Amazon and Print on Demand - the struggle continues

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.