Talisman

Now there's a thought ! The trouble is though, how the hell do you get in touch ! This is a company that is notorious for not being contactable !

Interesting question ...

Didn't see your earlier post Philip, not sure how I managed to miss that ! You are right though, the majority of books on Amazon market place are not second hand copies, but being sold through other online retailers and sometimes even the author themselves if the book are POD or self published. Amazon in my view though are a dangerous predator who will not stop until they have almost total control of the market. Given their rate of growth, if is entirely possible that they will be the biggest book retailer within three years. This is why they need to be stopped - now !

Thank you Jennifer. Of course the other problem with Marketplace is that the books do not qualify for free shipping, which also puts a lot of people off. Amazon then is not good news for any author right now. They would imo be wise to remember that the bigger you are the harder you fall !

This has been going on for months. It started in the US when they said that print on demand publishers had to use their own printer or risk having their buy buttons removed. The problem is that their printer charges twice what everyone else does and is not good quality. Several publishers did cave in, but only because they charge their authors for having their books on Amazon, and if they didn't and Amazon carried out their threats, these publishers left themselves open to being sued. There is no need though to charge for this service, since books are automatically fed to Amazon and other online retailers via the ISBN agency. In this case then what goes around did indeed come around ! No buy buttons have as yet been removed for any POD books, but one US publisher is now suing Amazon under anti trust laws. Again, it is all detailed on my blog site. The latest dispute with Hachette is though more interesting, since this is not about a POD publisher, but one of the largest publishing groups in the world. Talk about cutting off their noses to spite their face !

cheese and spring onion burgers with roast potatoes and red onion, runner beans, carrots and onion gravy.

Amazon, the online book seller, could face a strike by authors and publishers in an increasingly bitter battle over book profits - by Nick Allen. The UK's biggest publisher, Hachette Livre UK, is leading the charge against Amazon, which it claims is squeezing the market and demanding too great a share of sales. In a very public fallout Amazon stopped selling new copies of about 50 Hachette titles, including books by Kate Mosse, Alexander McCall Smith, James Patterson, Stephen King and Dan Cruickshank, on its British website. People are still able to buy and sell the books second hand through Amazon but the publishers make no money out of those sales. Hachette claims the move was aimed at at pressuring it into giving up a greater percentage of profits and vowed to fight the Amazon "juggernaut". Chief executive Tim Hely Hutchinson said: "In Britain the terms publishers give to retailers are the highest in the world and more than half of the price of a book goes to the retailer. We have collectively been too soft in our negotiations and we are trying to make a stand. "Amazon put pressure on us and took the 'buy' button off a number of prominent authors' books on their website. We don't like it and our authors don't like it." As Amazon continues to grow Mr Hely Hutchinson warned that independent book sellers, as wells as authors, would be the victims. In five years time readers outside the major city centres may face the prospect of only being able to buy their books from Amazon or a supermarket, he said. The Society of Authors acknowledged that Amazon has helped writers to sell more books but said the current dispute would affect their sales. Chair of the society Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl With a Pearl Earring, called for a strike against Amazon. She said: "To punish the author so publicly and so humiliatingly is really not on. I hope other publishers join Hachette and basically strike against Amazon to say there is only so far you can push us before you break us and we are not going to take it any more." Novelist Emma Darwin, the great-great granddaughter of Charles Darwin, said she supported Hachette's stand even if it affects her own sales. She said: "This is about whether Amazon can be allowed to exploit its near monopoly." In an email to all Hachette's authors Mr Hely Hutchinson said: "Despite advantageous terms Amazon seems each year to go from one publisher to another, making increasing demands in order to achieve richer terms at our expense and sometimes at yours. We are politely but firmly saying that these encroachments need to stop now." Literary agents accused Amazon of being "predatory" and "ruthless". Clare Alexander, managing director or Aitken Alexander Associates, which represents Sebastian Faulks and Germaine Greer, said: "This is a disturbing glimpse of the iron in Amazon's soul." Jonathan Lloyd, managing director of literary agent Curtis Brown, said: "I think the entire industry of publishers, authors and agents are 100 per cent behind Hachette. Someone has to draw a line in the sand. "Publishers have given 1 per cent a year away to retailers so where does it stop? Using authors as a financial football is disgraceful." An Amazon spokesman said: "We are totally committed to offering the broadest selection of titles possible. We are also committed to ensuring we offer our customers the lowest possible prices." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2123221/Amazon-could-face-strike-by-authors-and-publishers.html#continue

I will add a link to here next time I do some updates to my own site.

I don't often buy CD's, but the last one I downloaded was Moby.

I will be 43 next month, which makes me 42 now.

veggie sausage and mash with onions, peas and loads of Bisto roast onion gravy.

brown rice with various veggies (mange tout, baby sweetcorn, red onion, celery and carrots) with sweet and sour sauce.

Have only managed 9 myself (including the one that I am currently reading): A New Earth: Eckhart Tolle Pilgrimage to Heresy: Tracy Saunders A Thousand Splendid Suns: Khaled Hosseini The Shadow of the Wind: Carlos Ruiz Zafron The Last Town on Earth: Thomas Mullen Random Acts of Heroic Love: Danny Scheinmann The Kite Runner: Khaled Hosseini On Chesil Beach: Ian McEwan Topp Family Secrets: Anne Moore (aka Grumpy Old Bookman) - miss his blog site !

hard boiled egg salad (organic of course)

Writing blurb is a difficult thing to do - I wrote my own, as I could not afford to pay someone to do for me, and besides I wrote book and so know it better than anyone else ! Most blurb on commercially published books (as opposed to self published) is written by the editor. It can be subjective as people's opinion of books does of course differ - it should though be accurate when it comes to the plot. Write to the publisher and tell them how you feel if you feel that strongly about it.

When I sell copies of my own book direct to anyone via my own website I always use a jiffy bag - mine is quite a large book (336 pages) so unfortunately it is just that little bit too big to qualify as a small package. If one though wants to be seen as a professional then one has to act like one, it is not worth sending in sub standard packaging after all, as the book is likely to arrive damaged, costing me more in the long run, as I will then have to send a replacement.