Say Goodbye to the Buy Button: Amazon to Remove "Buy" on PODs Not Printed through BookSurge

By Lisa Burns

The publishing world has been in upheaval all week after Amazon.com announced that all print-on-demand (POD) books must be printed through BookSurge POD book printing services, a subsidiary of Amazon, if they are to be sold on Amazon’s website. POD publishers were asked to sign an agreement last week, which stated that all POD books to be sold on Amazon.com must be printed through BookSurge, or the “buy” buttons would be removed from the book reference page on the Amazon website.

Needless to say, reaction from the publishing industry has not been favorable toward Amazon. By requiring POD publishers to print with BookSurge if they want their books available for sale on the Amazon website, Amazon is creating a monopoly in POD publishing. Because of Amazon’s new policy, some experts speculate that BookSurge will raise prices, resulting in fewer publishers using POD and fewer readers purchasing POD books.

According to Sara Nelson at Publishers Weekly, statistics show that Amazon accounts for more than 10% of the book retailing business. By requiring POD books to use BookSurge if publishers want their book sold on the site, and with the ability to dictate fees and discounts, Amazon stands to make a huge profit from BookSurge. In an open statement on the Amazon website, Amazon says, “It makes more sense to produce the books on site, saving transportation costs and transportation fuel, and significantly speeding the shipment to our customers and Amazon Prime members. We believe our customer-focused approach helps the entire industry in the long term by selling more books.”

The decision to use BookSurge as a sole POD publisher for books sold on the site, according to Amazon, is for the benefit of the customer. Some customers disagree. iPetitions.com has started a “Stop the BookSurge Monopoly,” which as of April 10, has over 1000 signatures and is growing. One anonymous petitioner remarks on the website, “Recommended name change: Judas.com…With Amazon's greed, they go from being a source of pride, to a source of disdain and embarrassment.”

So what do we do from here? Industry insiders are concerned that Amazon’s monopoly on POD publishing will spread to the rest of the online retailer’s bookstore. According to these insiders, eventually publishers will be forced to print their books with an Amazon subsidiary, or else be faced with enormous fees. Even worse, according to these speculators, publishers that are not a subsidiary of Amazon may one day be excluded from the retail giant’s website.

Unfortunately, some POD publishers have signed the agreement issued by Amazon to print their books through BookSurge, while other publishers have banded together and decided not to sign the agreement. Popular POD site, Lulu.com, has issued a statement, saying "We would like to assure our users that Lulu continues to have a strong relationship with Amazon.com. As a result, the recent changes Amazon.com has announced should not adversely affect Lulu content listed within Amazon.com in any way."

WNW will keep an eye on this developing story. Please check back next week for more information regarding the changing POD policy at Amazon.com.

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