And the Amazon answer...

Don't you just love spin???

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-printondemand


I don't know who they think they're fooling. Removing options for consumers is not going to save anyone time. It's going to have them shopping (or supplying) elsewhere.

Stop Booksurge and Amazon cold

www.ipetitions.com/petition/protectPOD

Not sure who is sponsoring the petition but I caught it this morning on the Writer Beware Blog.

I'm not in print, and I don't have a book on Amazon, so I have no beef, BUT I do not want a corporation ruling how my personal book business is done.

Feel free to pass this on.

Another discussion over the Amazon/BookSurge push

Check out Dear Author's post here:

http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2008/03/30/amazon-flexes-its-market-muscle/#comments

If you're not finding out what you want there, why not try these (although many basically say the same thing, it's a lot of opinions on how Amazon is doing the customer (and authors) wrong:

• A New Amazon Mandate? Say it ain’t so, Jeff by Morris Rosenthal
• Amazon Forcing POD Publishers to Make a Hard Decision, Virtualbookworm
• Amazon Tightens Grip on Printing by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, Wall Street Journal
• Amazon Tightens Noose on Print-On-Demand Publishers; Insists They Use Company’s Own Service by Rafat Ali, The Washington Post
• Amazon to Force POD Publishers to Use BookSurge by Jim Milliot, Publishers Weekly
• Amazon changes rules for print-on-demand publishers by Linda Rosencrance, Computerworld
• Amazon pulls a Microsoft by Robert L. Mitchell, Computerworld Blogs
• Amazon Puts the Squeeze on Publishers by Betsy Schiffman, Wired Blog Network
• Amazon Gets Demanding with Print-on-Demand Publishers, O’Reilly Radar
• Amazon.com puts the screws to small publishers, Valleywag
• Amazon’s POD monopoly, booktwo.org
• Is Amazon Getting Greedy? , open…
• Oh, REAL nice, Amazon.com, Beatlegirl’s Blog
• Market Report — In Play,MSN Money
• Amazon Muscles Print-On-Demand Services by Duncan Riley, TechCrunch
• Amazon & BookSurge, words count
• Urgent News for Authors, The Holistic Writer
• Monopoly - It’s Not A Game by Jean-Marie Hershey, Print CEO Blog
• Of oil lamps, Print on Demand, and e-book machines: Amazon’s Bezos as a would-be Rockefeller by David Rothman
• Deal Breaker? Amazon - BookSurge - POD - No Choice?, Workboxers
• Amazon.com’s POD land grab, BookFinder.com Journal
• Amazon Changes POD Tactics, Removes Velvet Gloves by Kassia Krozser, Booksquare
• Amazon The Monopoly, PersonaNonData
• Amazon Muscles Print-On-Demand Services, web2bite.com
• Use BookSurge or Die? by Victoria Strauss, Writer Beware
• Amazon/Goliath takes on the little guys by Helen Gallagher, Release Your Writing
• Amazon Bullies POD to Use Booksurge — or Else., Shadowhelm’s Journal
• Amazon Says It Will Only Sell Print-On-Demand Books That It Gets To Print, Techdirt
• Amazon deletes competition, LibraryThing
• What’s Amazon Up To Now? by Tawny Taylor
• Amazon Shaking the POD World Big Time, Juno Books
• A hearty “F$%k you!” to Amazon by Elf M. Sternberg
• A Call to Bloggers: Stop Supporting Amazon, Inhabitatio Dei
• Amazon to Force POD Publishers to Use BookSurge, Media Mensch
• Self Publishers and Amazon, Writerly Stuff
• Amazon Tightens Grip On Printing, booktrade.info
• Amazon to Block Other POD Services from Using Amazon Marketplace, Dear Author
• Amazon trying to screw small presses?, lupabitch
• Amazon’s Blatant Disrespect of Their Best Customers by Kathy Hendershot-Hurd, Beyond Niche Marketing
• Will Amazon Hurt Small Pagan Publishers?, The Wild Hund
• Amazon and us by Gill Polack
• Will Amazon Become the Google of the POD Industry? by Deborah Woehr
• Down with The Zon! by Celia Kyle
• Beyond the POD grab: The IDPF should fight Amazon’s new eBabel, look for anti-trust violations, and reach out to Google by David Rothman, TeleRead
• Amazon blocking books of competitive publishers?, electronista
• We are not amused–veinglory, PODPeople
• Bully on the block?, The Pearlsong Letter
• The monopolists: You need to worry about Amazon too by Eion Purcell
• Amazon owns the marketplace: return of the distributor, Thudfactor
• Is Amazon trying to monopolize the empowering Publish-On-Demand market?, Chris Boese’s Weblog
• 500 pound gorilla, Idle musings of a bookseller
• Bye-Bye “Buy Buttons” for POD Authors?, The Backroom at Dehanna.com
• Amazon Making a Big Mistake by Cheryl Pickett
• Amazon to force POD publishers to use Booksurge, Murder by 4
• Amazon.com’s dirty little deed, pds_lit
• Amazon’s Stupid Anti-Competitive Move, Principled Profit
• Amazon Bullying POD Writers and Publishers Unfairly, A-ha
• A Call to Bloggers: Stop Supporting Amazon, Resurrection Life
• Amazon.com Is On Drugs, Thought Patterns
• Amazon launches their weapon of mass destruction, steps on the long tail of independent authors by Mark Riffey
• Amazon puts the Squeeze on POD Publishers by Easy Author Web Sites
• An Important Lesson from Amazon on How NOT to Treat Your Customers by Virtual Impax

Amazon's lesson on monopolies

This hit the waves on Thursday or so, and it's looking more and more like they are going to go through with it. It's nothing short of strong arming small POD (Print on Demand) companies who service publishers for their author's books into using Amazon's printer to be marketed on their website.

What does that mean?

Amazon regulates who they publish, who they market, and can double charge you for the effort. They can charge you for the print of the book, then again for the sale of the book. No, not the consumer, oh heaven forbid! No, they can charge the AUTHOR. There's a fee to use the printer to supply the book and there's a fee to sell your book to the consumer.

There's thousands of authors at stake and tens of thousands of books. Please review the links, read the blogs, and read the comments. The comments are made by authors, readers and booksellers from around the world. Then tell Amazon if you feel this is fair, or an anti-trust, an anti-trade, demonic attempt to strong-arm the book publishers of the world to kowtow to a corporation.

Amazon.com's mission statement reads - "
“The mission of Amazon.com is to leverage technology and the expertise
of our invaluable employees to provide the best buying experience on
the Internet. Our goal is nothing short of building the world's most
customer-centric Company capable of providing our customers with the
best shopping experience online today, and into the future.”


http://www.writersweekly.com/the_latest...04597_03272008.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8032800327.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120667525724970997.html

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/...&id=8401149

Prays and healing thoughts to Emilio and his family

If you listen to Tejano music, there's a real good chance you've heard of Emilio. A native of San Antonio Texas, he's a Grammy Award talent signed with several music labels to date, since first starting out with Willie Nelson and George Strait singing both Tejano and Country.

Sunday he suffered severe injuries after being thrown through the windshield of his tour bus. The accident happened in Bellaire, southwest of Houston and he's in intensive care.

A couple News Links:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/27/america/NA-GEN-US-People-Emilio-Navaira.php
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/5641425.html

He's showing improvement, but at this time by the doctor's reports, it's too early to discern if it's going to continue in a positive manner. I want to send him, his family, wife and children, my heartfelt hugs and prayers for a full recovery.

Abrazos, Emilio.