Poetry Hut Blog

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.)

Poetry News:

1. — The 5-minute Interview: Felix Dennis, publisher and author —
2. — Poetry workshop: David Morley finds variety and accomplishment in equal measure in the nature poetry prompted by his March poetry ‘field trip’ —
3. — First mantra of the Rig Veda is the first known poem in the world —
4. — 2008 is the 120th anniversary year of poet T. S. Eliot’s birth —
5. — For many career lawyers, poetry isn’t simply a weekend hobby; it’s a second calling —
6. — Are Smart People Drawn To The Arts Or Does Arts Training Make People Smarter? —
7. — Telegraph.co.uk’s week-long series celebrating the great poets of the English canon —

I’m going to Lulu.com my poetry manuscript. I don’t want to have my poems checked for dingleberries - I don’t like the contest system.

I need some help with the cover. If you are an artist & are interested, please email me. I can’t pay much, because of my medical bills.

Also, if you have any advice re: lulu.com layouts — fonts, etc — so the book doesn’t look stupid, that would be appreciated.

Thanks.