There's An Amazon In Your Pocket-Big Time!

Okay, sharpen those pencils, pull out the pocket calculator and let’s tot up what the wages will be working as a serf in the kingdom of Amazon. Since it is currently easier to get a hold of nuclear secrets than it is Amazon’s POD contract, we came up with some hypotheses extrapolated from bits and pieces we have found scattered around the web.

Hypothesis No. 1: The contract is not likely tilted to the benefit of POD publishers and authors. Why? Because nobody who signs it is allowed to say anything about it. It has that, “an offer you can’t refuse” Godfather feel; the one you sign so they don’t break your kid’s fingers.

A Little More Than a Hypothesis No. 2: One bit of leakage is that you must set the list price of your book at or below what you or any other vendor can sell it for. Translation: you can NEVER sell it or allow it to be sold for less than what Amazon is selling it for. Amazon reserves the absolute right to increase its discount (lower your book price) when and how it chooses, even if it puts you in the place where you might actually OWE them for each book sold. Basically, you will be granting them exclusive right to set the price of your book. (And no, dear, they don’t care about your overhead or author commitments.)

A Little More than a Hypothesis No. 3: Amazon is demanding a minimum of a 48% discount on each book. That will also require that 48% discount be given to every other bookstore you sign up with, virtual or otherwise. (It’s the law.) No more opportunity to use short discounts to make the price of your book competitive in the virtual marketplace.

Hypothesis No. 4: Once publishers and authors are locked into their contracts, Amazon has the power to potentially rig the entire game in their favor because you have NO CHOICE. They can charge whatever they want for set-up fees, per page print fees, even an annual storage fee for keeping your book in their computer. And then there is the opportunity of creating other streams of income by requiring books be edited and designed through their services which means they could force all promotional materials such as postcards, bookmarks, etc. be purchased through their sources. (If they do the cover design, where are you going to get the files to send to another printer?)

Hypothesis No. 5: Nobody’s mentioning returns, that ubiquitous albatross hanging on the publishing world’s neck. What will be the policy on that and how will it affect you? Well, looking at the Member Agreement on Amazon’s CreateSpace site, returns (excepting flawed products) are deducted from the publisher/author sales credit account with no extra fee charge. HOWEVER, returns made for misrepresentation of the content of a title result in a $10 charge in addition to the deduction of the sales credit. Also Amazon, in its sole discretion, determines what happens to returned copies. They can accept a return, deduct the sales credit from your account and then use the book to fill another order without paying you the sales credit. Gosh, they get paid twice for the same unit and you get zilch! Kinda make you wonder what's in the real-deal contract, doesn't it?

Stay tuned for Part II-The (Whose) Advantage program!