Thanks for nothing, Amazon.

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veinglory

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Those of you who sell e-books through Amazon will note that all ebooks were deleted from their catalogue sometime yesterday with the exception of mobipocket format. Many publishers were *not* given prior warning. Coincidentally Amazon recently purchased Mobipocket. Can you say "anti-trust"?
 
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bubblegirl

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Huh?

Who told you this?

My ebooks are still available on Amazon. Were they ALL deleted, or are they still in the process of deleting them all?

s.
 

veinglory

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You may notice a little green box on the right hand colum saying 'This item is currently not available.' If you do not see it, refresh the page.

There have been rumours about this for weeks and so far all the ebook authors I have spoken wth can confirm their books are no longer on sale although their page may still show (some seem to be gone altogether).

When I search I do still find some html and adobe books hanging on but I expect to see them fade away shortly.

ETA: Bubblegirl, I tried to follow the ebook links on your website and got 'not available' for one and a direct to the paperback version of the the other.
 
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veinglory

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And I quote:

"For a period of time, e-Books will not be available on Amazon.co.uk. We encourage customers looking for e-Books to visit Mobipocket.com (www.mobipocket.com), an Amazon.com company, offering tens of thousands of titles for immediate purchase.
Rest assured, any e-Book that you've purchased from Amazon.co.uk in the past will remain available for download.

Amazon.co.uk"

My immediate reaction? Bollocks.
 

ATP

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It has been my impression, received from numerous comments by others, that Amazon's behaviour towards its 'users' ( I'm not sure this is the correct word in this particular instance) borders on the preditory behaviour of the international computing software giant that shall remain nameless, but whose name begins with the 13th letter of the alphabet...
 

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It is my understanding that this is part of an intergration move, and very temporary.
 

veinglory

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I get mixed signals. They say 'rest assured' all books will still be available--but signal that only mobi format will be sold. Well my books are not available in mobi format nor is their any arrangement with my publishers to do that.

Given that the current purge was very sudden and hardly author-oriented I am far from 'resting assured'. What is being intergrated with what--why is there no information out their or official prior warning?
 

bubblegirl

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Oh, a green box. Tricky! It's as if they wanted us to miss the change lol

Broken links? Sounds like a job for tomorrow! Thanks for telling me.
 

veinglory

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this from amazon.com googlechache

"As of July 12, 2006, Microsoft and Adobe format e-books are no longer available on Amazon.com. As part of our commitment to provide the best customer experience possible, we are now supporting the Mobipocket format. We remain committed to e-books and encourage customers to visit www.mobipocket.com where they can purchase and download tens of thousands of the most popular titles."

http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache...com+e-books&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2&ie=UTF-8

And not even the blogosphere has noticed. Maybe ebooks really are that unimportant. How depressing.
 

JulesJones

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What particularly annoys me about this is that on the ones I've checked, they have left the page up, with the book marked "unavailable". There is nothing to indicate that this means "not currently available through Amazon, but still in print and available elsewhere". I don't think it's a coincidence that they've effectively made it look as if the book is out-of-print.

Hey Em - the page for Mindscan currently suggests "Eclipse of the Heart as the "Better together" option. :)
 

citymouse

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I checked Amz's subsidiary site. They have no category for GLBT--just erotica. Which we all know dosen't not begin to encompass the whole of GLBT literature. I also checked for several well known Gay and Lesbian authors and they too are absent from the author's list. Perhaps this will be remedied at a later date. Bet not!
 

citymouse

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Well now that I've calmed down, I spoke with my partner who worked for AMZ.com for many years. He said not to panic. Keep a watch for a re-direct and also the addition of ebooks and categories. He also said this was typical for Amz. They recently revamped their Borders catalog and for a while it seemed that Amz and Borders had severed their on-line relationship but they're up and running as before.

The only thing that gets me is many of my Asia-Pacific sales are ebooks.
 

veinglory

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My books are pulled withou warning and there is absolutely no information made available. No--I will not be calm and patient, I will be annoyed. I will be making sure all my amazon links for print and e- get pulled and promote other vendors.

I am patient and calm with vendors I trust who keep me informed.
 

citymouse

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veinglory said:
No--I will not be calm and patient, ...

Actually Peter was telling me to be calm and patient.
 

huw

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I noticed Amazon UK stopping its ebook offerings and referring purchasers to mobipocket some time ago, and assumed it was something to do with wanting to distance itself from that market (I thought that they might not have been sure they had the rights to distribute many ebooks outside the USA).

It's only recently that I realised that Amazon has bought mobipocket and is standardising on that format because it gets more revenue by selling a format it owns. It could turn out to be a bad move: Amazon were already struggling to compete against other ebook retailers, IME, and cutting back to one format will hardly help.

Unless they try for a format-exclusive deal, i.e. "if you want to list with us, you may not offer any formats other than mobi." Now that surely _would_ invite an antitrust suit.
 

JulesJones

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Curiouser and curiouser. My book Mindscan is still listed as "not available", and yet the sales ranking moevement over the week suggests that they've sold two copies during the week...
 

huw

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Amazon is now inviting rights-owners to publish ebooks through Mobipocket; book pages have an "if you're the rights holder..." box. It seems that the Mobipocket publishing software will be a free download for publishers (how they will determine who is a publisher, I don't know). At least free is better than the old price of $149!

You have to print and sign an agreement, and send/fax it to Mobipocket in France. Amazon then apparently creates an account for you and sends you a link to download the free publishing software.
 

dclary

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Wow. That sucks.

It would seem to me this would be an ideal time for some other company to step in and take Amazon's place here.
 
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