Re: amazon and filtering

From: "Elizabeth Burton"
> Kent,
.........
> I'll caution everyone not to take all the hysteria this issue 
> has
> generated at face value.

Liz,

I recognise that your judgement is that this is 'hysteria';  to 
me it is justifiable concern at the growing monopoly power of one 
bookseller, that is further using that power to dominate other 
sales areas.

>
> A 55% discount is standard for the print publishing industry.

Well, I thought we were entering a new age, where the standards 
are not automatically accepted as necessarily right?   why is 55% 
the standard.   Why is it the standard if it enables Amazon to 
discount by 20% or whatever?   Perhaps I don't want my books 
discounted;  so why should I not specify a 35% discount?

More simply:  who is in charge, and who*should* be in charge?

Cries
> that Amazon is a vendor not a distributor don't hold 
> water--they
> distribute to their various overseas warehouses, which is a 
> costly
> proposition even given LSI books can be printed in the UK.

Sorry, I don't go with this.   If their business model leaves 
them with so little room let them put an end to discounts to the 
customer and to free p&p (s&h).   Why should they cut into my 
business model?   And please tell me why, if I like working with 
LSI, I should be forced to work with Booksurge?   The effects of 
demanding the big discount can be achieved much more simply.

Many of the
> publishers who are shouting so loudly are either 
> self-publishing
> authors or ebook publishers who offer print if their authors so
> desire. They give LSI a short discount, apparently not 
> understanding
> that gets passed down the artery, and which means Amazon may 
> well be
> losing money on most if not all sales of their books. Amazon 
> decided
> to kill the free ride. TANSTAAFL.

How is this a 'free ride'?   I just do not understand.   Like all 
retailers Amazon is free simply to refuse to carry the listing 
unless the demanded discount is offered.   That leaves the choice 
reasonably in the hands of the author/publisher.   And LSI could 
then offer an advisory note explaing the effects of different 
discounts.   But again if Amazon stops offering a deep discount 
as standard its problem is solved.

>
> Finally, I find it ironic that people are protesting the very 
> thing
> that makes print-on-demand different from offset/web: it can 
> eliminate
> the middle man.

Liz, your logic here defeats me utterly.   I thought the two 
points about POD were that a) it does not require a big 
investment in book printing and b) it is flexible.   It seems 
that Amazon is attacking both these advantages.

Yes, you'll pay for the privilege, but, well, see
> previous paragraph. Amazon says we have a perfectly capable 
> printing
> plant.

And I have a couple of quaint bridges you can buy, with a free 
column currently stored in Trafalgar Square.   LSI also has a 
perfectly capable printing plant.   What is my precise advantage?

If the POD books come from there, we can have them as soon as
> we need them (Amazon orders have priority at the Booksurge 
> shop)

So it *is* an in-house printer?;   this gets worse.

and
> we can make more money from them. AMAZON won't benefit directly 
> from
> the printing costs--that goes to Booksurge.

HUH??!!   Corporation models are not thought of in this way 
anyway.   The question becomes *group* bottom line.   For that 
companies may individually be deliberate loss leaders, or run 
purely for prestige, or run simply to drive out the opposition. 
Booksurge, anyone?

Amazon is prepared to
> commit resources to provide FREE transfer of all book files to
> Booksurge, and unlike LSI they to date haven't charged an 
> annual
> storage fee. Anyone care to estimate how much that's going to 
> cost in
> employee hours?

And to further establishment of a monopoly?

>
> Notice how that part tends to get lost in the Amazon-as-bully 
> rhetoric?

Well, as I hope I have indicated, it does not get lost, just 
understood as a classic bully model.    We are all affected by 
three big players following the same pattern - Microsoft, 
Google -- and Amazon.

>
> IOW, everybody shouting for revolution seems determined to 
> overlook
> that Amazon certainly has a right to decide the terms under 
> which
> they'll do business, are not obligated to take constant revenue 
> losses
> to be nice to a slew of presses and authors who may sell half a 
> dozen
> copies a year and have actually committed significant resources 
> to
> making the transition as easy as possible.

When the Generals stage a coup, revolution may be the only 
answer.

>
> Do I think the whole thing could have been handled better? I 
> thought
> so at first, but then I thought about how likely success would 
> have
> been if Amazon had contacted these same publishers and ASKED 
> them to
> pretty-please place their POD files with Booksurge. For all I 
> know,
> they did, and I can imagine how useful it was.

Liz, you talk of success, yet I am still not clear what the 
objective is, apart from extension of monopoly.   You speak of 
placing files with Booksurge as though Amazon has a *right* to do 
so.   It has no such thing.   It is behaving like a spoilt brat 
and needs its bottom tanned!!

>
> Now I'm being chastised elsewhere for refusing to join in a 
> boycott of
> all things Amazon. I'm a traitor to the cause, insensitive to 
> the
> rights and feelings of my fellow authors and publishers. Never 
> mind
> that I may be the only one there in possession of the above 
> noted
> facts--among others. It's the principle of the thing.

Indeed I believe you have that right.   But what principle are 
you espousing.   Mine is freedom of choice and prevention of 
monopoly.   [Or maybe even the typo - which I have just 
corrcted - expresses it better:  monoploy].

>
> Well, I have 100+ authors who trust me to make sure their books 
> are
> available for sale in as many places as possible. If they,
> individually, ask to have their book's link to Amazon removed, 
> I'll do
> it; but as a company? Not a chance.
>
> Liz
>
> Elizabeth Burton, Executive Editor
> Zumaya Publications LLC
> Opening Doors to the Creative Mind
> http://www.zumayapublications.com

Liz,  you already state your books are at Booksurge;  also with 
over a hundred authors you are not a micro player.   This would 
not directly affect you at present.   I simply remind you of the 
warning that came out of Naziism:  '...when they came for me 
there was no one left'.

Joseph Harris 


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