Can someone explain this to me?

[Samsonet]

Hi,

Please don't make fun of me for being gullible or ignorant. I'm young, I'm not in the publishing industry, and this post is giving me simultaneous "this can't be true" and "Amazon would totally do this" thoughts.

So, here's the post: The problem with Amazon and Indie Publishing

[FONT=&quot]It’s been brought to our attention that some serious nonsense is happening regarding Amazon and Amazon-owned distributors (looking at you Book Depository) stating falsely that our books are either out of stock (false) going to take two months to ship to you (FALSE) or allowing scalpers to set the price at ridiculous amounts such as these, instead of our actual price:[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]So what the heck is going on with Amazon then? Well, as I’m sure you’ll all be [/FONT]shocked to learn: Amazon is a complete bag of dicks and are actively throttling our sales because we chose not to use their printing service. Yep, I’ll say that again: Amazon actively throttles the sales of Indie Authors who choose not to use Kindle Direct to Print as their main printer and distributor and then tries to get you to buy the Kindle Version so THEY can get the sale:

It can't really be that nefarious, right?

...right?

 

[Dan Rhys]

I'm not saying it is impossible, but it's hard to believe a company with Amazon's status would pull that and risk ruining its reputation. I happen to have a book being sold on Amazon, and no one has complained of that kind of thing thus far.

 

[cool pop]

I wouldn't be shocked at all. Amazon is known for pushing ebooks over everything because that's where the money is for them especially concerning indies. Indies don't make much from paperback sales. Many make nothing. I make maybe a few dollars every four months if that from paperbacks.

I can't say if they are doing this, but I would not be surprised at all. Amazon is known for doing some incredibly underhanded things like blackmailing publishers, etc to take their crappy terms in order to sell in the store. Amazon is the shadiest company out there. Well, I'll take that back. AT&T and a few others are up there too. All companies look out for themselves first but Amazon is like the damn mob. Amazon steps over anyone and anything because it can. It has way too much power so that's why it can do the crap it does. Come on, Elizabeth Warren in 2020! Someone needs to put this place in check, if not the government than who? No one else can stop Bezos' wrath.

Amazon doesn't give diddly about their rep. Their rep is already mud! No one respects Amazon. Especially not in the book industry. They are just the devil you gotta sleep with but most know how dirty Amazon can be. Bezos cares about power and taking over the world. To hell with rep.

If I didn't have to sell there, I wouldn't but authors and publishers can't make it without Amazon. Hell, hardly anyone who sells a product can't make it without Amazon now. But I am not exclusive because of the way they are and never will be. Speaking of this paperback thing, this is the type of thing they do to authors who aren't exclusive to them. They penalize us by shoving our books down in the rankings and making it super hard for non-exclusive authors to get visibility. So, yes, put me in the camp with those believing Amazon is doing what the person claims. I would not put it past them because I've seen the dirtiest they've done over the years to get what they want.

Like I said, mob.

 

[Fuchsia Groan]

I can’t explain it. But I do wonder if it’s related to the fact that the Buy button is now up for grabs. For instance, right now, if you buy the hard copy of my trade-published book by pushing the Buy button, you will be buying from a third-party seller at that seller’s price. I assumed the point of this was to push prices down, but perhaps it can also be used to push up the prices of certain books for certain reasons that I won’t speculate about because I’m no expert.

Of course, it’s possible this author’s case is isolated or other factors are at work. Would be very interested to know more, especially since many indie bookstores will not stock anything printed by Amazon on principle.