AS IF IT WASN’T HARD ENOUGH!

You have heard me moan and groan about how difficult it is for new novelists to gain recognition and boost sales; and now Amazon has made it even more difficult. My publisher has informed all of their authors that Amazon is insisting on printing every PublishAmerica book they sell, in their own recently bought in-house digital printing facility. Their ultimatum implies that PublishAmerica must submit almost 60,000 separate book files (text and cover), and redo every single one of them so they conform to the complicated technical specs that Amazon's in-house press requires.

They also demand a huge increase of their own profit-per-book, which would lead to dramatically lower royalty payments for their authors (that’s me) on all books sold through Amazon.com. Amazon's threat: if you do not play ball, we will disable the "Buy" button for your books.

Not surprisingly, PublishAmerica refused to be swayed by Amazon’s strong-arming tactics, big name or otherwise, especially given the fact that budging would mean an additional expense on the publisher's side of tens of thousands of dollars, on top of the unacceptable royalty losses for their authors (that’s me again).

PublishAmerica's almost 30,000 titles remain available to Amazon. Amazon continues to be able to access their books; if they want to obtain any PublishAmerica title, they can at all times, as they always have.

Barnes and Noble remains PublishAmerica's number one customer: more of their books have always been sold through Barnes and Noble and that company's online store than through any other vendor. Given the new circumstances, they now fully anticipate significant sales increases through BarnesandNoble.com and other places.

I have contacted Amazon about their Draconian approach to the change in the way they do business; suggesting that they grandfather in existing titles and require adherence to their new business practices for future titles. If and when I receive a response from Amazon I will report back to you. In the meantime –

KEEP THE FAITH!