Tragically the owner of the publishing company passed earlier this year, so I was never informed of the book's publication until I inquired about it this summer.  I immediately purchased a box of books which I promptly sold (making it an AALBC bestseller for the upcoming period).

I noticed the books were not in distribution and inquired about the remaining inventory. The family decided to shut down the publishing company (Konecky & Konecky) and were motivated to sell the books.  I made an offer to buy out the entire inventory, and the following week a pallet of books were dropped of at my front door. 

Have you ever stored a pallet of books in your home?  Fortunately, I have a two car garage and one small vehicle.  Now, how the heck do I sell all of these books?

Amazon has a $1.7T (yes trillion) market capitalization, and sells more printed books, online, than all other booksellers combined. At first glance it seems foolhardy to ignore Amazon as a platform to sell one's book.  Well you can call me Troy "foolhardy" Johnson, because I'd rather give the books away than sell them on Amazon.

Since I have a monopoly on this book, I can keep all new copies of this book off Amazon's site.  The screen shoot of the book on Amazon, from October 12, 2020, below shows three used copies of the book on Amazon. There are three sellers of the book on Amazon and each sells has only one copy.  I'll monitor Amazon to see if any of the copies I sell end up on Amazon as new.

Other than a newsletter mention and a couple of social media posts I have not done much to push this book.  I did have an ad running, but I took it down to make room for paid advertisers.  Here is what I plan to do moving forward:

I will create an affiliate program such that anyone who direct a reader to AALBC who buys the books will earn $5.  $5 is a huge commission on the sale of a book retailing for $19.99.  It will be interesting to see how this goes.

I will also reach out to indie booksellers and offer them the book at a 60% discount and pay for shipping.  Below is a video I created for the purpose. I have not shared the video yet. 

Lets see what happens.

Read more from the Washington Post Consumer Tech

Want to borrow that e-book from the library? Sorry, Am*zon won’t let you.

Its monopoly is stopping public libraries from lending e-books and audiobooks from Mindy Kaling, Dean Koontz, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Trevor Noah, Andy Weir, Michael Pollan and a whole lot more... https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/10/am*zon-library-ebook-monopoly/

NOTE: If you reach a paywall try Mozilla Firefox. I read it through that browser.  And you might also have access to the audio version.

H/T
https://aalbc.com/tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=1491&type=status

Amazon Often Sells Books for More than the Retail Price.

Consider, PowerNomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America by Claud Anderson. This book sells well in the Black community, but is largely marginalized by the mainstream media (why is a topic for another post). 

Amazon, as you can see from the screen shot below (taken Oct 12, 2020), is selling the book for $36 (not including tax and shipping).  This is a 30% increase over the book's listed retail price of $28. If you look at a few of, the Black-owned bookstores who are selling PowerNomics.  You will find we all are selling the book at $28.

• AALBC.com
• MahoganyBooks
• Sankofa Video Books & Cafe
• Umoja Books and Products (selling at $26)
• African Bookstore
• You can also buy the book directly from the publisher

My new archrival, bookshop.org, does offer PowerNomics for sale. 

Some will argue that Amazon is not the entity selling PowerNomics, and are not to blame for the inflated price. Amazon is simply providing the platform to sell this book. This may be true, but after two decades of training consumers that they are the best place to buy books cheaply, most shoppers will not make the distinction and often pay more for a book they can buy more cheaply from an honorable bookseller.

You'll also note that Amazon does not present the retail price of the book when they over charge for it.  This tells me they are aware of the practice and are deliberately hiding the fact that the book is being sold at a price higher than retail.

If PowerNomics were a rare, or out of print book, the price increase would be understandable. But this is not the case, the motivation is purely profit.

This situation with Amazon is the antitheist of the principles and spirit of "PowerNomics." 

In a 2017 letter to share holders Amazon announced, "In 2017, for the first time in our history, more than half of the units sold on Amazon worldwide were from our third-party sellers..." In 2019 the percentage was 60%.  Who are these third-party booksellers anyway?  

Last year the New York Times reported on the sale of counterfeit books on Amazon:

We know third party booksellers on Amazon often sell the promotional copies of book provided by publishers.  They also sell used books as new. When this happens neither the publisher, or the author, makes a penny on these sales -- but Amazon profits on each of these sales, so the practice continues unabated.

Amazon's practices weaken the entire book industry.  The only beneficiary is Amazon.

Readers, if you want to do something positive for Amazon Prime Day, and in the spirit of PowerNomics, shop @AALBC, and #ShopLocalBookstores

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Independent Bookstore Day coming up on August 29, we'd like to announce a new focus for Powell's Books. Please find the full message from Powell's owner and CEO Emily Powell via the link in bio.

A post shared by Powell's Books (@powellsbooks) on Aug 27, 2020 at 9:30am PDT

Now Amazon is always doing something devilish when popular books are really scarce. Today they are selling a paperback version of Caste, for $41.18 -- more than the $32 retail price of the hardcover.  OK Amazon will argue that they are not actually selling the book, but Amazon is providing the platform and profiting from the transactions. 

Now Caste has been published in hardcover and audiobook formats, but not paperback.  So how is Amazon selling paperback version of this book?  Are they selling pre-publication galleys (you are not allowed to sell galleys)? Are they selling a bootlegged version (piracy is illegal)? Did Random House give them the exclusive right to sell this the paperback version (that would not surprise me)?

Any ideas how are is selling a paperback version of Caste?

Update- 3/31/2020 - “A” has ordered a few books from a publisher I know, one tenth of their usual order.

There is no such thing as a “kind” slave master. Sell your books through your own website.

Hello from Amazon,

We are closely monitoring the developments of COVID-19 and its impact on our customers, selling partners, and employees.

We are seeing increased online shopping, and as a result products such as household staples and medical supplies are out of stock. With this in mind, we are temporarily prioritizing household staples, medical supplies, and other high demand products coming into our fulfillment centers so that we can more quickly receive, restock and deliver these products to customers.

Beginning today you will see:

• Reduced Purchase Orders: We have temporarily paused ordering for products that are not household staples, medical supplies, or other high demand products.
• Extended delivery windows for existing purchase orders: We have extended the shipment/delivery windows for some existing purchase orders to give you more time to fulfill the order. Please ship your products toward the end of the extended window.

This will be in effect today through April 5, 2020, and we will let you know once we resume regular operations.

We understand this is a change to your business, and we did not take this decision lightly. We are working around the clock to increase capacity, and on March 16 announced that we are opening 100,000 new full- and part-time positions in our fulfillment centers across the US.

We appreciate your understanding as we prioritize the above products for our customers.

Thank you for your patience,

Amazon

 (Okay, Troy and Mel, you were right. It is a tag. But the box with the pull up menu is on this screen, it's not on the other one.)

However the comparison is not as simple as that, for Amazon also pays affiliates for everything customizers buy during that tranascation (unti the cookie dies 24 hours). So if they also buy a lawn mower affiliates earn commissions on that sale as well.  It was not unusual for AALBC to earn more on commissions on the sale of other items books. 

The problem with Amazon is that they abuse other business and use them only as long as they need them. Amazon will use their website to identify popular product then manufacture those products under their own brand and bury the the competition in the search.

I no longer do business with Amazon not just because commissions on book sales suck, but because they have undermined Black books by providing a platform for bootlegging our books, monopolizing ebook sales, ripping authors off by encouraging them to sell exclusively through Amazon and making their books unattractive to any other books sellers to sell, etc, etc.

Bookshop is touting themselves as a solution to booksellers,  While 10% is better than nothing it pales in comparison to what can be earned by booksellers, or even authors who sell books directly.  When I buy book from a distributor my discount is 45% from the published it is 50% to 65%. 10% is a relative pittance.

However Bookshop and I have a common enemy, so I reached out, via email, to them to learn more:

Hi Bookshop,

How do independent web based booksellers, like AALBC, benefit from your support of independent booksellers?

AALBC is a 22 years old web based bookseller with our own database, using Bigcommerce to process transactions, and Ingram, mostly, to drop ship.  Obviously 10% commissions do not help us, but we have a common goal of preventing Amazon creating a true monopoly in the sale and production of books.

I notice the AALBC is not listed as a bookseller on your site.  I also noticed that a popular brick and mortar store in New York City, Sisters Uptown Bookstore, as well as a bunch of others, are also missing.  How do these stored get listed on your website?

Peace,

Troy Johnson

Founder AALBC.com

Honestly I don't expect much love from Bookshop. Indeed they will probably just be another competitor.

I'll let you know what response i get, if any.

1. A (no need to keep repeating the name, the initial will do) was not ordering the number of books from various independent bookstores and publishers that they had placed large orders with previously. To have this happen just before the holiday season was a disaster. This is not in the update, but I recently heard from an independent bookstore owner that orders were now larger than they had ever been. I didn’t say anything, but I have a feeling the returns are going to be larger than they’ve ever been, too.

           Here’s the link to the response from the Independent Book Publishers Association:

https://www.ibpa-online.org/news/news.asp?id=478273

2. As many of you know, writers’ rights to their work are bundled, like pickup sticks held together with a rubber band. For instance, you can sell the rights to the e-book, the rights to the audio book, the rights to the hardcover, and the rights to the soft cover. All these rights are sold separately, one pickup stick at a time.

In the case I’m going to describe, writers sold the rights to the audio book version of a particular book. However, now A has decided to create an Audible Captions Program. What’s that?

Instead of just listening to the text, the listener can also read the text on the screen. The sentences are broken up into a few words at a time. Then they disappear. A trumpets this as a way to help remedial reading students gain fluency in reading. Besides the disappearing text, the other problem is an “acceptable” error rate of 6%. On a page of three hundred words, there will be 18 “acceptable” typographical errors or otherwise mangled words.

A intended to do this with all the books it had control over, not just those in the public domain (the writer is dead and the estate no longer owns the copyright). In other words, A was going to make a version of the book for which the writer had not been paid and had not given permission for the work to be produced (destroyed) in this way.

Since September, A has been in court fighting a lawsuit waged by the writers and publishers whose work it had intended to steal. For now, A has agreed to roll out this program only for books in the public domain and the books it publishes. Look at the hypertext to see what happened to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

         Here is the link to the article from the Independent Book Publishers Association:

            https://www.ibpa-online.org/news/news.asp?id=467194

I am so pleased that so many of us at AALBC.COM are working together to break free from A’s chains. Troy, thank you for making this possible. I wish you continued success 

with your online bookstore.

The bottom line is that since 2009 the amount of money I make from Amazon selling books has dropped almost 90%. it has gotten to the point that I don't even trust the commission reports they send me.  A they reduced the cookie duration from 30 days to 1 day -- or even sooner if the users logs out of Amazon. Last year Amazon cut the commissions in half! Amazon also push ebooks over other books and formats -- I'm sure because they are more profitable to Amazon but we pennies on the sale of Amazon's ebooks.  

Now as you know I've been griping about Amazon for years, not so much because they don;t pay the website who sell book through them, but because they have become a monopoly and effectively own the Black Book ecosystem.  

As a free man, I can no longer stomach giving Amazon any support. 

I'm not selling Audible or Kindle products either.  Now if an author paying for a profile wants to sell these things on their AALBC page, I'll hold my nose and make an exception. But I'm already removed the site's links to Amazon.

Lulu.com has their own take how this merger may impact the independent publishing world and it doesn't look too favorable.
 

https://lifehacker.com/how-to-stop-giving-amazon-your-money-1823468097

Please let me know how this works for you. I was never hooked in, so I don't have to unhook, but I am on Goodreads, which is owned by Amazon.

As Amazon expands their dominance of the publishing industry, even mainstream publishers are adversely impacted.  Needless to say, the impact on Black independents is worse.  

For many Black authors Amazon controls everything--from production to sales and profits qute handsomely.  For many authors Amazon even serves as the author's primary web presence. 

Now many will argue that Amazon has made it possible for any author to publish a book, when this may not have been possible before. The fact of the matter Amazon is not the only option and I'd argue they may even be the most expensive option as they profit from every step in the process and assume no risk. 

For Amazon, the production of books is purely a monetary transaction. Amazon is motivated solely by maximizing revenue. The professionals in the Black Book Ecosystem, which AALBC.com is part of, are motivated by revenue too, but we are primarily mission driven. 

We recognize that books are not merely commodities to generate profit or to crush our "competition."  Books hold the cultural legacy of our community.  They relate our history and stories.  We simply can not allow a single profit driven corporation to own our cultural legacy and to be the only entity to profit from the business.

I'm not limiting this appeal to just Black folks I'm reaching out to anyone who cares about books.

If you agree, would you consider no longer buying your books from Amazon or using any of their book related services? 

Please fill out the form below and let me know what you think.  I'm going to reach out beyond the Black community, because Amazon effect the entire book ecosystem.  

The Survey has now completed.  Review the result here. 

I'd agree. We want someone to make and serve up something to us even before we know we want it.

Just the other day, I was wondering how to get a server that's cheap and easy to operate.  I don't want to worry about a platform like Myspace deleting all the blog postings.   

I have a Google alert set for black philosophers.   Or how about a catalog of business books written by black authors? 

Bottom line: I need a personal shopper who will cater to my consumer whims minus unsolicited pitches.  Junk mail is annoying because the proprietor sends me what s/he has which may or may not have anything to do with my desires.  I want someone to take the time to know what I like and offer a curated selection.
 

Bezos intuited that we have thousands of thoughts like this in a day.  He built an online business to offer whatever comes to mind. 

What I find exciting is we also pay for his research and development.  Bezos says, in the article, he's not afraid to be wrong.      

You can't beat a fearless man. 

There's a saying:

Quote

"if you can't beat them join them." 

The quote, in this context, doesn't mean work with or for Amazon.  Or sell your books on the website.  It means to emulate the competition.  And from And from Bezos own words, he runs a customer-centric business.

Everything Amazon does serve the whims of the customer.   

Amazon has access to every book in print.  If it's not in the warehouse, they will print-on-demand and send it to you and waive the shipping and handling fee.

If they can't print it, they'll send a digital version to your Kindle (if you own one) or your PC. It will be lickety-split at a price that's easy on the wallet.  

So, how can we as independent authors, self-publishers, engineers, etc., become the reader's advocate?  

How can we become reader-centric booksellers? How can we help them help us help them?   Can we make it easy for book lovers to acquire our books?   

Please post your suggestions, ideas and comments.

Update:  I wrote an article to discuss this post in detail.  Link:  melhopkinsdotcom: 5 STEPS TO FINDING A COMMUNITY FOR YOUR BOOK

Read the rest of the article By Stephen Moore in the Dec. 15, 2017, Wall Street Journal

Amazon is a destructive force in the world of bookselling. Their business practices undermine the ability of independent bookstores—and therefore access to independent, progressive, and multicultural literature—to survive. Additionally, Amazon is harmful to local economies, labor, and the publishing world.  Read more at Social Justice Books

Ryan Raffaelli set out to discover how independent bookstores managed to survive and even thrive in spite of competition from Amazon and other online retailers. His initial findings reveal how much consumers still value community and personal contact.

But now the discounted prices are only available to Prime members. If you’re not, you’ll pay sticker price.

The message: If you’re not a Prime member, you can’t get discounts.

There are no price tags on the books at Amazon’s store, as customers can either scan the book at a kiosk or use Amazon’s app to find out how much each product is.   Read the full article at GeekWire

1. Customers must care passionately. For customers to participate in a boycott they must passionately care about an issue. The main driver is moral outrage. Examples are violation of human rights, firmly held religious beliefs (e.g. the boycott over Danish products in Muslim countries after a controversial cartoon in a Danish newspaper), discrimination, betrayal, and so forth.
    
2. The cost of participation must be low. Smart activists make it easy for customers to participate in a boycott. They target a single company so that customers have plenty of alternatives or a single product. This is one reason why retailers and oil companies make good boycott targets. It is easy for customers to shop somewhere else. Entertainment companies (e.g. Disney) are much harder to boycott successfully, especially if their products are unique.
    
3. The issues must be easy to understand. Activists often fail to effectively communicate their objectives in a simple manner. PETA’s McCruelty campaign, for example, has had limited impact in part because the underlying issues are complex and not intuitive. Boycotting fur, however, is easy to understand.
    
4. The mass media is still essential. While social media platforms have made it easier for activists to gain support, activists need coverage in the mass media for a boycott to be successful. Such coverage can then steer viewers to the relevant social media sights. Media coverage requires strong audience interest and a connection to an issue that the audience passionately cares about. Publicity stunts, such as occupying a building or involving celebrities, generate audience interest, but they must connect to a bigger topic. Greenpeace succeed in its campaign in large part by framing the issue about disposal of the Brent Spar as a recycling issue, a passionate topic among the German public.

One of the demands, for example, alleges that a man from the Philippines offered a service to authors to boost the number of pages read in their books using hundreds of fake Amazon customer accounts, in exchange for a 40 percent cut of their profits. Amazon pays authors who participate in the Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Owners’ Lending Library program using a formula based on pages read." Read the complete article at GeekWire.

Of course Amazon is not suing for issues of integrity of morality. I'm not aware of Amazon suing anyone for posting bogus book reviews or selling pirated copies of books; because those illicit activities generate revenue for them. 

“Initially, Amazon deployed these new technologies in ways that benefited both readers and authors. While Amazon did not invent the e-book or e-reader, it created a platform that made it easy for millions around the world to access e-books, including readers who live nowhere near a brick and mortar bookstore.

But as Amazon has become a global corporation of unprecedented size, scope, and power, it is increasingly engaging in practices that undermine the interests of readers, authors, publishers, and society as a whole. Amazon has used the digital revolution in book publishing to exercise control over the marketplace of ideas in ways that threaten not merely open markets but free speech.”

Amazon’s Taking Another Bite of the Publishing Pie

“One might wonder how there can be ‘new’ copies offered by someone other than the publisher and how they can be sold for $.01 plus shipping (the high shipping costs are apparently where these sellers make their profit).

“The Authors Guild has spoken to several major publishers in the past year about where all these second-hand ‘new’ copies come from, and no one seems to really know. Some surmise that they are review copies, but there are far too many cut-rate ‘new’ copies for them all to be review copies.

“Could they be returns from bookstores that never made it back to the publisher? Did they fall off the back of a truck? We don’t know. What we do know is that the re-sellers must be acquiring them at cut-rate price and that there appear to be enough of these copies available that they could replace sales for the truly new copies—those that bring money to the publisher and royalties to the author.”

You can download the entire report here.

The Booksellers’ Association (BA) is a trade association for booksellers in the UK, representing over 95% of all bookshops. When Amazon entered the market in 1995 the BA had 1,894 outlets in membership. Now it has 905.6 It argues that Amazon’s growth means that “high streets and communities no longer have booksellers who provide author events, go into schools, churches or libraries, or run book clubs and reading groups”.

In December 2015 Tim Godfray, chief executive of the BA, explained its recent approach to the CMA: 

“We sent a formal submission to the Competition and Markets Authority outlining our concerns. It was a substantial document of about 300 pages. We were particularly concerned about allegations received from publishers and booksellers that Amazon was seemingly engaged in predatory pricing: 93% of booksellers believed that Amazon had been selling books below cost and 51% of publishers thought the same. We supplied a lot of title information examples to the CMA and we hoped that the competition authority in London would investigate, but instead they ended up passing the file over to DG Competition in Brussels. We are still talking to Brussels and we do not have a quick resolution.”

Read the complete article at the Ethical Consumer.