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Lessons From Amazon / BookSurge
April 11, 2008
At the end of March, Amazon rocked the publishing world by announcing that, if authors and POD and subsidy publishers wanted to continue to stock their books, they would have to set up an account with Amazon’s in-house book printing unit
BookSurge. Authors and publishers were incensed.
How dare Amazon do such a thing! Amazon was clearly discriminating against POD publishers, using its market monopoly to line its pockets, and wresting away the control that authors and publishers have over their own businesses.
I’m a small publisher, and when I heard Amazon’s announcement, I was offended, too. It meant adding another supplier, and based on the negative industry buzz, I was concerned about being forced to accept less-than-desirable quality, poor customer service, and having to take the time to redo all of my files to suit non-industry-standard formatting. All to satisfy the greed of a giant retailer.
Then I got tired of spending my time complaining on industry list serves and decided to call BookSurge to get the real scoop instead. When I was done, I found that, in fact, Amazon was actually being a better partner than it was being given credit for.
It turns out, the BookSurge decision was based largely on logistics. Amazon’s premium shipping and product pairing had taken off like gangbusters. Now, waiting even 24 hours for POD fulfillment on certain titles meant that its premium services wouldn’t be available on all products at all time. Not good for Amazon. In the end, the BookSurge deal would benefit Amazon (by making its premium services available to all customers all the time), benefit its customers (by having access to premium services for all products, all the time), and benefit authors and publishers (by, in many cases, increasing their margins on products sold through Amazon).
What can we learn from the Amazon / BookSurge example?
Often, marketers are afraid of anything that requires change or to accept a new business or revenue model. It’s easier to shoot arrows from a distance, then turn around and continue to do the same-old, same-old and just try to increase profits by doing more of it. But sometimes, making a fundamental change in the way you do business can reap bigger benefits in the long run. You just have to be willing to look at your business model from a new angle -- and granted, sometimes that's difficult to do. Instead of sitting on the sidelines, make some calls. Talk to some suppliers. Get on the inside and see how the change might benefit you.
Have you been resistant to looking into Web-to-print? Just-in-time inventory management using print-on-demand? 1:1 (personalized) printing? If so, then consider the Amazon / BookSurge example. Your inertia could be leaving money on the table.
Have questions? Comments? I'd love to hear from you. You can email me at htollvr@aol.com. For more information on primers for marketers and small businesses on digital, 1:1, and Web-to-print technologies, visit www.digitalprintingreports.com.
Posted by Heidi Tolliver Nigro on April 11, 2008 | Comments (3)
