Amazon - The Great Dictator - by Darren Laws
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"Amazon is turning its attention to publishers who sell their books cheaper on their own sites than at Amazon. An example of this is if a book is sold on Amazon for £20 and £10 on my website, then Amazon will only return £5 for a sale on their site after they take their 50% mark up. I can't help but think though that in both cases it is the small publisher that will feel the brunt of Amazon's bullying. It seems that Amazon has woken up to the fact that it is the dominant retailer and holds an extraordinary position of power on the Internet. It is now beginning to flex its muscles and see how far it can go in intimidating the book world." - Darren Laws, Book Trade
More news items and updates
April 10, 2008 - Have your book printed at the store? Lightning Source and On Demand Books have "signed a strategic alliance to explore developments in in-store on-demand book printing”. more>
April 7, 2008 - Book Trade reports how Amazon is starting to turn the tables on anyone who publishes, by controlling the price so Amazon is the only company who can sell at a discount. This is after their current move to become the printer for all print-on-demand books sold on their website by their Amazon company BookSurge, or loose Amazon's 'buy now' button.
Update April 8, 2008 - Publishers Weekly - Authors Guild Looking at Antitrust Issue of Amazon's POD Plan
The Authors Guild says: "Once Amazon owns the supply chain, it has effective control of much of the "long tail" of publishing -- the enormous number of titles that sell in low volumes but which, in aggregate, make a lot of money for the aggregator. Since Amazon has a firm grip on the retailing of these books (it's uneconomic for physical book stores to stock many of these titles)..."
April 8, 2008 - Book Trade - UK's Leading Writers Website Boycotts Amazon
"It is also a red-flag to the publishing industry in terms of how Amazon may use their influence on books from mainstream commercial publishing houses in the future."
April 7, 2008 - Article from Mark Jeffery on his publishing experience and the current situation with Amazon
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