazon Muscles Print-On-Demand Services, web2bite.com
• Use BookSurge or Die? by Victoria Strauss, Writer Beware
• Amazon/Golliath takes on the little guys by Helen Gallagher, Release Your Writing
• Amazon Bullies POD to Use Booksurge — or Else., Shadowhelm’s Journal
• Amazon Says It Will Only Sell Print-On-Demand Books That It Gets To Print, Techdirt
• Amazon deletes competition, LibraryThing
• What’s Amazon Up To Now? by Tawny Taylor
• Amazon Shaking the POD World Big Time, Juno Books
• A hearty “F$%k you!” to Amazon by Elf M. Sternberg
• A Call to Bloggers: Stop Supporting Amazon, Inhabitatio Dei
• Amazon to Force POD Publishers to Use BookSurge, Media Mensch
• Self Publishers and Amazon, Writerly Stuff
• Amazon Tightens Grip On Printing, booktrade.info
• Amazon to Block Other POD Services from Using Amazon Marketplace, Dear Author
• Amazon trying to screw small presses?, lupabitch
• Dear Amazon, What are You Thinking? by Monica Valentinelli, Words on the Water
• Will Amazon Hurt Small Pagan Publishers?, The Wild Hund
• Amazon and us by Gill Polack
• Will Amazon Become the Google of the POD Industry? by Deborah Woehr
• Down with The Zon! by Celia Kyle
• Beyond the POD grab: The IDPF should fight Amazon’s new eBabel, look for anti-trust violations, and reach out to Google by David Rothman, TeleRead
• Amazon blocking books of competitive publishers?, electronista
• We are not amused–veinglory, PODPeople
• Bully on the block?, The Pearlsong Letter
• The monopolists: You need to worry about Amazon too by Eion Purcell
• Amazon owns the marketplace: return of the distributor, Thudfactor
• Is Amazon trying to monopolize the empowering Publish-On-Demand market?, Chris Boese’s Weblog
• 500 pound gorilla, Idle musings of a bookseller
• Bye-Bye “Buy Buttons” for POD Authors?, The Backroom at Dehanna.com
• Amazon Making a Big Mistake by Cheryl Pickett
• Amazon to force POD publishers to use Booksurge, Murder by 4
• Amazon.com’s dirty little deed, pds_lit
• Amazon’s Stupid Anti-Competitive Move, Principled Profit
• Amazon Bullying POD Writers and Publishers Unfairly, A-ha
• A Call to Bloggers: Stop Supporting Amazon, Resurrection Life
• Amazon.com Is On Drugs, Thought Patterns
• Amazon launches their weapon of mass destruction, steps on the long tail of independent authors by Mark Riffey
• Amazon puts the Squeeze on POD Publishers by Easy Author Web Sites
• An Important Lesson from Amazon on How NOT to Treat Your Customers by Virtual Impax
• Amazon’s Blatant Disrespect of Their Best Customers by Beyond Niche Marketing

Amazon began by providing a superior book buying experience to their customers. Buying a book from Amazon is BETTER than buying a book in a physical book store because a reader can access other reader reviews and read excerpts online. Amazon is about to discover that hell hath no fury like a customer scorned.

Diverse readers have a vested interest in supporting the publishers who provide an avenue for the smaller voices to be heard. What can you do to help?

jb