Book Review: ‘Aiming at Amazon’ Remains a Valuable Reference
April 13, 2008
If you’re familiar with print-on-demand (POD) publishing, by now you’ve probably heard about Amazon.com’s attempts to force publishers to use its in-house service, BookSurge. If not, my recent post on the subject will bring you up to speed.
Amazon is facing international outrage, investigations, and possible lawsuits. Maybe the company will rethink its position. At this posting, many smaller publishers have not been contacted directly, and their sales pages remain unaffected.
So, what do you do if you still want to publish books, are concerned about BookSurge’s reputation for poor quality, and can’t afford their prices. What if you planned to make most or all of your sales online, and you were counting on Amazon, the largest online bookseller, for help?
Whether or not you decide to target Amazon, you should start by reading Aiming at Amazon, by Aaron Shepard. Shepard is a man who knows POD publishing inside out, and he makes his living selling self-published books online.
Less than one-third of Aiming at Amazon’s 174 pages are about selling books on Amazon.com. The rest is valuable information on writing, formatting, marketing, and pricing your book for greater online sales, and increasing your profits by using the services of Lightning Source.
Lightning Source is the leader in POD manufacturing and distribution solutions for the publishing industry. Books printed through this service can be distributed just about anywhere you want them, including other online distributors or your own website.
Lightning Source also ships books for its parent company, Ingram Book Group, the largest U.S. book wholesaler. They also service Baker and Taylor, the second largest U.S. wholesaler, and other wholesalers and retailers. They continue to drop ship their customers’ books to Amazon. Company President and CEO J. Kirby Best issued a statement on April 1 that this relationship with Amazon has not changed.
Some policies and services at Amazon and Lightning Source have changed since this book was published last year. Shepard, who admits an addiction to publishing, keeps readers up to speed on his highly informative publishing page.
Aiming at Amazon and Perfect Pages, Shepard’s book on creating your book with Microsoft Word, are both available from the Creative Resource Shop on this site.
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