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April 29, 2008

Writers call for 1 May Amazon, eBay boycott

BookSurge 'stranglehold' causes row

Rosemary Haworth

UK Arts Council-funded YouWriteOn – a site for struggling authors keen to see their names in print - is calling for a day-long boycott of Amazon on 1 May over the online retailer's insistence that print on demand (POD) books sold through its site use its own BookSurge service.

Edward Smith, manager of YouWriteOn, called for the 24-hour-long protest as an adjunct to and in solidarity with consumers intending to boycott the eBay online auction site on the same day.

eBay has invited customer ire due to a change in its setup that means sellers will no longer be able to leave feedback about buyers from whom they have bought.

According to Smith, at sites such as eBay, reputation is everything. What customers say about you in terms of trustworthiness and reliability determines whether other people will buy from you in the future.

Smith reasons that Amazon also has a reputation at stake. He questions how forcing writers to use its online printing service can be seen as fair.

Smith isn’t the only one to see Amazon’s approach as anti-competitive. In the US, The American Society of Journalists and Authors and The US Authors Guild have taken Amazon to task over the anti-competitive nature of its BookSurge demands.

Smith goes on to explain that “Anti-Amazon action has led to the Washington District Attorneys Office being involved to examine complaints about whether Amazon's actions constitute restraint of trade or otherwise violate antitrust laws.”

In the US, POD books not printed through the Amazon BookSurge publishing service cannot be bought directly via the Amazon.com website’s Buy Now option. Instead, authors have to rescind 55 percent of the cover price of each book sold to Amazon which the retailer lists through its Advantage scheme. Until now, authors could get their POD literary efforts listed by Amazon for a far healthier 25 percent cut.

YouWriteOn is a website to help promote and assist the development of new writers. An Arts Council-funded initiative, it works on a peer reviews basis whereby each month the highest-ranked writer receives professional critiques from agents and publishers such as Bloomsbury, Random House and Orion.

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Comments received


greta said on Tuesday, 29 April 2008

~ JOIN THE WORLD WIDE eBay BOYCOTT ~ BE INFORMED ~

Find your State or International Location folder and join us. Former employees are welcome too!

A place to organize.
A place to unite.
A place to focus.
United we stand, Divided we fall.

forums.delphiforums.com/boycottebay
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs3o3Ed3Rog

Boycott Victoriously … While Making Noise!
Evacuate by May 1, 2008!

Please support Australia's protest and sign the petition:
www.petitiononline.com/ebayau/petition.html
Please contact the ACCC with your concerns, encourage them to rule against PayPal:
www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/823668/fromItemId/776499

horsemama said on Tuesday, 29 April 2008

I do not understand why so many people who write about the eBay boycott can't seem to get their facts straight.

For one, it is NOT a one-day boycott. May 1 is the starting date. It will continue indefinitely.

For another, the feedback issue is that SELLERS cannot leave accurate feedback about BUYERS. Your article states that it is the opposite.

Please do your homework before writing any more misleading articles.

I'll have to look into the POD issue. I have a POD book listed on Amazon -- not getting any sales, but I guess I should see if the terms have changed since I submitted it for distribution there.

Rosemary Haworth said on Tuesday, 29 April 2008

clarification: you're dead right that I got it round the wrong way with the buyers v sellers feedback issue on eBay that this story references. I should have read it back to myself more carefully.

However, the story here is that WriteOnDemand is calling for a one-day boycott of Amazon that coincides with the day on which a worldwide boycott of eBay is due to commence.

The fact that a great many people are already people are already boycotting eBay and intend to do so indefinitely is surely a measure of how much of a chord the idea has struck.

Henrietta said on Tuesday, 29 April 2008

A one day boycott is nothing but a gesture and does not even produce a measureable result.

Don't be such wusses!

The boycott February 18 - 25 was a week, no buying, no selling. Some sellers have never gone back. This is why alternative sites are showing hefty listing & sales increases.

The action May 1st could be called a boycott but it is a total withdrawal and that sounds more like a strike to me. It is open ended.

The message to eBay management is the same as it has always been:

You are doing harmful things to the marketplace. Please listen to us and respond, communicate honestly, turn off Usher Lieberman and explain to us why you have chosen to ignore our concerns.

We are on the same side, a sick eBay does not benefit sellers. An eBay without the small sellers is not the eBay buyers have come to expect.

greta said on Tuesday, 29 April 2008

~ JOIN THE WORLD WIDE eBay BOYCOTT ~ BE INFORMED ~

Find your State or International Location folder and join us. Former employees are welcome too!

A place to organize.
A place to unite.
A place to focus.
United we stand, Divided we fall.

forums.delphiforums.com/boycottebay
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs3o3Ed3Rog

Boycott Victoriously … While Making Noise!
Evacuate by May 1, 2008!

Please support Australia's protest and sign the petition:
www.petitiononline.com/ebayau/petition.html
Please contact the ACCC with your concerns, encourage them to rule against PayPal:
www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/823668/fromItemId/776499

Henrietta said on Tuesday, 29 April 2008

If we are in campaign solidarity mode today please support our Australian colleagues in their effort to block eBay from making PayPal the sole transaction gateway in Australia.

The ACCC will accept email comments from anybody, read how to do your submission at www.redinkdiary.blogspot.com

If eBay succeeds in Australia they will force it everywhere else. No checks, no money orders, everything through PP.









Donald Knox-Richards said on Thursday, 01 May 2008

I'd not heard of this boycott before or even of the organisation that the Arts Council are sponsoring. Its never been on the news or in the newspapers, so its something that has been avoided by the looks of it.Can someone else flag up some more information please?

Joe said on Thursday, 01 May 2008

I have two Car Manuals I wanted to sell? Use AMAZON? Spent about 40 minutes jumping through hoops to open an account! Last 'fence', they will phone me with a code..OK no problem. I refuse to pay for a Land-Line 'which is static'! when like everyone else I have a mobile which I use all the time! O' NO this is not good enough for Amazon and it's only at the end of all this that they say No Mobiles Must Have Land Line...Stuff em. I'll sell it at the Car Booth Sale.

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