In publishing, its seems, everything is loaded against the small operator. Last year we had that nasty business of the big Australian bookseller, Angus and Robertson, trying to bully small publishers into unfavourable contracts. Now it looks as though Amazon.com has come up with another way to tighten the thumbscrews.

Amazon is apparently trying to force independent Print-On-Demand-based publishers to use its BookSurge POD service. They are being told they that if they don't switch to BookSurge, the "buy" button on their Amazon.com book pages will be "turned off." If they refuse, they will be offered an alternative: they will be allowed to offer their books on Amazon under a plan whereby Amazon takes a 55% cut plus an annual registration fee and the sellers pay to send their books to Amazon's warehouses. If this kind of thing isn't tantamount to trying to establish a monopoly I don't know what is.

If this scheme goes ahead I will be boycotting Amazon and I'm sure many other people will, too. I have several friends who are published by small presses here or overseas, and those small presses in North America will go out of business if they refuse to co-operate with Amazon, their main outlet.

Read more at Writers Weekly or at Writer Beware, a publishing industry watchdog group sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. This, BTW, is an excellent site for getting the low-down on literary scams, schemes and pitfalls.