How to Game the Amazon Rating System

The person who posted this ad was sued by Amazon. Fake reviews are no joke.

Amazon recently filed five arbitration demands against authors, publishers, and marketers, who it says have abused the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) system to inflate their profits and sales rankings. It's not the first time Amazon has sued authors and services for manipulating Amazon's ratings system. In 2015, Amazon sued several websites that offered bogus reviews for a fee. By 2016, the number of fake reviewers sued by Amazon had risen to over a thousand.

The truth is that gaming Amazon's system is the norm. I've even experienced the work of Amazon gamers. One "reviewer" left a negative review on one of my books, only to recommend another book they said was better. (I became suspicious because the recommended book was on an entirely different subject.) After some research I discovered that these reviews had appeared verbatim on other books in the same category as mine. It was obvious that the "reviewer" was paid. (I reported the incident to Amazon. Nothing happened.) There are also fake reviews generated for political purposes, such as the thousands of "reviews" of Hillary Clinton's new book which Amazon was recently forced to delete.

At the moment, Amazon is suing over the ways their current payment system for KDP is being gamed. The new system is based on number of pages read, rather than downloads, because paid services were downloading books in order to boost a book's ranking. But the new system hasn't made a dent in the abuse. Thu-Huong Ha, writing for Quartz, has described in vivid detail some of the tricks being employed.

1) Inflating pages read. How can Amazon determine the number of pages a person has read of an ebook? Simple. Reading devices do not record the pages you read sequentially. Therefore, if someone is on the first page, and then jumps to the last page, the device will record the whole book as read. Who would want to read only two pages? Well, nobody. But if on the first page there is a "free offer" of something on the last page - voila! These books can even be composed of complete nonsense, and there will still be a payout.

2) Authors can create fake accounts, or hire a service that owns numerous accounts, to download massive numbers of books on free days. The author earns nothing, but the book will appear on Amazon's bestseller list for free books, which will enhance its attractiveness to future buyers.

3) Fake reviews. This has been a problem from the start. An author or company can buy fake reviews on Fiverr for a few bucks. Authors and companies can also purchase negative reviews of similar products (that's what happened to me) in order to drive down the ratings of the competition. Amazon has become so paranoid about fake reviews that it will remove a review from anyone even vaguely connected to the author - a Facebook friend, for example, whom the author may never have met.

The bottom line on Amazon rankings is that the system will always be gamed. It doesn't matter how many people Amazon sues, or how many new contortions it introduces into KDP, there will always be some way to work around it.

It makes you long for the old days, when all you had to do to get bestseller status was either sleep with a reviewer for the New York Times, or give birth to one. Ah, things were so much simpler then.

UPDATE: Amazon has decided to crack down on scammers by rank-stripping books it suspects have manipulated its system. Unfortunately, this has resulted in penalizing books which have followed the rules. Either Amazon's method of identifying people who are defrauding the system is flawed and/or scammers are continuing to game the system by pointing Amazon's fraud detection toward innocent authors. Read more about this disturbing development HERE.

Authors Guild Raises Doubts About Amazon's New Pay-Per-Page Policy

With the recent announcement that it will begin paying Kindle Unlimited authors by pages read, rather than borrows, Amazon has set off a spate of commentary, from Fortune to a satirical jab by the Telegraph.

According to the Guardian, self-published authors may see a drop in KU revenue to as little as $.006 per page read, prompting some speculation as to whether Amazon intended to cut back on short works by this maneuver.

Nobody has ever paid authors by the number of pages read. Authors have been paid by pages written, especially when their works are serialized, and they have been paid by the word. But the idea of paying an author for the number of pages a reader actually reads is unprecedented.

There is no comparison to be made in the history of authorship. (Not even pricing books by how much they weigh, or by how large they are.)

The confusion Amazon has generated is apparent in the Authors Guild statement below. In it, the Guild raises a number of questions, largely having to do with logistics (What counts as a page read?), and implications for authors (Will they have to generate cliff hangers? and the eternal, Will quality suffer?)

None of these critiques of a system in which reader attention span determines the economic success of an author addresses the underlying problem with this scheme.

It monitors readers in ways that are highly intrusive.

How much I read of a book, or which pages I read of a book, is none of Amazon's business. Not only should Amazon keep its nose out of my reading habits, it should not draw any conclusions from them. I often read nonfiction books piecemeal. Sometimes, I read works of fiction in snippets. (Short stories, poetry collections.) Should a writer get paid less if he or she wrote only one short story or poem that touched my heart? What if that poem were "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"? If I didn't read any other poem in that collection, would it mean Robert Frost was less beloved in my eyes? Would it make him less well known to the reading public than someone who had written a book of dirty limericks (of which I guarantee every single page would be turned)?

You betcha. And, as a consequence of paying authors via this bizarre system (especially if it catches on) careers will be hampered, talent will go unrewarded, and readers will be served continual crowd-sourced pap - all under the banner of "books readers want to read."

Once again, publishers (in this case Amazon) not only determine what authors get paid, but what readers should like. But unlike industry manipulation of bestseller lists, fixed reviews, and well-placed hype, this is an invasion of privacy with no benefit to either readers or authors.
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From the Authors Guild:

Starting July 1, Amazon will pay royalties to its indie authors based on the number of pages users actually read, rather than the number of times the book is “borrowed.” In its announcement, Amazon touted its unilateral amendment to its terms for self-published e-books enrolled in its Kindle Unlimited (KU) and Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL) e-lending services. The change, Amazon said, is a response to authors’ complaints about the unfairness of its current single rate for all books, regardless of length. Writers of longer works will stand to benefit, provided those books are read in full, but it could slash the earnings of entire classes of authors, such as poets and children’s book writers, whose works tend to have fewer pages. The new regime leaves intact Amazon’s unfortunate practice of paying indie authors out of an opaque royalty pool, which pits self-published authors against one another in a zero-sum scramble for readers. With a finite amount of money to go around each month, one author’s gain is another’s loss.

The royalty adjustment comes almost a year after Amazon launched Kindle Unlimited, an e-book subscription service where readers pay $9.99 a month for access to hundreds of thousands of titles, most of which are self-published by members of Amazon’s KDP Select program. KDP Select authors, who are automatically enrolled in both KU and KOLL, agree to make their e-books available exclusively through Kindle platforms, preventing these indie authors from exploring other revenue streams as long as they are enrolled in Select. Authors may, however, drop out of KDP Select by contacting Amazon with the ASIN of the book they would like to remove, according to the announcement.

Under its outgoing royalty structure, Amazon pays a fee for each book “borrowed,” provided at least 10% of the book is read. The fee is the same for short story–length books as it is for a 500-page novel. Some writers quickly learned how to game the system and flooded Kindle Unlimited with excerpts and shorter works, even publishing books in chapters, since once a reader crosses the 10% “borrow” threshold the author earns the same no matter how long or complex the book is. While there are any number of other possible solutions to the problem, Amazon’s solution is to pay per page read. This represents an entirely new way of thinking about compensation for authors.

Exactly how this will impact books in the long run is hard to know, but it undoubtedly will affect KDP Select authors’ writing and the ability of some of these authors to make a living. For now, many questions remain to be answered. Will authors enrolled in the program feel compelled to write longer books? Will they feel the need to make sure every page has a compelling detail or cliffhanger? Will there be more padding (to make a book longer) or less (so every page is read)? If books do get padded, will readers start reading differently and skipping more? What happens to the long works of nonfiction that might take years to write and add greatly to our society’s knowledge base, but are rarely read in full by the lay reader? Will skimmed pages count? How long does a reader have to spend on a page for it to count as “read”? What data will Amazon share with authors and publishers? Will the data it gathers (most likely kept close) give it even greater dominance in indie publishing? Will it share any of its reading statistics with writers to help them have more pages read? Will they eventually foist this payment method on publishers, starting with the smaller ones who have little to no negotiating power?

At first glance, it appear that tying royalties to pages read will only incentivize authors to produce books that compel readers to keep reading. It’s not so clear whether that will result in better books. What is clear is that Amazon’s contracts with its indie authors are non-negotiable terms of use that Amazon can change at any time and which become binding on its authors within 30 days of their posting. Since its Kindle Select terms require exclusivity, this unilateral change in the royalty structure has the potential to disrupt the livelihoods of KDP Select authors with little to no warning. Even with Amazon’s monthly tinkering with the royalty pool, under its per-borrow scheme authors in recent months could at least count on a rate of somewhere between $1.33 and $1.40 per borrow. Writers of children’s books, particularly books for young children, will necessarily see that rate go down significantly.

Announced just weeks before it takes effect, the change is a reminder of Amazon’s power not only vis-à-vis traditional publishers and authors, but also among those self-published authors who have often been the e-tailer’s most vocal apologists. It’s never been more clear that indie authors who publish with KDP Select are dependent on Amazon’s business decisions, including how much money to distribute via the monthly royalty pool.

This is also a sad reminder that traditional publishers—whose unsavory contract terms we’re focusing on as part of our Fair Contract Initiative—aren’t the only ones who offer writers take-it-or-leave-it publishing contracts.

In additional Amazon news, the retailer has come to terms with Penguin Random House, the last of the Big Five publishers to negotiate e-book terms with Amazon after the expiration of the consent decree resulting from the U.S. v. Apple e-book pricing litigation. Neither side disclosed the nature of those terms or what pricing model (wholesale or agency) will govern under the terms of the new agreement.

Amazon Is Not the Reader’s Friend, Says Debate Audience

From the Author's Guild, January 20, 2015

A lively audience of readers gathered last Thursday evening at New York City’s Kaufman Center to hear a panel of four authors hash out the contentious proposition that “Amazon is the reader’s friend.”

The Oxford-style debate, hosted by Intelligence Squared (IQ2), featured two writers arguing for the motion and two against it. In the Amazon corner were self-publishing guru Joe Konrath and Matthew Yglesias, Executive Editor of Vox. Pitted against them, former Authors Guild President Scott Turow and Franklin Foer, former Editor of The New Republic, contended that Amazon is not, by a long shot, the reader’s friend.

The IQ2 debates declare a winner by polling the audience at both the beginning and the end of the arguments, and comparing the results. The side that sways more people takes the cake. Before the debate, 41% of the audience voted for the proposition that Amazon is the reader’s friend, 28% voted against it, and 31% were undecided. At evening’s end, there was a clear victor: the Amazon apologists managed to increase their backers by a mere one percentage point, while Turow and Foer earned a 22% spike, overwhelmingly capturing the undecided vote.

Throughout the evening, Yglesias and Konrath largely stuck with the appealing arguments that Amazon’s low prices for readers and higher royalty rates for its self-published authors are benefits without downsides. But Turow and Foer’s effectiveness lay in taking a position that honored the diversity of the literary ecosystem. Left unchecked, they suggested, we may end up with a book world controlled by Amazon. The better option by far is a competitive plurality of publishers and distributors.

Turow agreed that self-publishing works very well for some authors in some publishing sectors. He was clearly encouraged, for instance, that self-publishing gives voice—and a second chance—to authors overlooked by traditional publishers. “I am not against self-publishing,” said Turow, before homing in on Amazon’s deliberate attempt to eliminate publishing houses, “but if we do away with traditional publishers, there will be a great loss to literary culture.”

Another reason Amazon can’t be trusted, Turow noted, is that it hasn’t even stood by the very self-published authors who defend it so vociferously. Turow illustrated this with a point that his opponents couldn’t counter: although many self-published authors rallied to defend Amazon during the Hachette dispute, recently Amazon dramatically cut the earnings of self-published authors enrolled in its Kindle Unlimited program.

Foer also pointed out that a loss of publishers could mean a loss of the nonfiction works requiring “deep reporting,” work which is time-consuming and expensive, and which can only be sustained by an advance from a publisher. It would also mean the loss of the committed editorial investments provided by publishers. “Writers are the people in the world who are least able to see the flaws in their own work,” he said.

“Scott and Franklin did a terrific job of articulating exactly what we’ve stood for throughout our many disagreements with Amazon,” said Authors Guild President Roxana Robinson. “Namely, that a diverse literary marketplace is a healthy literary marketplace. And I’m personally encouraged—though not surprised—that so many readers in the audience agreed.”

Much of the argument focused on Amazon’s place within the publishing industry at large. Yglesias opened by proposing that Amazon’s massive share of the publishing markets—it sells 41% of all books sold in the U.S., and 67% of digital books—is the result of its superior product. Turow countered that such market power is a danger in and of itself. A friend is someone who you can rely on to treat your interests as equal to their own, he said. But Amazon has “habitually turned on its allies when it suited its needs. Anyone who believes Amazon will wield its market power kindly has not read Lord Acton or Machiavelli,” he continued, characterizing Amazon’s history of browbeating as “a mugging sponsored by Wall Street.”

Reflecting on the evening, Turow offered the following summation. “I regard the question of Amazon’s role in American literary culture as truly important, and I was glad Frank and I were able to make many in the audience understand that Amazon is a Trojan Horse, offering low prices today—while Wall Street is willing to float a company that doesn’t make a profit—at the cost of destroying the publishing ecosystem that is indispensable to authors who can’t write several books every year, as many self-published authors do.” Turow further noted, “You never make all the points you want to. But I wish I had made more of the fact that Amazon actually prevents competition by locking its customers in through devices like Prime and DRM, which means Amazon customers can’t read books sold by Apple or Google Play on their Kindles.”

As the event came to an end, the writers’ closing arguments tended to encapsulate their styles. Konrath resorted to off-color humor and bribery: he offered free books for votes, making the salient point that, as a self-published author selling on Amazon, he is able to set the price of his books and even to give them away for free, and doing do, he has sold—and given away—millions of books. Turow spoke of how, like Konrath, he struggled to find a publisher for his first novel, and agreed that Amazon was good for readers and authors in some ways. The problem with Amazon, he explained, is the threat it poses to literary culture at large, and ultimately to the reader. “I don’t judge these things on the basis of what’s good for me,” he said, adding that while Amazon has been very good to him, “I care about what’s good for all writers.” Yglesias maintained that his opponents were painting an unrealistic doomsday scenario, but that for now, Amazon’s low prices and great service make it a friend to readers.

Foer had the last word. Alluding to the arrogance of the tech industry’s self-styled “disrupters,” he noted that Americans have made “disruption . . . our secular religion.” This particular brand of optimism might well lead us to a future “that could be wonderful, or it could be a dystopian hell.” Lastly, he encouraged the audience to speak directly to Amazon with their votes. Tell Amazon, he said, “You’re dealing with precious cargo. Don’t abuse your power. Be good stewards of word and thought.”

The audience, apparently, was listening. Let’s hope Amazon was, too.

The debate, expertly moderated by John Donvan, is well worth watching in its entirety. An on-demand version will soon be available here.

The Amazon vs Everybody Wars: Hachette skirmish over, but more battles to come

It appears as if the stalemate between Hachette and Amazon has been resolved to the satisfaction of both parties. Amazon has given Hachette control over the prices of its ebooks, and has promised to not only restore Hachette titles to its inventory, but to feature them during the holiday season.

Is this the end of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars? Probably not. While discontinuing its extortionist tactics, at least for the time being, Amazon is still building a monopoly. History has shown time and time again that monopolies are good for nobody - except the people running them. 

With that in mind, Authors United is still going ahead with its plans to ask the Department of Justice to start an antitrust inquiry into Amazon.  

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Amazon-Hachette Deal: The Reaction

Publishers Weekly, November 13, 2014

News broke Thursday that the two companies had reached new sales terms--after a stalemate in their negotiations became public in May--with Hachette Book Group CEO Michael Pietsch telling authors and agents in a letter that the agreement gives the publisher "considerable benefits." Chief among those benefits, is that Hachette can sell its ebooks on Amazon using a model he called "Agency," giving the publisher "full responsibility for the consumer prices of our ebooks."

Pietsch, in a statement about the agreement, noted that Hachette's the new ebook terms won't take effect until 2015 but that, in interim, its titles will return to "normal availability" on Amazon. (During the stalled negotiations, a number of Hachette titles were unavailable for pre-order, or faced long delivery times.) Additionally, with the agreement, Hachette titles will now be featured in Amazon promotions for the holiday season, which Pietsch called "a very positive development." It could be until the middle of next week, however, for Amazon to be fully stocked on all HBG titles.

Read the rest of this article HERE.

Amazon Ethics and Practice: How Authors Get Ripped Off

This article by Lynn Serafinn provides not only one of the best explanations for how Amazon manages to elude every ethical practice in the publishing world, it lays out neatly and concisely how publishing actually works.

This is a must-read article if you intend to publish. Whether you are doing it on your own or through a traditional publisher, it is important to understand the different functions of printers, publishers, retailers, and distributors. 

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Becoming an Empowered SELF-Published Author – Ethics & Practice

By Lynn Serafinn

Other the past few months, many authors have been writing to me all in a fluster over a controversy that apparently has arisen between Amazon and Lightning Source. I wanted to address this controversy because, frankly, I think a lot of people are having a knee-jerk reaction to what I think is basically an ethical issue, and I would like to show what I think might be a more ‘holistic’ response to it.

First of all, you need to know a bit about the parties involved and what is going on. Before we do that, let’s take a quick look at the flow that is involved in the production of any product, including your book:

1) It starts with the creator
2) It goes to the publisher
3) Then it goes to the manufacturer
4) Then to the distributor
5) Then to the retailer
6) Then to the consumer

STEPS 1 & 2: When you are truly self-publishing a book, YOU are also the publisher (so steps 1 and 2 are combined). But if you are going through a subsidiary press (such as iUniverse, Balboa Press or Create Space), you are not 100% ‘self published.’ On the one hand, you ARE self-published in that you don’t need a publishing deal and you retain all rights to your work. On the other hand, you are NOT self-published in that your subsidiary publisher is entitled to (usually) around 50% of your royalties as long as you print through them.

STEP 3: In printing, the ‘manufacturer’ is the printer. The publisher (even if that means you) then sends the book to the printer. Either we get a quantity of books printed in advance, or we use a “print on demand” (POD) service. Back when I first started out in the published world (and also when I ran a record company), you typically have to order 1000-2000 copies of your book (or record/CD) in order to get a decent price. Then, you always ran the risk of your publication sitting around collecting dust because you couldn’t move 2000 copies. Since the rise of POD in the publishing industry, that risk and investment has been removed for self-publishing authors. Lightning Source is one such POD service, certainly the most known in the world, and the one I use and recommend to my clients. Instead of having to buy 2000 copies of your book and the ship them to distributors, they print them ONLY when you have a customer for them (whether wholesale or retail), so you only pay for what you know you are going to sell.

STEP 4: The next step is to send the books to a distributor who then sells the books to retail shops. Of course, this saves the publisher a heck of a lot of time and energy, so the distributor is one of the most important pieces of the sales puzzle. Distributors typically buy your product between 50-60% off the retail price (55% is the most common), so they can sell it on to retails shops, and the retail shops can make a profit. That means if your book is selling for $10, they will pay around $4.50 for your book. From that price, you deduct your printing costs (I spoke about this in another article – Click HERE if you’d like to read it), and that is your profit.

Now what is so cool about Lightning Source is that they will also distribute your book for you via Ingram Book Company. Mind you, that does NOT mean that retail shops will necessarily BUY your book. It just means that they can supply them with your book if they order it.

STEP 5: The next step is the retailer. The retailer is the ‘shop’, whether online or on the ground, that sells your book to the customer. Typically, in my experience, retailers in the book and record industry buy your product for between 35-45% off the retail price. That means they will pay about $6.00 for a $10 book, which means the distributor makes about $1.50 per book sold, and the retailer makes about $4.00. However, as we all know, retailers like to be able to have a good profit margin so they can LOWER the price, to be able to entice customers to buy your product OR to get RID of a product that isn’t selling (let’s hope that doesn’t happen to OUR books!). Back when I was a retailer, I often had to sell “dead stock” at cost or even BELOW the price I paid for it. It’s the only way to keep cash flow going. So retailers take a risk every time they buy something. They want to know they can sell it.

STEP 6: The last step, of course, is the customer. The customer likes to get a good deal on a product. That’s why, if you give your distributor a good discount in the first place, the retailer will have the freedom to lower his price and get more people to buy your book.

SO WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

The thing that confuses me is how Amazon fits into this picture. Now I have a close connection to Amazon in that much of my business depends upon it, as I work with authors. And as a customer, I have also found them to be both reliable and convenient. Authors love to see their books on Amazon because they can reach a wider audience much more quickly than they could by going only through traditional distribution routes to retail shops. All in all, Amazon is a great asset for us authors.

But here’s where things are a bit hazy. According to their entry on Wikipedia, they are it is often called the world’s largest online retailer. Most of us associate Amazon with books, but they have really expanded and now sell just about everything.

So Amazon is a ‘retailer’ (Step 5 in the model above) BUT for some strange reason, when it comes to purchasing power, they are not paying the same price for the books they sell as other retailers. In fact, they are paying the price that wholesalers/distributors pay for your book (Step 4). That means they are buying books at an average of 15% LESS than other retailers. This means they have a tremendous advantage in that they can seriously undercut your High Street book shop.

But wait… there’s more…

Read more here.

Round 12 of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars: Amazon vs Authors United

Stephen King signed. I take back everything I said about him.

It is rare to find authors united against (or even for) anything. Authors, like tigers, prefer to hunt alone. But Amazon changed all that when it affected their sales, first by pulling Macmillan titles from its list, and then by pulling pre-orders from Hachette titles.

Amazon has engaged in a number of tactics which have ruffled the feathers of not only authors, but entire governments - except for ours. 

That may soon change.

Authors United, an ad hoc group of over 1000 authors, has called for a Department of Justice investigation into possible anti-trust law violations committed by Amazon. Among the literary luminaries who have joined Authors United are: Philip Roth, Orhan Pamuk, Salman Rushdie, V. S. Naipaul, Ursula Le Guin and Milan Kundera. The estates of Saul Bellow, Roberto Bolaño, Joseph Brodsky, William Burroughs, John Cheever, Allen Ginsberg, Norman Mailer, Arthur Miller and Hunter S. Thompson have also signed on.

In a parallel move, the Author's Guild, the country's largest advocacy group for writers, met with Justice Department officials in early August. The Guild, which has more than 8,500 members, raised concerns that Amazon is violating antitrust law.

(In this video, Dick Cavett and stand-up comedian Dave Hill have a Tough Talk about the Amazon vs Everybody Wars. A bit of satire never hurt anybody ... not much anyway.)

For a countdown of the previous 11 rounds of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars click HERE.
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Authors United’s Next Move: DOJ

Publishers Weekly, September 24, 2014

Wednesday, bestselling thriller writer Douglas Preston, who oversees the group Authors United, confirmed that the organization intends to contact the Department of Justice requesting an antitrust inquiry into Amazon's tactics.

Authors United formed to voice the concerns of authors whose sales have been hurt as a result of the stalled sales terms negotiations between Amazon and Hachette. The Financial Times reported the group's intention to request that the DoJ mount an antitrust investigation into Amazon's approach to its business, and Preston confirmed the move to PW.

According to Preston, a letter addressed to William Baer, assistant attorney general for antitrust, has been drawn up and calls for a closer look at Amazon's practices. News of the letter, said Preston, was leaked "very prematurely."

The pending letter to the DoJ is the third action taken by Authors United. In August, the gorup made its first move by running a signed full-page ad in the New York Times asking readers to write to Amazon head Jeff Bezos. Authors United is also, currently, in the midst of putting together its second project, which involves FedExing a letter to members of the Amazon board of directors which questions whether the board approves the policy of sanctioning books. The letter states: “These sanctions have driven down Hachette authors' sales at Amazon.com by at least 50 percent, and in some cases by as much as 90 percent.”

Round 11 of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars: Amazon vs Great Britain

In the latest round of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars, Great Britain is calling for an anti-trust inquiry into Amazon's bad "behaviour."

Amazon's book sales accounted for nearly one-third of all book sales in the UK, and nearly 80% of ebook sales. Britain's booksellers are worried, and rightly so, that they will be driven out of business. 

The inquiry will investigate precisely how Amazon is smashing the competition, but there will be no surprises concerning Amazon's tactics.

Because Amazon is the "everything store" it can afford to lose money on books. Amazon has claimed that it is on the "side of the consumers" by keeping prices low, but, in reality, it is merely using its broad sales platform to drive all of its competitors out of business. Once there is no competition, Amazon can do what it likes.

British retailers and book publishers are attempting to provide online sales outlets to compete with Amazon, but, so far, they have not had great success.  Frankly, it may be a case of "too little, too late."

So far, the US has not taken a stand on the Amazon empire - nor will it ever. Despite our official support of free trade, we believe in monopolies.

Rounds (so far) in the Amazon vs Everybody Wars (click on the red title to view)

Round 10 of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars: Amazon vs Japan
Amazon ranks publishers according to how much they pay Amazon. Publishers call it "blackmail."

Round 9 of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars: Amazon vs Authors
900 American authors post a letter in the NYT asking people to write to Jeff Bezos about his hardball tactics. 1000 European authors follow suit.

Round 8 of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars: Amazon vs Disney
Amazon removes the preorder option of nearly every title from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

Round 7 of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars: Amazon vs the FTC
The FTC says it is "seeking full refunds for all affected consumers, disgorgement of Amazon's ill-gotten gains, and a court order ensuring that in the future Amazon obtains permission before imposing charges for in-app purchases."

Round 6 of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars: Amazon vs The Authors Guild
"The Guild has often opposed Amazon’s more ruthless tactics, not because we’re anti-Amazon but because we believe the company has stepped over the line and threatened the publishing ecosystem in ways that jeopardize both our livelihoods and the future of authorship itself."

Round 5 of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars: Amazon vs France
French lawmakers adopt a bill that prevents Amazon and other online giants from offering free deliveries of discounted books, in a bid to support the country's small bookshops. (Amazon sidesteps the law by offering deliveries for one penny.)

Round 4 of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars: Amazon vs Germany
German publishers launch an antitrust complaint against Amazon.

Amazon Socks it to Time Warner: Authors, Are You Paying Attention?
Amazon Stops Taking Advance Orders for ‘Lego’ and Other Warner Videos

Amazon Squashes Major Publishing House - Again (Hachette)
Amazon delays publication of Hachette titles, stalls shipments, removes pre-order capabilities, and raises prices while offering cheaper substitutes.

Round 1 in the Amazon vs Everybody Wars: Amazon vs Macmillan.
Amazon pulls all Macmillan books, including its imprints Farrar, Straus & Giroux, St. Martins Press and Henry Holt in a pricing dispute. 

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Publishers call for UK antitrust inquiry into Amazon

By Henry Mance, Financial Times, September 18, 2014

British publishers have called for a competition inquiry into Amazon’s dominance, saying that the UK’s retail book market “suffers from a chronic and debilitating imbalance for authors, publishers and booksellers”.

The move is the latest broadside against Amazon – which is already facing a protracted battle against French publisher Hachette and a competition complaint from German booksellers.

Read the rest of this article here.

Amazon Opens Its Doors to Self-Publishers of Children's Books

Even as half of Europe is sharpening their spears in preparation for a protracted war on Amazon, the self-publishing giant has made it even easier to publish books for children.

The main sticking point of uploading children’s books onto Amazon’s platform has been the difficulty of getting illustrations to convert to Kindle. Amazon appears to have solved that problem with KDP Kids, a publishing platform that allows authors to import illustrations, add pop-ups, and preview illustrated books with Kindle Kids' Book Creator.

More to the point, KDP Kids allows authors to target the parents - the people who are going to buy your book - of children in their demographic.

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Amazon Unveils KDP Kids

Source: Publishers Weekly, Sep 04, 2014

In a move designed to attract and support children’s book authors and self-publishers, Amazon has launched KDP Kids, a children's-focused illustrated and chapter book category in the Kindle Store.

Amazon is also introducing the Kindle Kids’ Book Creator, a set of authoring tools designed to facilitate the creation and production of kids’ digital titles for the Kindle format, including illustrated titles. Commenting on the launch and ability to create illustrated books, Kindle senior v-p Russ Grandinetti said, “No one should have to be a computer programmer to create a beautiful, illustrated book for kids."

The move marks the continuing growth of digital self-publishing in general as well as the growing number of children’s books already available via KDP. Under the new KDP Kids category, authors will also have access to the Kindle Kids Book Creator, which offers software tools (available for Windows and Mac OS) that can take advantage of Kindle format features like pop-up text, previews and the importation of illustrations.

KDP Kids authors can prepare their prose or illustrated books, upload them to KDP Kids and use a variety of filters for age, grade and reading levels to place the title and attract the specific customer leveled for their titles. Through the KDP Kids platform, authors can earn up to a 70% royalty depending upon book price.

KDP Kids authors will also have access to Kindle Marketing tools such as Countdown Deals and Free Book promotions. They are also eligible to enroll in Kindle Unlimited, Amazon’s e-book subscription service, and the Kindle Lending Library.

Round 10 of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars: Amazon vs Japan

In this week's round of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars, Amazon is taking on Japan.

Amazon is exploiting its position as Japan's largest book retailer by ranking publishers according to how much they pay Amazon. The publishers with the highest ranking are given top billing on the Amazon Japan website.

Publishers are calling it "blackmail." 

Amazon is calling it "business as usual."

The manipulation of Amazon Japan is just one more in a long string of extortionist tactics that include removing pre-orders from books published by "uncooperative" publishing companies (Hachette and Macmillan), and removing new video titles from Disney and Time Warner. So far this year, Amazon has incurred the wrath of the FTC, the Author's Guild, Germany, and France as well as thousands of authors.

But in spite of being dissed by the German Minister of Culture, Amazon continues to expand. It has gobbled up Goodreads, where it immediately began deleting reviews it found unfavorable, and purchased Twitch, the video-game livestreaming site (where it will no doubt employ the same tactics). Meanwhile Amazon has cut royalty rates on audiobooks, leaving many self-publishers in the lurch.

And the year ain't over yet.

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Book publishers shout foul over Amazon Japan's new ratings

Asahi Shimbun, August 28, 2014

By Mayumi Mori/ Staff Writer

Online retail giant Amazon Japan introduced a new system this summer to rank book publishers, a decision that has not gone down well with its business partners.

Amazon Japan is the nation's largest book retailer for paper and electronic media. Its new system gives higher rankings to publishers that pay higher fees to Amazon Japan and to publishers with larger eBook catalogs.

Additionally, eBooks from publishers ranked higher are given more prominence on the Amazon.co.jp website.

Many publishers, including high-profile publishing houses, have protested the move, calling it a form of "blackmail" that exploits the company's considerable dominance in the book retailing industry.

"Wouldn't antitrust authorities start to wonder if Amazon Japan is taking advantage of its monopolistic position in the market?" said Bungeishunju Ltd. when it protested to Amazon Japan in June.

Japanese publishers are continuing to hold talks with Amazon Japan.

Disagreements between parent company, Amazon.com Inc., and publishers are intensifying worldwide.

In the United States, 900 renowned authors protested against Amazon for putting pressure on publishers that resisted the company's demands to lower eBook prices by delaying the shipping of their books.

Media analyst Satoshi Osawa said if publishers start to only focus on dealing with the retailing giant, "it could lead to lower quality of their products."

An official with Amazon Japan's public relations department said, "It's difficult to comment because the issue deals with individual contracts."

Round 9 of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars: Amazon vs Authors

In the latest round of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars, 900 American authors posted a letter in the NYT asking people to write to Jeff Bezos about his hardball tactics. More than 1000 German, Austrian and Swiss authors have done the same, accusing Amazon of manipulating its recommended reading lists and lying to customers about the availability of books as retaliation in its dispute with the Bonnier Group. To add clout to the protest, the German Minister of Culture, Monika Gruetters, has openly endorsed the letter.

So where does this dispute leave authors who are just trying to get their novels onto a platform where it might have a chance of getting noticed?

The hard truth is that big publishers have let down authors. As an unpublished author, you have to jump through hoops to get an agent, and, when you do, the agent sometimes spends years attempting to sell your book. When your book finally does sell, the contract leaves you with next to nothing in royalties. The publisher does very little to market your book, so sales are poor. Then, you can't get your second book published because the first one was not successful.

That is why so many of us have turned to Amazon. At least we can publish on a platform that is well-trafficked. And we truly appreciate the opportunity. But, Amazon's battles with the large publishing houses have nothing to do with giving opportunities to writers, or with defending our interests.

Amazon's claim that it is forcing publishers to lower prices to make books more accessible is disingenuous at best. Amazon, unlike publishing houses, does not have to pay editors and proofreaders. It does not have to pay taxes on its stock. Nor does it have to shell out advances to authors, or pay for brick-and-mortar shelf space. And it gets the same deal on wholesale orders from publishing houses as every other retailer, but without the overhead, so its profits are higher. Still, Amazon isn't satisfied.

Amazon won't be content until it holds all the cards in the deck. That is why it is attempting to drive down prices. Book stores are already dropping like flies, unable to compete with Amazon's prices. And once Amazon has finished off the publishers, we're done.
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Amazon vs Hachette: It’s Getting Nasty

By Jim Milliot, Publishers Weekly, Aug 15, 2014

The two-page ad that ran in the Aug. 10 issue of the New York Times, which more than 900 authors signed calling for readers to email Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to air their displeasure at the company’s tactics in its terms dispute with Hachette Book Group, unleashed some of the harshest language yet in the months-long standoff.

Any pretense that this was a typical publisher-bookseller negotiation, as the parties said when news of the dispute first broke, has given way to statements by the Amazon Books Team in a blog post on Aug. 8 on the readersunited.com site that pointed to HBG’s role in colluding with other publishers to raise e-book prices. (The publishers’ switch to the agency model had the effect of setting prices for Amazon and all other retailers on many new titles at $14.99, well above Amazon’s preferred price of $9.99.) The Amazon post urged readers to email HBG CEO Michael Pietsch and ask him why the publisher was against lower e-book prices. Pietsch responded to the email campaign by noting that HBG sets its own prices, and saved his sharpest criticism for Amazon’s stance in the negotiations, writing that Amazon initiated the fight because it “is seeking a lot more profit and even more market share, at the expense of authors, bricks and mortar bookstores, and ourselves.”

“Once again,” Pietsch continued, “we call on Amazon to withdraw the sanctions against Hachette’s authors that they have unilaterally imposed, and restore their books to normal levels of availability. We are negotiating in good faith. These punitive actions are not necessary, nor what we would expect from a trusted business partner.”

For its part, the Amazon Books Team said it “will never give up its fight for reasonable e-book prices,” and said that it is HBG that has prevented a deal from getting done. According to Amazon, “Hachette spent three months stonewalling and only grudgingly began to even acknowledge our concerns when we took action to reduce sales of their titles in our store.” The company added that it is HBG that has rebuffed three attempts by Amazon to remove authors from getting caught in the crossfire.

The public fight over terms has caused a deep division between authors: those who believe the Amazon argument that lower e-book prices result in higher unit sales and thus more money for everyone, and others who support the HBG position that its ultimate goal in its discussions with Amazon is to preserve a bookselling environment that includes not just Amazon but a range of outlets including bricks-and-mortar bookstores.

Peter Hildick-Smith, president of the book research firm Codex Group, said that, given current market trends, the importance of the dispute between Amazon and HBG “goes well beyond a simple negotiation over selling terms.”

Based on Codex survey data, Amazon has more than tripled its book unit share, from 13% in 2008 to 40% in 2014, which has contributed to an estimated 30% loss of physical bookstore selling space over the same period. With that loss of bookselling space has come a 4% decline in U.S. households reading fiction from 2008 to 2012, according to research by the National Endowment for the Arts.

In Hildick-Smith’s view, just as Hollywood movie studios would be reduced to mere video producers without movie theaters to launch their latest blockbusters, trade publishers without physical bookstores to accelerate new book discovery would be robbed of their unique ability to make break-out bestsellers and author brands, and ultimately be reduced to the role of Amazon associates, reliant on daily deals to promote new titles.

Whether openly acknowledged or not, the book market is “now in a battle for both the survival of physical-world book selling and the trade publishing business model that depends on it,” Hildick-Smith said. “The choice is either to emulate the film industry, with its theaters and strong multiple channels of distribution, or else by default, go the way of the music industry, which has endured a massive revenue decline since it became dominated by digital distribution.”

Amazon Kindle Best-Seller List Balloons with New Subscription Service

For those who do not know what a subscription book service is, now is the time to expand your knowledge.

Back in the old days, when there were still physical books- and dinosaurs read them - people joined the Book of the Month Club. For a set fee, you would be sent books on their list.

As you might guess, authors were very keen on getting their books chosen, because subscriptions meant guaranteed sales to thousands of people.

Book clubs have gone the way of literate dinosaurs, but the concept did not completely fade away. Instead it evolved into subscription services. Much like the Netflix model, you can read an unlimited number of ebooks for a monthly fee. The most popular of these services are Scribd ($8.99/mo) and Oyster ($9.99/mo).  

Now Amazon is throwing its hat into the ring with Kindle Unlimited. For $9.99 a month you can read as many of Amazon's 600,000 titles as you like. As with any newly announced Amazon program, there is already some speculation among the cynics in the industry as to whether Amazon is using its new service to manufacture best-sellers, thereby getting the edge on other publishers.

While subscription services are on the rise, there is one important consideration that may limit their benefit to authors. Unlike movies, which absorb 90 minutes of your time, books take a while to read. According to recent statistics the average American read 17 books a year in 2011. So, given a generous two books a month, it would cost $5 to read a book through a subscription service. For readers accustomed to obtaining ebooks for free through Amazon's KDP Select Program, a subscription may not be worth the price.
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How Kindle Unlimited Is Changing the Amazon Kindle Best-Seller List

Digital Book World, July 23, 2014 | Jeremy Greenfield

Kindle Unlimited is minting best-sellers.

According to Publishers Lunch, the number of ebooks on the Kindle best-seller list that are Kindle Unlimited titles has just about tripled since the launch of the all-you-can-read service from Amazon last week. Amazon is counting Kindle Unlimited reads as well as Kindle store sales in its best-seller rankings.

Last week at this time, there were 15 ebooks that would have been part of Kindle Unlimited that were top 100 best-sellers on Kindle; this week, that number has ballooned to 45.

As the chart shows, Amazon Publishing titles (which are in Kindle Unlimited), titles by other publishers included in the service, and Kindle Direct Publishing Select titles (those by self-published authors who only sell on Amazon and not other platforms like Nook and iBooks, which are included on KU), seem to have all benefited greatly from being a part of Kindle Unlimited. Books by self-published authors who aren’t exclusive to Amazon and those from publishers not participating in Kindle Unlimited have suffered — at least when it comes to hitting top-100 Kindle best-sellers.

While Kindle Unlimited it still new, the reason for its big influence could be the clever way in which Amazon is marketing the service to readers.

Read the rest of this article here.

Round 8 of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars: Amazon vs Disney

This week Amazon removed the preorder option of nearly every title from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

I am beginning to see a pattern. Amazon changes the terms of its contract with a publisher. The publisher objects to a unilateral change in terms. Amazon punishes the publisher and/or its authors by withdrawing the preorder option, or by removing its titles entirely. Authors, nations, official bodies get involved and the New York Times writes an article about the dispute.

Douglas Preston, one of the authors hurt in the Hachette-Amazon dispute, sums these battles up nicely. "It is," he says, "like talking to a 5-year-old." Preston, a best-selling author, is circulating a letter that, so far, has garnered 909 signatures. The letter asks Jeff Bezos to stop using authors as hostages.

It is unlikely that Amazon will change its tactics. But given the huge loss Amazon recently suffered, it might be a good idea if they played nice for a change.

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Disney Disc Preorders Disappear From Amazon

Home Media Magazine, 7 Aug, 2014 

By: Chris Tribbey

The preorder option for almost every title from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has been removed on Amazon, in an apparent repeat of what Warner Home Video went through earlier this summer.

Preorder options for practically every major disc release from Disney are currently unavailable, including Muppets Most Wanted (Aug. 12), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Sept. 9), Million Dollar Arm (Oct. 7) and Maleficent (Nov. 4). The Blu-ray Disc combo release of Disneynature’s Bears is still available for preorder ahead of the title’s Aug. 12 street date.

Representatives from Disney and Amazon were not immediately available for comment.

From mid-May to late June, preorders for most Warner titles were unavailable on Amazon, with the two sides working out a new distribution deal. It marked the first time Amazon halted preorders as a negotiating tactic. Amazon Instant Video early electronic sellthrough of new-release Warner titles were unaffected.

The same situation appears to be occurring with Disney: those shopping Amazon for Muppets Most Wanted on disc, which streets in just a few days, are told to “Sign up to be notified when this item becomes available.” However, Amazon Instant Video versions of the film ($14.99 for standard-def, $19.99 high-def) are still available for preorder (“plus bonus features,” the listing reads).

Disc options for Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Million Dollar Arm aren’t listed at all, while Amazon Instant Video preorder options remain.

Amazon has been in a months-long contract dispute with book publisher Hachette, and has employed similar tactics, removing preorder availability for books from the publishing house.

Round 7 of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars: Amazon vs the FTC

I am beginning to wonder how many rounds Amazon can take. So far, Amazon has been punched by France, kicked by Germany, bludgeoned by Stephen Colbert (that's gotta hurt), tastefully critiqued by the Authors Guild, and now it is getting hammered by the Federal Trade Commission.

What is at stake here? Well, Amazon allowed children to download games using their parents' accounts, but without parental consent. And what's more, they knew about it but did nothing. That annoyed the FTC. So, now the FTC is suing Amazon.

The FTC says it is "seeking full refunds for all affected consumers, disgorgement of Amazon's ill-gotten gains, and a court order ensuring that in the future Amazon obtains permission before imposing charges for in-app purchases."

I am delighted to see that the FTC has such literary flair - "ill-gotten gains" indeed.

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Daily Report: F.T.C. Sues Amazon Over Billing for Children’s App Purchases

By THE NEW YORK TIMES, July 11, 2014

The Federal Trade Commission filed a suit in a Federal District Court in Seattle on Thursday, contending that Amazon improperly billed customers for “many millions of dollars” of charges that children made without their parents’ consent. The suit focuses on charges related to games downloaded through Amazon’s app store.

Read the rest of this article here. 

Round 6 of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars: Amazon vs The Authors Guild

Yesterday, I received an open letter (see below) from Richard Russo, co-Vice President of the Authors Guild. The Guild has steadfastly promoted the interests of writers throughout its long history. Now, it is weighing in, alongside Stephen Colbert, the NYT, and numerous authors, on the protracted Hachette-Amazon dispute.

Indie authors may not feel any particular allegiance to Hachette, or to any of the "Big Five" in this war. Most will feel inclined to side with Amazon, which provides a platform for self-published authors. Amazon's latest tactic, to give Hachette authors 100% of their royalties during the dispute, would seem to vindicate the idea that Amazon is concerned for the writers who appear to be caught "in the middle."

Authors, as Russo pointed out, are not caught in the middle. As far as Amazon and Hachette are concerned, they do not even figure into this battle. The royalties offer is a stunt designed to hurt Hachette (Hachette will not get its cut of the sales) while appearing to be the good guy. It is a short-term ploy to deflect the mounting criticism of Amazon's tactics.

The truth is that Amazon doesn't stand for the best interests of authors any more than Hachette does. Amazon is the Everything Store. The majority of its sales come from electronics, not books. Books, as far as Amazon is concerned, are just another product on its increasingly long retail list.

Russo makes a point that is crucial, if largely ignored, in his letter. "Books," he says, "are special ... and can't be treated like other commodities."

Books are not products; they are ideas. In spite of the fact that publishers may treat them as if they were simply objects, books don't primarily occupy the physical realm. As repositories of information, knowledge, and imagination, they exist in the mind.

Neither the big publishing houses nor Amazon has taken the real nature of books into account. Nor have they offered genuine support to the authors who create them. Instead, we are thrown a nominal percentage out of the millions that both the Big Five and Amazon rake in. (Even when authors garner 70% of the royalties, Amazon takes 30% from the sale of hundreds of thousands of books that they don't have to print, market, distribute or pay advances for.)

In a world in which people whose sole interest is in "moving the merchandise" dominate publishing, we can kiss Shakespeare, Socrates, and Einstein goodbye.

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Dear Authors Guild Member,

We want to share with you an open letter on the Amazon-Hachette dispute, written by Richard Russo, novelist and co-Vice President of the Authors Guild.

****
The primary mission of the Authors Guild has always been the defense of the writing life. While it may be true that there are new opportunities and platforms for writers in the digital age, only the willfully blind refuse to acknowledge that authorship is imperiled on many fronts. True, not all writers are equally impacted. Some authors still make fortunes through traditional publishing, and genre writers (both traditionally published and independently published) appear to be doing better than writers of nonfiction and “literary” mid-list fiction. (The Guild has members in all of these categories.) But there’s evidence, both statistical and anecdotal, that as a species we are significantly endangered. In the UK, for instance, the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society reports that authors’ incomes have fallen 29 percent since 2005, a decline they deem “shocking.” If a similar study were done in the U.S., the results would be, we believe, all too similar.

On Tuesday, Amazon made an offer to Hachette Book Group that would “take authors out of the middle” of their ongoing dispute by offering Hachette authors windfall royalties on e-books until the dispute between the companies is resolved. While Amazon claims to be concerned about the fate of mid-list and debut authors, we believe their offer—the majority of which Hachette would essentially fund—is highly disingenuous. For one thing, it’s impossible to remove authors from the middle of the dispute. We write the books they’re fighting over. And because it is the writing life itself we seek to defend, we’re not interested in a short-term windfall to some of the writers we represent. What we care about is a healthy ecosystem where all writers, both traditionally and independently published, can thrive. We believe that ecosystem should be as diverse as possible, containing traditional big publishers, smaller publishers, Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble and independent bookstores, as well as both e-books and print books. We believe that such an ecosystem cannot exist while entities within it are committed to the eradication of other entities.

Over the years the Guild has often opposed Amazon’s more ruthless tactics, not because we’re anti-Amazon but because we believe the company has stepped over the line and threatened the publishing ecosystem in ways that jeopardize both our livelihoods and the future of authorship itself. There’s no need to rehash our disagreements here. But it is worth stating that we are not anti-Amazon, or anti-e-book, or anti-indie-publishing. Amazon invented a platform for selling e-books that enriches the very ecosystem we believe in, and for which we are grateful. If indie authors are making a living using that platform, bravo. Nor are we taking Hachette’s side in the present dispute. Those of us who publish traditionally may love our publishers, but the truth is, they’ve not treated us fairly with regard to e-book revenues, and they know it. That needs to change.

If we sometimes appear to take their side against Amazon, it’s because we’re in the same business: the book business. It may be true that some of our publishers are owned by corporations that, like Amazon, sell a lot more than books, but those larger corporations seem to understand that books are special, indeed integral to the culture in a way that garden tools and diapers and flat-screen TVs are not. To our knowledge, Amazon has never clearly and unequivocally stated (as traditional publishers have) that books are different and special, that they can’t be treated like the other commodities they sell. This doesn’t strike us as an oversight. If we’re wrong, Mr. Bezos, now would be a good time to correct us. First say it, then act like you believe it. 

We’d love to be your partners.

Round 5 of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars: Amazon vs France

Allons enfants de la Patrie, Le jour de gloire est arrivé!

The latest round in the Amazon vs Everybody wars is brought to you live from Paris...

Last week Germany began antitrust proceedings against Amazon. This week, France adopted a law that would prevent Amazon from undercutting bookstores by prohibiting free deliveries of discounted books.

France is, to my knowledge, the only nation that has taken such definitive steps to protect independent bookstores.

As writers, we should be following these skirmishes with bated breath. It is not just the publishing industry hanging in the balance.

Large media conglomerates have never worked in our favor, whether they offer favorable terms (at least for now), or not. Mega publishers and mega bookstores have already demonstrated what happens when publication and distribution are restricted to just a few giant corporations. In the long run, Amazon won't behave any better.

Vive la révolution!

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French lawmakers adopt 'anti-Amazon' bill

AFP, June 26, 2014

French lawmakers adopted a bill on Thursday that will prevent Amazon and other online giants from offering free deliveries of discounted books, in a bid to support the country's small bookshops.

The Senate gave its approval for the bill, which had already been unanimously backed in the lower house National Assembly, and it is expected to be signed into law by President Francois Hollande within the next two weeks.

The bill bans online giants such as Amazon from delivering books without charge, but still allows them to set discounts of up to five percent, the maximum allowed under existing French legislation.

In 1981 the government ruled that publishers must set a standard selling price for their books in a bid to protect small retailers and set a limit of five percent on any discount.

Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti welcomed the parliamentary approval, saying it showed "the nation's deep attachment to books."

While the measure adopted on Thursday is not specifically aimed at Amazon, Filippetti has singled out the US giant's practices in the past, attacking both free deliveries and the firm's tax arrangements.

The online retailer reports its European sales through a Luxembourg-based holding company, taking advantage of the duchy's relatively low corporate tax rates for earnings outside its borders.

Amazon insists the arrangement, which has been criticised by politicians across Europe, is legal under the European Union's single market rules.

Filippetti has also attacked Amazon for its "dumping strategy" and for selling books at a loss.
"Once they are in a dominant position and will have crushed our network of bookshops, they will bring prices back up," she said last year.

France is proud of a network of bookstores it says is "unique in the world" and crucial for culture to reach small towns.

The country has about 3,500 such stores—including 600 to 800 so-called independent retailers that do not belong to a publishing house, a chain or a supermarket—compared to just 1,000 in Britain.

Round 4 of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars: Amazon vs Germany

The New York Times seems to be enjoying the Amazon vs Everybody wars almost as much as I am. In this latest wrinkle, German publishers have launched an antitrust complaint against Amazon.

While German publishers are joining forces in this antitrust move, let us remember that the largest publishing company in the world, Random/Penguin, is owned by Bertelsmann, a privately owned German company which also happens to control a major chunk of the world’s media outlets.

One of Bertelsmann's corporate divisions, RTL, is Europe’s largest broadcasting and production company. With programming rights in 150 countries, it is currently the largest independent TV distribution company outside the United States. Another of its divisions, Gruner + Jahr, is the largest publisher of newspapers and magazines in Europe, with more than 285 print titles in over 20 countries. Gruner + Jahr also owns Brown Printing, the third largest magazine printer in the United States.

Although it is gratifying to watch the publishing industry attempt to clip Amazon's wings, there is an expression about pots and kettles that immediately comes to mind when German publishers start talking about antitrust legislation.
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Amazon Accused by Booksellers of Antitrust Violation in Germany

By Melissa Eddy, New York Times: June 24, 2014

BERLIN — German book publishers have filed a complaint with the country’s antitrust authority against Amazon, accusing the online retailer of violating competition laws and asking the government to investigate.

The complaint, filed last week but announced on Tuesday, comes nearly two months after Amazon began delaying shipments of titles from Bonnier, a leading publishing group in Germany, as part of a dispute over dividing revenue from e-book sales. Amazon is engaged in a similar struggle with Hachette in the United States.

“Amazon’s business conduct not only affects those publishers involved, but poses a danger to all who offer e-books in Germany,” reads the complaint by the German Publishers and Booksellers Association. The group submitted its complaint to the Bundeskartellamt, the federal antitrust authority, on Friday. The document continues: “We call on the Bundeskartellamt to open an investigation and halt Amazon’s actions.”

Read the rest of this article here.

Amazon Socks it to Time Warner: Authors, Are You Paying Attention?

For those of you who are not following the Amazon vs Everybody wars, you are missing the prize fight of the century. Amazon's hard-ball tactics are part of its bid to take over the world. 

I am not joking. Amazon has monopoly on its mind, in a very big way. Now it is using its platform to deny pre-orders of Time Warner videos, including the hugely popular Lego Movie.

If you can't figure out what is happening, let me sum it up for you: 

1) Amazon cornered the Internet market on sales of electronics, media, etc. by offering lower prices, a greater share of royalties for self-publishers, fast delivery, etc. 

2) Amazon then used its expanded platform to make unilateral changes in book pricing agreements, forcing publishers (mostly recently Hachette) to reduce their wholesale prices to Amazon, while Amazon maintained its retail prices. This resulted in losses for publishers, especially the small ones, reduction in royalties for their authors, and increases in Amazon profits. 

3) Hachette objected to the unfavorable new terms. Authors objected. Stephen Colbert objected.

4) Amazon tried to force acceptance of the terms by delaying releases of new Hachette books, delaying shipping, and pulling pre-releases (which normally garner a huge percentage of initial sales), while simultaneously offering other "equivalent" and/or cheaper products.

5) Competing retailers started offering the books that Amazon had refused to release - at a discount. Walmart rakes it in.

6) Amazon then pulled Time Warner videos, using the same strong-arm tactics it had used on Hachette - and quite a few other publishers - to secure better terms for itself while driving out the competition.

Why should you pay attention? 

If you are a self-published author using Amazon as your primary outlet, and are doing so because you get the lion's share of royalties along with a great platform, I can guarantee you that as soon as Amazon knocks out all of its competitors your share of royalties will plummet.

And there will be nowhere else to go.

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Amazon Stops Taking Advance Orders for ‘Lego’ and Other Warner Videos

New York Times, By David Streitfeld , June 10, 2014

The Everything Store is shrinking again. Amazon customers who want to order forthcoming Warner Home Video features, including “The Lego Movie,” “300: Rise of an Empire,” “Winter’s Tale” and “Transcendence,” are finding it impossible to do so.

The retailer’s refusal to sell the movies is part of its effort to gain leverage in yet another major confrontation with a supplier to become public in recent weeks.

In a standoff with the Hachette Book Group, Amazon is refusing to take advance orders and delaying shipments. Amazon and Hachette are wrangling over e-book terms. The retailer is in a third standoff in Germany, with the Bonnier Media Group.

Disputes between retailers and vendors happen every day. What is unusual here is not Amazon’s relentless desire to gain margin from its suppliers, but the suppliers’ growing resolve to hold the line. If other suppliers adopt the same attitude, that might have significant implications for Amazon’s pell-mell growth.

The confrontations indicate that Amazon’s long-stated desire to sell everything to everybody might be taking a back seat. The biggest book release in the middle of June is the new J. K. Rowling novel from Hachette; the biggest movie is “Lego.” Amazon is basically telling its customers to go elsewhere for them, which is a very un-Amazon thing to do.

Read the rest of this article here.