2 Texans Down Under

Angela Hoy, one of the two owners of the company that published my print-on-demand book, Moving to Australia: Two Texans Down Under, blew the whistle last week on a heavy-handed threat from a company about which I’d always had positive feelings, Amazon.com. Now their “goodwill” capital with me and lots of others is fading fast. This is not, unfortunately, an April Fools joke. It’s real, and here’s a short version of the story.

Print-on-demand (POD) publishers, and there are many of them, are being told by Amazon.com: We have our own POD company now. We’re going to sell on line only the POD books our company publishes or those of POD companies that pay us a hefty fee and meet other requirements. Take it or leave it.

Authors and would-be authors, who are among Amazon’s best customers, are getting the same message.

Kathy Hendershot-Hurd, my friend and advisor, correctly notes that this story is turning into a viral firestorm for Amazon.com. Of course, Amazon.com may be too dominant in their market to care. Might doesn’t make right, but it may, this time, let Amazon get away with a monopolistic dictate.

Or maybe not. At the end of this blog, you’ll see Kathy’s list of more than 60 bloggers who are speaking out and spreading the word, along with her invitation for the rest of us to help spread the virus. Maybe Amazon.com isn’t inoculated against this blatant power grab’s effects after all.

For the full report from Angela in Writer’sWeekly, click here. For Kathy’s views, go to her blog by clicking here. Here’s her invitation:

I’d like to do my part by listing the 60+ references to this story. Feel free Read the rest of this entry »