[Adele Ward]

Yes, it would be wrong to pass Amazon by at this stage. For the sake of our authors it's only fair to make their books available on Kindle. We also need to be building up sales of ebooks on other platforms at the same time, but not by cutting out Amazon. We have to work with them at the same time.

As for building up the competitive website. My job is to keep publishing outlets open for authors. To select, edit and help them establish their names in a difficult market where there's a real bookselling crisis. That takes all my time and I've had to take time off from my own writing to do it. Many publishers set up because they believe in this.

So it's somebody else's job to compete with Amazon. It needs to be a major bookshop or another major online retailer. It could even be one of our huge supermarkets as they have online sales including books. It just needs to be a strong contender with Amazon where we can put our books in another standard format.

Amazon isn't only a problem with ebooks. Another major problem is that they have so successfully created a brand perception that makes customers go to them as a one-stop source of information on a book. They don't actually supply many of the print books they display so they have an automatic message on them saying they are Unavailable or Out of Stock.

This makes customers think these books are no longer in print. Nobody knows why Amazon does this with some books because it's all automated and the book is supplied by the distributor where the publisher warehouses books each time an online order is received. It's easy for any online bookselling website to do this. The fact that they don't supply so many books, and that they even take orders then send emails for weeks before telling a customer the book is unavailable, is very damaging. This is the worst damage Amazon does to publishers.

But our books appear with them and on all other online bookseller websites automatically as they're on the Nielsen database. For those of you who don't know about it, the Nielsen database is also what easily passes the order to the warehouse and gets the book sent out.

Unless things have changed you can see what I mean by looking at any books from Ward Wood Publishing (my company) on Amazon.co.uk and on bookdepository.co.uk Amazon owns Book Depository, but the books are quickly and reliably sent out from Book Depository, while Amazon has the misleading message that the books are unavailable or out of stock. If you try they will accept your order, keep you waiting, and not supply the book.

So, yes, Amazon is a real nuisance and damaging to many publishers. But we have to work with them until there's a real contender. We will be putting our books in other formats on other websites including our own. And I do have a social network for writers to interact on writtenword.ning.com (I think you mentioned that too). An online bookselling site for all books to compete with Amazon isn't something I can spend time on.