Monsters of publishing
Following on my theme (frothing obsession) with publishers and their iniquities.
In my last rant I complained how the big boys were sewing up ebook/POD independent publishing process and effectively disempowering the independent.
Yesterday, I came across more grist for my ire. Not content with merely appropriating the means of production and distribution, one of the big boys, Amazon, to name a name, has been bullying the independents into working its way, or not getting listed at all.
Some time ago, Amazon set up a company called Book Surge which, for a commission, will format and print your POD books and list them with Amazon. Clever bit of marketing from Amazon. Book Surge’s homepage claims that it was set up by writers for writers, thus implying independence from the Goliath. Bollocks, it was set up by Amazon as an exclusive portal and the independents were coerced into working through it or having their books de-listed by Amazon. The buy buttons were removed from the listings of many books before the independents had time to respond or were informed. And never mind that Book Surge’s services were considered shit by some people. You can read the story here in a article I came across on The Register site (biting the hand that feeds it, and good for it too). The article is a little old but retro is the new now.
For lots of reasons, it would be nice not to do business with Amazon. Fuck ‘em. But they are so big, is it possible to ignore them? Amazon remains the single biggest, distributor of books, reaching those parts that, etc.
The time is here (not for the first time) for some proper punk DIY alternative publishing and distribution, and I probably ought to initiate something as a matter of principle, and indeed I have hoped to. That was a breathless sentence, but I’m too puffed to take another run at it.
Punk publishing does take time. Lots and lots of it. Lorry loads of time. It will require a group effort. I would need to upgrade the software on my site. I looked into this and became dizzy at the enormity of the task for one so unused to code.
Well. Anyone out there want to build a shopping cart and some proper blog PHP for the site’s front page? You know where to find me.
Meanwhile, the distributors of my ebooks have told me today that they should be listed by the end of this week.
Music: frying chips
Mood: revolutionary but a wee bit indifferent