Where will it all end? It seems that the POD world is in chaos.

An interesting post Which PODs are affected by Scamazon 2008? « PODdy Mouth - Daily Dirt on POD and Self-Publishing reports:

“There is a lot of guess work flying around the Internet about how the Scamazon shake-down will affect the POD services, and which ones it will affect the most (and why). Since I’m always up for a little conjecture, I’ll offer my two cents worth on that subject here and next time I’ll provide some data about each POD I mention to ‘justify’ my position (as if I have to do that - ha!) - I’ll focus on the 16 PODs that took part in my recent self-publishing sweet 16 tournament.”

The post makes for interesting reading - read the comments too.

If you’re writing a book and intend going the POD route, read your contract carefully.

Oh dear. Sad story about yet another publisher - Lonely Planet - which doesn’t check the credentials of its writers.

Lonely Planet reeling after author’s fraud | NEWS.com.au reports:

“An email to management posted on the company’s internal authors’ forum describes Mr Kohnstamm’s book as ‘a car crash waiting to happen’.

‘Why did you (management) not understand that when you hire a constant stream of new, unvetted people, pay them poorly and set them loose, that someone, somehow was going to screw you?’ author Jeanne Oliver wrote.”

Read the entire story. It’s enough to make you shudder.

Amazon’s new POD policy has set the cat amongst the pigeons.

IT’S NOT OVER! Amazon Tells Publishers, Pay Us To Print Your Books…Or Else reports:

“Tuesday, April 1st, was the rumored deadline Amazon.com gave to some POD publishers to sign an agreement allowing their printing division, BookSurge, to print each publisher’s book to be sold through Amazon, or risk having their ‘buy’ buttons turned off on the Amazon.com website. Publishers, authors, and even book buyers were outraged by this apparent power-grab by Amazon. Attorneys and government officials are still studying the legality of their actions. How could they demand such a thing and what publisher in their right mind would agree to their ridiculous terms? While a band of POD publishers stayed together, refusing to sway to Amazon’s demands, some did not.”

I’m not up to date with POD, but I applaud Angela Hoy’s BookLocker policy:

“You can’t promise your authors something that involves another company if you don’t have a contract with that other company. Our BookLocker contract states, “Sales channels can be added or removed at the Company’s discretion and without prior notice. While the Company provides listings to Ingram for print books, online bookstores, such as Amazon.com, are not required to list these titles for sale. Listings offered by online bookstores are at the discretion of each particular store.”

If you let another company control your business, essentially you don’t have a business.