I'm Azon

MsMiller — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:53:34 -0500

I'm still really new to BlogHer (LoveHer, though), so I don't know if there were any lengthy discussions when this all went down.

In case you didn't know, Amazon took a stand against the self- and independent publishers, and small presses, pretty much anyone who uses Print On Demand (POD)...except, it seems, the major publishers who do. See, they wanted us (I'm an independent) to use their POD service, BookSurge. If an author or publisher didn't comply, their Buy button was in jeopardy. They gave us an out, though. We could use their version of eBay, Amazon Advantage. That out meant a small fee and supplying them with a few books. Their argument was customer service. They wanted everyone to have an Amazon experience, and those pesky POD-ers meant it couldn't go all in one box. Now, I'm all about saving the environment (and money) and bolstering the economy. But, I'm not okay with losing my right to chose anything, even my choice of POD vendor. (I'll stop my rant on this now. You can catch the rest of it on Red Room.)

So far, I'm safe. Buy button intact. (My POD company is one of the many suing Amazon.) And while I support boycotting the big A (you should read some of the publishing websites to see some of the crazy stuff they're up to), I understand their convenience, and don't get snarky when people still buy from them (though, we really, really need to support independent bookstores as much as possible right now -- go ahead and get your blenders from them, but see if you can't nab that book at the mom-and-pop -- cheers!), or even my book. Hey, I have to support everyone's right to choose.

Well, today I find myself a bit torn. I found that said book is in their 100 Most Gifted. I felt almost honored, like a mother whose child was deemed "gifted" by whomever administers the IQ exams. Granted, I'm at #71, but that's a high C, right? I get tickled over stuff like this because this here is the extent of my promotional efforts. Yeah, I'm a bad mommy. Working on that, though.

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I'm Azon