Amazon & POD (Provoke On Demand)
I posted some links last week regarding Amazon.com’s attempt to force publishers to use Amazon’s BookSurge print-on-demand service. Or the book won’t be available for sale on Amazon. I think Amazon took some non-BookSurge POD book’s “buy” buttons off, too. Is that still the case? My friend Scott’s book is only available through the used book interface now.
Evidently, most (all?) print-on-demand services (other than BookSurge) use Lightning Source to actually print the book. Lightning Source is a subsidiary of Ingram Book Group, which is a local (to me) Nashville company. (The printing biz is big in Nashville.)
I find it strange that I haven’t seen any local media stories about this, since Ingram is such a large local company (and the family is so prominent in the community). Unless I missed any mainstream media articles about this, the only local attention this has gotten is from some well-respected local bloggers — Rex Hammock & Newscoma. I guess POD is small potatoes in the business world.
POD & the WWW are 2 of the main reasons that I think that, for American poetry, this is one of the most exciting periods of time, ever. OK, I understand that hardly anyone buys poetry books these days, 
but for those of us who do, whoo boy, is there a groaning table.
An overview of why this sucks so much for small publishers.
A more detailed analysis of how this would affect a small poetry publisher.
And in the “first they came for POD” department: Newspapers, magazines, press syndicates, not just e-book and POD publishers, should beware of Amazon’s lock-ins.
So what can you do about it? Here are some ideas:
There are contact addresses here, so you can tell Amazon to quit bogarting POD distribution.
Boycott them & quit generating revenue for Amazon.com via your websites.
The Authors Guild is seeking input that will help them move forward with legal plans because of Amazon’s possible violation of antitrust laws.
This article suggests that the California Attorney General would be most interested in Amazon’s business practices.
(I still plan on using Lulu.com to publish my poetry manuscript this year.)
Tags: amazon, amazon.com, booksurge, diy, diy publishing, ingram book group, lightning source, Lulu.com, micropresses, Nashville, pod, Poetry, Poetry News, small press, small presses, united states of generica
Rex Hammmock responds:
Posted: April 6th, 2008 at 4:30 pm →
Thanks for mentioning my post. Frankly, I too was surprised there was no local business news coverage of the story as there’s a direct Nashville connection. Print on demand is not a well-known facet of book publishing outside the book world, however, it has nothing but upside potential. That Ingram was an early player — and has been successful in integrating POD and traditional book distribution — means it is a party to whatever happens in this turn of events. I have a feeling this story will gain legs in the coming weeks — nationally, and even locally.
Collin Kelley responds:
Posted: April 7th, 2008 at 11:11 am →
I just blogged about this over at the VRZHU Press blog since they also use Lulu. http://vrzhu.typepad.com/
Jilly Dybka responds:
Posted: April 8th, 2008 at 10:49 am →
I hope Lulu.com et al stand up to Amazon.
L. Lee Shaw responds:
Posted: April 29th, 2008 at 4:59 pm →
Just thought you should know, it appears Lulu has apparently signed with Amazon/Booksurge.