Driving Down the Economy Through Inflation

Inflation is probably our worst enemy. However, one gets the feeling that some governments, particularly the British and the American governments have been unusually complacent about the consequences.

It interesting to see ads for American designed cars on English television. It is almost as if the European market were about to export production to America, and you wonder how the States could recover their competitive position in the automobile industry. Well, we know that what goes into cars comes from a world of sources, literally. But, it makes you think when you realize just how weak the US dollar has become over George Bush's tenure at the White House. So, inflation is not about the cost of things American, but the cost of raw materials.

Well, it would seem to me that we have at least four negative things going on that would feed an inflationary binge. We have:

• High energy prices , particularly, oil prices which will feed into just about every industry. Transport intensive industries are but the start. Gone may be the days of strawberries from Chile on the shelves of British retailers, but I could be wrong. There are just some things that people will buy no matter what the price.

• Growth in national and international money supply well beyond what is called our real economy production, which is goods and services. You know this has to happen during a world crisis in the form of a credit crunch that threatens to deflate the world economy by downward pressure on the marketable value of big things, such as houses. Governments are keeping interest rates affordable so that we don't have further deflation in property values. They are in fact inflating the economies until real demand and monetary demand get into balance. This could take some time.

• People clawing back the real value of what they have been used to, even though their economy can't afford it. Oh yes! Strikes and civil discontent with a general feeling of malaise. Possibly, there is a feeling of being suffocated by the cost of living not retreating. As people are forced to save in real terms, i.e. they can't afford to live as before, they actually save, which means they pay more and profits for things are siphoned out of the economy to pay for energy. The likes of Shell, Iran and Iraq become wealthier while property owners and consumers struggle much harder to keep what they had.

• You wonder how much it costs to build an army these days. Well, we are now paying for military purchases in the future. We are saving for an almighty war preparation effort. Those that will be buying are the energy exporters, who are creating tourist areas in the sun while negotiating arrangements for self protection. Armies and miltiary build up these days can be bought. Our terrorist people may even be receiving some of this money.

Heh! Slow Down! The Hidden Dimensions of Change!

Who do I think I am talking to anyways? Do you ever get the feeling that there is much more to the universe than our physical realities? But, why? What makes you think that? Are you insane, crazy, ill, possessed, religious, philosophical, frightened, desperate, nuts, bonkers, wild, driven, gifted, depressed, dada, strange, born again, revitalized, touched, scared to death, amazed, confused! It doesn't change a thing if you are, or does it? Why so much change and where is it leading?

Why do we react the way we do? Or, maybe you don't react because you are already aware at a deep level that continuous change is inevitable. Call it creative destruction, industrial change, product cycles, globalization, the economy, creative design, Darwinism, survival of the fittest, new paradigms, or just evolution. We see change all around us. We are insubstantial and in a permanent state of flux. We are insignificant in the grand order of things and just plain puny. The only thing is, just about everything that matters suffers from the same condition of being continually changed.

We don't seem to be in control. Yet, we relate closely to much of what is around us and we form attachments and meaning. Some of us derive much more meaning than others. Some see meaning in things others just stare at in amazement and wonder. Some see meaning in things that are just as fleeting as the objects around us, but have no substance. Some see meaning from symbols, words, images, hieroglyphics, mathematics, abstractions, conceptual models, theories, axioms and derivations that completely leave others wondering what is going on.

It is a rare event in one's life to stare into the eyes of a wild animal who instinctively kills for a living. I stared into the eyes of a fox cub that was just a week or more old. It looked into my eyes and saw nothing threatening. I stood still and just watched it looking into my eyes. For a moment something may have happened between us. In a way, we were friends, if only for a short while. Our relationship was conditional. As long as I did not move, the cub would not move.

I do not know whether it sensed danger, or was just puzzled and instinctively knew how to react. In any event, the cub just relaxed and became what it already was, a newcomer to the world, a world in which it would be quickly transformed into an instinctive killing machine with human-like qualities. I wondered at that moment what would define its future. Its parents would ensure that it knew how to kill either in defense or in a proactive feeding effort.

Would this little creature become a killing machine that killed for the joy of killing itself? My feeling is that when desperate, the fox will change into a frenzied unreasoning animal that does what its oldest nature guides it to do, and that is to exercise force on its environment proactively.

Obviously, when you look into the eyes of a baby cub fox, you are changing its perception of the universe. It will remember the event though possibly not in a conscious way. As a temporary friend, you give the future of the fox an element of hope that it will evolve into something less than its basest form.

Hidden behind change is language. The extent to which language is developed predisposes the range of possibilities for change using the words that form the language of change. The extension of language is within the nature of change. In computer science, we use computer language to create objects, and the objects have much the same components as real living things. A programmer can create an object that will behave in certain ways and may even evolve. What can happen within a computer language is that a 'create' routine evolves from the nature of language itself. Language, and by that almost all language evolves to contain creation and destruction processes or words.

There is hidden within the nature of language a dimension that predisposes the language to evolve. This is not a process that one can define as Darwinian, but a possibility that emerges out of the very essense of language. Within language there is a hidden nature waiting to emerge and that hidden nature contains life and death for all any any forms that are part of the language. This is Wooh's second law, which states that 'within language is a predisposition to change and evolution whereby elements of the language are created and destroyed and eventually have the potential to create and destroy. Without these hidden dimensions, the language does not have the potential to be.'

What have I just said? I have said that being arises out of a language and as a language there is the potential for the creation and destruction of all elements of that language. This is very rough and ready I know!

Seven Foxes Down the Lane - Nature and the Demise of Peter Rabbit

Poor Peter! Today, Wooh filmed Peter down the lane, but he was unusually cautious. The large warren of about 100 wild rabbits that had existed last year is now totally empty. That means lots of holes looking for occupants.

Eddy the fox has been busy over the winter and is father to five gorgeous foxlets. They are not very shy. Wooh was able to walk up to the hole of the den and film them for over an hour just by pointing my Canon high definition video camera.

Fox cubs are the cutest little creatures. You could have held one of these in the palm of your hand. I did not see Eddy anywhere, so the cubs were playing near the entrance to their den without a care in the world.

Hot sun and the joy of spring; what more could you ask for? Follow their progress, and those of the other forest creatures in my neighbourhood, here on my blogspot.

Are the Effects of Light Causal or Acausal?

In earlier blogs, I have discussed my views concerning some of the mysteries of light. I posited the notion that light has no motion, but that all matter itself was travelling at very high speed approaching what scientists measure as the speed of light, plus additional motion that expresses the effects of electron energy and magnetic charge. The additional motion follows the order of the second law of thermodynamics by which all chemical reactions require a depletion of energy either directly, or in the surrounding particles, as is described in a current chemistry text, such as that of James Keeler and Peter Wothers, Why Chemical Reactions Happen.

If you follow my conceptualization of physical reality, which you won't find in any text book, as it is only a personal theory, you will question some of the chains of causality that are familiar in everyday events, and possibly have some insight into events that are connected seemingly acausally through channels of light that exist within the physical world.

Light in my sense shines in our reality because of leakages present as nuclear and chemical processes take place. If I am not completely off in the deep end, light because of its ability to overlay itself in our physical world has unusual power to effect physical change through information that acts acausally in the physical realm. This, you say, is of course, nonsense, but I am only throwing the idea into the open as an idea. There is nothing, perhaps, but a convoluted logic to support my ideas.

What I am trying to say is that light is a critical medium in some way between what we regard as the quantum and the Newtonian worlds. Light seems to be present in life processes and the conduits of light seem to be active in information processing of almost all forms from quantum computers to IBM PCs or HP laptops.

One of the great students of light, was the physicist Richard P. Feynman. I have yet to read his book, What do You Care What Other People Think. It might change what I think about light, but for now I have these strange concepts whizzing about in my not so simple brain. It is in the nature of thinking that one conjures up an alternative to what everyone else thinks and then try to see how far you can go with the alternative.

I am thinking that light does not obey many of the physical laws of other forms of matter. Indeed, light is not a fermion, but has the properties of bosons, which means that it does not obey the Fermi exclusion principle. This means that the amount of information that a light particle or wave might represent is staggering. All sorts of tests on light suggest that light may travel faster than the speed of light, which I am saying is the ultimate speed of fermion matter. Joao Magueijo in his book, Faster than the Speed of Light suggests that the standard model of physics may come down eventually to a misunderstanding. There is work that suggests that twisted light travels faster than the speed of light and that twisted light can be used to send information into the past from the future. Twisted light also allows extreme amounts of information to be transmitted very quickly, and indeed faster than the usual speed of light.

What interests me about light is that in its independence from matter, it may afford a medium for the orchestration of material events, causal chains, by means of acausal channels, that is information channels so common to quantum reality, which we understand to interface with photons, which have the property of bosons.

If light can orchestrate matter then it is easily conceivable that matter behaves in the same way that light does. In other words, all material cause and effect chains actually do happen, but we observe only one at a time as light chooses which chain it wishes us to see. Another way of saying this is that light orchestrates matter through a multiverse of which we only see one instance at a time as observers. All the other chains exist, but we can only see one. The reason for this is that we use light as our means of observation in our conscious observing reality.

In our subconscious, we may, however, have access to the other causal chains orchestrated by light, and according to some probabilistic basis. In other words, in our subconscious, we see a multiverse view of the universe, but only the nearest probabilistically at one time. If we fail in our dream to see the alternative reality in which we catch the fair maiden, it is because our subconscious is still running through the most likely multiverse episodes of potential realities.

Thoughts About the Amazing Wealth Owned by A Badger Set

When Wooh decided early this morning that he had better get out before the rain, he had not expected two amazing discoveries. Both are difficult to evaluate. There is a cropped field not far from Wooh's barn on which John the Somerset farmer had sown corn.

Because soil clings mercyless to one's feet, its not the sort of field Wooh likes to take for walking. Nevertheless, the field is very useful as a short cut across the top-lands. It was the fact that the field was a sort of top-land that interested Wooh. The field had possibly been farmed for over three thousand years and there was geological evidence of a mysterious kind that Wooh had been puzzling over for several days. So the walk across the field could help gather more information about the geological mystery.

Wooh decided to take his morning walk in that direction. The field was there and reasonably dry. John, the Farmer, had not yet sown his corn for the 2008 summer season, although there were piles of cow manure ready for the spreader at one end. The field was stumpy with the tops of corn shoots that had not been ploughed under. At a casual glance the field looked rather uninteresting. Along one side away in the distance there stood a row of rather tallish beech trees. They formed an interesting wood that Wooh had never explored. This morning he decided that it was about time.

As Wooh walked across the field he had to step over corn stumps, so he had to look down and watch carefully where he was stepping, otherwise he would trip over. Curiously, the soil mixture was different from the other fields that Wooh had crossed in the area. For one thing, there were loads of small stones. Some of these were quite smooth as one would find along a beach in southern Devon, say at Sidmouth. But, the field was over sixty miles from the shoreline. Some of the stones looked like sand stone while others were like quartz, the sort of stone in which one finds metals, such as silver and gold. Wooh realized that there was no gold in the field but he had to wonder about finding all these small stones on what was after all the shorn-off top of a hill.

At one point, Wooh looked down and found a piece of clay pottery. It was a largish piece, such as one would expect from a drain pipe or a roof tile. Yes, the man made piece seemed to be the remains of a roof tile. How very strange? Why would a roof tile be in the middle of a large field on the top of a hill? There was no easy explanation. The finding of all the stones in a field that normally would be stone free was also without real explanation, as was the mix of smooth and rough stones.

Wooh walked slower and tried to think more deeply about what he was seeing unfold under his feet. He noticed a larger stone that was layered. There were several layers and these layers were of different colours. Again, to find such a stone in the middle of a field of rich soil seemed strange, but it did help to explain why there was a mix of different colours of stone, and possibly why the stones were so thoroughly mixed up.

Wooh knew that the land of Britain was once under the Atlantic ocean. A very long time ago, the shelf on which the land was sitting rose out of ocean and the mountains of Wales were formed. These mountains had stones similar to the ones that Wooh was finding. At last, Wooh began to think that he understood.

The soil of the hills of his countryside was once the result of dust that had fallen on the ocean and had settled down to bottom of the ocean. It was volcanic ash that the water of the ocean had digested and made into smooth particles many epochs earlier. When the mountains rose out of the sea floor, the water of the ocean created streams and the streams formed a moving shoreline from the highest to lowest point. The creation of the landscape must have taken a long time and in the process, small stones were deposited in the field which was the bed of a stream.

Over time the edge of the shoreline moved further south, and the field rose within a topography of many hills formed by streams as they wore down the soft particles. Eventually, the field was higher than the surrounding landscape and as rains came and went streams poured away from the hills in all directions shaping the countryside as a landscape of hills topped with soil that had once been at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean.

These thoughts helped Wooh understand why there might be small stones on the top of a field of soil. The clay roof piece was now a different story. It must have come during a period of human settlement and perhaps people lived on the top of the hill in this field. These people may have had stone houses with clay roof tiles. There was no easy way to figure out when this might have been.

Building in stone and tile is not something that one normally attributes to early Britons. It is thought that the Romans began to use stone and rectangular structures having secured the region. So, it is more probable that the roof tile was something more recent than early Britain though one does not know for sure. Instead, having been found in that field which commands a wonderful view, the discovery of a single tile is suggestive that the field at one time may have had a different purpose from that of being used to sow crops.

In any event, Wooh continued his walk across the field until he arrive at the other side. He found a sight that he had not expected. The trees that he had seen from the other side of the field were an illusion of a forest. The landscape at the edge of the field altered dramatically and fell several hundred feet into the most beautiful private valley that Wooh had ever seen. Indeed the ridge, that he had found formed a large horseshoe shaped valley in which a stream curved around the edge of the horseshoe. There was a sharp drop down to a farmer's field that was being used as grass land. The ridge itself was covered in beech, but the interesting thing was how well hidden the valley landscape was from any vantage point.

Then Wooh found something else, the ridge was a habitat for wild life. Along the top of the ridge there was a stone wall about eight feet high falling down to a a lower level, which fell again like a terrace. Down the ridge, Wooh could see about five such terraces each with pathways that had been shaped and worn by wildlife. It was an amazing site. So here it was, a ridge that housed many badger sets, foxes dens, rabbit warrens and all sorts of habitat for birds and animals of all descriptions.

Wooh climbed down to an area where fresh soil had been dug out of the side of the ridge, which was covered in beech that had held the solf soil of the ridge in place. Wow, he thought, the amount of soil here suggests hundreds of yards of animal's tunnels criss-crossing up and down the interior of this ridge. Wooh was certain that his wild habitat was a gold mine for wild animals and a place that people should preserve for all time. It had been hidden there for many thousand so years and so it should remain.

Thinking in a Wuh Lax World - The Art of Long Range Thought in Britain

In my first book, Wuh Lax and the Cosmic Lantern, my intent was to address a book on the processes of thinking and learning that was appropriate for younger thinkers. At the same time, I was intent on giving them survival techniques were they to understand what the book was all about. The Wuh Lax series is about thinking and surviving in a world that is much stranger than nature alone would have us think. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, if nature would have its way, we would die prematurely and just as certainly as the demise of the Roman Empire, which is the focus of the Wuh Lax series.

What the books about Wuh tell you is that while nature may have designs on your premature death should you not learn how to think, nature itself will die prematurely if the human species does not intervene within its own death process. The book is thus about the survival of the earth and its characters are thrown into the deep end of steering a course of survival for future generations as nature throws its worse at them.

In a very real sense, it is a true story while being an expression of my own psychological fantasy. It is based on an amazing amount of reading into psychology from the age of seven, in Kincardine, Ontario. I feel I know Jung, Freud and Adler like old friends. It is our psychological evolution that will give earth a chance of survival, but only a chance. As a betting person, one would be advised to place a bet for mankind's premature death as nature, the way we know it, itself dies prematurely. It would seem that nature is committing suicide and we are to die along with it.

On a more positive note, what has amazed me is the profound interest in MJ Harper's book, The History of Britain Revealed. Whether this has led to book sales for him is any one's guess, but there is a definite awareness that most English speakers have not really taken the time to think very deeply about the origins of the English language, or the culture. I love Harper's book because it demonstrates what is necessary in order to survive in this world of mass deception.

We British mostly think that the origins of our amazing language have come within two thousand or more years. Along with MJ Harper, I must say that this is utter hogwash, despite readers saying they would pray for Harper's soul. I mean, one has only to examine some of the mathematical feats, pathways, religious centers, stone or metal work created in the periods up to thousands of years before the Romans castrated Europe.

Climate change seems to have brought down the Roman Empire, but I would guess that it was economics that really put the screw in and tightened down the box, much the same as can happen to any community that has not really learned how to think. So this is why I come back to the period before Rome killed off early Britain, killed off societies in which thought was in advance of action despite what some of our illustrious historians would have us think, those that see history as continuous blood and gore. The early Britons survived Rome, but only just, and their story needs to be told. The anglo-saxons are only a very small part of the real story of Brtain that will unfold in years ahead as the archaeologists do their work.

No! Much of early British history was about love and cooperation, about community and sharing, about enjoying nature while at the same time controlling the death process inside human nature, the disease that killed the Romans and paved the way for misery, again despite what those wonderful historians are likely to tell us. Those historians that need to devote more time to thinking along the lines that MJ Harper has achieved. Well done Harper!

The Natural Laws of Survival by Thinking before Doing

So much doing is done without thinking. Those that do without thinking are behaving naturally, and nature has its own designs for them. You will statistically have a better chance of surviving if you learn how to think the DeBono way and the Anne Schaef way. What Anne Schaef described as 'stinking thinking' is what most people do. Now I'm being rude! I am sorry, but its only to get you to think, but not stink.

Stinking thinking is the way that alcoholics think. The addicted person thinks in a way that leads to premature death. Nature actually facilitates in premature death. It is part of nature that many should die before their time, so that natural processes dominate natural worlds. When you do not think, even though you have intelligence, you are letting nature run its course and you will die prematurely. Its all very natural. Just look at Africa!

I would like to help you survive to full age and beyond. To survive you need to learn how to think and you should read the books by DeBono and Anne Schaef. In future blogs, I will explain some of the techniques of thinking, but I really do want you to read the books by DeBono and Schaef. They may save your life. You have been forwarned and that is all I wish to do in this blog page.

Deception as the Nature of Nature

Ok! I have done the preliminaries and its time to get to the core of my ideas about thinking as the way to defend yourself in a world of deception.

Pardon! Did you say that you already knew that anyways and that I was making an ass of myself by telling you something that you already knew? Well, if you think that way, and you have already thoroughly digested DeBono's book and Anne Schaef's books, then you are excused and I apologize. Its good to see so many readers who are ninety years plus around my coffee table, and so well versed.

What I will begin doing is explaining why for most people and relationships things go seriously wrong and as a result people die prematurely or the relationship dies prematurely. I once worked for Barclays Bank alongside the money room, and incidentally, not far from the bullion room. I once worked for the IMF, which will hopefully become the central bank of central banks, because the world needs one. This is to set the stage of where I observed the process of Wooooooh's law first hand.

Let me give an example of the way that nature works in financial circles to kill a nation. Argentina is probably a good example where people forgot to think, or never learned how to think. What happened to Argentina is that it's exchange rate plummeted and there were riots in the streets and bankruptcies everywhere. Or maybe I should select Mexico, or maybe Thailand, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, and now Europe, the EEC, as my examples.

My law, Wooooooh's law, is that "nature acts naturally to kill you off prematurely if you don't learn how to think." What nature does, we can see all around us, everyday and everywhere. Nature sets traps and then springs them on the unsuspecting. Nature ends life prematurely for most living creatures and relationships through deceptions that are part of its feeding process. Nature eats and creatures survive or they are eaten. This is not evolution, nor Darwinism, nor survival of the fittest. It is about thinking, not intelligence. You cannot say Europe is not intelligent, nor that the British are not intelligent, or that Argentina, and the Asian countries are not intelligent because they are intelligent. The problem is not intelligence but whether their leadership in critical areas has learned how to think about survival things.

My thesis is that they have not and that Wooooooh's law applies.

Do you think that the leaderships of China has learned how to think and that is why there are so many Chinese? Well, at least, up until 2008.

Edward DeBono's Thinking Course as a Start to Self Defense

Edward DeBono wrote a book entitled Thinking Course. The material on that course was presented on BBC television. Many consider that DeBono invented 'lateral thinking.' His book is a must from my coffee table readers. I won't tell you or point to a place where you can get the book because I am angry with Amazon right now. If you don't have the book, its best that you get off your ass this lunch time. Take a walk to your nearest physical bookstore and buy the book, or a least order it. This will be good for you as you will exercise those leg muscles and get rid of a few toxins.

My preference would be Waterstones in the UK, Chapters in Canada, or Borders in USA and around the world because you can probably get a Starbucks coffee as well. And, if you are lucky you may be able to get a snack that is wheat free, and consequently less costly than wheat and better for your arteries, hopefully! I bought the book at an Oxfam store for £2 and had enough left over for £2 of fair trade dark 72 percent cocao chocolate. So Burt, I did not forget you, and don't make a comment on my blog that I forgot the chocolate.

A Natural Deception as the Way of Nature

See my earlier blog, if you have not already done so. I apologize to those that got the shortened version of this particular blog by email. I have done this deliberately to illustrate a point. The point is that if you do not think, but just react to things around you, then you will be deceived. I refer to this as nature's oldest game. Yes! It is in the nature of nature that creatures of nature feed off each other.

You are never free of this process whereby others feed off you, and if you do not learn how to think, no matter what your intelligence is, you will die prematurely, moreover, the relationships that you do not think about will die prematurely. By this I mean your marriage, your job, your contracts in business, your mortgage. All and any of your natural relationships with people and with creations of nature. It is imperative that you therefore learn how to think, and that you actually practice the art of thinking. That's what this blogspot is all about. Its about teaching people how to think. Not what to think, but to get them engaged in the process of thinking the deBono and Anne Schaef way.

For those that don't know about Anne Schaef, let me say that she worked with the problems of the inner city where she saw first hand the processes of premature death, the results of addiction. What she realized is that society is an addict and the people making up society tend to be addicts, not all people, but most. This, she researched, led to their premature death. It will lead to your premature death if you do not begin to understand natures oldest trick of deception.

Take a cup of coffee. Take a deep breath and register to this blog if you have not already done so. It may save your life. It may save you from premature death.

The Nightmare that Nature Sets Out for its Latest Victims

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, nature is not what it seems to be. Almost always nature will attract you to your premature death, if you do not learn how to think. It is in the nature of things that natural relationships fail to fulfil the original intentions of all the parties entering into those natural relationships. This leads to a premature ending of those relationships if both parties do not have the ability to think, or choose not to think deeply enough about their relationships with natural forces.

I have come to this conclusion after seeing a host of relationships fail and after reading the insightful words of DeBono on thinking, and Anne Schaef on addictive processes and premature death. Together these authors show me, and hopefully you as well, if you continue reading my blogs that you are in danger and you probably do not know it. It is in the nature of nature to lead you to your premature death.

Nature has a night mare in store for you, unless you learn how to think. This is what I am telling you. You can ignor my words, but if you do, you had better make sure that you read those of deBono and Anne Schaef instead. This is not something that you will read elsewhere, at least I don't think so. I am splitting this blog because I want to know whether my readers are following me because for the one's that don't then I am wasting my time. My link to see if you are following me.

The Hidden Nature of Nature and Why We Perish too Soon

In his book on thinking techniques Thinking Course, De Bono tries to get his students to think. That seems obvious, but what people don't realize is that nature itself is a thinking machine and if people don't think, then nature thinks for them and most often this leads to premature death. Anne Schaef in her books on addictive processes says that addiction almost always from its nature leads to premature death. Now you ask yourself what is Arthur trying to tell me in this blog? What does he want to warn me about? What must I do to avoid premature death?

Yes! I am warning you that intelligence is not enough for survival. One needs to also be able to think, and without the ability to think, you and your relationships will almost certainly die prematurely. It is nature's way. It is nature's way to have marriages break down. It is nature's way to be deceived. It is nature's way for relationships to evolve in such a way that one party feeds on the other and the other dies prematurely.

Dominance within a relationship is nature's way. If as a human being you don't learn how to think, you will almost certainly be dominated and die prematurely. That is why it is imperative for you to take your cup of coffee and read what I am saying and then begin use DeBono's methods of thinking. It may save your life and it may help you avoid premature death. It most certainly will help your relationships with all other entities survive. Nature attracts its victims and then devours them. It is nature's oldest trick. Watch this blogspot for more to come.

Amazon's Strategy on POD Called into Question

In the larger picture of things, Amazon's role in print-on-demand will be relatively small now that it has adopted the strategy of demanding independent authors and publishers use its exclusive services. Print-on-demand is much bigger than Amazon, and perhaps the company would do a better job as a warehouse of objects other than books and literature. They are about jungle enough for Amazon to handle. Perhaps they could ask that everything that the world produces be manufactured in one of its plants.

I once worked in a bakery in Montreal. At the time, it was owned by the Weston's company and was reputed to be the largest factory under one roof. That's what I did for several summers before EXPO 67. I painted the interior of the Weston Bakery roof. I worked with a native of a local tribe. He was not afraid of going high except after those nights that he loved his wife. "Today, I can't go up," he would say adding, "I loved my wife."

Westons produced bread for most of Montreal and the Eastern provinces. The number of lines of bread with different brand names was to me, a lowly summer employee, quite staggering. In the end, we would have to strip off the paper as it returned to the factory having gone stale. The returned bread was sold to the local pig farms and the bread ended up as Canadian bacon. Perhaps, the Amazon strategy will unfold in a similar way ending up as pig feed.

If one looks at the trend in new authors and new books, one is staggered by the dimensions. Literature is taking off. We are at the early stages of another cultural revolution. They said the printing press started civilization. Well, it is my feeling that print-on-demand, the internet publishers, and the rise of pluralism in authorship have begun a staggering revolution in the way we partipate in our democracies.

No entity focused on money is going to be able to monopolize this process. If the profit is there, the numbers of new entrants into the industry will be staggering as well. The writing is on the wall for a wave of new publishing companies who have authors to do the vertical integration and marketing of books themselves. My publishing effort, Togwells, with its focus on development of values will participate in this revolution in a very very minor way because the scale of the change is much much too large. It is important that publishers focus on values and work with marketing efforts that focus on values.

Business Advice to Amazon from Several Business Advisers

The world is indeed changing very rapidly. I have just finished reading a good book by Joseph Jaworski entitled Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadship. Joseph reminded me of the words of the independent business adviser in the UK, Ronald Brech, for whom I used to work.

He said that if a business wanted to live for ever, it had to do business in an ethical way.

Jaworski says something similar in the words of Kaku the Chairman of Canon, Inc with reference to the conduct of business by Japanese companies. "The essense of a successful company... is to strive to contribute on three dimensions: to its customers, to its employees, and to society." The thing is that Amazon needs to focus on sharing in the global destiny rather than in its profit line.

As Jaworski writes, "to serving humankind as a whole through its philosophy and activities." p. 165.

Incidently, I bought that book through the post from Amazon, you can order a copy for each of your employees, and get them to read it from cover to cover. Perhaps, they will need to walk outside the office down to a local Borders books, drink a coffee and enjoy the the book in a social atmosphere. Perhaps, we could set up a reading fund for the amazing Amazon leadership and executives!

Now wouldn't that be a 'turn for the books.'

Mind my pun; I could not help it!

You will be 'amazed' at the new world that we are in and what the pressures that the quantum atmosphere of our existence imposes for success.

My Open Letter on Fair Trade to Amazon About Their POD Strategy

Incidently, thank you for reading my earlier communication about how unhappy the independent writers were with your new policy for print-on-demand, those exclusive terms you are demanding, that your firm gets to do the print work. I does not do to get really independent people upset. They believe the mantra that then pen is mightier than the sword, or bullying force as it were.

We Don't Like Bullies

Normally, these things that go on in the business world are none of my business. And, this is the case for many independent writers around the world. I understand from statistic gleaned at the London Book Fair that the revolution in literature and communications has just started, but the dimensions are staggering. I can understand why Amazon at this time might be feeling a bit concerned that the strategies that it had adopted during the last decade might not nourish its growth during the decades ahead. Indeed, there are many alternatives to Amazon emerging in the frontiers of Internet communications. This is why I, and it seems many writers of the independent variety were puzzled that Amazon should attempt a policy of restrictive practices with regard to its marketing of books.

For Many of Us Books and Coffee, perhaps Starbucks and Borders or Chapters, go Together

Generally, we readers, for I speak also as a book buyer, and I have been using Amazon as well as other means to acquire the books of my library, will choose a supplier marketer of books because of the coffee we drink as we sit down and think about what we want to examine in the way of our future reading. Yes Amazon, it is the coffee that is important to us, and not the book seller. Well, we go to Chapters and Borders because we get good coffee there. We also get a feeling of sharing in a larger event and a happy one. We don't like the idea of our writers, our favorite authors and our new struggling writers being forced into a particular mold. We like the idea of freedom of choice, just as we like to choose between a wide variety of books. We will watch other booksellers to see if they implement restrictive practices, for this is what we see your action as, right or wrong. It was not fair trade.

We Now see Fair Trade in Book Manufacture as an Issue ... Thanks

Our real problem these days is that for all the new writers and new books coming onto the market, there just is not enough coffee shops and books stores where we can sit down an read, drink coffee and buy books. You see, we are social creatures and we like the atmosphere of our book stores, our Starbucks. What's more we are addicted to our coffee, which makes us even more choice oriented. It seems to me, as a coffee drinker and book buyer that sitting in front of the computer buying books is not very much fun. Its certainly not as much fun as sitting in a Starbucks cafe drinking my coffee and eating my blueberry oat bar. The thing is I am sure I will now look at the inside cover of the books I buy to see if they are Fair Trade. This is now a new issue for me. I will now post the Fair Trade logo on my books if they are POD printed, and I will try to only buy books that I see have Fair Trade POD certification. I might slip up a few times, but I am not perfect and I think a shift in my buying habits is possibly in order now I realize that writers are people who need to be treated fairly as well. The thought had never really crossed my mind before.

I have other thoughts to convey about Amazon's future role in the big issues of development of world communications and notions of trust and worldwide fair trade practices in a global economy, but this one seems a good start.

A Review of Joseph Jaworski's Synchronicity - The Inner Path of Leadership

Why do things happen the way they do? This is often the question we ask ourselves as we see events unfold around us. Some times, we think that events that affect us arise because of what we do. Other times, we are puzzled and wonder, "That should not have happened like that!"

My main useful training is in mathematical statistics, which should not mean much other than that I tend to look at the world from a probabilistic viewpoint. I am a practicing Bayesian, which means that I tend to work out the numbers given a set of circumstances, and that my statistical reasoning is conditional. I am prepared to view an event as happening in association with other events that run together to effect the event in an associative or causal way.

My training has led me to think that people most often do not know why things happen. In other words, they cannot put together the causal chain that results in an event. This means that there is a division in attitude among period that divides them over time into faith in causal chains and in non-causal instances. The non-causal instances are ones that they cannot say happened because of something they can put a finger on. The tendency is to lump non-causal events or instances with the notion of acausal events, or in an attempt to ascribe a cause refer to the cause as being controlled by something that is mediating or orchestrating events, the realm of God, gods, or some sinister conspiracy on the part of people in a group with evil or clandestine intentions. The fact is that human survival and individual survival may depend on a sufficient attribution of a cause. An example, may be needed.

Suppose that people are taken ill all of a sudden. There is no obvious cause, but it is true that the people are sick. Suppose that the illness occurs over a wide area. The problem with this scenario is that we have no obvious cause for the illness and thus fall back on our most likely models for such an event or series of events. Because many people will have different models the distribution of ideas as to what caused the illness will vary greatly among those observing the illness, or indeed suffering from it.

If out of this gloom, someone announces that they have had a dream and in the dream they saw that the illness was due to the unhappiness of an unseen power, and that to end the spread of the illness, someone had to be sacrificed to that power. Assume, that the visionary then claimed that it had to be done quickly or else the disease would spread rapidly. Such a situation would leave a group of people in a tremendous quandary because it attributes a cause and it proposes an extreme solution. The question is whether people would buy into the cause and the solution. Suppose that the real cause of the illness is a virus that has arrived on earth by surviving within a frozen comet that melted as soon as it hit the earth's atmosphere. Assume that the virus spread rapidly because water molecules showered into the high altitude atmosphere and were carried by clouds until falling as tiny rain drops. Suppose that during the time the virus was being carried in the clouds, it was able to multiply and multiply through out the cloud. Then when it fell within the rain shower it was able to infect a wide area.

Should such a series of events occur as described above, we would have great difficulty in determining cause and effect. To most people, the cause would seem to be unreal or god-like, and as a result, the actions people would take would not not really deal with the true situation, but some imagined situation. Who knows what people would do?

As I read Jaworski's book about leadership, I was wondering whether his mode of leadership would be able to cope with a world in which many of the decisions that leaders must make arise under circumstances in which there is no cause and effect explanation. Our world seems to be a place in which for many events that unfold there still are no easy answers, no certainties, and considerable risk. In such circumstances, the form of leadership that Jaworski proposes would probably be robust enough for it to select a pathway through the uncertainty that would lead to a positive outcome.

If you have ever watched the series 24 hours, you will notice how the hero, Jack Bauer is able to ellicit a positive outcome despite working under the wrong assumptions about who or what the real enemy is. Life is a bit like that, and the principles that Bauer uses to effect his positive outcome are not all that different from Jaworski, except that Bauer is very much emphasized in the series as a super hero. The character of Bauer is well designed because it suggests a hero of humble mentation working against unspeakable odds that push him to do unspeakable things to effect the positive outcome. I would wonder whether this is the sort of world that our future leaders have to deal with. Do our leaders have to be Jack Bauers, or opperate with synchonicity in the way we expect the Anti-Terrorist-Unit to operate, a collective group of heros in action.

Jaworski's book has a strong flavour of the mystical and mythological. He explains the path he has been dealt in life, which he is not able to define in terms of cause and effect, but more in the physics of quantum reality. As a creator of remarkable leadership institutes that draws on the very partial knowledge that we have of unseen quantum relationships, he is certainly a remarkable person worthy of a visit by Gurdieff or Ouspenski, a la 'Remarkable People that I have Met.' He also has influenced, through his being receptive to higher unseen energies, many wonderful synergies, if not synchonicities. He is well worthy of being grouped with Bohm, Penrose, and Jung as a wonderful thinker of our time. His book is a must read for those interested in leadership in an impossible world. My review really fails to do him justice.

Why is Amazon so Keen to Commit Commercial Suicide With Print-on-Demand Extremes

One has to ask why Amazon is so willing to commit commercial suicide with its new print-on-demand strategy. My thinking is that the book trade is going through a revolution, but the revolution is occuring too soon for Amazon to think clearly about where its future lies. I think there are hundreds of thousands of authors wanting to see their books published and they need a place to hang out. Above all, I think that to live forever as a business you have to treat customers and producers fairly. Amazon does not seem to understand this basic rule. It assumes that print-on-demand is good for customers when it is not! Amazon is in danger of upsetting its own apple cart. Why get authors riled! They can really hurt your business.

There are real problems with the author-publishing-consuming cycle. The biggest step for authors would be to eliminate all the intermediaries that wish to take money from them. This means to sell outside of Amazon, and I am sure that some enterprising young people will have the alternatives available for authors soon. Open source technologies will be an alternative for something so vital to pluralism in our modern society.

My problem is that I buy too many hard cover books and do not have enough shelves. I am sure that I would move to an alternative if that were to be available, and I am sure that technology that no one has even thought of right now is certainly going to put Amazon out of business if it continues to push authors around. Truth is that the Amazon system does not work for me where I want it too and I am not even in the market for print-on-demand.

I am equally sure that the monopolies practices people need to hire more employees capable of tearing apart the many monopolies presently in existence that need to be taken down a peg or two. It is time for the average person to say enough is enough with the high cost of education, medicine, and energy. It is time for a change in the way we view monopolization by multinational corporations in high technology industries, such as the education and media trades. They have done enough damage, and its time for change.

Why Does Amazon Risk So Many Authors Angry with its Print-on-Demand Policy?

I have just returned from the London Book Fair having made an ass of myself at one of the booths there. My problem was that I was ignorant of the effort by Amazon the booksellers to regulate part of the production and distribution service industry for book manufacturing. It would seem that Amazon is into vertical integration in a very big way, and that the government regulators in the UK, Canada, and the US are really behind the ball on this one.

As an industrial economist, it is very sad to see how people in opportunistic positions can throw their efforts into making money for money's sake by the use of unfair tactics. If governments are not there to protect the individual from exploitation of unfair advantages what is government there for? It seems to me that vertical integration is one of those easy industrial changes that produces extreme profit. I think of the oil industry, the banking industry and the media industry, where extreme profit results in social upheaval on scales that governments, even when working together, seem almost powerless to affect in a positive way.

We have the oil pricing crisis, the wheat crisis, the rice crisis, the energy environment crisis, the flu pandemic crisis, the financial credit crisis. One might ask why now? The reason is the failure of governments to understand how rapidly people are consolidating monopoly positions to the detriment of the world economy. It only takes a few months of crisis to put out complete segments of the population.

Those profiting can exploit their competitive advantage to such an extent that they suffocate free and competitive enterprise. What we want to see in the book printing, publishing, distribution industry is oligopolistic competition. I would say that for the banking industry as well, but it would drop on deaf ears even though I worked in London money markets and knew how monopolization there could lead to severe financial collapse such as what we have seen in the UK. Gone is the restraint of the British Building Societies. Now we have the profit maximizers. Yes, but who really is funding the $100 billion and possibly $200 billion to save the UK banking industry? When you see high interest rates and high tax revenues, you will know.

What we are seeing is an extreme failure by governments to understand the nature of the disaster that can arise in the modern economy if competition is not overseen internationally. As a former expert for the OECD in Paris on Science and Technology, I was able to research first hand the effects in 14 countries of governments getting competitive policies in high tech industries wrong. I was also able in my early days as an economist to help in the process of transforming the UK print industry in London during the late 1960's and early 1970's. What I learned was that industries have to reform, but also there are types of reformation that are positive and types that are negative. The trick is to avoid the negative types.

When the government liberalized financial markets in the US and the UK did they foresee the problems this would produce in the housing banking sector. Yes! They did, but the greed is, was and will be such, that those is control are mentally incapable of restraint. Thus, it was that the UK banks were allowed into the housing market, and we see now the impact of that policy in the bailout of the banking sector when banks cannot talk to each other or trust each other. The British banking system has been destroyed. Its simple. It has been destroyed because the trust has been destroyed. We will have a depression, and a long one. if trust is not reconstructed.

As regards, the new attempts to integrate the print industry into vertical multinational organizations with extreme power, we will lose again because there is no power in the UK or the US that has any clout to impose a competitive restraint.

The list of those protesting the lack of action to stop Amazon's efforts in the Print on demand industry is presented in those signing a petition. As of now, there are over 1,000 upset authors as shown below, which includes many well known writers:

1 A. F. Stewart This is unfair, wrong and a conflict of interest for Amazon.

2 Paul Prescott

3 Tracey Amazon shouldn't be allowed to blackmail publishers like this. They should also make a statement with the full story of what it is they intend to do.

4 Anonymous

5 Anonymous

6 G. M. Lupo

7 Anonymous

8 Sheila English I'm also a business owner and sell books from our site.

9 Julie Ann Shapiro

10 Andy Lurig

11 Nick Carbo I will not use amazon for anything!

12 Anonymous I am disgusted with the underhanded methods Amazon has used to enforce this policy. Why have they not announced this publicly? Why haven't they given the public a chance to react to it?

13 Aaron Lazar This smacks of monopoly and will hurt folks on all sides of the publishing business.

14 Jim Celer

15 Anonymous

16 Gayle Arrowood Stop this monopoly! It is pure gaul and much too greedy for us to give into to.

17 Anonymous Not only am I a customer, I am a self published author whose books would be directly affected by this action.

18 Jacqueline L. Jones

19 Melissa Bach Palladino

20 Angela Hoy You can read my thoughts on this horrible situation at: http://www.writersweekly.com/

21 Anonymous Customer service is the unlimited resource of all successful businesses. Writer's, publishers and readers are all Amazon's customers.

22 Nick Urban I've always liked Amazon, but this is shameful.

23 Andrew Rollings Can you say "Monopoly"? I would imagine a court case will be forthcoming.

24 Dominic Took I'm a self published author, this is not correct, either in economic monopoly terms or in terms of people like me being able to have a chance at selling our books. THis reduces diversity or range and quality, i have nothing else other than to say its wrong and impedes any sort of advancement for the real issue here, diversity in published material.

25 Heather Kendall My book "A Tale of Two Kingdoms" is POD with Lightning Source. The hard copy is published by Essence Publishing. I am wondering how this will affect Essence's relationship with Lightning Source. I hope Amazon will not get away with this.

26 Shel Horowitz I have purchased from Amazon several times a year for many years. I am also a publisher and I am totally appalled. Unless they change their policy, I will take my business elsewhere. Shel Horowitz, author, Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers, ww.grassrootsmarketingforauthors.com

27 Mike Reeves-McMillan I am a self-published author currently using Amazon's CreateSpace. If Amazon continues to act arrogantly and dishonestly, I will be pulling my book from there and concentrating my attention on Lulu, where I have also got more sales.

28 Steven Utley As an Amazon shopper, as an author with at least one print-on-demand book offered for sale at Amazon, and as an employee of a print-on-demand book manufactory not named BookSurge, I take an extremely dim view of Amazon's reported attempts to compel publishers to use BookSurge.

29 Emily Veinglory

30 Mary Rosenblum I am published by both big NY publishers and small press publishers and I see this as a step backward in the development of a healthy small press publishing universe.

31 Henry Jaegers none

32 Dave M An ISBN is an ISBN, sell all books with ISBNs without prejudice...

33 Anonymous

34 Sune Donath

35 Marnie Goodbody

36 Anonymous This is anti-trust.

37 Lida Verner

38 Cheryl Pickett

39 Anonymous Whatever happened to a free market system? As both a customer and a POD author, I'm affected on multiple levels by this "policy." (Signing anonymously, as I don't want to risk retaliation by Amazon.)

40 Adam Wieland If this happens I will take my business elsewhere.

41 Anonymous

42 Kimberly Bea This move can only hurt the book industry as a whole.

43 Jeanne Khan As a long time customer, I am appalled. I use the AOL Visa card and others to buy books in bulk; I earn at least two 25 dollar coupons per year and do not want Amazon to force this venture on authors. My friends who are authors are worried, hence, I am. Please note customers matter. I expect Amazon to cease and desist from the BookSurge brow-beating and leave independent publishers as is.

44 Robert R. Wahl Amazon! You make us angry!

45 Anonymous I have shopped at Amazon.com since they opened. I even have the mug they sent out to customers at the end of their first year. I consider this move outrageous.

46 Anonymous I am very upset ot hear that Amazon proposes to limit the books that I buy directly from you. Many of my purchases are from small presses and your recent actions directly affects those companies. As a frequent purchaser, check the records, I am very unhappy about this decision and it will affect my Amazon purchasing.

47 Barbara Foster I have 3 published books by 2 different POD publishers which will be affected, plus I have 7 short stories with the Amazon Shorts program. I plan to pull all those short stories and advertise on my personal website that Amazon will not carry my book and to go to the publisher or Barnes & Noble or any other book store. Amazon just shot themselves in the foot and haven't felt the pain yet, but they will.

48 Anonymous Do no Evil.

49 Alex Marr

50 Anonymous

51 Mark Chapman

52 Anonymous

53 Julia Hayden I write historical novels under a pen name, novels that are published by a POD house, and belong to a group of writers also independently publish and market our books. We are sickened and outraged by this strong-arm tactic. I plan to blog about this, to remove amazon.com links from my websites, (replacing them with Barnes and Noble) and to boycott amazon.com for my personal purchases.

54 Bjørn Christian Tørrissen </DIV>

55 R Dale Hoy </DIV>

56 Jax Goss I have always shopped at Amazon because it is possible to find just about anything I am looking for there. This move means that several of the authors I am currently considering buying would be forced to be rermoved. If this happens, it's just the first step to me no longer being able to find the often obscure texts I look for. And then why should I shop at Amazon anymore?

57 Chris Prosser Needless to say, after reading this article I took a trip over to Third Place Books to buy some books, and finished setting up my account at bn.com.

58 Nick Venn This monopolistic behavior will be detrimental to competition in the emerging POD market.

59 Anonymous

60 Eleanor Thurman

61 Martiana Petkova </DIV>

62 Anonymous Should the continuing demand to force all POD publishers go forward. I will refuse to buy from amazon and let encourage all my friends and family to boycot Amazon

63 Win Harrington

64 Autumn Bea

65 P Heck I have spent many thousands of dollars at Amazon.com over the years and have always appreciated their marketplace friendliness. I now worry that they are headed down the path of Wal-mart where they will squeeze everyone to maximize profit and completely lose their original identity. No more spending for me until this policy changes.

66 Andrew Goyder Amazon need to move swiftly to avoid damaging their brand - As book lovers we would boycott them if they can't reassure the small publishers

67 Anonymous

68 Steven Macon I've gone public with this on my blog. My friends and staff members at Yellow30 Sci-Fi are strongly outraged by this as we review books mostly from self-published and small presses who use print-on-demand. Hopefully Amazon will see the foolishness of the move and forget it.

69 Elaine Charton </DIV>

70 Joan Price I have been a strong supporter and regular customer of Amazon. I have always linked to Amazon for sales of my books. This strong-arm tactic is unacceptable. I cannot support Amazon if it doesn't reconsider and rescind this decision.

71 Dindy Robinson I am a publisher, author and reader and this action by amazon.com is simply unconscionable.

72 Megan

73 Peter J Knight I'm a writer as well as a reader and I find this move offensive in every way: To what Jim Bezos wants us to believe oof Amazon's vision, to customers (in my case, with no English language bookstores, limited in obtaining books in any other way), to authors everywhere already embattled in a restrictive publishing world. What are they thinking indeed! Are these the promoters of the 'Kindle' ?

74 Brian Kaufman I have spent thousands of dollars at Amazon, because the company allowed small presses and self-published authors a sales venue. I guess this signals the end of Amazon's support of publishers outside the mainstream - as well as the end of my support for Amazon.

75 Emma Thimbleby </DIV>

76 David Dunwoody I am a writer whose debut novel is being released right now as a print-on-demand book. I am saddened to see Amazon using these corporate bullying tactics to intimidate the small press. If you want publishers to use BookSurge, just make it worth their dime.

77 Dani Greer I'm leaving the affiliate program and switching over to Barnes & Noble if you don't stop this bid for POD monopoly. Whatever in the world are you people thinking? Don't you have a big enough share of the book market?

78 Christine I Speakman As a book reviewer and writer, why should I continue to give my business to Amazon. This "new" practice is plain bullying. Looks like http://www.indigo.ca/ will be getting all my business from this day forward. One note, I have reviewed books printed through BookSurge, and some I've had to refuse do to poor quality and appearance. A couple were fine.

79 Alan Cook If Amazon continues this practice, I will no longer shop there.

80 Kelly Arbor I am looking at self-publishing for my next book. I would like to list in amazon, but would not if I find it to be monopolistically trying to control the print-on-demand service. Amazon is great at distribution, but shouldn't restrict any form of publishing.

81 Anonymous I think your strong-arm tactics against POD authors (trying to force them to use Booksurge) is despicable. I will take my business elsewhere until you come to your senses.

82 Anonymous

83 Isaac Peterson

84 Anonymous Bad idea, Amazon. Bullying tactics rarely work out for the best.

85 Josh Aterovis I would stop shopping at Amazon if this happens.

86 Yvonne DiVita One of the basic tenents of American life is the right to choose. I choose not to shop at Amazon, until they give me the right to choose where I publish my next book.

87 Fritha </DIV>

88 Anonymous As a regular shopper of Amazon, I will now be taking my business elsewhere.

89 Allison Baldwin

90 Pat Brown I think what Amazon and Booksurge is proposing is a pure monopolistic ploy to corner the POD publishing market. If this isn't illegal, then it should be. No company has the right to blackmail people into using only their services.

91 Mary Gober I have a novel that people are paying extra for to be on Amazon.com. This is just mean and spiteful and wrong, and if they do that I think they should give shoppers the distribution costs back in reimbursement, like for my overpriced amazon.com book Mercury Brightman: The First Sign. If this is the case, I will take down my amazon.com button on my website in a heartbeat. Just stupid Amazon, this is just stupid.

92 Jennifer Scheve Are you kidding me? STOP this madness!

93 Anonymous I not only shop there, but I also have affiliate links on my website. I will remove that from my site if this goes through.

94 phil velikan I can currently find most any book on amazon, I'd like to keep it that way!

95 Austin Renfroe I bought two Kindles from you guys and shop Amazon regularly, but honestly if this is how you treat POD people, I will make it a point to not buy another Kindle, eBook, or anything else from you ever again.

96 Dan Smith I've been an Amazon customer since 1996. That's right: I made my first purchases using the Lynx browser. Amazon promised: if it's in Books in Print, you can buy it from Amazon. They shouldn't break that promise.

97 Anonymous One of the things I have valued about amazon has been its effectiveness in providing a free marketplace for all kinds of products, making available to we consumers easy access to all kinds of small entrepeneurs. This arrogant power grab to control as much of the book publishing world as possible offends me deeply & I urge you to return to your more open practice.

98 Anne Q

99 Patrick Brown This brazen attempt deserves a few well placed lawsuits to ruffle the corporate feathers. May your stocks plummet.

100 Anonymous It's pretty surprising that Amazon would go this far, trying to monopolize the independent book publishing industry. I'm rather disappointed.

101 Michael J. Kerpan </DIV>

102 Anonymous Such an obvious corporate power-grab must be stopped. Competition is the (supposed) root of our economic system - let it work its magic!

103 Leslie A. Blatt As a long-time, regular customer of Amazon, I find this distressing. I would hope that Amazon would reconsider.

104 April Ochoa This is absolutely ridiculous!! I buy books from Amazon monthly, and if they continue with this, I WILL find somewhere else to buy from!

105 Ellen Montgomery

106 Anonymous

107 Edward Hand

108 Ray Johnson The United States Department of Justice needs to investigate this, stop any attempt at a monopoly, and rip Amazon to pieces! Let each of the pieces compete, and maybe authors and book buyers alike will benefit.

109 Jesse Gordon If BookSurge wishes to compete with other POD services, it should do so based on quality of product / services, and not by using "join us or lose your distribution" techniques. This will only alienate publishers and authors who have already paid their dues to be listed.

110 Tom Campbell

111 Kathleen Doherty I'm so disappointed.

112 Sandra Ruth I am very sorry to hear about this policy that restricts how a book can be published!! Sounds like a monopoloy!!! shame!

113 Phil Whitley II am the author of a novel that is... was... listed on Amazon. I will not purchase from them now, and have rewuested my readers to boycott.

114 David Miley I've already cancelled my Amazon Prime membership renewal and a book order.

115 Edward Royce I want more options, not less, from my vendors. IMO: Sherman Act here Amazon comes!

116 Mary Ann Steele To the executives who instituted this appalling exercise in monopolistic practice: You are alienating the Amazon buying public (not to mention online publishers and authors) by this outrageous demand that publishers use Booksurge as their POD printer, or be rendered unable to sell POD books on Amazon. This short-sighted attempt to establish a monopoly will backfire on your company. Mark my words! Mary Ann Steele

117 Noel Sakievich

118 Vickie Treadway I am an author, who is very disappointed in amazon's tactics in trying to get the corner market on POD publishing in this way. You became the largest on line bookstore and have many other outlets because of the very people you are now pushing out by not selling POD books that are not published by you. There are a lot of innocent people caught in the middle who will be and are hurt by your actions.

119 Leo Visscher-Brown

120 Siena Fath-Azam I urge Amazon to read their own "Vision" statement and stop making it MORE difficult for customers to obtain the products they claim to make easy to purchase.

121 Adam Wendt

122 Charles R Martin This really is just unacceptable. We trust Amazon to be an "honest broker", not give the advantage to some publishers over others.

123 Loren C. Rice

124 Heather McAlendin I am one of the many authors that is being affected by Amazon's decison to strong arm the P.O.D. Industry. Amazon.com forgets where it's bread is buttered. Authors write and readers buy books. I am thoroughly disappointed.

125 Anonymous

126 Anonymous

127 C.Herger Thomann If this goes through, it will ensure that I always hike to Borders or B&N to make my purchases. Period.

128 Michael Pryor How dare they!!! I would suggest that all the POD suppliers band together and sue Amazon for monopolostic practices. I would also suggest that all POD vendors start recording any conversation they have with Amazon. Such conversation would be very helpful in a lawsuit.

129 Laurence Maginn

130 Kent Sturgi s Amazon's actions very possibly constitute restraint of trade and at the very lease amount to terrible public relations. I am very disappionted in Amazon's actions.

131 Diane Garner It's a shame to hear of a company like Amazon.com resorting to strong-arm tactics.

132 W. Roy naugle

133 Tim Oren I've been an Amazon customer since 1996. The company was built on maximizing choice. This bone-headed move is an sad step in the other direction.

134 Pam Jones

135 Anonymous

136 M.L. Bushman Amazon will never see another dime from me and my ever-widening circle of friends. Jeff Bezos obviously doesn't think he's rich enough. BookSurge has never been competitive in fees or consistent enough in quality on a level playing field with other printers so Amazon resorts to underhanded, dirty tactics to try to create a better advantage for itself. I hope they're investigated and charged by the FTC, the US Attorney, and the Attorney General of Washington State where they are based. Boycott Amazon until Jeff Bezos is standing in line at a mission for a meal. He'll wish he hadn't gotten quite so greedy then.

137 John Enright

138 Carol Eicher Also, I no longer buy from amazon.com because you continue to sell dogfighting magazines and books.

139 Anonymous

140 Donald Roeser Amazon, lighten up.

141 Anonymous I am a Debut Author and this could kill my business.

142 Brian J. Baker I'm the owner of Stardust Publications, and Amazon's strongarm tactics are unacceptable

143 Donna Slocomb

144 Mark Alger This strikes me as a cutting-off-your-nose-to-spite-your-face maneuver. It doesn't matter the opportunity cost of letting other than your favored vendor sell in your space. The opportunity cost of alienating your customer base is far greater. M

145 Elizabeth Terrell Hicks As the author of a novel published through another POD company (iUniverse), I am appalled that Amazon is not satisfied with the 48% profit on my book (much more than I as the author make) and is attempting to force me to pay them an exorbitant fee to publish through a venue not of my choosing. I buy many books from Amazon.com, have referred potential customers to them, and have even provided a link to Amazon.com on my website. However, if they persist in this course of action, I will be forced to assume they no longer desire my business. I would be sorry indeed if that were to happen.

146 Caitlin Schimpf

147 Bob Buchanan Borders has a store about 3 miles from my house. They will order any book I request and get it quickly. Guess I'll be going there more often ... Amazon has to learn it's proper role in the supply chain.

148 Greg Roper I will no longer shop at Amazon.com There are plenty of other choices out there and I might just find one I like better than Amazon and never return, even if they do reverse this misguided effort to increase their revenue.

149 Chris Schanck There is a moral component to choosing to shop at the online equivalent of a big-box retailer like Amazon.I don't understand why Amazon would do things such as this which that moral decision harder.

150 Stephen L. Rice

151 Mike Fairbanks This practice is unacceptable. If they are concerned with POD authors offering too little of a cut of sales, they need to set a standard rate or percentage per item and let the author take that into account. Demanding 48% or 55% is a ridiculously high figure that seems aimed at driving all others to no profit and out of the business. It is the author, more than anyone, that they will drive from the market. Without the authors, they will have nothing to sell.

152 Cheryl Miller

153 Charles Prael

154 James Lewis It will be difficult for me to do business with Amazon if they continue with this policy. After all, there is Barnes and Noble, Books a Million and many small independent book stores

155 Anonymous

156 Kenneth Huey Monopoly is the enemy of creativity, innovation, and human liberty. I will never again buy thru Amazon if it pursues this line of conduct.

157 Jeanne DeVoto

158 Anonymous As a consumer I've spent thousands of dollars at Amazon, and made them thousands of dollars selling in Amazon Marketplace. I will be publishing several books this year via Lightning Source and was looking forward to placing them on Amazon. But if I have to use BN instead, and end all further relationship with Amazon, so be it. The Book Surge route is obscenely expensive, and they deliver a notoriously poor product. This is just too greedy.

159 Kendall P. Bullen

160 Timothy Fairbank Dear Amazon: stop this nonsense immediately, or else kiss your best customers goodbye. You have been warned.

161 Shelley Marlow

162 Marvin Grant I use Lulu.com regularly for small scale book projects and am quite happy with the results. I don't see any need for them to be forced to change things.

163 Jeanne Tomlin

164 Frederick Price Amazon.com's decision to remove the "Buy Now" buttons from POD books not published through their BookSurge publishing program will have a long term, negative effect on this company's reputation. It is difficult to believe that they could stoop so low in pursuit of the almighty dollar.

165 D M Wilson As a business method, this is counter-productive, and as an affront to the community, totally unacceptable.

166 mel Grimes

167 Anne Brooke Amazon should not be doing this - it is unfair to the small publisher. We at Goldenford use POD and already they're simply not stocking our books. Amazon should be stopped from taking such unfair actions.

168 Adrian Drake Monopolies help nobody except Monopoly owner.

169 Kent Skinner

170 Richard Riley This is a VERY bad move by Amazon. It will absolutely reduce what I spend with Amazon.

171 June What amazon are doing is bully boy tactics designed to stop free enterprise and competiion - they should not be able to get away with this !

172 Anonymous This is clearly a case of Amazon trying to use their market share as a retailer to force producers into relationships with Amazon's other business segments. This is patently ridiculous, and if not outright illegal, certainly unethical.

173 Hannah

174 Joe Gregory

175 Sam Liddicott Amazon, you total idiots. Your customers don't want you to own the world and will make sure you don't. They just want a good old service like you used to offer.

176 Sander Stoks

177 William Flinn What happened to the benevolent Amazon I thought I knew? Why are you trying to turn into microsoft? There will be a backlash. Please try to be the good guy and not the evil empire, I would hate to stop shopping you.

178 Anonymous

179 Lola Lee Beno This is a ridiculous demand and will stifle innovation.

180 Anonymous

181 Anonymous This is anti-competitive behavoir, if it was in the software industry (i.e.microsoft) it would never be allowed to happen, so why can it in the book industry?

182 Anonymous This can't go on.

183 Anonymous Its blatant misuse of monopoly. Hopefully, the EU will take action, if the US legal system won't.

184 Anonymous

185 Anonymous I am a big buyer at Amazon. I am a author who has been published by several mainstream publishing houses. I am also a publisher who uses POD technology to publish good books in a niche area (and we never charge our authors). These Amazon tactics are deplorable, and their mafia-like actions force me to remain anonymous on this petition. What's next? Will they force Kellogg's to use Amazon-owned manufacturing plants to make their cereal if they want to be sold by Amazon?

186 David Hall

187 Nigel Powell This is a greedy, stupid and ignorant action being taken by Amazon and they really need to realise that it's going to put a lot of customers off dealing with a company that is so avaricious.

188 Anonymous

189 Anonymous Please respect writers. Thank you.

190 Everton Green

191 Amber Whitman

192 conrad

193 Robert West

194 Thord Daniel Hedengren

195 Sean Wallace

196 Jeff A. Benner As a writer who uses a POD publisher I am awestruck at this takeover which is unfair to writers, publishers and Amazon customers.

197 Jeannette Spencer Creating a monopoly is never good. Your vision statement says: "Our vision is to be earth's most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online."

198 Gregory Deych

199 Sharon Bakar this monopoly is totally unfair and i will take my custom elsewhere

200 Anonymous

201 Anonymous

202 Sandra Paquet

203 Linda Corby This is just not on!

204 Gina Duvall The main reason I buy so often from Amazon is your extensive availability of books that are often hard to find elsewhere. Limiting the POD to using your own access in order to sell on your sight smells a lot like Microsoft - and will lose you a _lot_ of goodwill. I have friends who are both readers and authors. If we have to, we will find other outlets. We would prefer however, that you reconsider your decision, and maintain what has become your loyal customer base.

205 Todd Keisling As an independent author, I find Amazon's change of policy a clear indication of their care for the "little guy." Their method of forcing authors and POD publishers to seek secondary means of distribution falls along the same line as extortion.

206 Kayleigh J

207 peter vessey When will companies learn? Monopolies do not work (for very long). Somebody will come along with yet another method of doing things and they'll be left behind. In the long run insisting that everybody uses your product is counter productive and profit losing.

208 Keith Engwall I am extremely disappointed to learn of these unethical tactics by Amazon.com. As a long-time and regular customer, I enjoy pretty much every aspect of shopping at Amazon, but I cannot abide the kind of coercive measures that Amazon is taking against publishers to compete with other POD companies. If Amazon wants to protect its customers from substandard POD practices, then it should provide a set of reasonable standards and allow any books that are printed in accordance with those standards, even by a competing POD company, to be sold on Amazon.

209 Marta Stephens I'm an author of a POD independent publisher as well as a reader who has spent too much money at Amazon to be bullied around.

210 Tom Hill I am a smalltime author as well. My publisher, though not the best regarded in the business, was one of the first ones targeted. My book was visible, but not available directly through Amazon this morning. This is the firsts time I can remember not being happy about something Amazon has done.

211 James Mansion I'm actually writing at the moment and I am *not* happy about this. This is *less* likely to lead to my choosing BookSurge.

212 Maryanne Romano I have spent thousands of dollars on Amazon.com. Effective immediately, I'm buying from B&N.

213 Anonymous

214 Sherwood Smith

215 Rhiannon Frater I won't be shopping at Amazon until they back down from this stance.

216 Angela West

217 Harold Ancell I guess you don't want very much of my business from this day forward....

218 Sassy Brit As a consumer at Amazon, I have always been happy with my purchases, and online experience with Amazon, however, as an independent review site owner, who values free enterprise and freedom of choice this is just not right. In the long run it could just lose you customers.

219 Alessia Brio

220 Anonymous I am a published author with "traditional" publishers, not PoD publishers, so I have no direct vested interests here. But I do have a deep and genuine interest in this action by Amazon. Not only is this a blatant monopoly and an action that violates Amazon's high principled statements when it began operations, this action also has dark qualities that smack of censorship. Amazon seeks to force authors to use its BookSurge PoD. That means Amazon seeks to control what gets published. Think of a book that would be published by a different PoD publisher but one that Amazon finds objectionable. That book won't get published. Finally, I believe the Justice Department should investigate this as unfair competition. Clearly Amazon wants its BookSurge to succeed. Fair enough. But let Amazon succeed by offering a better product, not by unfair practices and not by this form of blackmail.

221 Heidi Nigro Strong Tower Publishing is a small, niche publisher and has grown through the ability to carefully select its suppliers and control its business model. Being forced to do POD through Amazon.com is a bullying tactic that I DON'T like and it disrupts my long-term, excellent relationship with my print provider. This isn't the way I do business with other people and it's not the way I expect to be dealt with. If Amazon wants to build its POD business, do it through honest competition and providing a better solution. Not through bullying.

222 Peg Silloway Amazon is treading into legal quicksand, but they've probably considered that potential cost. What they perhaps did not predict was the damage to their status as customer-friendly, and that will be much more costly in the long term. Count me as another author and publisher who will direct everyone I know and can reach to B&N, Powell's, anyone but Amazon. Bullies are big, but they can be taken down when many individuals are determined and relentless.

223 Katherine Johnson I'm an author for several small presses, and this new development is disturbing, to say the least.

224 Anonymous The company I work for, bookhitch.com, is trying to put the power back into the hands of authors and publishers, so they can choose where to direct readers. Amazon already takes too much money from the sale of books made on their website, and now they are trying to take more? Try buying books directly from the publishers and authors instead and give them back the percentage that amazon takes.

225 Carl DeMarco Please allow anyone to print as they choose while still selling

226 Cindy Green I am a regular Amazon customer and an author. This move will only hurt readers, writers, and the small presses.

227 Anonymous

228 Mark Webster Not exactly the sort of action that inspires affection for Amazon...

229 Jesse Lynnae Braxton And here we thought Amazon was a "good" corporation. Shame on you...

230 Michael Walters

231 Tia Wilkinson

232 Shane Kloppenburg Astonishing. Why Amazon thought this would be a good P.R. move, I don't know...

233 Joe

234 Anonymous

235 Linda Eberharter

236 Kelly Hatcher

237 Walt Shiel If Amazon is concerned about the discount terms being offered by the subsidy and independent publishers, it is relatively easy to insist on better terms. To try to grab all the digital printing business by forcing it to their own company, Booksurge, is unbelievably arrogant (but unfortunately typical) of Amazon. Amazon is setting itself for major marketplace challenges and may find itself no longer considered the ultimate resource for finding any book any time. Corporate leadership at Amazon needs to take off its blinders. Remember, almost all authors and publishers are avid readers...who just might take their purchasing business elsewhere!

238 D Maudsley

239 James Bernheimer

240 Jillian Carroll

241 Dawn Carrington

242 Paul Thewlis If Amazon persist with this crazy strategy, I will take my business elsewhere.

243 robert bucchianeri This is an outrageous affront to small independent publishers and writers everywhere

244 Marjorie Fergusson

245 svenja

246 Annclaire

247 Todd Macy I am against any form of monopoly. This country's greatness was founded on the idea of capitalism where no matter how many people sell an item or service the ones with the best quality and customer service survive the best. Trying to form a monopoly only raises a red flag to me personally that the company forcing the monopoly is not confident that they would survive in the niche without an unfair advantage. If you have the best product you should dare others to outdo you. Anything less shows weakness.

248 D. Neff

249 Michael Merriam

250 Robert Hayes I am a publisher and author, and I want you to open your service to the marketplace. Please, win through being superior - not through making sweetheart deals and restricting customer choice.

251 Stephanie Samphire

252 Anonymous

253 Ann Richardson

254 Afra Al-Mussawir

255 Steve Berman

256 Anonymous

257 Jai Ingersoll This is the most ludicrous thing I've heard in a long time. To refuse a writer's sale because the writer doesn't use a particular printing press?? Now I believe Amazon has crossed a freedom of speech law and has taken away yet another right of American citizens. Maybe I can't afford your Booksurge Print-on-Demand printing service, or maybe I feel that I have the right to choose whomever I want to publish my book!! Amazon has now become a monopoly and I won't stand for it! As an artist and soon to be writer I am ashamed of Amazon and will not be using their services to promote my book and my life's work. How many more people have to suffer at the expense of corporate America??

258 Heidi Slaney

259 Lisa Molson

260 Anonymous

261 Theresa Laws I have a POD book on Amazon and have contract for three more with a small press. This monopoly will be very unfair to authors, especially those just starting out. What could Amazon be thinking? Their business comes from authors. Surely they don't want to direct that business to other sites like Barnes and Nobel.

262 Ginger McCarty I am also an author and will be happy to give my business to Barnes and Nobel.com if Amazon continues to partake this this immoral practice.

263 Darcy Smittenaar

264 Brad Fregger I'm a small book publisher using Lightning Source which is infinitely better than BookSurge. However, all the books on my website (over 50) are linked to Amazon for purchase. This will, of course, change should Amazon carry through with this stupid idea.

265 Tami Kamin-Meyer Amazon should not try to restrict the ability of book buyers to purchase books from POD services other than Booksurge. If Amazon maintains this new policy, I will find another venue for purchasing online, not only books but other items sold on Amazon.

266 Kathleen Barnes I am also an author and a publisher. I find this kind of coercion to be abominable. If Amazon proceeds with this action, I will remove all Amazon links from my website and marketing campaigns and I will no longer buy anything from Amazon..

267 Robert Devereaux Please reverse this decision!

268 Harriet Culver

269 Anonymous I'm for choice

270 Victoria Tingey

271 Lauren Murphy This is unethical and immoral! It doesn't seem to fall inline with the company’s mission statement at all.

272 John

273 Anonymous

274 Donald W Campbell More than a regular customer, I am an 'Amazon Prime' customer. I am very upset by this information.

275 Bryan Hoffower Do not enforce this or you will cause thrid party publishers to go out of bussiness for the same purpose they went into bussiness. Stop trying to control them like a monopoly!

276 Charles Robbins I am annoyed that Amazon would use its market dominance in this manner. I intend to quit purchasing at amazon until this policy is undone and Amazon apologizes to their authors and customers.

277 Joyce Ackley

278 Eric Grejda Books printed using POD technology are an as-yet untapped resource, not only for decent fiction but books for other interests and persuasions that most publishing houses won't touch because they won't sell enough copies to be worthwhile. By forcing POD publishers to only work through Amazon's resources, not only does this put small publishing houses into dire financial straits but it also limits the books that people might otherwise be able to find in Amazon's catalog.

279 Steven Paul Leiva amazon -- cut this crap out!

280 George Clark

281 Anita K. Palmer Amazon: What you're doing may be legal, but it's unethical. And it's not very nice, either. From now on I'm shopping at powellsbooks.com, barnesandnoble.com and christianbook.com.

282 Jennifer Johnson

283 Anonymous

284 Steve Mengel

285 Heather Grace Stewart

286 Linda Brecht I am disabled and I shop for books, EXCLUSIVELY, online! I like ebooks, as I can enlarge the print and lessen the eyestrain. I am very annoyed with Amazon!

287 Joyce Scarbrough

288 Anonymous Until Amazon changes this policy and decides to allow POD sales on their site again, I'm not purchasing anything from them. I'll also be disabling my affiliates links and looking at other alternatives for my blog and website.

289 Anonymous I am shocked to say the least. When I want to buy a book or anything else for that matter, I look to Amazon first. I thought they were an upstanding company there to help the consumer to get their product out there to the public. I know Amazon is a business, but to force publishers to bow down to them is ridiculous.

290 Donna Deloney If this is the way Amazon wants to treat their authors/customers, I don't want to do business with them. I have no problems going to bn.com or any other site to get what I want.

291 Justin Jones I love Amazon.com. But as a struggling POD author whose "buy" button had been disabled, I will stop shopping there if they don't end this greedy nonsense.

292 Charlotte Cooper There should be a way to stop Amazon from cornering the market. I will go somewhere else if this happens.

293 Teri B. Clark

294 Kathleen

295 James Alexander Such a decision will make it less likely that I will do business with Amazon (I spend well in excess of $1000 yearly). Such a move would be unfair and show Amazon is more interested in greed than accessibility to the market.

296 Aurora Black

297 Melanie Tommey

298 Mark Daniels Guess I'll just start buying from B&N

299 Jim Woods

300 Shelley Kinsman

301 Rick Morris I have made nearly all of my media purchases through Amazon in the past. I will not purchase anything through Amazon until attempt at creating a monopoly is stopped.

302 Amanda Burchell Barbara Foster is a fledgling published author; it takes a LOT of money and time to get 'The Words' out there! Why SHOULD someone like Amazon exploit them? I have had a couple of little pieces published.. I want to publish more.. I will not tolerate being 'monopolised' - I'd rather go 'door-to-door-selling' with my book!!! Amanda Burchell, Australia

303 Tamara Mazzei I have long been an admirer of Amazon, but this policy is unethical. If it is continued, I will shop elsewhere.

304 Liadan Brodie

305 D.L. Carroll Beyond disapointed in the tactics used. Authors like myself are caught in the turbulence with hundreds of dollars in advertising wasted! Once a trusted customer of Amazon, now a distrusting author and petitioner.

306 Daniel Gallagher

307 C P Austin

308 Travis P

309 D. J. Stephens Author of: BEARKILLER - 1-4137-0338-0 HALO - 1-4137-6033-3 DEATH RIDER - 0-7414-4550-6

310 Alison Hedlund Shame on Amazon!

311 Terry Hazen I buy books from Amazon. I also buy a few POD books. Amazon's move to force POD authors to use Amazon's POD publisher smack of thuggishness, and will force me to consider ordering my not-in-stock books through my brick and mortar bookstore instead of buying through Amazon.

312 Kelly T. Mullaney It is very disappointing to see one of my favorite places to shop online behave like this. Until now I had seen Amazon.com like a leader in online marketing innovation, great service and honest business practices. Taking advantage of their market position and acting as a bully to force out competition is not the way to gain more clients, totally the opposite, and now more than ever when we are all connected and people can be heard online.

313 Ellen MacDonald I will discontinue shopping at Amazon if they should insist on this course of action. I am very disappointed to hear that this stunningly innovative company would be so mean-spirited as to force this issue. It speaks ill of Amazon and I am disappointed in their ethos.

314 Esther Burns The customers will be the biggest losers in the end.

315 Tamara Denby They're screwing with thousands of authors' (and customers') livelihoods. No income. No orders. I did 90% of my Christmas shopping in 2006 and 2007 on Amazon. You bet I won't in 2008.

316 Rose Wiliams This is a ridiculous monopoly and can't be legal. I hipe it gets stopped!

317 Jim Bartlett

318 P comer

319 BADimich I will buy ALL my books at B&N, if this happens.

320 Andrea As a small indie publisher I, for one, will not be blackmailed by Amazon into using Booksurge. If everyone else did the same, especially the larger PODs, Amazon might (have to) think twice. After all, they are not the only online bookstore, and very often are not the cheapest, either. Barnes and Noble for the US and BestBookPrice (http://www.bestbookprice.co.uk/ (to compare prices) for the UK are, in my opinion, far superior anyway.

321 Kiyoshi Ishikawa Amazon seems to be deteriorating badly.

322 Jennifer McKenzie As both a reader and an author, I disagree with Amazon's action to break agreements with authors on their site. To break "buy" links without notification and change their policy which effects someone's book sales is dishonest and unprofessional.

323 Sharon Soffe

324 Kyle Stich Monopolies are anti-democratic. Stop it!

325 Jeff Cardenas

326 Reb Livingston

327 Anonymous I will not shop at Amazon any more.

328 Shannon Yarbrough

329 Anonymous Amazon's Print-on-Demand publishing company BookSurge is trying to strong arm the rest of the Print-on-Demand industry. They are currently threatening to disable a book's buy button if that book's publishing company does not use the Booksurge Print-on-Demand printing service. They have already done this to PublishAmerica. Can iUnverse, Lulu.com, etc. be far behind? Must authors be forced to to as Amazon says? This is a conflict of interest for Amazon, and a blatant attempt at a monopoly.

330 Dennis Collins I thought that monopolies were illegal.

331 David Rudel

332 Anonymous

333 Margot Finke I am an author with a POD children's book due to be published soon - not by BookSurge!! Being strongarmed by Amazon to use their POD is bad enough, but when their POD printing is nowhere near the quality of others you could choose, it is really a bad thing for authors and small publishers to even consider!!

334 Barbara Karmazin This is a discriminatory action by Amazon.com against small publishing companies and should be stopped ASAP.

335 Jake George I spend a great deal at Amazon and if they continue in this I will shop elsewhere. They are not the only book seller on the internet.

336 Marcia Harris

337 Todd Niec

338 Anonymous

339 Anonymous

340 diane williams Sad that they thought they had to resort to these tactics.

341 Judith Briggs Outrageous. An anti-trust class action suit will definitely occur if Amazon.com tries to combine its activities as an online retrailer and a POD publisher and create unfair trade practices by refusing to handle direct sales of books from non-amazon subsidiary printers and distributors. This is unfair trade in Interstate Commerce. I would advise the Department of Justice to invetgiate and prosecute unfair trade practices in Interstate Commerce if this action took place by Amazon.com or any of its subsidiaries.

342 Timothy Orner

343 Elysabeth Eldering I am an author about to be published and this sounds very outrageous to me. I am sure the little people will prevail as good always does versus evil. This is too under the table to have any merit. Why not fess up and make it public? Why keep it hush-hush? Something is rotten in the state of Denmark and it smells of Amazon/Booksurge's ultimatum.

344 P R Carter I find this outrageous and rude behavior from one of my favorite online vendors. If Amazon cannot make money without stiff-arming authors for their royalties and small publishers for their print margin, maybe they should re-evaluate their ethical compass. Being big does not give you the right to abuse vendors!

345 Tinnekke Bebout I am an Amazon.com affiliate and if this goes through I will be cancelling that affiliation and doing ALL my business through Barnes and Noble.com

346 Larry Nocella I will NEVER shop at Amazon.com again if this goes through and that's a shame because my experience there has been positive. Amazon owes the American people this first Amendment outlet - we paid for their success since they are not required to collect tax on sales. See link below. The Success of Amazon: Welfare As We Should Know It by Dean Baker http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/30/4896/

347 Ruth Rocchio shame on you amazon, whatever happened to freedom?

348 Bill Nelson

349 Anonymous

350 RJ Clarken

351 David Campiti

352 Cheryl Setchell This is disgraceful! I don't know if this is all of Amazon sites (including the UK) or just the US site, but either way I shal be thinking twice before buying from amazon in the future. Play.com in the UK offers free delivery on ALL items, and there are other sellers that offer free delivery on multiple purchases - I don't need to use amazon!

353 Anonymous

354 Sharon Elaine Fleck I have been a loyal Amazon customer since Amazon began, and as a POD author, have encouraged people to buy their books through Amazon. I'm ASHAMED of the way Amazon is acting in this manner and will not begin to tell customers to shop at B&N. I will also no longer be an Amazon customer. What a sad day when such a previously excellent customer turns into a greedy bully. Shame on you.

355 Gary Pullar

356 Bob Blackman

357 Andrew Smith Booksurge decline very small publishers and Createspace is not competitive. Surely Amazon can find a way to accommodate LSI users and maintain the status quo while still gaining customers for Booksurge.

358 Tom Bird When all the little fish are eaten up by the bigger fish, soon there is only one fish left. Then he dies of starvation because there are no ther fish for him to eat

359 Brian Wainwright

360 Damien Moody Hey Amazon, go fuck yourself. When your company crashes and burns, I'm going to be cheering my ass off. As a musician, I will never do business with Amazon or engage in business with businesses that do business with Amazon. You blew your chances with me, Jeffrey boy.

361 David Matusik I am a small publisher directly affected by this decision. I can not afford to spend the additional time, money and resources on 2 digital book formats and take chances on new authors. I will not consider using Booksurge and will begin promoting other sales channels for buyers of my company's books.

362 Anonymous Amazon isn't wanting to gain popularity are they, I will shop elsewhere!

363 Ken Kaplan I will shop elsewhere while this stands.

364 Lea Schizas I am not only a buyer but also a writer.

365 Mary E Tyler Last Christmas, I spent nearly a thousand dollars at Amazon. This year, I will spend my money at another online bookseller.

366 James Henry This smacks of a monopoly and I hope the justice department gets involved if they follow through with this plan.

367 Susan Pam

368 Lynda Hales

369 Anonymous Amazon is overstepping its bounds. I won't shop there anymore if this extortion intended to steal business from small independent publishers doesn't stop. http://www.powells.com/ is my friend, and a friend to all book lovers.

370 Jana Oliver

371 Anonymous I've been a longtime customer, and know that this can mean nothing but bad things for publishers and authors. So, I will no longer be ordering anything from Amazon, and I'll be telling my friends and neighbors to do the same. It was one thing to squeeze the small bookstores out of business, as the internet was going to do that anyway. But it's going too far trying to corner the market on publishing as well. Adios old friend

372 Sheryl McGinnis As an author and a loyal Amazon customer I am appalled at this blatant attempt at monopoly. Take a look at your mission statement from year's back and see if you're adhering to the principles and tenets stated then. You are NOT and I will not be purchasing anything from Amazon until you stop this outrageous practice of BULLYING people into doing your bidding!

373 Robin Haseltine

374 Don Perrin It's an absurd idea. Amazon is way out of line with this.

375 John Foxjohn If this petition doesn't do any good, I can always use B&N.com.

376 Edd Voss

377 Anonymous I can understand wanting to make money, but this goes over the line.

378 Jane Wynn If you continue to snub many of the small press authors I will be forced to take my business elsewhere. I feel this tactic to force all pod, small press included into using your Booksurge as their pod business will in fact cause you to lose business. I know it will make me look elsewhere before purchasing from Amazon in the future.

379 Sue Fineman I would like to hear Amazon's reasons for making this decision. They have to know they're hurting small presses and the authors who write for them. Sue Fineman

380 Anonymous

381 Anonymous

382 Anonymous

383 Mallory Jag

384 Kevin Sadler

385 George Constantine

386 Ken Marable

387 Sharona Nelson I will no longer pay for Amazon Prime, among other things. I sell a lot of POD books and think their latest actions are an outrage. I'm seriously considering never buying another thing from Amazon. From Amazon's vision statement: "Our vision is to be earth's most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online." Jeff Bezos, do you even CARE what the company you founded is doing? Do your board of directors ever read your vision statement? Why not act in accordance with it?

388 Amy Nicole McDougal I really think that this will hurt Amazon as much, if not more, in the long run as it will the independent publishing houses and individual authors that will be affected by this.

389 Larissa Niec Amazon won't see another dollar from me so long as they continue this manipulative policy.

390 Brenda Appleby

391 Niec This is an appalling practice in a "free trade" country. Only expect to find this behavior in a dictatorship. Amazon, help keep our country free by focusing on your core business and giving individual authors and book publishers a chance. Al Niec

392 Kerry Tolan As a published SF author I deplore this industry's attempts to establish this kind of monopoly.

393 Anonymous

394 Sherry Diener

395 Anonymous Authors are having a thin enough time of it already without further costs being imposed upon them. If this goes ahead, I shan't buy anything more from Amazon.

396 Dawn Leeper Forcing publishers to use Booksurge, when most of the industry is set up for LSI...and when Amazon already accepts a large amount of content from Igrams/LSI is counterproductive to a healthy industry. It's hurtful to indie press, to their authors...and ultimately to Amazon's own readers. Amazon should seriously reconsider.

397 James Thomas

398 Anonymous

399 Ryan C Thomas

400 Kathi Scearce Don't shoot yourself in the foot. Small press is one of the last vestiges of innovation in publishing. Don't shut the door on publishers that fill niche markets, simply to line your pockets like a greedy cattle baron, railroad tycoon, or Gates head.

401 Connie Arnold Many of my books have sold through Amazon, and I have spent hundreds of dollars there each year. That will not continue to happen unless the demand is stopped. Amazon will be losing much more than can be gained with these demands, and I hope it will be stopped.

402 Michele Doucette

403 Ann Allen

404 Jason Allen

405 Anonymous As a POD author who uses Lightning Source and Ingram distribution, I will not be strong-armed. I will simply refer all of my buyers to Barns and Noble's website. And, if this goes through, I will never buy another product from Amazon again,

406 Tony Sexton We should see them keep a free market for other POD's

407 Linda Mooney I am an author whose books have been affected.

408 Lee Ann Ward I am an author and I do not like what Amazon is doing.

409 Janet Elaine Smith It seems to me, as both an author who has 18 POD books, all available and selling quite well through Amazon, and as the Marketing Director for Star Publish LLC, they are simply cutting off their nose to spite their face. There are plenty of other places where our books are available, and I am working with several of them to get things in place if Amazon goes through with their attempt to monoplize this industry. We will do that anyway, just because of their obvious attitude. The loss of their sales of probably millions of dollars annually will end up hurting them far more than it does us, in the long run.

410 Anonymous Perhaps independently published authors should start a rival service comparable to http://www.etsy.com/ and bypass Amazon altogether?

411 Sharon Johnson

412 Mike James It is just plain bad for consumers when a Goliath in the book industry tries to further strangle its partners with rules and requirements that reek of the Standard Oil monopoly. They want to get paid to show it, print it, ship it, bill for it and apparently a nice penny for the honor of being allowed to do business with them. As a book consumer I feel this is corporate short sightedness at best. Reducing choice, will reduce sales.

413 Anonymous

414 Kimberly Forcing POD publishers into BookSurge is especially unfair since many of them are receiving better services from their current company than they would through BookSurge. If BookSurge were really able to provide excellent services, then POD authors and publishers would go to BookSurge on their own and not need to be pressured there by Amazon. Sounds like a potential Anti-Trust violation. I think in the Microsoft case they called it bundling.

415 Jennifer Haymore

416 Brandy Purdy I am the author of two novels that stand to be affected by this if it goes through. If Amazon disables my books "Buy" buttons I will never make another purchase there again or use my Amazon Visa credit card.

417 claude

418 Lynette R. F. Cowper This move is nothing but underhanded moneygrubbing in the name of "customer service".

419 Maureen Gilliland

420 Candace This move is nothing short of out right thuggery. As a long standing Amazon customer, I'm disappointed.

421 Catherine Wilson I'm sorry I spent over $1500 with amazon this year. I've replaced amazon with B&N in my favorites list until this policy is reversed. Let the publishers decide how to make their books available, and let BookSurge compete for their business on quality and price.

422 Michael J Hunt I hate bullies

423 Gail E. Wiltse I think this move by Amazon.com is outrageous. I know two authors who've been hurt by this, and I am signing this petition on their behalf.

424 Joe McCarthy Stop the monopoly !

425 Melissa Crandall-Everett

426 C. B. Bright

427 Bridget Midway

428 kIM rOBINSON

429 Anonymous Readers, publishers, everyone is in better shape if this does not go through. Some may believe it looks good on the outside from Amazon's kind words about it, but they sure won't tell you the down sides.

430 Jaime Stinson Amazon was built on offering ALL available choices, including small press, I want to continue to be offered all choices and not pay an arm and a leg for that choice.

431 Rebecca Huffman I *used* to shop there regularly. I'll now take my business to B&N.

432 Linda Reynolds-Burkins It seems unreasonable for Amazon to try to force authors to choose between seeing their books in bricks & mortar stores (through Ingram and Lightning Source) and seeing them for sale at Amazon. I will not be buying any more items from Amazon until this is resolved.

433 Greta Ham Shame on Goliath for beating up on David -- at the expense of the audience/customers!

434 Jude Mason I'm appalled that Amazon feels they have the right to monopolize the POD aspect of their site. Small press publisher will suffer enormously, as with their authors

435 Anne Kaufhold

436 Martha M. Naugle BookSurge should stop enforcing its print service on independent publishing companies

437 Anonymous

438 David Silva please stop this obvious attempt at monopoly

439 Barbara Hudgins I am an independent publisher. I do not like the coercive tone of this POD development.

440 Anonymous

441 Catherine Dold

442 Greg Taylor

443 Anonymous Threatening punishment by one company if you don't do business with a second company is racketeering. Racketeering is illegal. Do the publishers who have received threatening phone calls and emails know to File a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate for racketeering and unfair trade practices in Interstate Commerce.

444 Vicki Lawson It's very disappointing to think that Amazon would try to monopolize the self-publishing world.

445 Anonymous I have been a devoted customer of Amazon's for many years, buying not only books and music from them, but most of my holiday gifts. I am also one of their authors, as in, I create the products they sell. Currently, they offer over 80 of my titles under my numerous pseudonyms. While my books have been published the "old fashioned" way through traditional, well-established publishing houses, many of my author friends have not been so fortunate. Our industry is struggling, and I dare say, writers feel it most keenly. In the current climate, it is nearly impossible for non-published writers to have their works published, no matter how noteworthy. Amazon needs to be fully aware that the writing community is sickened by their action against POD authors and publishers. While it may appear to Amazon that this is a passing outrage, I've been a professional author for more than 20 years and let me assure them, writers are readers (customers) with long memories and a lot to say. I would strongly encourage Amazon to correct this public relations nightmare any way they can, as quickly as possible. Even now, authors are removing their Amazon links and replacing them with Barnes and Noble buttons. Personally, though I greatly appreciate the good service I've received from Amazon and all the sales of my books over the years, I won't be making a single purchase from them until they change this policy.

446 Anonymous

447 William G. Nelson Why are you playing "big fish eat little fish?" The pod publisher has to depend on getting their book printed at the lowest possible cost. Can Book Surge offer as fine of service as LSI ?

448 Corlleen Plumb It's extortion, plain and simple. You create all the wins on your side with few monetary benefits to you publisher clients. I hope you lose millions.

449 kelly coyne I am a blogger as well as a book buyer. I have an online bookstore linking to Amazon. This will come down until Amazon proves itself a good member of our community of readers and writers. In addition, I will not be shopping at Amazon any longer, and I will encourage family and friends to do the same.

450 Donna E. Trifilo I believe that this act by Amazon is unfair restraint of trade. As a librarian, I also strongly object to constraints on the choices available to book publishers who wish to reach potential buyers through Amazon. This does not reflect well on your business.

451 Dave Robinson I don't buy much POD, but this really rankles, especially the part about forcing an inferior and non-standard product on people. It's a nasty little money grab that makes me glad I didn't go for a Kindle. I'd rather get locked in by anyone, even Sony than the jerks Amazon are becoming.

452 Anonymous I'm confused. Wasn't the one and only telephone company broken up for this dastardly deed of monopoly? Where is Uncle Sam? It doesn't surpirse me that PublishAmerica gave in, they were going down the tube anyway.

453 Anonymous

454 Kevin McCabe

455 Michael White I have no interest in supporting monopolistic tendencies of this sort. If Amazon continues to pursue this strongarm technique, my wife and I will have no qualms about doing our book shopping elsewhere, and recommending that our MANY book buying friends do likewise. I am quite serious about this. Stop now!

456 Anonymous I hate that Amazon is doing this, and their excuse for why is a joke.

457 Ernest Mueller

458 Jonathan Bartlett I am a single-book publisher through LightningSource and this directly affects me.

459 Jonathan Penton I won't be making any purchases at Amazon until this stops.

460 Michael Haberern

461 SarahBeth

462 Thomas Nixon

463 Tim L. I also have Amazon Associate links on six different websites I run--including large banners that aren't for my book. I will take them all down if the buy button disappears for my POD book.

464 Anonymous

465 Bill Drew Amazon.com is being ridiculous. They should be boycotted.

466 Antonia Tulmis This is a disgusting practice by Amazon, and I am boycotting their website altogether until they reverse this tyrannical corporate abuse of independent publishers and struggling authors. Amazon SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES!!!

467 R. C. Beckom So I guess once again the big fish wants to swallow up the little. well in true honestly when one company gets to the point that it wants all the marbles, another will just step into its place, It is about time for a better system for the Pod ,self-publisher, etc. anyway cause really as time do pass, the stories will beccome more better and more real that the public will began to look for them. So Amazon if you don't want to be a part of the solution in the new revolution of thinking , that's on you cause the band will play on with or without you. so do your worst.

468 Sean McLachlan

469 Bobrich@bobswriting.com I find this outrageous, and will not buy at Amazon until it is reversed -- if then.

470 Lesley Berrington

471 Pam Strout

472 Richard Fitt Absolutely unacceptable! If ever there was a case for Anti Trust laws this is it

473 R. Leonard I will be using my B&N discount, instead of Amazon, until this clears up. I feel this is an unfair and unjust practice initiated by Amazon.

474 jack mcginnis I think you are killing the goose that laid the golden egg. Greed will not make you richer but may very well stop people as myself from using Amazon. Don't step on the little people. They are suffering enough as it is.

475 Anonymous This is unacceptably bad practice on Amazon's part - Consider my custom taken elsewhere.

476 Donna Furniss

477 Andrea Berman As a reader and a writer, I object to Amazon.com's attempt to takeover the POD industry. It will discourage small presses and a growing interest in alternative publications.

478 Simone Neblich-Spang

479 JAN MUSSELMAN ALL PUBLISHERS SHOULD BE ACCEPTED AT A 'BOOK STORE'.

480 Kazuyoshi Tsuyukusa

481 Barbara Friend Ish Dear Jeff, You suck. Most sincerely, Barbara

482 Ben Ohmart

483 Ben McDonald

484 Alexander Somma Don't limit what I can buy at Amazon

485 Anonymous

486 Anthony McGuire This action by Amazon.com will increase the price of books. It means less money for authors and publishers. It means readers will pay more. In the end, the only one to benefit from this arrogance is Amazon.com. In fact, Amazon.com is the only entity involved that will not be HARMED by this action. I urge everyone to boycott Amazon.com until they cease this attempt at monopoly.

487 zvellenreuther

488 Morvan

489 Anonymous

490 Gretchen Jones I regularly purchase five or six books at a time from Amazon. I object to this strong arm tactic. What's to keep this from spreading to music. Wouldn't be any more difficult to stamp a CD than print a book. gj

491 Monica Stoner

492 Marilyn Meredith I buy lots of books and I'm a published author. This decision will greatly affect how much I make as an author because it affects my publishers in a negative manner.

493 Mary Rosenbaum I will send all inquirers about my two POD books to Barnes & Noble.

494 Jacqueline Jones I intend to have my book published by a small press company that will use Lightning Source to print it. This means Amazon will not sell my book. No, of COURSE I am against this! It is not right, a true monopoly. Jackie

495 Mike Young

496 Norman Woodward This sounds like what microsoft does to the PC world. Therefore I support your all the way and will cease buying from amazon.

497 Anonymous I wish you all Good Luck.

498 Howard Waldman When I think of the vast sums I have spent for CDs and books at Amazon! If this unethical scheme of theirs is rammed through that's an end to my custom.

499 Lee Carlson The difference between Amazon.com and Microsoft is that there are real alternatives to Amazon.

500 Monica

501 Nancy Douglas I am disappointed with the lack of collaboration such a move entails. Cooperation in the industry should not mean one big player strong-arming their suppliers.

502 Anonymous

503 Anonymous I do no believe this will benefit the customers. Even IF it is for the benefit, people shouldn't be forced to accept if they don't want it, 'I'll cram something down your throat even if you don't want it for your own good' does not sound good to me.

504 Tim Vandehey

505 Richard Risch Amazon just lost me as a customer.

506 Dawn Demmon I'm sorry to see this happen. I think Amazon will lose money on this proposition, not gain. I plan to "delist" Amazon from my sites, blogs and links, and will not be buying any more products from Amazon in the future.

507 Anonymous Ridiculous move amazon; wake up and play nicer with others.

508 sharlene martin This is restraint of fair trade.

509 Robert Soubie I am a Lulu author. www.lulu.com/robert_soubie

510 Benjamin I will not print thru Amazon's relationship with Booksurge. I use other services

511 Anonymous

512 Anonymous

513 Geraldine Nesbitt I am an author published by iuniverse.com and was planning to use book surge for my second publication, as i have the skills to design my own cover and to format the book properly, and thought it would be fun to go for the cheaper option. BUT, i am not interested in feeding a monopoly, and one that might cost me sales of my first book!!!!

514 Marci Baun

515 Peter Hassebroek

516 Grant Jarrett

517 Jeanne Bellezzo

518 Anonymous

519 Jessica Koster I, myself, am published with PublishAmerica. Amazon just lost a lot of my business for shopping . One of the things that can really set off my temper is being forced to do something. I believe in fairness of choice and think that Amazon needs to be hit with a nice, pretty hammer.

520 Sheila Glasbey I will no longer be buying books from Amazon after this announcement unless their policy is reversed.

521 Anonymous I am an author and I am against amazon's monoply. This is so wrong.

522 Anonymous

523 Anonymous

524 Anonymous I spent over 2k at Amazon in 2007. I'll shop elsewhere in 2008.

525 Lynne Taetzsch I am a loyal Amazon customer and a POD author. I urge Amazon NOT to force POD publishers to use BookSurge.

526 Sheryl Brown I think you should get the vote of your customers, both readers and authors, before making decisions that affect them.

527 Dave Crisp Outrageous for everyone... including Amazon who is sure to get, and deserves to be, sued.

528 Briana

529 Anonymous

530 Herbie J Pilato

531 Cindy Appel I think this is an uwise move on Amazon's part... My POD books have sold well there. Why should they cut off this source of revenue? It makes no business sense. Plus, it only makes Amazon look like a greedy monopoly by "forcing" small presses to use their BookSurge operation in order to have a book listed at Amazon. America is for freedom of the press--and freedom of the printer!

532 Anonymous I believe this move will not only damage Author, but Amazon also. An unwise decision.

533 Jack McClure I have just published a Sci Fi novel on Lulu, and I don't like the idea of Amazon trying to be the big bitch bossing the block (remember, Amazons are femalel...).

534 S Jones

535 Anton Ross JUST SAY NO

536 Anonymous It smells a bit like Microsoft selling Windows and making it difficult for other suppliers to deliver add ons. But eventually MS got fined by Europe's anti monopoly agency. Maybe they can investigate on amazon too.

537 Charlie Brackett Pull my books! I will not be strong armed!

538 Eugene Lim If Amazon forces all POD publishers to go with BookSurge, calling for a blanket boycott from you and yours would be a significant and apt response. There's B&N and Powell's. In fact, I think any links one has on author or publisher pages that link to amazon could now, as a message, be linked to your local bookstore or Powell's--a bookstore that can ship nationally and which actually supports small presses.

539 Anonymous this seems to be a backward move.

540 Anonymous Amazon began business promising to try to sell "everything under the sun" - now it is cutting off new authors. Dump your amazon stock now! Amazon lied to the public. It lied to its shareholders. It lied to publishers and authors.

541 Anonymous

542 Anonymous

543 ning li

544 Anonymous

545 Jessica Perez

546 Shann Palmer This new policy does not appear to benefit small presses. I plan to boycott Amazon temporarily until more information is available, permanently if the situation does not improve from the current state implemented by Amazon.

547 André Roy We need to protect the independents, which are 99% of all.

548 Anonymous

549 Marshall Glickman Wow! Very obnoxious by Amazon. But worse is they will actually be hurting demand and sales in the long run. I was thinking of bring some niche books into print, but now that the cost is so much, I won't be. Multiply that by many thousands

550 W. David Phillips

551 Nancy Connally I am so disappointed in Amazon and BookSurge. If they go through with this, I will not use Amazon anymore. As it is, I won't order from them until I know how this turns out. I am alerting all my family, friends, and fellow writers in the groups I belong to.

552 Richard Lunsford Maintaining maximum flexibility in printing services is key to a thriving POD market, given the inherently high-priced costs of limited production runs common to POD. Further cost market by a monopoly player is reasonably expected to have substantial negative impact.

553 Michelle Miles

554 Arthur Kendy

555 judi Lake I have been designing and producing books for self-published authors for years and currently use pod's of my choice. I am appalled that Amazon and BookSurge would restrict authors as to where to print. BookSurge's work is not good. I am appalled.

556 Anonymous Book Surge is a terrible product.

557 Daniel Will-Harris Amazon's strength has always been it's OPENNESS. If Amazon limits the authors who can contribute by forcing their single proprietary system then they are losing the element that has made them great.

558 Ka Iok Tong This is illegal as it violates the antitrust and monopoly laws.

559 Dave MacLeod Hands off, Amazon. I'm currently doing a translation that is going to be published through lulu.com, and this new policy is not going to change my mind. I'm also reconsidering buying a Kindle as a result of this too. I was pretty taken by the idea when a friend showed it to me last week. Now, not so sure.

560 Kyra Strangwick

561 April Lorier Book Surge does crappy work! Who would ever want to use THEM?

562 William A Whitaker I was thinking of publishing at Amazon, but now I may not. My son published at Lulu and I had reckoned he ought to do it at Amazon to make the book easier to sell. I had no idea that you were going to make it impossible. This sort of pressure turns us both against Amazon.

563 Anonymous

564 Scott Sandridge Stop trying to act like Bill Gates!

565 Alicia Webb

566 Lauren Strobel Hm. I'm aspiring to be an author, and some friends of mine too. Why yes, since that will be a career, I would like money for my books. Crazy, huh? I thought Amazon was a good site, but apparently not. Too much of this has been going on recently, so I'm glad & proud someone still has morals and support PublishAmerica's resistance.

567 Anonymous

568 Scott Reimers I don't often buy, but my girlfriend does. She won't be from now on...

569 Anonymous Until now, I felt fairly good about Amazon. Now I think of Bill Gates. (I use a Mac, and always will. Any questions?)

570 Brandon Simpson Switching to BookSurge would hurt the bottom line for small publishers. If this happens (God forbid it does), publishers who use LSI would have to do Amazon Advantage, which would also hurt our bottom line.

571 V Phillips

572 Lee Not sporting, Amazon. You should know how important positive mindshare is in the Internet world.

573 Jane Thurnell-Read Amazon, I am deeply shocked. I had you down as one of the good guys of this world.

574 Anonymous Amazon is my #1 choice for books, entertainment, and a growing number of other necessities and luxuries. This move sullies my very high opinion of Amazon. I hope that they will not go ahead with this decision.

575 Neil Marr Bullyboy tactics sicken me.

576 Anonymous It's hard to believe that Amazon is doing something so completely unethical. To add to our concerns, BookSurge's reputation for quality printing sucks! Time Mr. Bizos stepped in and slapped his errant children around a bit. Amazon's reputation just got whacked - MicroZon?!

577 Anonymous

578 Anonymous No one company should have monopoly on a market!

579 Anne Greer

580 Suzie Litton-Wood Please stop this unhelpful and discriminatory practise. Small publishers and self publishing authors will be squeezed out of the market place. I have always praised Amazon for the incredible variety of publications available, this BookSurge monopoly will destroy that diversity and an author's right to self publish at low cost.

581 C Wolf Forrest One primary word comes to mind: UN-AMERICAN! To stifle competition is to be a bully, a strong-arming mafioso, a and should be pursued in court under the Shernan Act Ant-Trust provisions. Where are the lawyers now? The legal team at Amazon is ready, you can bet on that!

582 Anonymous I will stop shopping Amazon unless they change their policy on POD!

583 James Taylor The effort is an obvious violation of the anttrust laws in this country. If they accomplish this then we should over throw the government ...not Amazon.

584 Y Yeung

585 Anonymous Absolutely unfair and unethical.

586 Pamilla deLeon- Lewis

587 Anonymous I'm very disappointed in Amazon, and will consider shopping elsewhere if this policy is ever enforced.

588 John Alaimo This is an unfair policy which should be abolished immediately.

589 Elizabeth Everyone should be given the right to choose their own POD company.

590 Stone wallace

591 Anonymous The Amazon has banned ny book so I have been forced to ban The Amazon from my extensive marketing campaign. I wish I had bought Barnes & Noble stock before they made this bonehead decision.

592 james lynn thomas

593 Robert T. Yarborough Is Amazon imposing this POD restriction on all the major publishers whose backlist books are printed via POD? I think not. I am no lawyer, but doesn’t this violate the anti-trust laws? Doesn’t Amazon’s action restrict free trade and competition between business entities? Why should the manner in which we choose to print our book dictate how we can sell them? I used Booksurge to print several of my company’s first books and had nothing but problems with them. Quality was poor, sometimes extremely poor. They didn’t pay money due us until well past the time in our agreement, and then only after calling them everyday. Customer service was non-existent…I call and leave a message with my account representative and no response. Even after leaving several messages. If I didn’t get them on the phone when I called I would never get speak to them. They wouldn’t answer my emails either. The excuse was always that it ended up in the junk mail. Junk mail? What happen to white listing your customers? This happened numerous times over the course of a year. At one point I had to start emailing and calling everyone listed on their phone roster just to get someone to talk with me about an issue with their service. I had one book that we wanted to remove from distribution, so I put everything in writing and also spoke with my rep on the phone. They dumped the book completely from their computer system…we could not order our own books. Of course we didn’t realize this until months later when we need to print more for our distribution channels. Once we got that sorted and the books back into their system for our printing only…they released the book for sale on Amazon! We have some books that are limited to members of certain organizations and not for the general public. I have all this documented if Amazon or Booksurge care to challenge my comments We print all of our books with Lighting Source. If Amazon goes through with this requirement then we will NOT sell our book with Amazon. If you want to buy our books then you’ll have to buy them from Barnes and Noble or any other bookstore that orders from Ingram.

594 Peggy D. Dallmann Amazon is attempting to take choice away from authors and publishers -- the choice to use better quality printing services. Not only is Amazon disregarding the wishes of authors and publishers, but its tactics will deprive its customers of a means to buy quality, independently-published books at an economical price. Even if Booksurge was rated the best in terms of quality product, however, this blatant blackmail is just plain wrong because this huge retail business is attempting, and in some cases succeeding, to strong arm and take advantage of a small, vulnerable group of sellers.

595 Marcia Noone

596 Ally Ryder I used to buy all my books through Amazon. But Booksurge is failing because it's shoddy work. Forcing consumers to buy a bad product because Amazon makes a bad product means I'll be shopping exculsively at bn.com for my books now.

597 John T. Grose

598 Denzel Holmes

599 Margie L. Holmes

600 Deborah Chapman

601 Karen Szabo Amazon might be a huge seller of books, but they do not have the right to act as a dictator either.

602 Anonymous Despite being a loyal Amazon customer for more than a decade, I will close my account if this practice goes forward.

603 Morgan I've already begun shopping for books elsewhere due to Amazon's hefty book prices - if they allow BookSurge to continue this practice, I'll stop altogether.

604 James Watts I am an author that would be hit by this and do not believe it to be fair.

605 Richard Chonak Amazon must stop this brazenly anti-consumer tactic.

606 Anonymous Don't just sign this petition, file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (I did). This is anticompetitive behavior. This is what anti trust laws are for! If thousands of complaints start pouring in, they will stand up and take notice.

607 Tania Allen I will cease shopping with your company entirely if you go forwards with this proposed change to demant authors use your affiliated 'print on demand' service. It is unfair to coerce independent authors to use your service in order to make even more money.

608 Kevin Noa

609 Anonymous I don't shop at WalMart. Their service is poor, and their strong-arm tactics with suppliers are very offensive to me. If AMZN follows through with this threat, this Amazon Prime member will be canceling his membership in Prime, buying books from buy.com and other sellers, and purchasing Christmas gifts for my children and others from other dealers as well. I have no tolerance for this kind of thuggery.

610 Gwendalyn Cope

611 Gary Gabelhouse

612 Joseph Layden

613 Dr. Caron Goode As an LSI publisher, this forces me to change my choice of publishers at my expense, and essentially forces business to one monopoly

614 Ashley Simmons I am an author who was considering using BookSurge to print my book, but your prices were outrageous. Now that I see what you are doing to other POD companies, I shall endeavor to tell everyone I know NOT to use BookSurge to publish their work even if they think the cost is reasonable. I also shall never shop from Amazon again because of this. If you want to generate more sales through BookSurge, try improving your customer service and your prices. Creating a monopoly will only create bad publicity for Amazon.

615 Jeff Rose Don't stop the presses

616 Daz Wilson Amazon should be ashamed of themselves. They will lose alot of money for this foolish decision and they could end up making alot of potentially permanent enemies... Borders, Barnes and Noble an others must be celebrating. They be enjoying all of Amazon's profits now.

617 Laurel Cook Despicable!

618 deb ledford This screams monopoly to me.

619 Anonymous

620 L Rosser Com' on Amazon! Are you crazy?

621 Anonymous

622 Dave Straub

623 Sandra Waldron I am still in a state of shock over this!

624 Robert L. Hill Amazon has always been one of my favorite companies, but that is changing fast because of this monopolistic, greedy, power grab. If Amazon goes forward with this, Barnes and Noble will get ALL my on-line ordering business from now on. -- Bob Alt email: robert.hill@yahoo.com

625 Maurice J. I will not shop at amazon anymore... I loved amazon but to hear that they are trying to squeeze out the little players is unacceptable... I'm done, I can buy my stuff somewhere else, surely and I'm sure as people hear about this, they will too.. Watch yourself Amazon... You don't need a Wal-mart like PR nightmare on your hands...

626 Steve Atlas I have enjoyed ordering from Amazon--knowing they have integrity and stock any book I want, regardless of who publishes it. I may have to stop being an Amazon customer, and advice everyone I know to do the same. Since this is a monopolistic restraint of trade, anti-monopoly rules should apply. Please, Amazon, you've built a special niche and reputation based on integrity. Please don't throw it away. Remember: it takes time to build a good reputation, but it's very easy to lose that reputation. When that happens, business suffers. Is it worth antagonizing customers and writers?

627 Anonymous

628 Linda Rettstatt I think this is a grave injustice to both authors and publishers who have supported Amazon for a lot of years.

629 Tom Jeffrey

630 Virginia Williams I will no longer be utilizing Amazon until the company backs down from its obvious attempt to monopolize the POD industry.

631 Kelley Hunsicker This is just wrong.

632 Steven Boyd I am totally disgusted by Amazon I have 23 print on demant titles via Lightning source. Abetter way for Amazon would have been to build a top not pod service with good prices. Custmers should have been won over by quality. This force and arm twisting for an inferior company book surge and the extra cost - we will have to raise prices of our books. I am no longer linking to Amazon I feel the long term future does not lie with this greedey company. I am sending buyers for my books to Barnes and Nobel and others.

633 Anonymous These actions being taken by Booksurge/Amazon are no better than old time street thugs running a protection racket. It's horrible what they are attempting to do and should be immediately stopped.

634 Jennifer Little Amazon was founded with the premise of providing options to the "big business" mentality of Barnes and Nobles of the world. Are they now joining the ranks?

635 Patricia Cerrito Why follow the lead of RIAA?

636 Doug Raymond Barnes and Noble here I come.

637 David McAleer This is disgraceful monopolistic behavior that will have a very negative effect on the world of publishing, and books in general

638 Richard Baum I can't support Amazon's policy by buying products at their site. I'll shop and sell elsewhere.

639 Denyse Loeb You limit author choices, small press choices, and, in the end buyer choices. Enough is enough.

640 sue miller

641 Anonymous

642 Dawn Olexa I am an author and don't feel Amazon has the right to dictate what people can do or how they do and force them to pay a fee just publish their work. It should be decided by the author and the publishing company. This is wrong and refuse to buy books from Amazon.com till they change their ways and strageties

643 Linda Black

644 Kay B. Day

645 Anonymous Is is an abomination to not only authors everywhere but to Freedom in America. An absolute travesty precipitated by sheer GREED.

646 Michael Greenhouse Come on!!! be fair and ethical!!!

647 David Lascelles Creating a monopoly is not a sensible means to increase income as it is more likely to breed resentment in the customer base and causing them to move to another company. It is far more sensible business practise to undercut the competition and show the customer a good service that ensures repeat custom

648 Anonymous

649 Paul Stanway Aggressive marketing tactics won't serve Amazon well in the long run. I'm already looking around for more ethically sound booksellers.

650 Sofie Bird As a customer, author and publisher I think this is outrageous. I refuse to have anything to do with Amazon from here on.

651 Jeff Johnston

652 Bob Salerni

653 Nathan Ward

654 Helen Peterson AMAZON MUST STOP THIS!!! THIS IS SOOOOOOOO UNFAIR!

655 Timothy Greiving I am a first-time author and self-publisher who uses Lightning Source. Having amazon as a wholesaler has been a huge perk, and this move by them is most unsettling.

656 Anonymous Amazon should compete fairly like everybody else, not force the whole world to use their POD service in order to make it profitable. Quit bullying the other POD publishers and play fair!

657 Jon Kaplowitz

658 Lucy Dashwood Aren't there laws against this? Oh wait. There was no law against Bill Gates creating an operating system monopoly either.

659 Anonymous As a regular Amazon customer and a self-published author, I entreat Amazon to reconsider its decision to force publishers into using BookSurge.

660 LK Hunsaker I run an indie publishing group full of authors who use many different POD companies. I have let them all know that I personally will not order anything more from Amazon, although I have been a loyal customer, and I will be taking down all of my book links to Amazon because this is truly unfair to indies and independent POD companies. Stop the monopoly!

661 Caitlin Davis

662 John Schindler

663 Linda Hiles I feel the same as my fellow published authors do, that Amazon.com/ BookSurge should rethink their plans for monopolizing the POD publishers and come back to their senses. This is an absolute outrage and should not go any further. I have removed my Amazon.com button from my book's "Purchase Book" page, and it will remain as such until further notice.

664 Laura Elvebak I am getting published by a small press and am furious about Amazon's attempted POD takeover. They need to be stopped.

665 Anonymous I've spent thousands of dollars on amazon and so does my family. I'm taking my money to other online book vendors.

666 Joseph Frank Baraba This is a disgrace to all authors all over the world as a 2nd time published author I believe eveyone should show strength in numbers and stop buying from Amazon included all their products . Maybe as a force we can stop this horrible plague created by Amazon....GREEDY ! Joseph Frank Baraba

667 Matt Meyer If Amazon does not reverse its policy within 90 days, I will no longer shop there FOR ANYTHING.

668 Caitlyn Hunter

669 Anonymous I do not support this endeavor, and prefer freedom of the small press.

670 Robert Hajicek

671 L. Lee Shaw I doubt Amazon has its infrastructure in place to handle the job its strong-arming itself into. How many badly bound, badly set books can Amazon sell to the public before their reputation is damaged? (How often do any of us continue to buy shoddy products?) A critical mass will soon be met and book buyers will be scurrying away to locate quality products. And as a trickle down effect, it will throw into question any other product they sell. How long before other industries choose to remove themselves from Amzaon's "shelves" to avoid collaterol fall-out? All books frog-marched into BookSurge should carry a large disclaimer that the products final physical form is the direct responsibility of Amazon and BookSurge and in no way reflect the publisher or author. Put the blame clearly and openly where it is due. POD publishers need to mount a campaign to educate the public through their websites and any other media source available to them about Amazon's tactics and offer alternatives to book purchasing. Last year I spent several thousands of dollars with Amazon. This year I will be using that money to locate and develop new outlets for the books we publish. Hasta, Amazon.

672 Candace Clayton Shame on Amazon!

673 Jenny Schwartzberg

674 John Locke Amazon, please don't spoil your all-encompassing quality of choice, one of your best features. Signed, a small-press publisher.

675 Sue Petrie Smaller authors and publishers shouldn't be pushed around just to suit the "big boys"

676 Lisa Smith Thought I have been a regular Amazon customer, I will no longer spend my money there.

677 Michael M. Smith I'm a retired Army officer & don't remember monopolies as being something I signed up to protect. If it is "Publishing on Demand" the only reason to specify a wholly owned sole source is greed.

678 Roberto Ierusalimschy

679 Nina Amir I am outraged by this attempt to monopolize the publishing industry.

680 Andrew

681 Kimberly Martin I am an avid reader as well as an author with over 15 books in print through Lightning Source all doing well at Amazon. If Amazon follows through with this threat I will be switching all of my marketing to Barnes and Noble as well as start using Barnes and Noble exclusively for all of my own (many) book purchases.

682 J. Siverd Amazon must be stopped. This is wrong.

683 Anne My POD contract is with my publisher of choice NOT Amazon! Therefore I expect my publisher to be in full charge of all things related to the printing and publishing of my book, NOT Amazon. If Amazon insists on bullying the independent publishing industry I will never patronize them again, choosing other online venues for my book purchases from now on!

684 Ray Thomas This is an attempt at monopoly and if I ever planned to use Amazon for ANYTHING, I won't do it now unless they abandon this plan.

685 Mr. A. Santiago A dreadfully unfair policy. I shop at Amazon regularly, but since there are many other options, I can easily choose not to.

686 Kathi Calahan Don't cut off your nose to spite your face. Don't do it.

687 Billie Jo Austin

688 Anonymous

689 Michael Knowles I'm not only an Amazon customer, but a small book publisher. Don't hamstring my business by putting arbitrary rules in place that inhibit my ability to conduct my own business as I see fit.

690 Diane Craver I am very disappointed in Amazon's disregard for POD publishers and their authors!

691 Jennifer This is a ridiculous power grab. I have had a lull in my amazon ordering lately, but I have amassed a large wishlist of books that will not yet be available at used book stores and was planning on some large Amazon orders in the future. However, if Amazon is going to attempt to strong-arm its way into monopoly, I will absolutely not shop there any longer and Barnes and Nobles online can have my business instead.

692 Mark Sawa If Amazon goes ahead with this policy I will cease to shop there, period.

693 Timothy Sakach Booksurge and Amazon appear to be trying to put *publishers* out of business. Do they assume that publishers are happy with a 30% royalty? At that rate I would have to charge twice the fair market value for my books, so that my company and my authors can make a little money. Booksurge says they have an inventory of 500,000 titles. Does not seem reasonable if they produce inferior products.

694 Broken Sword Publications Absolutely ridiculous. This needs to be stopped or it will spiral out of control. http://brokenswordpublications.com/

695 Rebecca Day I am not only a voracious reader and book purchaser but also an author published by a small (non-POD) publisher, and I think this is appalling customer service. I have probably spent upwards of $2000 in books at Amazon over the past few years and if this policy is implemented, I will switch to Barnes & Noble and local booksellers instead. Disgusting.

696 Anonymous This is monopolistic and should be illegal. Consumers will lose. They will receive less product variety, and a poorer quality, more expensive product.

697 Eddie Lucas

698 Michelle Formoso Might does not make right. Please stop this unfair tactic!

699 KibaOokami

700 Mary Caldwell

701 Anonymous I won't shop at Amazon anymore until the monopoly is dissolved.

702 Sharon Partington

703 Carrie Tierney

704 Anonymous Not only am I a fairly regular customer on Amazon.com, but I am a PublishAmerica author and am extremely disappointed in Amazon for this move.

705 Dr. Keith Seddon

706 Ian Atkins

707 james knowles I buy all kinds of whatnot from amazon, and they don't make that. Amazon takes an order and tells somebody in Peoria to send me a used book. I can easily take my trade elsewhere, and any upcoming POD I might be doing. I have a relative already complaining about the skim on her selling used stuff anyway. I do not want to be a part of what I feel is gouging.

708 David Wartik As both a regular Amazon customer and a POD author, I strongly disagree with this decision. My books have sold decently well on Amazon and I was happy to refer people to Amazon. However, should this change go through, I will stop using Amazon, will encourage all of my readers, as well as all of the teachers, students, and staff at my schools to stop doing so as well - not to mention friends and family. Amazon was supposed to be a vast, author-friendly, reader-friendly place. Now, they're just throwing their weight around. David

709 Kenneth R. Lewis I am an iUniverse author, ISBN 0595390005. If my publisher caves in to Amazon's outrageous demands, I will end my contract with iUniverse, and go elsewhere. It will be a cold day in hell before I ever pay Amazon.com a single, red cent for the "privelige" of having them sell my book and all orders from their company, be it for business, or pleasure, will come to a screeching halt.

710 Anonymous Amazon should stop being a bully and just stick with selling books

711 Anonymous BookSurge cannot produce the quality of work at as reasonable a price as Lightning Source, but the most important point is that Amazon should not be trying to force people to use BookSurge. They're trying to monopolize the industry and that's not right.

712 Daniel Jolley Speaking as a top reviewer who has been writing reviews on Amazon for almost eight years, I have to say I am appalled by Amazon's brazen, mafia-like attack on the POD industry. If Amazon is so determined to be a monopoly, I can only hope the government is just as determined to pursue them the way they did Microsoft.

713 David Welch

714 Anonymous I sent Amazon an E-mail informing them that I would no longer do business with their company unless they gave up their nefarious BookSurge plan. They responded with an E-mail pretending they didn't understand what I meant. I replied that they damn well did and there has been no further communication.

715 Tasha Wolf I shop regularly at Amazon and am outraged at this! I will take my business elsewhere if this is how they are going to treat publishers.

716 Anonymous I shop there several times per week. I'm also an author with material available for sale there. This is going to hurt Amazon in the long run. Most self-published authors tell people where to buy their books, so they'll just send people somewhere else. Also-- this will cut into profits for authors and discourage them from creating more books.

717 Jonathan E. I have already notified Amazon Investor Relations I will no longer shop at Amazon if they continue with this move.

718 Linda Dupie

719 Anonymous

720 Larry Ketchersid the quality of the books coming from Amazon is lately inconsistent. I have had customers receive good looking, "as I intended and approved" white paper bound copies from Amazon, but lately (and I am assuming this is the BookSurge influence) some are complaining about yellowish paper, off sizes and different color covers. My publisher says they have no control over this, but I strongly believe certain quality standards have to be enforced.

721 Diane Lau

722 Jeff Walker

723 Anonymous

724 Tonya Moore This is unacceptable behavior on the part of Amazon!

725 Steve Turnbull Utterly unacceptable behaviour.

726 Jenny Wight

727 Diane Kenyon This is just an unconscionable action by Amazon. And I for one will not do business with them until they drop this illega action.

728 richard mueller THIS IS AN OUTRAGEOUS EXAMPLE OF COERSION ANS MONOPOLISTIC BUSINESS PRACTICES--- MUST BE STOPPED

729 Stephen Siciliano That's not nice.

730 Linda Eve Diamond

731 Gloria Chadwick What Amazon is doing is so wrong. They're hurting POD authors by bullying them and using strong-arm tactics. Doesn't sit well with me and a lot of other writers that I know.

732 Hilary Davidson

733 Rena Dictor LeBlanc

734 Mary-Ellen Siegel I am distressed that my book that has done well on Amazon, republished by iUniverse, may not be available anymore from Amazon. A new edition of it, Behind the 8-Ball is being published this Spring, as well as another Back-In-Print title

735 bea mitz

736 Beverly Gray Amazon's behavior here is appalling.

737 Anonymous

738 Hal Higdon I feel this is a foolish move on the part of Amazon.com. Why offend the authors whose works provide a significant part of your profits?

739 Sally Wendkos Olds I think that this move by Amazon is an outrageous restraint of trade.

740 Paul D. McCarthy I'm a New York Times hardcover bestselling author and professional writer for 37 years. I am published, AND I self-publish. I want the RIGHT to choose ANY form of printing, and STILL have Amazon sell any self-published book.

741 Warren Jamison This is an egregious example of corporate greed. For shame, Amazon. It's a throwback to the vicious practices of the robber barons of the 1900s.

742 Anonymous I'm disgusted, make that nauseated, by Amazon'. I spend hundreds of dollars every year at amazon. That will change if this merger continues. There are other book purveyours out there. I will not support such an illegal, immoral business practice. A disgruntled, disgusted writer, consumer

743 Diana Somerville Sounds like a clear case of Restraint of Trade to me!

744 Eliza Cross

745 Cathleen McCarthy As a frequent, loyal customer of amazon and a professional journalist and potential author, I'm deeply alarmed and disappointed by this announcement.

746 Dan Ferber

747 Kathleen Tracy As an author, I find this action a blatant example of denying free trade.

748 Barbara Moder Finkelman As a writer and reader, I find this restriciton limiting to the entire field of publishing.

749 Nancy Jackson This is ridiculous - not only am I a reader, I am also an author. Why should I have my books printed by a place I wouldn't even spend my money on such as BookSurge. They put out garbage. As a reader I don't want to buy books printed from their. I am truly outraged.

750 Laura Gater This is a ridiculous monopoly!

751 Diane O'Connell

752 Carol Jose This is an outrageous grab for a monopoly in the printing of books...we authors should be free to choose whomever we wish to publish our books, with NO RESTRAINT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP! Please investigate this action!

753 Anonymous

754 Thalia Leigh

755 sherry grunder This is a country of fair competition, NOT a place where monopolies are tolerated! I will NOT spend another doallr at Amazon until this follishness is ended! Nor will I keep Amazon links on my Squidoo lenses

756 Anonymous I'm a frequent Amazon customer, affiliate, and author. I'm apalled that this is happening, especially the reports of poor quality of work, the negative impact it is having, and the precedent it is setting. It is highly anti-competitive.

757 Anonymous Providing only one, inferior option, is a failed business plan that will never succeed in the long run.

758 Sonya Shannon I will boycott Amazon.com until their new policies revert, or are changed to reflect more accurately the desires of their customers.

759 Daniel Meyer I am an author, with 4 books (soon to be 6) in the POD market. I am also a regular Amazon customer. Amazon's action damages the independent press market and will directly impact my sales and future publishing choices. I will not continue to do business with them if they continue down this path.

760 Elaine Warfield I am a small publisher. I also buy a lot of books, tapes and DVD's from Amazon. If this sticks, and their requirement is not changed for P.O.D., I will no longer use Amazon at all.

761 Tina B. Tessina I'm an Amazon.com fan, but I don't like this move at all. They can publish their own POD books if they like, but not stop selling anyone else's...

762 Sara Gil

763 Lilith Saintcrow I find this reprehensible. Especially in light of the fact that BookSurge produces an inferior product to, say, Lightning Source.

764 Chuck Kelley

765 Anonymous Amazon's ultimatum is outrageous as well as a conflict of interest. Although I have been a loyal customer for years, I will switch to Barnes and Noble if this act is enforced.

766 Marisha Huber

767 Anonymous Please reconsider your attempt to monopolize the printing industry. I often buy books at amazon.com for my ministerial classes, but if this goes through, I'll take my business elsewhere.

768 Lisa Waterman Gray

769 Lissa Lucas

770 Kent Larsen

771 Anonymous

772 Dalya Massachi Words cannot express how ridiculous this new policy is.

773 Rachel Starr Thomson

774 Lynn Voedisch I don't want to lose Amazon as a market just because I have a POD book.

775 Sandra Dark This is outrageous--yet another Amazon move (such as listing used books along with new books) that seriously damages the ability of authors (the Amazon Books lifeblood) to continue profitably plying their craft.

776 Anonymous

777 dave ebright

778 Susan

779 Judy Florman

780 Erica Manfred This is an outrageous restraint of free trade and freedom of choice by publishers. I have self published before and plan to again. If this goes through I won't shop on "Amazon and won't list my books there either. You will lose a lot of loyal customers this way.

781 Anonymous I have a prime membership and regularly review books and items there. If they start acting nasty I will go back to my old ways of buying books and skip them. This counts as acting nasty. Please Amazon, change your ways.

782 Michel Goodman I feel strongly that Amazon is violating a writer's right to free trade.

783 Anonymous

784 Ian Thomas Healy I am a POD author, published via iUniverse, and Amazon will no longer sell my book directly, instead referring it to third-party sellers. I am removing the link to Amazon on my website until this situation is rectified, instead encouraging my customers to buy from competitors.

785 Lori Harris The publishing world is a hard door to bust through. Not only does a person have to struggle with agents and traditional publishers but they also have to watch out for those who try to rip them off, take their money and so forth. I am even weary about ordering things online. I tried ebay but had so many people try to hack into my account and charge me for products I have never even heard of that i finally closed it out and gave up. Amazon.com was the only place that me, my friends and family members used to order books, etc. However, the news about this booksurge nonsense has floored me. To me its no different than vanity presses or the predators out there that writers have to beware of. Its a strong arm attempt to get rid of the competition such as small presses and so forth. These presses were finally bringing back true and original style to the publishing world. INSTEAD of writing the next Harry Potter, they gave writers the ability to be original and come up with the next best thing. Epublishers have come along way and ARE the future and I believe Amazon is making an attempt to work with traditional publishers in order to control the market. Why would I publish with Booksurge? They're price are way to steep for me and this attempt to knock everyone out of the game who doesnt, is bad business and shows that they can not be trusted with my work or anyone else's. I am boycotting Amazon.com and so is everyone I know. I am telling everyone on my web sites to do the same and that CAN be counted as thousands of customers. I will no longer be using you and now Barns and Noble has ALL of our business until you can at least buck up and be fair.

786 Darlene Oakley Amazon has been an amazing resource to emerging writers in an industry where getting published is very difficult. To take one more avenue away from today's writers is criminal. To get more users to your program, you need to make Book Surge more appealing than other writers...not by exclusivity, but by decent competition. Offer a discounts on other books posted on Amazon, coupons, bonuses, freebies, lower costs than others... To close off Amazon as has been proposed will be a major blow to the entire writing and publishing industry.

787 cynthia stephens

788 Pamela Marin-Kingsley The very idea that Amazon is trying to force people to do business with them in this manner is simply not right. It flies in the face of a diversified and free marketplace, and smacks of something antitrust suits are made of.

789 Anonymous

790 Lisa Mannetti

791 Lois W. Stern This is an outrageously blatant infringement of free enterprise. I notice that amazon is manipulating the POD market in other ways as well: i.e. Listing chosen POD books at list price to lower their sales rank (Note: low numbers indicate best sellers).

792 Anonymous I'm really disappointed with Amazon.com. Unless they back down, I'm curtailing my business relationship with them. I'm planning to publish several books I've written, but as a result of this, I won't deal with Amazon. I believe in a free marketplace, which promotes high quality. BookSurge won't be on my list of printers because their reputation seems to be poor. This is America, not out Slobovia.

793 Anonymous

794 Coralie Jensen

795 Anonymous

796 John Dimes

797 Tony Burton I am a reader, an author and a publisher, and I deplore this strongarm tactic on the part of Amazon to force publishers to lose money and reduce the choices available to readers. I know that if this wrongheaded and unethical policy continues, I will change the links on all the websites I administer to go to Amazon's competition, and Amazon won't get another penny from me. Washington state lawmakers and jurists, is it something in the water that causes your big businesses (such as Microsoft) to attempt to control free trade in such underhanded and disgusting ways?

798 Anonymous

799 Cindy Hampel-Litwinowicz

800 margaret Roche I have published a book with iUniverse and many people have bought it from Amazon. It would be most unfortunate for others not to have this oportunity to publish and sell their books.

801 T.F. Torrey

802 Richard L Feeney This is a despicable demonstration of greed.

803 Donna Swindells

804 Michael Perronne I have offically decided not shop via Amazon anymore as a result of this decision that hurts independent writers/ small publishers the most.

805 Anonymous Helping a friend who is an author.

806 Anonymous BookSurge offers an expensive service, offering little profit making; its better to try selling through other means. Createspace sevice is limited in number of 4-colour pages. Both are limited on size and layout, and not able to print full spread images. All-in-All Amoazon does not have the ability to service the POD market and their action should now reduce their market share. This is a good thing.

807 Daril Bentley I am an author with two well-known print-on-demand publishers. I am also a 28-year veteran editor in the publishing industry and principal of my own business, Bentley Editorial Services. Amazon is taking a page from Microsoft in its tactics. I know both worlds, having been in the computer software/hardware learning materials field. My perspective is that Amazon's action constitutes coercion at least, and possibly by legal definition extortion. This needs to be reviewed by an oversight committee of Congress. Daril Bentley Principal, Bentley Editorial Services Author: The Long Lake: And Other Poems (Finalist: The New Mexico Book Award for Poetry)

808 Lisa Rayner I am disgusted and disappointed by this. If this goes ahead it will influence my decisions about buying from Amazon. I would definitely consider a boycott.

809 Eycke Strickland I oppose the attempt by Amazon to monopolize print services.

810 Lexi Revellian This is an outrageous example of the abuse of power.

811 Bernice Camp I am an author. Broken Vessels-Tribute to a Family. Amazon has removed the buy button, on my book. I am against the monopoly they are trying to force. www.freewebs.com/bernicecamp

812 Anonymous

813 Cherie Boen I have spent hundreds of dollars yearly at Amazon, but I will no longer be a customer if this monopolistic behavior continues. Power grabbers turn me off completely. Until this move, I admired and gladly bought all kinds of materials from Amazon.

814 Paul Mueller Greed leads to failure...always!

815 Donald O'Dell Greed is greed is greed. With all due respect to Michaels Douglas's character, in this case greed is not good.

816 Carrie Swearingen

817 Kerry Wiedemann Please. We do not need any more monopolies. Competition is what makes for great product. Leave the little guys alone. I am a shopper of Amazon..........

818 Paula Cooper If Amazon carries through with this plan, I will no longer purchase ANYTHING from them, not just books.

819 Jasmin

820 Steven Sashen

821 Linda Lewis

822 Anonymous

823 sibylle hechtel

824 Noreen Parks

825 Diane J Newton As an author, I also believe this is infringement of copy right law. I own the rights to my works and signed agreements with publishers of my choice - not with Book surge.

826 Michael King Amazon.com is attempting a Microsoft/Walmart strong arm tactic that will damage small presses and take more money out of writers' pockets. Their corporate greed is disgusting.

827 Dahris H. Clair

828 Dana Nutter Yep, another industry bully trying to create a monopoly. One of the reasons I don't shop there.

829 Anonymous Amazon.com is like similar to one of the major television networks - CBS, ABC, NBC. There are certain civic duties that they must provide in exchange for their status, and like the networks, Amazon has a moral obligation to help make books from all sources available through their service. They still make money and believe me, I will stop shopping there if they implement this new policy.

830 paul steven stone

831 Joe Kraus Amazon's greed is breathtaking. Will they next be writing all the books?

832 Anonymous This is outrageous! Many other POD companies offer better prices/features than Book Surge.What will they try to control next -- Print runs from inde and major publishers?

833 Cindy Somerville

834 Maria Peagler I'm an Amazon Prime customer AND an author/independent publisher. Amazon is becoming the Wal-Mart big bully of the internet book business, forcing books that aren't blockbusters off their shelves. Amazon should be all about getting more books into readers' hands, not less.

835 David Chandler I've always been a big fan a regular customer of Amazon, but this attempt at monopolization leaves a very sour taste. Don't become another evil empire!

836 Anonymous

837 Deanne Quarrie I woukd think twice about ever buying from Amazon if you block other POD's

838 Claire Safran

839 Cvi Solt

840 Andrew Walsh This attempt at Monopoly will only serve to further endanger the range of authors, publishers and titles available to readers whilst also threatening to undermine the overall quality of the work produced each year. Amazon need to stop this short term commercial action and think about the longterm implications for the industry.

841 Anonymous

842 Anonymous

843 Anonymous

844 Kevin Fitzgerald

845 Suzette Standring Only through a diversity of vendors does business and customer service stay strong. I am against inroads into diminishing other businesses.

846 Pauline Bartel

847 keith a nelson

848 Chris Jacobs I just became a Barnes and Noble customer.

849 Jaxine Bubis Not only am I an avid reader and purchase quite a few books from Amazon, but I am also a small press author. I have links to Amazon on my website. If this whole BookSurge thing goes through, I will simply move my business to B&N.

850 Anonymous Corporate greed that says they're out for the customer and ultimate customer shopping experience but only proves that it's the dollar that they want. This is sad and I won't be shopping at amazon.com again.

851 Jeanine Daynes I am very disturbed by the recent demand that all POD companies use BookSurge. I have been an active promoter of Amazon's business up until now. However, if Amazon allows this to happen, I will be forced to tak my future business elsewhere. Please help promote both creativity and diversity--both of which will suffer if this goes forward--by stopping this requirement now. Respectfully yours, Jeanine Daynes

852 Anonymous

853 Mercedes Rice

854 Richard Donley

855 Ashley

856 Billie Warren Chai

857 Geraldine Bowen A very clear conflict of interest on Amazon's part.

858 Carolyn If Amazon goes through with this monoply, I will never again purchase anything from them.

859 Maryke Cramerus Amazon is going to damage itself severely as well as authors, publishers, and readers. This goofball strategy is going to damage everyone. I have so enjoyed Amazon--I cannot believe they are determined to lose business over this. God help them if they cannot handle the volume--they will be facing lawsuits galore--in addition to all the restraint of trade stuff.

860 Diane D White

861 D White

862 Melissa White I really am disappointed with Amazon, I really like their store, but this is just ridiculous.

863 Alexia Adams The company who gave us more choices is now working to eliminate them. Thanks, but no thanks, from a long-time customer.

864 Mrs Amanda Harrison Hi Its really difficult for my Husband, who is a new local author of a childrens book. We might just as well throw it in the bin. All book shops are so greedy with their percentage.So us authors dont satnd a chance of being able to market our books online for FREE.!!!! There ought to be more Uk sites to place an ad on.

865 Anonymous Amazon has consistently displayed an arrogant attitude toward the little guys, whether small publishers or small booksellers. This latest Amazon action is more of the same. It's time that we all stopped buying from and working through Amazon . We deserve more ethical, respectful places to do business.

866 James McNie I do not approve of Amazon's tactics to promote its own POD arm to the exclusion of the rest of the industry, and I am sufficiently concerned by your efforts to review my shopping preferences in future if you continue to do so.

867 Victoria Bromley This is wrong on so many levels and can/will cause great damage to the publishing industry. Damage to the publishing industry means damage to Amazon's sales. I know they will lose me as a loyal customer should they continue with this madness.

868 Jennifer M Armstrong I'm stunned that Amazon would pull such a low-class and thuggish move. This is all about greed, and is nothing more than extortion. "Better customer service" has little, if anything to do with it. I've spent thousands on books alone at Amazon. But until this matter has been rectified, I'll no longer buy any books (print or pod) through them. I detest bullies!

869 Anonymous

870 Samuel Greengard

871 Brian A. Libby

872 Sebastien St-Laurent As a publisher, I believe that Amazon's actions are anti-trust and exist not to improve customer satisfaction but simply to increase their bottom line.

873 Sheryll Alexander

874 Donald Michael Platt

875 Anonymous

876 Joan Webnar I want BookSurge to stop enforcing its print service on the independent publishing industry

877 Anonymous The free-market system is the basis of the American economy. Threats to strong arm other on-demand publishers are despicable, not to mention a conflict of interest for Amazon. Authors and readers must maintain a variety of publishing options.

878 Anonymous

879 Dawn Thomas

880 Candace Talmadge I used to be a regular Amazon.com customer, but no more. Not unless and until the company rescinds its policy of forcing publishers who want to sell books directly on Amazon.com to use its BookSurge subsidiary and cancels all contracts signed as a result of this threat.

881 Marie DesJardin I use Amazon as my first choice for buying books, music, and much electronic equipment. The idea that Amazon is limiting my choices to serve its own interests first is distressing to me. Such an action would certainly influence my decision to patronize Amazon as regularly as I do.

882 Pam Bernard

883 Rudy Anderson

884 Evie Shockley Amazon does not need to monopolize this industry. Rather than making itself the only place to go for POD books, it stands to send people more readily to other internet booksellers looking for texts, where they will also find it possible to order conventionally published books. I'm an academic and a life-long reader and I do not often need to have my books "yesterday" (i.e., at lightning speed)....

885 John Leahy Everything about your new publishing ploy horrifies me. Booksurge's reputation for printing books is terrible and now you are strongarming publishers into using this inadequate "service" at great cost to them and to authors. Your name is mud all over the internet; the cost to your reputation has been incalculable. I'll buy from Amazon with the certificates I earn doing surveys, but I will not spend one red cent of my own money with you again.

886 Anonymous

887 Michael Mills Please reverse this policy. This violates anti-trust laws.

888 Deana Riddle Quite frankly, I'll give up Amazon listings of my author's titles before I let Amazon's Booksurge print our books. Booksurge is already more expensive than my current POD source...and their quality is awful. Once they "force" all of these publishers to use Booksurge...what's keeping them from raising their prices even more ... and why would they care if the quality gets even worse than it is?

889 Lisa Fredsti I buy literally close to $2000.00 a month from Amazon for my job and also for my personal needs. This stinks. I'm strongly considering taking my considerable business to Barnes & Noble if you persist in this strong-arm, monopolistic tactic.

890 Amy Toohey

891 Phyllis Simpson Too many people are on power - trips today in too many different areas of demand. Monopolies are a negative procedure that only benefit a limited few and actively help no - one. Is this not an attempt to thwart the free - trade concept ?

892 Jacob Martin I'm a Lulu.com author. I published my first book at 17 years of age, and got mixed reviews for my collection of short stories. However I do like Lulu's business model, and with some editorial help I hope to continue publishing with them. I wanted to save up enough money to buy some ISBNs in order to sell on Amazon.com, natural enough for the time, since Amazon wasn't trying to put POD authors through this kind of shit before they got greedy and made the Kindle. But unfortunately corporations believe they can do anything they want just because they have the resources to do so. I bought a book off Amazon.com once in my life. It was Steven King's "On Writing". A good book, but it took ages to send to Australia. That's why I didn't use it often, because if I wanted a book that badly I could have ordered it from Kinokuniya in the city where I live nearby. I don't think I'll buy anything from Amazon.com for a while, since if they're taking away the "Buy Now" button from POD authors who don't fit their mould, why should I do business with them? Maybe it's because I read "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk recently, but I really hate the way corporations are being run in ways that do not benefit their customers. There should be an uprising, not with violence, but with alternative options for POD authors other than Amazon.com, because why should we put up with being trodden on by the huge Gorilla when we're the ones driving the planes that can kill this Kong?

893 Rainbow Starburst Amazon removed the buy button on my present book, so I have removed the link to amazon on my websites for this book and the new one in production, i stongly object to amazon's hitleresque attack on the POD industry and it's wuthors who will suffer most

894 Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell

895 Anonymous

896 Anonymous Despite having to pay wait longer to obtain the items I want and paying the higher import price, I will no longer be making my regular international purchases through Amazon. After the stunt they pulled with listing used copies on the same page as unrelased and newly released books, that's all they were good for to me. Now with these strong arm tactics on the small press publishers who rely on POD technology to help manage their profit margins in order to stay alive in the cutthroat publishing business, Amazon shows they really don't care about anything but their own bottom line.

897 Anonymous

898 Meryl Davids We always supported you because you took on the monopolies and offered an alternative way to buy books and stuff. Don't become one yourself!

899 Gina Robertson

900 Kim Roberts

901 Dena Harris

902 Anonymous

903 Gabriel Stuart As a micropublisher, this action could severely limit some of our authors' abilities to distribute themselves. A portion of our business rests on authors being able to connect with audiences through a internet market, and any limitation on that current ability is not acceptable.

904 Anonymous This is disgraceful and a blatant slap in the face to all, filtering from other print on demand book publishers to the authors to the readers who are not aware of what is happening. Who are the head muckety mucks behind this? They must be politicians...or related to politicians...or political wannabees...or just plain obnoxiously greedy quelch-the-free-enterprise system. I'm sending this petition to everyone I know...and hope main media will help get this story out, too. SHAME ON YOU, AMAZON!

905 Jane Resnick

906 Tracy Carbone

907 Edith Gilbert This should not be approved!

908 Anonymous If Amazon persists in trying to monopolize the market will stop doing business with them. I also manage several clients' businesses that are small publishers. We will do whatever is necessary to avoid dealing with Amazon.

909 Jennifer Robins I am against this move on Amazons part. I think someone should look into it's legal aspects. Constitutionally I question this.

910 Erin Hatton

911 Kevin Hatton

912 Tammy Johnson

913 Bruce Atchison I remember that Amazon was spamming people relentlessly about 9 years ago. They earned the nickname Spamazon as a result. Now it appears that they haven't learned and are strong-arming writers as well as companies. I used to buy from Amazon but I won't anymore. This action has convinced me that Amazon doesn't deserve anybody's patronage.

914 Stephanie Golden

915 Martha Roth This forces book authors into a kind of indenture to a feudal employer, Amazon. It's definitely our of place in the 21st century.

916 Rick McCharles Less competition is bad for consumers.

917 Janice Rae Frank I shopped at Amazon exclusively for books until now. Yesterday I deleted my wishlist. I intend to delete my account if they do not change their ways. For now I am shopping at Books-A-Million.

918 Anonymous With a single move Amazon is perhaps crushing the hopes of the next J K Rowling and with it the enjoyment of millions of readers.

919 Kathryn van Heyningen I have not been published by Infinity, however, the publishing industry is changing and the new writers need to be treated fairly. Presently, they are little more than chattel with no say so over the status of their sales.

920 Pamela King Cable I am also an author. This is awful, just another squeeze on writers. POD and self-publishing will not go away. Somebody, some where, will create another "Amazon" if necessary. Amazon.com should be ashamed. I have loved Amazon and have been a supporter. Now I'm wondering if the big publishers are behind this? I can tell you if this happens, I, as well as many of my friends and family, will never buy another thing from Amazon.com.

921 Milly Dawson

922 Rebecca L. Being a purveyor of small press and obscure titles helped you get where you are today, Amazon. Don't turn your back on those who helped you rise to the top.

923 Robert Horton

924 Anonymous

925 Sherri Epstein

926 Anonymous

927 Cindy Seeman Competition is what makes the USA great. This is an irresponsible move.... I'll take my online book buying from Amazon.com to B&N.COM now. See ya!

928 Anonymous This smacks of the Robber Barons era.

929 Anonymous This is a power play that's unworthy of Amazon. I don't shop there as much as others, but will, nevertheless, remove my business from Amazon in protest.

930 Henry Clarence

931 Freida Byers I enjoy reading and I believe it would be so much nicer to order books from author /publisher.

932 Heather Cole People should be free to choose who they would like to print their books. They shouldn't be forced to be omitted from a large marketplace just because Amazon isn't getting the printing revenues. I will not be purchasing anything from Amazon if this goes through.

933 Judith Faust

934 Mari Selby As a publicist I abhor this move by Amazon. This is a blatantly greedy move on their part that will hurt first time authors, as well as bigger publishers. And over and over again I have seen that Book Surge has very poor customer service, and quality. So we have greed combining with shoddy product. If Amazon does not change this policy I will not use them again for the myriad of books I buy and my authors sell. And I will use my influence as a publicist to encourage others to do the same.

935 steven beeho

936 Steve Philibosian

937 Slawomir Rapala Stop the Booksurge requirement! You're hurting the writers and customers! SR

938 Regina Patton strong arm tactics! Bad Amazon!

939 Catherine Oliver

940 Herman Price Tapscott Press will stay with LSI and Ingram. We don't appreciate bullying. BTW - I personally bought about $2000 in books from Amazon last year. I imagine this year will be considerably less.

941 B. Ross Ashley What are you guys at Amzon, stupid? If I wanna buy a printed webcomic from lulu.com, I can't go through you? 'Kay, then, I won't.

942 James P. Taber This is an outrage, both as a customer of Amazon and as a student of comparative literature and writing. The idea that this company, which has so long shown itself as a benefactor to struggling independent writers, would snub their own following and call for such limiting and derogative terms of contract is appalling.

943 Beth Barany Monopoly? Yes.

944 Anonymous As a freelance writer with a degree in journalism and also with a publishing background, I'm disgusted with Amazon's Booksurge's strong arm tactics. I have shopped on Amazon.com and now this information makes me never want to give them my business. Writers and publishers both are getting hurt as a result not to mention the lack of business ethics is abhorrent.

945 Suzi Hough Amazon, I buy and sell books on your website on a weekly basis. I'm not a 'power seller' by any means - between 70 - 100 annually - and purchased for myself nearly 400 items last year. I even have the Amazon.com visa! I love this company. BUT - I am extremely disappointed. A book is a book, even if it isn't published by one of the 'big name' companies or BookSurge. I like my shopping experience to be easy, with as few stops as possible. If you take away these smaller publishers' ability to sell through your website, I will have to take my business to another bookseller who will allow these sellers to do business because I believe in the importance of print-on-demand competition. That would be a real pity, because I love using Amazon.com to buy a huge variety of items, like my floor-cleaning Scooba and a Zojirushi hot water heater, but books are my primary focus and I don't like having my choices restricted because a company is trying to force out competition through strong-arm tactics instead of quality of product and superior customer service.

946 Tina De Witt

947 Kathryn Hinds

948 Anonymous This is deplorable! Somebody - somewhere - should step in and scream MONOPOLY!!!

949 Victoria Dixon

950 Jordan Klein I think it's wrong for Amazon to enforce use of their services like this. I will not purchase from them anymore until they stop this nonsense.

951 Sandra Durham

952 Ron Berry This policy destroys hope for new writers like myself to get into the business. This forces us to use Amazon and pay their prices while we get little or nothing, if and only if, Amazon accepts us as writers!!

953 Anne Wayman Amazon had it right before they insisted authors use booksurge

954 Jenny Andersen

955 Anonymous

956 Jessica Bacon Amazon.com has always been my first stop when looking to purchase a book. If they proceed as planned, I will not be purchasing another book from them.

957 Delores Stroud I am not a writer, but I am an avid reader, purchasing 90% of my new books from Amazon.com. I strongly object to this strong-arm tactic which will injure the publishing industry.

958 Sunder Addams

959 Marjorie R. Asturias Thank you for organizing this petition. As a writer and fervent supporter of the publishing industry (indies and the big guns alike), I'm appalled that Amazon.com would use its clout to strong-arm the very people who make it possible for them to exist, all so that they can create a monopoly for themselves. I encourage everyone who cares about the future of book publishing and the written word to sign this petition.

960 Susan Peters if Amazon succeeds, it's Borders from now on...

961 Linda Sedlak

962 Anne Geiberger

963 Chris Crawford

964 Brian Waterman

965 Hilarie Nickerson I am rarely disappointed by Amazon, which is typically my first choice for online book purchases. Unfortunately, this is one of those times. I live in Raleigh, NC, home of Lulu, so I am especially concerned. I hope Amazon will rescind its new policy immediately, and make appropriate apologies to publishers, authors, and readers.

966 Sade L Bushie

967 Anonymous I will not be buying any more books, music, or DVDs from Amazon, if Amazon takes this step.

968 Robert H. Brown

969 Linda Nathan

970 C. LaWana SlackMayfield If Amazon does not stop this insanity regarding POD I along with others will cancel our memberships and forward this information to all that are in our address books.

971 Christopher Dow A cheap, greedy ploy by a company that might have begun with the best intentions but that obviously has grown corrupt as its coffers have grown. And why have they grown? Books. And who makes books? Authors and publishers. Sure, Amazon, kill the goose that lays the golden egg.

972 D. H. Brown

973 Rebecca Brown

974 Julie McCord

975 Gail Laursen

976 Douglas C. Smyth

977 Rhonda Hopkins

978 Sheree Herkenrath

979 Anonymous Rather, I *was* an Amazon.com customer. I won't be anymore. I'm an editor for a small publishing company. We had been publishing through Amazon.com, but not with BookSurge. We refuse to lower our standards of quality and move to an inferior POD service. BN.com is a good site and you can get free shipping. I'm sure they will be more than happy to fulfill our book needs.

980 Anonymous BookSurge is way out of line. Big problems always start like this. I object the highhandedness of this entity. ABW

981 DJ Cothran

982 Gene van Troyer With one fell stroke of a pen, Jeff Bezo has undone all of the good will he built over the years in writers and publishers who came to rely on his company. Before this action, Amazon was the most democratic of distributors for small presses and less than best selling authors. It is now robber baron autocratic.

983 geenwise

984 Elizabeth Cunningham Do not cause hardhsip for independent publishers and their authors.

985 K. Gordon Neufeld I am the author of a POD book and feel this attempt to create a monopoly should be opposed.

986 Stephen B. Bagley My book "Murder by Dewey Decimal" was published by Lulu and did well on Amazon. I will regret losing this avenue of sales. This move by Amazon is strictly motivated by greed, and I have decided to buy no more books from them.

987 Ron Peters I think Amazon is cutting their own wrist with this move, but greed is a powerful motivator. I believe that Amazon will run afoul of anti-trust laws with this move and will receive their just rewards.

988 Anonymous

989 Joanna Paulsen

990 Peggy Tibbetts Amazon's deal ultimately hurts authors.

991 Eugene Guck

992 James Duffy this is wrong!

993 Downey Hoster

994 Anonymous Here is just another example of how greed can take a good company with a good idea and send it down the sewer.

995 Elizabeth Carlson

996 Jennifer Boeye

997 Anonymous

998 Susan Morgan Amazon is stepping over the line. As an author who takes pride in my work, I'd rather have my "buy" button turned off than submit to being strong armed by a corporate bully.

999 Yleana Martinez IMO, Jeff Bezos is an a**hole.

1000 Melissa Miller This is blatant restriction of trade. While I WAS a die-hard Amazon shopper, I have taken my business to Barnes & Noble and will NOT shop with Amazon ever again. As a writer, I am outraged, and as a consumer, I have made a choice.

1001 Anonymous

1002 Eden Rosen

1003 Jeff L. Anderson This whole scenario seems incredibly self-destructive and Machavellian. Is it real?

1004 Melanie Foster Come on Amazon. Part of what was your initial allure was your supposed "fairness" policy to everyone from authors - customers. I PROMISE that if you follow through on your new attempt to blatantly monopolize the Print-On-Demand publishing business I and EVERYONE I know will BOYCOTT YOU. Are you so big and so rich that you can be without customers and writers? Don't forget that there is enough pie for us all so only take your fair share!

1005 Anonymous

1006 john kilcher This is just plain wrong

1007 M A

1008 Sean Gilbert

1009 Anonymous

1010 kelley Benson

1011 Jacob Hendrickson

1012 Anonymous

1013 Rebekah Crego This decries free-market and fair to our country's authors! This will hurt both Amazon and the authors. Customers like the availability of ALL authors on one site. If we have to start looking elsewhere for one, we'll look elsewhere for all.

1014 Brian Orr

1015 Anonymous Recommended name change: Judas.com And now I finally understand the title "The Ugly American." With Amazon's greed, they go from being a source of pride to a source of disdain and embarrassment. My frustration and anger is such that I no longer hope they this action bites them; I hope someone else steps up to the plate and Amazon collapses. "Where's the love?" Amazon took it to the bank.

1016 Linda Morris If this happens I will boycott Amazon

1017 Anonymous Until Amazon reverses its new position on POD and Booksurge, I will purchase my books and other merchandise elsewhere, even if the cost is higher. If you read about other writers' experiences with Booksurge, why would you want to use them?

1018 Anonymous This is a monopoly move and unacceptable. If Amazon is allowed to move forward with this policy I will boycott Amazon and will urge all my friends, relatives and coworkers to boycott Amazon as well.

1019 Deran Ludd

1020 Natalie Perrault

1021 Darleen Christopher Greed has a karmic payment plan, even if it is amazon.com

1022 Anonymous

1023 Elissa Ball

1024 J. S. Bullock

1025 Debra Leigh Scott I have been a consistent customer on Amazon, and have appreciated the way that the business model has allowed independent bookstores and independent publishers to be an active and vital part of the book industry. This move, should Amazon go through with its demand, will have me rethinking my shopping habits. I will happily join a boycott of Amazon and work to raise awareness of these unsavory practices.

1026 Anonymous I am I the process of finishing a book that I will be self publishing. The thought that I cannot choose LuLu, Tate or another non-Amazon business and get a great deal for Myself is just wrong. Maybe Amazon is the new Wal-Mart. As a frequent buyer at Amazon and a referrer from my 20 other sites, they just lost all my business. PS- I signed with as anonymous because I do not want any backlash from Amazon with my referral fees still owed me.

1027 Valerie Frankel This policy is wrong: Amazon can't have a monopoly on publishing! I for one will completely boycott them until the situation is remedied.

1028 Anonymous

1029 James Brodhead My daughter's first book has been published through PublishAmerica and the buy button has been pulled. We have been sending family and friends to Amazon to order their own copy. No more! And I have notified Amazon that they will be the last place I will shop if they don't change this policy.

1030 T West

1031 Geoff Clarke Amazon's role was to bring authors and readers together. Since they no longer value authors, I will no longer be a reader of Amazon books (or anything else they offer).

1032 Thomas Pritchard There is SO much wrong with what Amazon is trying to do with this move.

1033 E.J. Totty No business should =EVER= engage in the exercise of exclusivity regarding the matter of published works, insofar as demanding singular distribution rights in the face of competitive access otherwise.

1034 Eric Collier Please stop this unfair and unwise business practice

1035 Andrea Stacy I am extremely disappointed that Amazon, once a small, scrappy company fighting to hold on and grow, would, now that it's large and successful, try to put small publishers of print-on-demand out of business. Shame on you.

1036 J Simon Cornette

1037 sal perales

1038 Barbara Hazard

1039 Anonymous I am a (very) small publisher barely making ends meet; I am disabled as is my son. If Amazon gets its way, we'll have to go on welfare. There are very few things that disabled people can do to pay their own way. 90% of us are poverty level. I know we're not the only ones. Amazon's profit grab will increase the demand on social services and tax payers. I am a very proud person, proud that in spite of my disability, I can support us. I worked HARD for that. I don't take a dime from tax payers. I resent that Amazon wants to steal my self-sufficiency, integrity, self-respect and dignity.

1040 katherine warwick This is ridiculous!

1041 marc daneker

1042 Joseph J. Mauriello

1043 Kate Schechter

1044 Gloria WIlliams Amazon should abandon this policy. It's unfair and damaging to many people.

1045 Michael Mclain Forcing Amazon authors/publishers to use Amazon's print service goes against the beauty of Amazon and the freedom new technologies provide. This rule will sour many, many writers and publishers both large and small on the Amazon platform.

1046 Slim the wonder boy Down with Amazon!!!

1047 Kathryn Houghton

1048 Eliza Wyatt

1049 Anonymous

1050 Murphy Cutler Stop Booksurge!

1051 Jon Phipps As a new author, and one who is not likely to ever reach the fame and stature of a Steven King, I strongly resent this attempt at 18th century style capitalism. Not only that but on their website, Borders says it is going to be using the same technology. Look out, theres another on the loose. Author Bound Freedom Blog: http://lovers.mynight.net/b2/blogs/index.php/thelovers Web Site: http://lovers.mynight.net/ Author's Den: http://www.authorsden.com/nightwing MSN Spaces: http://nightwing2006.spaces.live.com/ Yahoo 360: http://360.yahoo.com/celeborn_lg Email: thelovers@mynight.net personal email: nightwing-s@mynight.net

1052 Zach Risso This is a ridiculous and blatant attempt at a monopoly and it should not be happening.

1053 Kent Bass

1054 Arwen Taylor This is insane. Authors are customers too. Making such a ridiculous demand of them will result in a loss of both authors and customers.

1055 Judith Bush While i am not likely to publish widely using POD, it is important to me that there is a healthy diversity of POD publishers so that i have the opportunity to use this technology for sharing creations and information with friends and family.

1056 Jennifer Mercer

1057 Cayce Snider

1058 Anonymous Stop Amazon! They need to be book-sellers Not force authors to use their booksurge.

1059 Mary Klaebel I have a book through LULU.com, so am affected directly by this ultimatum. The whole thing smells like monopoly to me and is anti-free market economy. If Amazon is allowed to get away with this, they will seek to take over others down the road. How long before they start trying to control content. This is NOT North Korea.

1060 Bert Paredes Forcing Booksurge down everyone's throat is not the way to increase Amazon's profits. Have you considered the win-win solution of making Booksurge so competitive that everyone will want to use it?

1061 Michael R. Hicks I have enjoyed shopping at Amazon for years, and don't begrudge them the success they've enjoyed. However, I can't see this push to get print-on-demand titles listed through Booksurge as anything more than an attempt at setting up a vertical monopoly (paired with its acquisition of Mobipocket, an e-book distributor, a couple years ago). Come on, Amazon - aren't you making enough money??

1062 J Holloway

1063 Eric Black

1064 Anonymous The "buy button" is still appearing on Amazon.com for my book. If Amazon turns it off though, they and BookSurge can go to hell. Amazon should change their mission statement to something like "Amazon is dedicated to screwing over the little guy and is more than happy to continue this policy into the future. And by the way, thank you for shopping Amazon.com". By the way, on the "sign the petition" screen there is a "required field" asking if you are an Amazon customer, an option should be added that states "not anymore".

1065 Anonymous Amazon are squeezing out the small publishers their tactics. How can they be allowed to get away with it? Self published authors are unable to get their books made available readily via Amazon.UK unless they join the "Amazon Advantage" account which requires 60% of the book price for doing very little. It is incredible they are allowed to get away with it. Well done for creating this petition peoples voices need to heard and Amazon need to listen.

1066 Anonymous Amazon are willfully prohibiting orders for potential customers unless the publishing company sign into their agreements. This means that amazon take a staggering 60% of sale for doing not that much! This must be dealt with, there must be some form of governing body who can oversee this unfair monopoly. For many up and coming authors they feel their hands are tied.

1067 Anonymous

1068 Douglas Reed

1069 Christine LeBlanc I'll stop buying from Amazon all-together if they go through with this.

1070 Leia Snyder I am disgusted by Amazon's obvious attempt to monopolize. I am not a customer of Amazon based on a past fundamental difference but this is yet another issue that solidifies my desire to boycott Amazon.

1071 jay cox this is a perfect example of corporate greed. The sins of capitalism. Shame on you Amazon.com!

1072 Prentiss Gray This stinks

1073 Sue Merian Amazon is doing a shameful and unethical if not illegal thing. I guess they are so big they have lost sight of what is fair and right. As is often said, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Let us show them that we are not just Amazon robot slaves who must buy from them. Get books elsewhere! There are other places where one can buy books! Stand up for freedom in the market place.

1074 Ingrid Cranfield People should be able to buy wherever they choose. What is the point of posting a book on Amazon if people can't buy it?

1075 Roge Haller I am a small publisher that did not go with BookSurge because of quality issues. Now that Amazon owns them and is insisting on Booksurge printing to be sold on Amazon, my business will go elsewhere. It may be tough for a while, but where ever there is a void, the vacuum syndrome fills the void. There will be a new Marketing strategy to follow.

1076 Heather Varley I am an aspiring author who is currently working predominantly online. While I understand Amazon.com's business decisions, from their point of view, it is a travesty of intelligence to think that they have the right to attempt this. This needs to end now.

1077 diane ostrowski Outrageous - I will NEVER shop at Amazon

1078 Robyn Haaf As a regular and loyal customer to Amazon, I feel this tactic in forcing authors to use Booksurge is a blatant attempt at blackmail and an attempt to set up a monopoly. Fortunately, there are many wonderful independent booksellers in Seattle where I can purchase my books and cease my patronage at Amazon if this poor business practice continues.

1079 Anonymous I'm a reader and author and I've got books on Amazon for sale as well as buying regularly. Because of this move from Amazon I've taken my links to Amazon.com off my website and I've told as many people as possible.

1080 Anonymous I will never sign up with Booksurge

1081 Anonymous

1082 Jamie Engle Moving my $1000+ online book buying to bn.com until Amazon grows a conscious.

1083 Anonymous

1084 Janis Bell

1085 Anonymous

1086 Mark S. Sooy

1087 Meg Justus

1088 Jan Brod No monopolies!

1089 Aerielle Collins

1090 Alex Perdian I believe this effort by Amazon is a blatant attempt to monopolize the market -- and it's wrong!

1091 H Thomas

1092 Linda Dessau Self-published authors deserve the right to choose who they use for print-on-demand services.

1093 Julie Gbell

1094 Anonymous My son is an author, the buy button on Amozon.com has not yet been removed. If they do remove it they will be taking away all he has worked for. For him and all authors, they are the ones who have written the books that are giving Amozon and any other companies their work and purpose. Give the authors the credit and readers they have earned without all this trouble. If Amazon insist on causing this problem, I will never shop on their store again.

1095 Anonymous

1096 Molly Gordon I spend hundreds - maybe thousands with Amazon. I won't give them a dime until this is retracted. I also have an ezine with 10,000 readers - active, loyal, literate readers, who will not see another Amazon link until this is retracted.

1097 Robin Sussman This is outrageous. I, for one, will be joining the boycott until this is reversed and finding my books elsewhere.

1098 vicki nathan Your new policy is discouraging (re: who I thought you were) and unacceptable.

1099 Katherine B. McGrew I absolutely cannot believe that you will refuse to sell books that are not using Booksurge but you will continue to sell magazines that sell dogs for the sole purpose of dog fighting. You refuse to censor for ethical reasons but you'll censor for financial reasons? That's disgusting! I will not only remove myself as a customer and take my business elsewhere, but I will become an active advocate, working my hardest to convert anyone else I know who continues to use your services if you employ this greedy tactic. I will go out of my way to collect other, better resources and spread the word to everyone I know about why I am no longer supporting Amazon and why these other services are better, more humane, more ethical and less of a greedy corporate evil monopoly...which, sadly is how you are turning out to be. I remember when I was one of the sole outspoken "Pro-Amazon" voices in a sea of people protesting the "Big Corporation" over the small local bookstore. Now, it seems that I was wrong. Sure, you had a great service at great prices, and I was right that if you provided something better than the local stores could offer, you should be compensated with our business. But I was wrong, in thinking that the lion's share of the market would be enough for you. Now you want it all, and you want to drive not only the little bookstore out of business but the independent voice of the self-published author as well. Just looking at how expensive Kindle is, I know BookSurge won't be at all affordable for the independent author. And in doing so, you will become to the written word what Clear Channel has become to the musical world - the controlling, limiting factor that lives like a giant parasite off the labor of the creatives - bleeding them dry and forcing them into conformity. Enough is enough. You don't have to drive other competitors out of business, Amazon. All you have to do is offer a better service at a better price. That's what it's all about. Grow some values!

1100 Barbara Watkins What you are doing is a travesty. Customers and publishers alike should question your ethics, as well as your shady business tactics.

1101 Brian Lochlaer Will Amazon become the Wal-Mart of the publishing industry?

1102 Bobby Harwell Amazon.com can attest to the fact that I am a book lover. So I'm letting them know that I don't like strongarm tactics that impedes competition and makes it harder for unknown writers to sell their books. B.H.

1103 Edward Smith