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Amazon.com Tries to Bully Publishers

Print-on-demand, or POD, has become an important technology in book publishing and will only become even more so. Instead of having to pay for a run of thousands of books, individuals and companies can have single copies turned out when needed. They are more expensive, but can be the difference between financial feasibility of a new book or non-existence.

But Amazon.com is trying to force publishers that use POD technology to get it from the reseller's own division. Don't buy from them, and they disable the Buy button on a book's listing. Here's a Publishers Weekly article, and one from a writers' weekly newsletter called, appropriately, Writers Weekly.

Think I'm going to reconsider from where I buy any of my books. Any reseller with this much of a stranglehold is too big for the good of us all.

Labels: Amazon.com, books, publishing

posted by Erik Sherman @ 11:08 AM