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Warning: The following message contains a Pot, calling Kettles black. Please turn your irony sensors to their lowest settting.
This thread sure went off-topic quickly! The subject isn't ebook publishing, but Print On Demand Publishing. This includes, but isn't limited to, Vanity Publishing. It's also a business model used for keeping technical publications in circulation by printing them in very small runs. What Amazon has done is informed those in the Print On Demand publishing industry that they must use an Amazon-owned printer to print their books if they want to sell their books on Amazon.
My first knee-jerk reaction was "Monopoly! Boycott Amazon!". I'm biased, as I earn my living, in part, in helping POD printers become more efficient through custom ERP and RIP systems...
Points to ponder, though: how is this different from Amazon getting into the ebook business, but only selling ebooks in "their" format, for their device?
What we're seeing is Amazon is not content to be a distributor. They want a piece of the manufacturing process, as well. That leads to some interesting conflict-of-interest scenarios, I think.
But if Amazon wants to say "we'll only sell POD books we manufacture", I suppose they have that right, however short-sighted that decision appears to observers like me.
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