United Against Bullies

This is a place where the Davids of the world can unite and develop strategies and group efforts/consortia to make this world a better place to take on the Goliaths who bully anyone they choose. Whether it is parents striving to get a decent education for their children, writers struggling to find a forum for their work, or citizens working to get their vote counted, this site belongs to you...

New Bullies Perpetuating History

More than forty years ago, racist bullies thought they would silence the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Since that time, there have certainly been gains in the civil rights movement, but there has also been stagnation.

King stated:
Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.

Read about the bulling that is continuing to occur in the fields of education, law, voting, and elsewhere and then straighten your back to walk tall, speak out, and work for doing what's right.
Showing posts with label independent publishers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label independent publishers. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

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
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Monday, March 31, 2008

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.
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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.

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
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