Primrose Road

As several writing blogs have reported, Amazon.com will continue to list but no longer sell print-on-demand books, apparently because it now has its own POD service, Booksurge.

This is somewhat interesting ethically. Here's why:

1) Amazon's move has the potential to kill POD outlets who present themselves as "traditional publishers" (i.e. PublishAmerica) and prey on young and inexperienced writer-hopefuls. Authors may be more likely to realize, upon learning that their books will not include a "buy" button on Amazon, that PublishAmerica (along with similar businesses) is not a "traditional publisher," but rather a printer who makes money by selling books to authors, not readers. In other words, the fake duck (POD businesses who masquerade as real publishers) won't look so much like the real duck anymore.

2) Yet Amazon appears at this point to be motivated by a desire to monopolize the POD industry, only selling POD books printed by their own POD service. Remember, POD in general isn't such a bad thing: it can be useful for printing a small book with a small run for a small, specific group of people (for example, a family history for a family reunion. Ironically, you'd likely take in more money this way than if you printed a novel intended for public consumption through a POD service, because you wouldn't have to spend anything on marketing!). Therefore, while it's terrific that Amazon might potentially kill POD scams, it seems unfair that it could also kill non-scam POD printing businesses.

Interestingly, watchdog site Preditors and Editors, currently being sued by PublishAmerica for libel and also trying to bring up a civil suit against the scam, does not support Amazon.com's decision "because it would set a dangerous precedent for other print-on-demand publishers and their printers who could be forced out of business." Here's hoping, then, that PublishAmerica gets brought down by the civil suit and not by Amazon.com's odd (yet not unheard of) move to promote its own service.