The Golden Pencil: The Freelance Writer’s Resource

Peter Bowerman on Amazon/BookSurge

by Anne Wayman on May 30th, 2008

One of my heroes is Peter Bowerman. His most recent book, The Well-Fed Self-Publisher is based on his very real-world experience publishing two best sellers, The Well-Fed Writer and The Well-Fed Writer: Back for Seconds.

I checked his blog and didn’t find anything about Amazon’s controversial attempts to force self-publishers to print through Amazon-owned BookSurge to be able to sell at the online bookstore in the normal way. So I asked him what he thought. (Amazing what happens when you simply ask!) Here’s what he said:

Hi Anne,

Actually, I haven’t written anything about this, but it seems the whole world has weighed in on it, so here goes…

It’s obviously a ham-handed move on their part, and one which, thus far, has rightfully brought them almost universal condemnation. The one great thing about Amazon has always been its democratic approach to book selling, meaning anyone with a book can get listed in a popular, easily accessible database, making it easy to sell books. Obviously, this move will primarily hurt those who’ve already paid the POD toll to another company and now find themselves locked out of Amazon, unless they switch over. Which will entail additional expense (though whether it’ll be starting from ground zero, cost-wise, I’m not sure, but one has to assume so).

Clearly, this is the case of the 800-pound gorilla flexing its muscles and pulling a power play. I know of some authors and sites representing those authors who’ve boycotted Amazon as a result of their decision. I’m about to embark on a virtual book tour (through Dorothy Thompson and http://www.pumpupyourbookpromotion.com) and one of the blogs I’m posting on, Shel Horowitz’s, asked me where people could find my book, adding, “Someplace other than Amazon, as I’m boycotting them.” And while that stance is no doubt principled, it strikes me as a somewhat futile gesture. Can most POD authors, with exceptionally limited access to the buying public as it is, really afford to bypass Amazon? What other options do they have?

Taking the somewhat cynical - and arguably irrelevant - view, stats show that most POD authors only sell, on average 100-200 copies of their books, and THEY, the authors themselves, are buying two-thirds of them! Meaning the really dollar impact of this move won’t be that much anyway. But, it truly IS the principle of the thing, and it’s a crummy way to endear yourself to those many authors who help to pay your bills. By the same token, even if each author doesn’t contribute all that much to the Amazon coffers when it’s all said and done, they make up that “long tail” which, by sheer volume, no doubt adds up to a non-trivial sum. So, why alienate them? Because, bottom line, they can. It’ll be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

Peter Bowerman, author
The “Well-Fed” series
www.wellfedwriter.com
www.wellfedsp.com

So there you have it from Peter… thanks Peter, it’s appreciated.

Write well and often,

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