Q&A: Is Amazon screwing self-published authors from Lightning Source?

Question: I read about your problems getting Amazon to display the cover image from your self-published book. I too have published a book through Lightning Source and am encountering the same grief: no cover image for my new title on Amazon. I am concerned this difficulty between LSI and Amazon may be due to Amazon's acquisition of BookSurge as their POD supplier. How did you finally resolve things?

Answer: You're right, my cover image is finally being displayed on Amazon after I spent a few weeks creating a pretty big stink about it. So I'm happy about that. But I'm still pissed off that Amazon has still not processed my title for "Search Inside The Book," despite the fact it was submitted in early November.

Amazon blamed the cover image fiasco on Lightning Source, and I don't have any evidence to the contrary. But Amazon has been sitting on my "Search Inside the Book" submission for several weeks now, and apparently it's too much trouble for them to acknowlege receipt of the book. Not that I really expected a lot of communication from Amazon: I've sold more than $1 million of books on their Marketplace platform in five years and they still act as if they've never heard of me.

The explanation I got from Amazon regarding my cover art was that my distributor (Lightning Source/Ingram Book Co.) had deleted the cover from Amazon's site. (I created the Amazon product page myself several days earlier and posted the cover art as soon as I approved Lightning Source's proof. About a week later, my cover art came up missing on Amazon).

I never got an explanation from Amazon or Lightning Source as to why my cover image was deleted, whether it was an accident, or why it was never corrected despite my frequent and loud complaints to both companies.

In retrospect, I think that statement from Amazon blaming Lightning Source was probably accurate, but pretty lame. Why, for instance, could Amazon not simply let me replace my missing cover art? After all, I'm the sole rights owner of the book, not Lightning Source. Instead, Amazon just left my product page blank for weeks on end, making me and Amazon look second-rate.

Another obstacle to getting this fixed was the lack of responsiveness from my account rep at Lightning Source. Replies took days, and I was never sure if there was an understanding of this basic problem or any sense of urgency. The way I finally got my situation resolved was to send yet one more request to my Lightning Source rep via e-mail, this time indicating that if he was unable to help me, I'd be in touch with the management at Lightning Source to see if they could recommend another account rep. My cover image appeared on Amazon about 10 minutes later.

So I don't think the problem was related to Amazon's acquisition of BookSurge. It seems it was just ineptitude, laziness, and indifference all around. Hopefully Amazon will figure out a way to encourage self-publishing authors to go with BookSurge by using a carrot approach, as opposed to a stick -- i.e., making it disadvantageous to self-publish outside of Amazon/BookSurge. If Amazon really believes that self-published books are products people will buy, they should want to carry them, whether they come through BookSurge or not. Could they lock out competitors? I'm not a lawyer, but this probably has the antitrust guys drooling.

I'm sure many self-publishing authors will be perfectly comfortable entrusting the electronic file of their book with a subsidiary of Amazon, a reputable retailer. For me, it would require a greater level of comfort than experience has provided. It's tough to do business with someone you can't communicate with, and Amazon has a long, long way to go in that department.

My continuing nightmare with Amazon - Lightning Source

Recently I updated you on my continuing frustrations in trying to get Amazon to display the cover art of my self-published book, in my post "Does Amazon discriminate against self-published books?"

Well I finally heard back from Amazon, who claims that my distributor, Lightning Source / Ingram Book Co., deleted my cover art from Amazon's product page. Whether this was an accident or just plain stupidity isn't clear:

Date: Thu, 08 Dec 2005 22:20:23 -0800
From: "Amazon.com Advantage Member Services"
Subject: Your Amazon.com Advantage Inquiry
X-Originating-IP: [207.171.160.40]
To: steve_delivers@verizon.net
Bounces-to: RealTimeEmail+CS-CUSTOMER_REPLY-yqjeIS9dMB@bounces.amazon.com
X-AMAZON-TRACK: notification
X-AMAZON-MAIL-RELAY-TYPE: notification

Greetings from Amazon.com.

As the page you created was overwritten by the merchant supplying the
book to us. Unfortunately, this is why the image was removed. They
would need to submit an image so that we can insert the image on to
the detail page for the item. ...

Best regards,
Brian
Member Services
Amazon.com Advantage

I don't participate in Amazon Advantage, but hey, who's quibbling? At least we've discovered the problem, and it will be a simple matter to correct things, right?

No, it's not that simple. See, I was expecting Lightning Source would be able to help me pretty quickly. After all, you'd think a company with the name "Lightning Source" would be pretty quick. But I've found out that the name has an ironic meaning, at least when it comes to them working with their real customers, author/publishers.

I forwarded Amazon's message to my Lightning Source account rep, adding my explanation that the cover image now being displayed for my book is a low-resolution Amazon "customer image" that doesn't show up in search results.

So, after a few days of waiting, here was the reply from my Lightning Source rep:
"Steve,
I see that the cover is now up on Amazon.
Thanks!

So it's hard to know whether my Lightning Source rep doesn't understand the issues, or just isn't paying attention. In any case, I can't wait much longer for the first-line employees at Amazon/Lightning Source to pull their heads out of their asses by themselves. I'm trying to sell a book, and can't afford to be continually cut off at the knees by my "partners." A nastygram to the management at both companies seems to be in order. I'll keep you posted.

Does Amazon.com discriminate against self-published books?

You'd think that Amazon.com would be doing everything it can to encourage self-publishing authors to sell their titles on Amazon's Web site. Particularly with niche titles, Amazon could be cutting brick-and-mortar bookstores out of the action completely. But this isn't happening because there's no communications channel between Amazon and self publishers.

For example, my new self-published title, "The Home-Based Bookstore" (ISBN 0977240606) is selling better on Barnes & Noble than it is on Amazon. Why? Well, for one thing, Barnes & Noble displays an image of my cover art. And I don't even know where they got it. Amazon? Fuggitaboutit. I've written to the company at least a dozen times, and the answer I receive is that the publisher must upload the cover art. I keep telling them, BUT I AM THE PUBLISHER!!!!!!! but I don't think they're hearing me. The image still isn't there.

Barnes and Noble discounts my title $2 (out of their own pocket) for their club members, another reason it's selling faster over there.

At one time, I did have my cover art displayed on Amazon. Since I'm a pro-merchant seller at Amazon, I created the product page for my book myself. And I uploaded the cover art, table of contents, and index for my book, and it displayed just fine. Until my book was available for distribution through Lightning Source and Ingram Book Co. Then Amazon wiped out all the images.

Why did Amazon delete all the product information for my book? Here's the response I received after several inquiries:

Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 04:53:46 -0800
From: "Amazon.com"
Subject: Your Amazon.com Inquiry
X-Originating-IP: [207.171.160.44]
To: steve_delivers@verizon.net
Bounces-to: RealTimeEmail+CS-CUSTOMER_REPLY-J37mzV5AlT@bounces.amazon.com
X-AMAZON-TRACK: notification
X-AMAZON-MAIL-RELAY-TYPE: notification

Greetings from Amazon.com.

We receive information automatically from our main distributors which will update the detail page of a title listed using the Create a Product Detail Page feature. We apologize that this has negatively affected your title, "The Home-Based Bookstore" (ISBN 0977240606).

Even though you submitted an image to us when you created the page for this title, the image has now been removed from our web site. If you would like an image to appear online you have several options, which I have outlined below.

If you are the exclusive rights holder (including copyright and marketing/promotion rights) of the book, you may wish to enroll your title in the Search Inside the Book Program. To learn more or to sign-up, please review our online information:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/506483

If you are the publisher of this item, you can review information about submitting an image as a publisher here:

http://www.amazon.com/publishers

Alternatively, your distributor can also submit a new image to us.

You may also want to consider our customer image upload feature which enables you to share your own images with other customers. You can find more information at:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-images/customer-image-guidelines.html/

While we do not currently offer a feature which would allow you to submit an image to our catalog department, the images you submit using this new feature will be available on the detail page for the item.

I hope this information is helpful.

Best regards,
Doug S.
http://www.amazon.com/used

No Doug, the information was not helpful. I had completed all the steps you recommend before I even wrote to you. And my cover image is still not displayed.

I submitted my book to the "Inside the Book" weeks ago, with no apparent action on Amazon's part. Is this because it's a self-published book? I'm beginning to wonder.

Here's the kicker for all this: My book is about how to operate a business on Amazon.com. And because Amazon is asleep at the wheel, people are buying it at Barnes & Noble. Go figure.

It's not like I have no relationship with Amazon. I've sold over $1 million in books on their Marketplace platform, and paid them 15 percent on each sale. You'd think I'd be able to get their attention.

Currently there's a low-resolution image of my cover on Amazon's site, it's what they call a "customer image." Any customer can upload one. It doesn't show in search results. And I suppose any other customer could knock the picture of my cover off the display by uploading the cover of a Playboy magazine.