New Amazon Alternative to Lulu

[wildsoul]

I just read this on a blog I follow called Download Squad.

Apparently, Amazon is getting into the print on demand business!

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/08/09/createspace-amazons-answer-to-lulu/

[Marcie]

Thanks - interesting!

[atiff]

thanks for the tip. good stuff

[final_id]

Suggestion from someone who has worked in traditional publishing, in print-on-demand mom-n-pop publishing, and in some internet businesses:

don't touch Amazon with a ten foot pole.

Let your outsourcers and middle-men post your product there if you'd like, but they're DESIGNED for taking advantage of you me and the bedpost. Since they're the six hundred pound gorilla, they just assume you will do their work for them. Fill in this, micro-manage that. It's worse than E-Bay for web-based form-fill-out requirements. If they'd accept a spreadsheet which spit into their database, sure; but they don't because they're busy being "user friendly" (read: you have to point and click very very slowly and wait for every dang page to load very very slowly and ...)

[cartoonfan1983]

Suggestion from someone who has worked in traditional publishing, in print-on-demand mom-n-pop publishing, and in some internet businesses:

don't touch Amazon with a ten foot pole.

Let your outsourcers and middle-men post your product there if you'd like, but they're DESIGNED for taking advantage of you me and the bedpost. Since they're the six hundred pound gorilla, they just assume you will do their work for them. Fill in this, micro-manage that. It's worse than E-Bay for web-based form-fill-out requirements. If they'd accept a spreadsheet which spit into their database, sure; but they don't because they're busy being "user friendly" (read: you have to point and click very very slowly and wait for every dang page to load very very slowly and ...)

It's true.... Amazon is notorious for being impossible to use. I tried to sell books and dvd's on there and got dropped because of one customer complaint. It was a good source of funds for me too... The woman was buying a dvd box set from an APO address. The item was returned to sender and I tried to contact her for a new address.... never any response even after multiple emails. All I know is that amazon dropped me from their sales list because she complained.

[final_id]

Welcome to ... dealing with the gorilla. They just DON'T CARE if they screw you over. That's what the big internet marketers are all about. In fact, I'd bet they profited from that one transaction (took their cut and never returned it) in which the woman never contacted you back but complained to them, right?

[cartoonfan1983]

Welcome to ... dealing with the gorilla. They just DON'T CARE if they screw you over. That's what the big internet marketers are all about. In fact, I'd bet they profited from that one transaction (took their cut and never returned it) in which the woman never contacted you back but complained to them, right?

She absolutely did not contact me... it makes me very angry because I was making about $1000 a month off the site..

Oh well... I'll just find a muse that will replace that income.