It seems Amazon is blatantly trying to take over and control the POD (Print-on-Demand) industry. They are demanding that publishers use their BookSurge subsidiary, instead of other companies, like Lightning Source. If the publishers don't use BookSurge, Amazon will disable their books' buy buttons.
This is also an attempt to get authors considering the self-publishing route to use Amazon's CreateSpace service, instead of other publishers like iUniverse and lulu.com. Read more about it in this Publisher's Weekly article, which also includes a link to Angela Hoy's (co-owner of BookLocker.com) inside info on the matter.
There is also a petition against Amazon's actions, here.
I guess iUniverse hasn't been cut off yet, because my novel is still available. Though I do wonder what will happen when the "1 left in stock" is sold. Will Amazon reorder after they deplete their stock of these type of books?
Into the Sunset
UPDATE
Amazon responds
2 comments:
You might be interested in the post on this issue on my Publishing Blog, "Amazon Declares War on Lightning Source."
http://www.aaronshep.com/publishing/blog.html
Aaron Shepard
Author, Aiming at Amazon
Webmaster, Sales Rank Express
Thanks for the link, Aaron. I'll make sure to keep checking your blog for updates. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out.
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