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| Hearsay: |
Independent publisher Dan Wells, producer of the strikingly beautiful Biblioasis books, riffs on why he hates Amazon.ca more than Indigent.
No: the “bookseller” who has caused me the most frustration and stress is not Chindigo, but amazon.ca. Their bureaucracy makes Indigo’s seem positively customer-oriented. Their bibliographic information is consistently messed up; we have to fight with them to get our books in stock. They regularly, and seemingly for no reason, list our books as out of print, or not currently available, or not yet available, even months after the book’s release. One day the book is listed as available, with a couple of copies in stock; the next it is no longer in print. Twice in the last six months they have stopped listing our books as available the week immediately following a glowing Globe Review, the time when we are most likely to receive direct orders for our titles. I know for a fact that our distributor and sales force have repeatedly addressed this with amazon, with absolutely no success: go online today, the week after a positive Toronto Star review, 2 weeks after a rave of a Globe review, for John Metcalf’s Shut Up He Explained, and you will find it unavailable for anything but pre-order, a month after it’s official release, and after numerous bibliographic updates which should have remedied the problem. There is not a doubt in my mind that this has cost us at least several sales, and maybe more. And anyone who knows anything about small press publishing in Canada knows that every single sale counts.
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October 22nd, 2007 at 11:09 am
He’s right about the buyers.
April 6th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Dear Amazon.com,
Please help me understand
In the era when corporate greed is being exposed (Please believe I am a FIRM supporter of the free market and capitalism, just not the greed we’ve seen recently) I wish you to explain to me how you consider your book selling arrangement equitable. Amazon demands ( no room or place for negation ) 55% of the cover price of my book to sell it on the Amazon site. How is nine years of my time (not nine years steady, but a nine year span only worth 45% of the price.
Book Started in Sept 1999
Completed and the printer Jan 2009
Book cost to print Per Copy $ 5.58
Printer setup up fee $ 75.00
Shipping to my location. Approx $135.00
Graphic Artist for Cover $800.00
Editor 1 $750.00
Editor 2 $950.00
ISBN Number $50.00
Library of Congress Registration $35.00
Total $2800.58
Price per copy @ 100 copies for first run $28.01
Now I am a realistic person and I realize most of these expenses come with the costs of production and are recouped as I sell and print more copies. Just to make sure that I am fair to anyone who reads this I will have you know that to print more book on a run drops the price per copy. For example, a run of 250 book cost about $5.00 pre copy the real price break doesn’t come until you hit over 1000 copies pre run.
Now comes your part I do not understand
I apply to advertise my book on advantage.amazon.com. I input all the information about the book into you system on my time. I am required to create the graphic for the book cover, label it properly, assure it is in the correct size and format for your database and I have to upload to your system. I have plenty of computer experience so I am fairly sure that the book info is pretty much an automatic process and making sure the proper graphic goes with the proper book may or may not be automatic. Since you request that the graphic file have the ISBN number as the file name I suspect that this is an automatic process also.
Now My book sells for $16.97
Amazon’s Cut $ 9.33
Left for Author $ 7.64
Amazon expects me to pay for shipping it to them (Media Mail) $ 3.63
Book Cost + Shipping
Profit per Book @ 100 copies 5.58 + 3.63 = $9.21- $7.64 -$ 1.57
Profit per Book @ 250 copies 5.00 + 3.63 = $8.63 – $7.64 -$ 0.99
Profit per Book @ 500 copies 4.83 + 3.63 = $8.46 -$7.64 -$ 0.82
Profit per Book @1000 Copies 3.12 + 3.63 = $6.75 – $7.64 $ 0.89
I don’t know about others but at the present time I do not have $3120 to print 1000 copies plus the cost of shipping 1000 books to my residence. Approx $1100.00 shipping. Though
I would drive to the next state and pick them up, but that still occurs some expense.
On top of this, if one of your customers orders only my book then you charge them the shipping so you make out on the book coming and going. Thought I expect that most people are intellect enough to spend more then $25.00 so no shipping cost to them.
Now I understand that you have a business to run, a profit to make and expenses to cover. IT cost would probably be among the biggest. It cannot be your help line. (I don’t believe one exists) Advertising is minimal as you are a huge presence on the web. Building and warehouses cost and all other expenses but please how is payoing you 55% of the cover price and costing me $1.57 per copy is helping me. I’m also in business to make a profit. Maybe you should cover the shipping to your warehouses.As one of thousands of self published authors, I’m tired of everyone but the writer/author making out on our work.
I would appreciate you explaining the economics of showing my book on your website. Unless someone searches for the exact title, my book is just one of thousand upon thousands in you database. So, please explain this to all of us who you take advantage.
Maybe that’s why the account site is names ADVANTAGE.AMAZOM.COM Because it’s a BIG ADVANTAGE FOR AMAZON
August 16th, 2011 at 6:54 pm
i bought a book from amazon at $79.99 and chose a 2 night shipping. well a week past buy an no book. i called fedex, they said they hadn’t recieved anything. i called amazon, and the lady was like oh yea, ill just send another one. wtf lady! that’s not the point, i made business with you guys and chose the 2night shipping for a dam reason. (i needed it asap for school).
thats why im never buying books from them and their website ever again. im trying to blog about my incident as much as i can.
November 18th, 2011 at 9:38 am
Well, Amazon does not give a shit about how much you make or loose. All they care about is how much they can make out of you. That is the reason why they have been making
very stupid decisions that only favor them and not the sellers.
They would close seller accounts for flimpsy reasons or no reason at all and expect you to remain buyer only on their site… They are crazy. Something has to be done about
their stupid bully behavior…
December 4th, 2011 at 2:39 pm
It gave me such a stressful time, and honestly, i had to make calls here and calls there. It truly pissed me off. I was stressed out about it for a good while, and after I got my stuff, I told myself to NEVER order from them again. FYI, I’m not the only one who hates them and their BS.