When I produced my first self-published book, “The Ojai Valley, An Illustrated History,” part of my promotions plan was to go after library sales. At that time, libraries paid full price for books. Some still do, but most of them prefer getting a discount whenever they can.

What was the ultimatum? Roughly paraphrased: All POD printed books must either be printed at Amazon’s own printers, be part of the Amazon Advantage program or Amazon will stop selling them. They’ll still be listed, but only in the “used and new” section.

Recently, Amazon announced that all self-, subsidy, and small publishers would have their “buy” buttons turned off on their Amazon pages unless they produced those books through its BookSurge POD printing/publishing unit.(

Since this Amazon brouhaha started, I have maintained that I really don’t know whether Amazon’s actions are illegal (anti-trust, restraint of trade, etc.). I’m not a lawyer, after all, nor do I play one on YouTube. But, in my opinion, Amazon’s actions are unethical with all the hallmarks of a marketplace bully.

NINETY-FIVE PERCENT OF ALL NEW BUSINESSES GO OUT OF BUSINESS WITHIN THE FIRST FIVE YEARS OR LESS.
WHY DO THEY FAIL?
There are many starters in life - but very few finish what they start. When the going gets tough, most people fold. They don’t persist hard enough or persevere long enough. They don’t have a red-hot [...]

To regular readers of this column, this announcement should have come as no surprise. I wrote about this last summer. Most “experts” thought I was out of my mind. Looks like I get the last laugh, now. First off, if you are selling books through a distributor or selling via Amazon Advantage, this announcement means nothing. If your book is available on Amazon via one of the various POD (Print on Demand) programs…

Everyone loves a successful book signing! When I had my very first book signing it was a total flop! Well, maybe not totally, the book store did order six books and I did sell two of them! But success comes after failure only if you try again.