{"id":733,"date":"2008-04-12T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2008-04-12T00:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shilohwalker.wordpress.com\/?p=733"},"modified":"2008-04-12T00:00:01","modified_gmt":"2008-04-12T00:00:01","slug":"authors-guild-take-on-amazon-pod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2008\/04\/authors-guild-take-on-amazon-pod\/","title":{"rendered":"Author's Guild Take on Amazon & POD"},"content":{"rendered":"

Received this via email from several sources…<\/p>\n

From The Author\u2019s Guild<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Last week Amazon<\/span> announced that it would be requiring that all books that it sells that are produced through on-demand means be printed by BookSurge, their in-house on-demand printer\/publisher. Amazon<\/span> pitched this as a customer service matter, a means for more speedily delivering print-on-demand books and allowing for the bundling of shipments with other items purchased at the same time from Amazon<\/span>. It also put a bit of an environmental spin on the move \u2014 claiming less transportation fuel is used (this is unlikely, but that\u2019s another story) when all items are shipped directly from Amazon<\/span>.<\/em>
\nWe, and many others, think something else is afoot. Ingram Industries\u2019 Lightning Source is currently the dominant printer for on-demand titles, and they appear to be quite efficient at their task. They ship on-demand titles shortly after they are ordered through Amazon<\/span> directly to the customer. It\u2019s a nice business for Ingram, since they get a percentage of the sales and a printing fee for every on-demand book they ship. Amazon<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the rub? Once Amazon<\/span> owns the supply chain, it has effective control of much of the \u201clong tail\u201d of publishing \u2014 the enormous number of titles that sell in low volumes but which, in aggregate, make a lot of money for the aggregator. Since Amazon<\/span> has a firm grip on the retailing of these books (it\u2019s uneconomic for physical book stores to stock many of these titles), owning the supply chain would allow it to easily increase its profit margins on these books: it need only insist on buying at a deeper discount \u2014 or it can choose to charge more for its printing of the books \u2014 to increase its profits.<\/em> would be foolish not to covet that business.
\n
\nMost publishers could do little but grumble and comply.<\/em><\/p>\n

We suspect this maneuver by Amazon<\/span> is far more about profit margin than it is about customer service or fossil fuels. The potential big losers (other than Ingram) if Amazon<\/span><\/em> does impose greater discounts on the industry, are authors \u2014 since many are paid for on-demand sales based on the publisher\u2019s gross revenues \u2014 and publishers.<\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019re reviewing the antitrust and other legal implications of Amazon<\/span>\u2019s bold move. If you have any information on this matter that you think could be helpful to the Author\u2019s Guild, please call them at (212) 563-5904 and ask for the legal services department, or send an e-mail to : staff@authorsguild.org<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

*permission to forward\/post in it’s entirety granted.<\/a><\/p>\n

My take in the AG getting involved? Well, I’m not a member of the Guild. I keep planning on joining but just never get around to it. But if the Amazon thing wasn’t a big deal, I don’t think the AG would be getting involved or messing with it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Received this via email from several sources… From The Author\u2019s Guild: Last week Amazon announced that it would be requiring that all books that it “Author's Guild Take on Amazon & POD”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10161045129738658_54762468447":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ebooks"],"yoast_head":"\nAuthor's Guild Take on Amazon & POD - 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