Rumors Confirmed: Amazon.com's New Policy Regarding Print-On-Demand Books

As March 2008 drew to a close and April began, the Internet whirled with rumors about a new policy at Amazon.com regarding print-on-demand books. The news broke first on blogs of writers and publishing execs, but anything verified or confirmed was hard to come by. The Wall Street Journal picked up the story but qualified itself due to such sources. Still, the rumors persisted.

Being the author of a print-on-demand book myself ("Following Hope", Xlibris 2007), I was concerned about these rumors. What were they? It was claimed that Amazon.com was shutting off the "buy" buttons on all print-on-demand books not printed through Amazon's POD service BookSurge so that these would no longer be available through Amazon except through third party or used books sellers registered with Amazon.com. The rumors followed swift on the heels of the scandal involving PublishAmerica and some thought the mega-webstore was using that scandal as an excuse to put a monopoly on the print-on-demand industry by thus restricting one of the foremost markets for such books.

There is some merit to this concern. Amazon.com is the premier online retailer of books. POD services and the books they publish rely heavily- sometimes exclusively- on online sales. As much as 80% of such online sales could be from Amazon.com and related companies in some cases. Since more books are
being printed via POD services today than by traditional publishers, the possible losses in that case could be massive to certain POD services and especially the authors employing them.

As the rumors gathered momentum, someone set up an online petition against Amazon's decision. The deadline given for the full-scale shut-off of the "buy" buttons was rumored to be April 1, 2008. Well, April 1^st came and went, and I found that the "buy" button for my book still worked. Was this perhaps an April Fools scam? Because of the implications of such an action on the POD industry and the publishing industry as a whole as well as on my own interests as a writer, I determined to find out the truth.

After numerous hours online attempting to trace down credible sources and several emails to my POD service Xlibris and to Amazon.com, I have determined that the rumors are indeed true. Xlibris ultimately declined to comment on the matter, but I have to assume- since the "buy" button for my book still works- that they have made arrangements with Amazon to use their BookSurge printers to print the books that Xlibris supports or are using the Amazon Advantage Program.

These policies are: Amazon is requiring that print-on-demand books be printed inside Amazon's own fulfillment centers. Any publisher can use Amazon's POD service just for those units that ship from Amazon and continue to use a different POD service provider for distribution through other channels. If one wishes to continue using a different POD service for all of their units, there is available the Amazon Advantage Program which requires that a POD service print and ship to Amazon in advance a small amount of books to be kept in inventory. Typically, this would be approximately 5 copies.

The reasons the company is giving for this change in policy boils down to customer convenience. Under the old policies, if someone ordered a POD book along with another item these would have to be shipped separately or the order would be delayed until the order for the POD book could be relayed to the POD service and the book printed and shipped to Amazon where it would then be shipped to the customer. Under the new policy these orders can be more easily filled as one shipment resulting in shorter waiting times for customers and using less gas and cost for all the extra shipping transit. This seems reasonable enough.

As per the loss to authors and POD services: this can be minimised by directing potential readers to Barnes and Noble.com to buy the book there or some other website set up by the POD service or author for that purpose. This can be quite effective since statistics show that few people buy a POD book after a random search or from browsing. Most buy the book from a specific website or store because they are directed there by the author. If Amazon.com's new policies are unpalatable to you, perhaps the best method of protest is to do just that- direct your readers elsewhere.

As the print-on-demand industry becomes a greater force in the publishing industry at large, more changes are likely to occur. Amazon.com's new policy is just the beginning of the ripple effects of the impact of new technology on an old industry. Perhaps it's time someone savvy launched a webstore similar to Amazon.com specifically for independently published authors to sell their books through. Unconventional books require unconventional methods of marketing.

Sources for this article:

Sabne Raznik, http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/687605/is_amazon_shutting_out_pod_books.html "Is Amazon Shutting Out POD Books?, Associated Content.

The Amazon.com Books Team, http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?docId=1000213141, "Open Letter To All Interested Parties", Amazon.com.