But Lulu has always been a very different star shining down on the great big world of POD by not charging its users any up front fee for producing a product. Lulu basically takes the manufacturing cost and gives the author the opportunity to make money by marking up the product at their leisure. For instance, at present, Lulu’s cost calculator shows the production cost of a 6×9 perfect bound 150 page black and white print trade paperback as being $7.53. If I was the author of such book, I’d probably mark it up at least 5 dollars. That makes the retail price of this book $12.53. That’s not too bad for a trade paperback.  Having no control over pricing when I published with Xlibris in 2003, the retail price of my 176 page book was $19.99 for a paperback.  My cut of a sale was 10%.  End of story.

However, Lulu could easily tack on another 3 or 4 bucks onto this business model, ultimately increasing their cost to counter the fees Amazon will probably bestow upon them. Heck, if Amazon’s fees are going to be as high as most blogs are saying they are, Lulu could double their manufacturing costs to cover their expense. But this would quickly throw them into the expensive pricing realm that authors all too often experience with other POD publishers. Would it even make a difference by now?  Who knows? Only time will tell. But consider this….will this increase only affect authors who purchase an ISBN to get their book listed on Amazon, B&N.com, etc?  If so, that would probably require Lulu to build an additional set of services (and pricing) only for those who plan to get their book listed on Amazon.  For the author who plans to just use Lulu for set-up, binding and printing, but not purchase an ISBN, should an increased pricing structure apply?  Chances are it will across the board just so Lulu doesn’t have to come up with a separate business model for ISBN purchasers.

At this point, I highly agree with Angela Hoy’s advice she gives to BookLocker authors.  I quote:

1. Remove all Amazon.com links from your marketing materials – website, ezine, blog, email signature, press releases, articles — everything.

2. Change those links to your book’s page on BarnesandNoble.com. To obtain that link, search for your book’s title at http://www.bn.com. All Booklocker.com print books are on their website.

3. Don’t forget to contact Amazon to tell them what you’re doing in response to their horrible actions!

Angela has done a magnificent job at Writer’s Weekly of covering this issue. Catch up with her blog here.

As Angela states, the success of a POD book is really left up to the author.  It’s all about self promotion and marketing.  Your readers will more than likely buy the book from wherever you tell them to.  You DON’T have to send them to Amazon.  Almost all POD publishers, Lulu included, support their own online bookstore.  Lulu even prints a link to your book on their marketing materials.  They have free BUY links available to you as well which you build onto your websites and blogs. And if your book has an ISBN, then B&N lists your book as well.

Book Reviews: Check back this weekend for this month’s first review:  OH Brother by Paul Ciccone, Jr.

Amazon claims it can print and bind a book on site in its facility in about 2 hours (yeah, I’m sure that’s quality), allowing it to be married with multiple purchases made at the same time by a single customer and they can all ship together at once.  This will help to save shipping costs and fuel.  I wonder if this savings will be passed on to the customer?  It’s true.  Amazon does already offer free shipping on orders over $25.00, but that doesn’t mean they ship your items the same day.  It also doesn’t mean they use a preferred method like UPS or Fedex.  I seem to recall a multi-item purchase I made once that took 7 days before they shipped it, and they shipped it in two boxes days apart from one another using the postal service although all the items shipped from their Kentucky warehouse.  14 days later I got one box, and the other arrived a few days afterward.  I would have received the items in 3 days had I just paid the shipping.  Amazon might have saved here, but I certainly didn’t.

I wonder if this means they actually have Booksurge printing facilities in every single warehouse?  How much money will they spend on programming to make sure your POD book purchase actually prints in the same warehouse where your other items are in stock to ship?  Will they pass on that fuel and shipping cost savings to the POD publishers, or charge them an ungodly fee for file uploads, storage, and PRINTING!?  If the publishers get hit, you can bet that will then increase the fees bestowed upon the author, and probably the pricing of the actual books as well.

True, Amazon claims you can continue to print your books as you like and just ship them about 5 to keep on hand to fulfill orders.  Hmm..an excellent way to slap POD publishers with a storage fee, inventory upkeep fee, receiving fee, etc.  So, Amazon saves on shipping and fuel, and makes money by charging POD publishers like crazy for their service!  It will be interesting to see if Booksurge soon becomes the preferred method chosen by POD authors and/or who will be the first POD publisher to go belly up (if any).

For now, Amazon is no longer my preferred method for shopping!

Based on their press release, it sounds like PublishAmerica is backing down. They plan to work closer with other distributors and with B&N to combat the issue. Remember a few weeks ago when Starbucks closed for three hours to retrain employees, and all the other indie coffee shops jumped at the chance to gain that business? Let’s hope that B&N comes up with a plan and is ready to step up to the plate!

Although not much has been released as of yet, I’m sure other POD Publishers will be approached by Amazon soon. Who knows what this means for Lulu, but keep your eye on this Lulu forum to find out. Based on a quote, it seems that Bob Young has already been approached. Here’s the quote from the forum…

Publishers will “have to abide by Amazon’s pricing,” said Bob Young, CEO of Lulu Inc, a print-on-demand publisher based in Raleigh, N.C. Mr. Young said he believed BookSurge’s prices to be “slightly higher” than other printers. An Amazon spokesman declined to comment on that issue. “A significant number of our authors do request for their books to be available on Amazon,” said Mr. Young, who hasn’t yet decided whether he will agree to Amazon’s terms.

For someone like me, who uses Amazon almost everyday as a informational book source for work, and is also a POD author with a book on Amazon, this news really saddens me. It reminds me of a move another billion dollar company made a few years ago. It was all the rage on the internet and made lots of money while making lots of shoppers happy. Then, it started raising it’s pricing and making lots of rules, tightening the grasp it already had on the www market share. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? It’s called Ebay.

It’s sad that a POD author’s most valuable online marketing tool, someone we probably thought was a friend to our industry, would choose to do this. So what do we do now? Check out Angela Hoy’s article on the subject if you’d like Amazon’s contact information to send a letter and voice your own concern to them. Good luck though! Amazon’s quite known for not really listening to its consumers. Who knows? Maybe Amazon will become a fad and another site will take over as the ever-growing internet continues to change. I’ve already tried to use B&N and Abebooks a bit more these days for purchases. And I suggest you do the same!

And hey, while you are looking for an outlet to support, try your local bookstore. You know… That building on the corner with bookshelves filled with books. There’s a person standing in it to help. You take the book off the shelf and walk up to a cash register. You reach in your wallet or purse for cash, a credit card, or a check book. That’s right! You have to GO to the bookstore. The postman doesn’t bring the book to you. While you are there, if you are a POD author, take a copy of your book with you and put it in the hands of the manager or community relations manager. Don’t be pushy! As a matter of fact, thank them for being there. Tell them your book is a thank you gift even and that you’d appreciate their support in return. I’ve always thought Amazon might end up bringing about the demise of the brick-and-mortar bookstore, but let’s NOT let it monopolize the POD industry too.