Amazon from a spiritual perspective

When I visited the Books and Tales forum today that I often post on, I found an interesting reply on one of the threads regarding a partnership between Lightning Source and On Demand Books (the owners of the Espresso Printing machines that I mentioned on here some time ago). The poster of this article links to an original article posted in February on Publishers Weekly, which seems to be the American version of Publishing News.

The article, written by Judith Rosen states that the two are entering into a partnership whereby On Demand Books will have access to to all data held by Lightning Source, enabling them to print not just American books, but any book at all listed in Lightning Sources' vast and rapidly expanding catalogue. These books will be printed not in 2 hours as is currently the case with Lightning Source's own machines, but in fifteen minutes, and for a fraction of the cost of conventionally published books. Will that change things or what? !

Granted the machines are expensive, and for the moment at least there are only a handful in commercial use, in the following locations: University of Alberta Bookstore in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; the Internet Archive Office in San Francisco, California; the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vermont; the Bibliotheca Alexandrina at Alexandria, Egypt.

Lin Robinson, who posted this on Books and Tales, goes on to say that there will very soon be several more - at the New Orleans Public Library in New Orleans, Louisiana, The University of Michigan Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan and at DA Information Services in Mitcham, Australia.

This news is remarkable by itself, but even more so in the light of recent events regarding Amazon and their acquisition of print on demand company Booksurge, which was rapidly followed by their insistence that all those who wished their print on demand books to be listed directly on amazon.com must have their books printed by Booksurge.

It would appear Amazon, in its blatant attempt at creating a monopoly and controlling the authors right to choose, is flying in the face of a revolution in publishing that will eventually leave them floundering. The Espresso and Lightning Sources' partnership will change the face of publishing forever so that books no longer have to be printed in large print runs at all, and print on demand becomes the norm. It will revolutionise the way in which we do business and turn things around, so that print on demand authors and all authors in fact have much more control over every aspect of their work, and are no longer at the mercy of these faceless corporations who think we have no rights and that they have the right to walk all over us.

Thousands of books and periodicals will be there on these machines as searchable items which the consumer can print in minutes. Maybe then Amazon's move was an effort to get as big a slice of the pie as the possible before the wall comes tumbling down, like it did in Berlin all those years ago. How exciting would that be ...

I feel that there is definitely more to this than meets the eye. There are other issues at work here than just trying to monopolise the market. One has to understand why Amazon feel driven to do this. There is a lot of fear around in the US right now with the recession, and money is tight - things are far, far worse than we in the UK have been led to believe. Amazon are trying to strengthen their position as the number one discount retailer in the only way that they know how - by flexing their muscle. Maybe it will work, maybe it will fail, who knows - that is up to the public and not me. I do feel though that perhaps the only way to really stop this is to bring it off the Internet and into the printed press - on to the pages of the New York Times and newspapers across the length and breadth of America - but also in the UK. I am heartened then to see that this is now beginning to happen. This story though needs to reach the readers and those who buy books, as they are the ones who have the real power to change things by voting with their mice.

In the UK of course things, have taken an even more sinister turn, as Amazon are now threatening that if publishers offer books at discounted prices on their own websites, then Amazon will take the discounted price as the RRP (recommended retail price) and offer them 50 percent of that rather than 50 percent of the actual RRP. This is what I mean when I say that this is fear driven, and they are trying to ensure that they maintain their position. This though is not the way to do it, and it will fail, as we have laws in place in our country to stop this kind of thing - quite apart from the fact that it is breach of contract.

I can't help feeling that there is also a higher dimension to this - and this is about bringing these things into the open and levelling the playing field. It is not of course all about money, but this is an issue - the fact that book stores etc take so much of it. The shop that I work in doesn't have a 40 percent margin on the products we sell - on some products it is a lot more than this, but it averages at around 25 percent. It should then be the same in the book world. Why should they take all the money when we wrote the books? No other business either (with the possible exception of the music industry) has the right to return stock that they haven't sold up to a year after they bought it, so why should they be able to, and more to the point, why should authors and publishers be the ones who have to subsidise and pay for their mistakes? Why as well should we settle for low advances and shoddy treatment when celebrity ghost written titles get nominated for book prizes as recently happened with Katie Price?

You could get angry and frustrated at all this, and for a long time I did, but that does not help. Complaining does nothing except make you even more angry and frustrated, leaving you with no energy to do the other things that you need to do. What we need is to look at this from a detached perspective without getting overly emotionally involved; just state the facts quietly and calmly in as many places as we can, and let the book buying and reading public, as well as the publishing industry as a whole, understand where we are coming from and that things have to change. This is the only way that things will change. It took me a long time to understand this and to realise how unhealthy it was for me continually getting angry and fighting, but when I did finally realise this it was tremendously freeing, as the emotions no longer control me. I am now in control instead.

It is interesting to see how this is not just about POD authors, as it also effects the larger publishers - since many of them also now use POD for certain celebrity titles and to maintain back lists. POD is no longer a niche thing, but is becoming mainstream - it is big business now in the UK - heck, even literary agency PFD were talking on The Bookseller the other week about how they are starting an initiative with Lightning Source to bring their authors out of print titles back into circulation, prove that there is still a market for them and then try and use these sales to get the books published again. The number of books in print has never been higher and this is largely attributed to the rise in self publishing - in particular POD - I wrote about this on here just the other week.

The consensus seems to have been, for writing bloggers both in America and the UK for a long time now, that the old ways of doing business in publishing are no longer working and that something needs to change. This is way of forcing that change.

God is smiling

The book lovers forum which I mentioned on here a day or so ago, has several authors within its growing membership including myself, and lots of interesting threads to get ones teeth into. One of these is aimed at the writing members, posing the question, why is it that we feel compelled to write. I have often wondered this myself, but nevertheless, was surprised to read this morning the answer that I typed after I got home last night. I was so tired that I am surprised I had the time or the energy to write at all, but then I often find, as do other writers, that my best work is produced when I am in that state, as spirit becomes detached from the body, allowing the mind to get out of the way.

Here though is what I wrote:

"I write for lots of different reasons - to express happiness, anger, sadness, despair and the sheer lunacy of life, but also to help me gain clarity on the burning issues that bore through to my soul and make me think and question what I see around me in the world at large, and also to make others think and question. I write as a means of learning and finding out more about the world - I teach what I need to learn. Most of all though I write for the sheer love of it, and because it make me feel good to know that in some small way I am making a difference to this world."

It took me a while to warm up this site, and I left for a while after I first joined following some comments that some ignorant so and so posted about how it was perfectly okay to rob authors of their livelihood by buying second hand books. Each to their own. It is all water under the bridge now anyway, and actually since I returned I have not seen that member on there anyway.

The discussion re Katie Price continues to rumble on on that same site, with members agreeing with my comments regarding how this may all be part of the divine plan to bring such issues to the attention of the public at large and open up a dialogue regarding such issues. To me it is and will always be about the authors right to be honoured as the creator of that work. In a way though, when it comes to ghost writing, it goes with the territory that this will not be the case, at least not publicly anyway.

Ghost writers are often very private people. It is a difficult but interesting and very lucrative profession to get into if you have the stomach for it, as it provides a license to get right under the skin of these celebrities and ask them all those pertinent questions that no one else can - not so much maybe with Katie, as let's face it, there is not much of her life that has not already been shoved down our throats anyway. Ghost writers are also paid handsomely for their efforts - usually for a set fee, but often with these celebrity books, if they are sensible and have a good agent who can negotiate on their behalf, for a share of the profits. They do the work knowing that it is part of the deal for their name not to be mentioned and not wanting the publicity that goes along with all of this.

I believe though that things are changing, and there is a big backlash going on against these practises that the industry would be wise to listen to. The public are wising up to the way in which they are basically being conned, and things will therefore have to change. This takes time to filter down through the echelons of the publishing industry, which is notoriously resistant to change. It will though happen, it is an inevitability and only a matter of time - it is not if, but when.

Perhaps a fair compromise would be for the ghost writer to retain her anonymity (I know her name, but most of Katie's fans and those outside the publishing industry wouldn't), but for the prize money to be shared equally between them. Mind you, with the fuss that this has caused, I would be very surprised if the book won anyway. If it does, then I don't think we have seen anything yet, but only time will tell. I do know one thing though; I can guarantee that this will not be the last time that a book such as this courts such controversy and debate.

The Bookseller website has had a few interesting articles regarding print on demand in the last week or so, which indicates that that change may be happening faster than any of us thought. The first of these by Tim Tevnan says that the number of books published in the UK skyrocketed to the highest level ever last year, driven by an increase in print on demand titles.

According to Nielsen BookScan, the number of front list titles (books with both an ISBN and a 2007 publication date) sold last year hit 118,602, up a staggering 36 percent from 2006 when the figure was 86,984.

The amount of back list titles with a pre 2007 publication date, which I guess then would include mine, as we did not change the ISBN for the second edition, sold last year also increased by 28 percent, up to 758,125 from 590,464 in 2006.

While some of this can be attributed to more products such as maps etc carrying ISBN's, this is largely due to the rise in print on demand books. André Breedt, Nielsen BookScan research and development analyst said: "there have been more front list and individual titles sold than ever before. What we are really beginning to see is the effect of books never going out of print with print on demand."

Richard Charkin, MD of Bloomsbury, JK Rowling's publisher said "what you see here is a reflection of a vibrant and healthy society." He went on to say "the principle is that it is simply getting cheaper to publish, but more costly to market to the high street." Tell me about it!

Penguin UK c.e.o. Peter Field agreed stating "if there are 120,000 books published, so many of them are POD or academic monographs, which just won’t make it to the High Street. For trade publishers, we each make decisions to publish based on what we can market and sell into the trade." More's the pity, as these figures seem to clearly show that despite these assertions, these so-called experts do not always get it right. Print on demand, as I have said so many times, has so much potential, not just for authors such as myself wishing to take control of their work, but also for those whose books have gone out of print. These figures then come as no surprise whatsoever to me or I suspect, the majority of print on demand authors both in this country and abroad.

The second story which only goes to underline my point, relates to literary agency PFD, whom it seems somewhat controversially, are also embracing this technology. The article states that PFD are 'entering into a relationship' with Lightning Source, enabling them to bring out of print works from many of their authors, both living and dead, back into circulation through print on demand. These authors include names such as V S Pritchett estate, the Storm Jameson estate and author Angela Huth.

PFD believes that this deal will fulfil two different services; firstly to bring these out of print titles back into circulation, but also to give them the opportunity to re-present titles to publishers with a concrete sales history, with a view to being republished on a mainstream list. I wonder if they would offer to represent me then with the history that I now have and whether I would be deemed to have made sufficient sales to be worthy of their attention?

The books will be available through all the usual outlets that are typically open to Lightning Source books namely, Amazon, Bertrams and Gardners, as well as via PFD's own website. This is the bit that causes the most controversy, as it means in effect that PFD have become both publisher and agent, and one cannot help but wonder whether there is a conflict of interest here.

Still it does show that print on demand continues to make waves and inroads within the industry in a way that would have been unthinkable a few short years ago.

In the almost 2 years since the first edition of my book was published, there have been tremendous changes within the industry, which many thought would never have been possible With changes in the supply chain and the softening attitude towards self publishing and in particular print on demand, there has never been a better time to be embracing this route, and I am for one am really proud and excited to be in the midst of this revolution as one of the forerunners who has helped to bring this change about.

Sometimes I think that you have to hit rock bottom before you can come out the other side, as it is only by reaching this point that you can come to a place of surrender. It is no secret that things have been very tough for me of late, but I am at last beginning to turn the corner and see some light at the end of the tunnel (and thankfully it is not a train coming the other way!)

Last week I reported that I had received an order for 2 books from a Scottish branch of Christian book chain Wesley Owen. They sent the books straight back again though, leaving me £5 out of pocket having sent them on a firm sale basis in good faith. I emailed them for an explanation and was surprised to have an email back a few days later apologising and offering to send me a cheque to cover the cost.

The article in the the local paper was published in last weeks issue and has so far resulted in 2 more sales. I have also been offered the chance to have a stall free of charge at the end of April at one of my local town's most important and best attended annual events - the Brigitte Trust complimentary health day. I also today had an email from a friend from the astrology group I attended last night to say that she would like to buy 10 copies of the book to distribute to her friends. The number I still have to sell is slowly diminishing and God is smiling on me once more. Long may that continue.