Biting the Long Tail That Feeds You

I love shopping at Amazon.com. Given a choice between it and most other online retailers, I'll go for the Big A every time. But a new Amazon policy has the blogsphere abuzz and may change my shopping habits will I or nill I. According to Publisher's Weekly:

BookSurge, Amazon’s print-on-demand subsidiary, is making an offer that most publishers would like to refuse, but don’t feel they can. According to talks with several pod houses, BookSurge has told them that unless their titles are printed by BookSurge, the buy buttons on Amazon for their titles will be disabled.

One of the things I like about Amazon, indeed about the Internet in general, is that it's now so much easier for book lovers to find obscure books that just aren't carried by the average chain bookstore. And POD (Print On Demand) has made it possible for authors whose books appeal to a market too small to interest conventional printers, to get their works into print and, eventually, into my hot little hands.

Why should POD publishers and their authors be upset by Amazon's new policy? Well, apparently Booksurge is more expensive, harder to use, and produces a lower quality product than many of its POD publishers and their distribution is more limited than their major competitor, Lighting Source, which is owned by Ingrim.

There are a bunch of articles on this topic here.

HT to Sartorias who first brought the situation to my attention.