Amazon Woes
This isn't so much advice seeking as it is a space to vent and discuss
Amazon's continued thuggery.
My publisher - and another publisher in the niche market I write for - isn't dealing with Amazon anymore, and it's frustrating for me.
A few months ago we put out an anthology I edited, and last night I went to see if any reviews had been posted on Amazon I couldn't find it. So I asked my Publisher about it. Apparently they have no intention of putting it on there. They changed printers because Amazon CreateSpace has "gotten squeamish about adult material" and the new printer doesn't have a direct link to Amazon.
I asked about putting up the ebook. The publisher seemed less than thrilled - he is willing eventually but is worried for the fact that Amazon pulled two of their previous titles (one of which I also edited and receive royalties on), and thus suspects their account is being "watched".
The publisher says that few of their actual sales came from Amazon, must customers either buy at conventions (this pub goes to 9) or get dead tree/digital copies directly from their site. My novella is through this publisher, and I have noted only a few sales came through Amazon each quarter.
A few months ago, I was applying for an editing job with a mainstream small press. They contacted me, frustrated, because they wanted an ebook copy of a book I had edited and couldn't find it on Amazon. Unfortunately, Amazon had removed that book completely, and while I sent an ebook copy to the pub after some delay, I can't help but think it didn't look presentable.
The loss of potential sales irks me, but what upsets me more is how much Amazon is sabotaging everyone else. What is it, a third of books purchased online go through Amazon? Their own e-reader is huge. Not having your catalog on Amazon feels like a losing game as an author. The continued abuse of Hachette (I linked at the top) and their prudish deleting of adult content is a big concern for me.