The "Publish America"/ AMAZON.com controversy; disaster for authors!

[Ed Augusts]

There is a shameful business monopoly taking place right now.
Amazon,com appears to be the perpetrator and Publish America authors,
and, in fact, thousands of other authors, now, and in the near future,
are the clear victims, and victims-to-be. The dimensions of this are
only now becoming known.

I was noticing that Publish America has upteen thousand authors
they're publishing in their "book on demand" format. I considered
publishing through P.A. at one point, but when I researched the
company and its policies, it didn't seem to be a worthwhile
proposition for me. But there are THOUSANDS of Publish America
authors, all getting aboard the recent trend toward more and more
people writing and publishing (or self-publishing) thousands and
millions of books. I know I'm part of that 'movement' too, because I
have the ability now to crank-out a new E-Book every week or two.
Like Madam Blavatsky, I am using "automatic writing" to write chapter
after chapter of strange material that flies, word after word, off my
bewitched fingertips..

HOW AMAZON IS MAKING THINGS DIFFICULT

But how will I distribute and sell this written material? Ah! It
would be good if I could get aboard Amazon. But Amazon is making this
task tougher and tougher with each passing day. In fact, Amazon has
just turned off the "BUY" buttons of all Publish America authors
because Amazon is demanding that P.A., and other similar companies,
use Amazon's actual book publisher -- Booksurge -- or else! Unless
Publish America agrees, Amazon won't let those thousands of authors
list books for sale on Amazon anymore. Other authors, other
publishers, will evidently follow Publish America into the doghouse
because of Amazon.com's corporate greed.

This is all VERY upsetting to these Publish America authors, who are
caught in the crossfire. Without having done anything wrong, they're
suddenly unable to sell books on Amazon. I hope Amazon's executives
realize they've made a huge public relations nightmare for themselves
and quickly come around and let authors get on Amazon. If they don't,
Barnes & Noble will probably take over a larger share of the "book
search" and book purchase traffic from Amazon in the near future, and
whichever fathead at Amazon came up with this strategy of erasing
authors' ability to sell books on Amazon will be unmasked as an
indito.

There was quite a revelation about all this over at "Writer's
Weekly" , I believe the publication is called, just a few days ago.
Go have a look, maybe I've got some of my data wrong, I absorbed the
argument without jotting down ALL the fine points. And there might be
two sides to every issue... although that's not really right, either.
Were there 2 sides to Hitler invading Poland? .

Meanwhile, there is no lack of short fiction, or books in general out
there. It is said Americans are listening to more CD's, watching
DVD's, playing electronic games, etc., but you wouldn't know it if
you start of keep abreast of the EXPLOSION of books, short fiction, E-
Books, and business 'reports' (many of them SCAMS), that are out
there. .

Amazon has short fiction by thousands of authors, stories by the
(virtual) bushel full in .pdf format which they're selling from 49c &
up, I tried to get MY stories on there, but Amazon's closed its
doors to new short fiction for the indefinite future. Jeez! Talk
about a nickel short and five minutes too late, huh? Just when I
have dozens of books and E-Books that I myself have written and
"published", in E-Book, i.e., .pdf file. format!

"THE KINDLE" -- GOOD FOR A SELECT 10,000

Meanwhile, Amazon has come out with a hugely fabulous and amazing "E-
Book reading" device, the Kindle, a hand-held device, without
backlighting, which can hold (I think it is) 20 books-full of data at
any one time, and caj be used to look at any of about 10,000 Amazon
titles -- but only those titles which have made a 'deal' with
Amazon. By the way, the Kindle I saw (splashed all over Amazon's
home page), was $399.00 or so. BUT THERE'S A CATCH!! If you want
to read any books on it, you will have to fork over about $9.99 each
to Amazon for those that you want to read. And it looks like ONLY
those 10,000 Amazon titles are going to be made available... That's
nowhere near even 1% of just the RECENT titles that are "out there",.
None of MY 26 or 27 E-Books are going to be on Kindle, it looks like,
nor will any other authors using non-Kindle-compatible technology,
such as .pdf files & the like, be able to be 'read' on the Kindle.

So, from a sheer dollars-and-cents Ultra Capitalist perspective, you
have to be in awe of the management over at Amazon. In order to have
one's books available on Amazon, on the Kindle, let's say, a
publisher and/or author have to enter into a special agreement with
Amazon, as near as I can tell, this is going to cost plenty. And, if
a publ;isher doesn't agree to use Amazon's actual book publisher,
Booksurge, I believe it is called, they are out of luck. You see,
when a publisher or author sign up with Booksurge, they are evidently
paying one of the highest rates 'out there' to print a book. But why
should Amazon care? Booksurge is one of its companies, and it stands
to make a fortune by forcing people to use it.

MUST THE BIG FISH EAT THE LITTLE FISH ?

Amazon is looking to make more money, so it is going to do so out of
the pockets and skin of publishers and authors. It seems to be using
monopolistic strategies reminiscent of John D. Rockefeller's Standard
Oil trust which put dozens. maybe hundreds of small refiners and other
oil-related companies out of business, as well as techniques made
famous by Microsoft to gain the highest possible percentage of the
computer market.

Sometimes you almost wish the Soviet Union was still "out there" as a
possible alternative, a threat that used to keep the "Capitalists"
from running rampant over the people -- you know? I never thought I'd
hear myself SAY that, because I have always been a strong anti-
communist, (because of my family's origins in Eastern Europe and other
compelling reasons), but when I see how the big fish are gobbling up
the little fish right now, that's exactly how I feel! Especially when
a MONOPOLISTIC, greedy company, could keep me and others from bringing
books out where they can be seen and sold. Bring back an alternative
to monopolistic, greedy corporations, would you, please?
Somebody?
-----e.a. http://www.edaugusts.com
http://www.get-rich-buying-at-yard-sales.com