Hello readers and students of the Ageless Wisdom!
Phillip Lindsay has been a self-publisher, selling books (17) with Amazon for 20 years. Here are some of the topics covered in this article:
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For those who live in the USA
For those who live outside of the USA
The Jeff Bezos Culture
Other Distributors or Publishers
How Amazon contnually frustrates and wastes the time of their sellers
For those who live in the USA. If you are considering buying my books, please visit this link at my website EsotericAstrologer – where you can receive a 15% discount – plus freebies for more than three books purchased.
$50 postage to Britain from USA! (Now out of print, see new version.)
Buyers outside of the USA can open an Amazon USA account. The price of books, plus postage to Europe or Australia for instance, is very reasonable – in some cases almost the same as buying locally in the USA.
Amazon has such a stranglehold on the US postal service that posting purchases from EsotericAstrologer, postage costs outside of the USA – to Europe, Australia – or even neighbouring countries like Mexico or Canada – are hideously expensive. For instance, one of my books that retailed for $60, cost $50 to send to Britain from USA. (This was verified through one anti-Amazon customer’s insistence!)
But of course not everyone can afford that kind of luxury, to stand for a principle – and it is still cheaper to buy from US Amazon to ship to other countries outside the US. But not Amazon branches in your own countries – all my books are outrageously double the cost or more, and I have no control over that. Hence, best to open a US Amazon account.
The Jeff Bezos Culture
Amazon CEO – Jeff Bezos, once told his team, “to attack small publishers like a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle”. Charming fellow! Indeed, he has applied that law of the jungle, and is now in the top few wealthiest in the world – having created a global monopoly of distribution.
Most of us may not be aware of the slave-like conditions that many staff work under at Amazon warehouses, constantly tracked and surveilled – to exact that maximum “pound of flesh”. Here you have a real-life scrooge whose efficiency principles over-ride compassion or a sense of broader sharing. Due to his excessive wealth, Bezos could easily pay his employees more money and give vendors a better percentage deal – and still be very rich! But he does not, and neither does the culture he has created.
Nationwide protests demanding Amazon change its practices.
But enough griping and back to the main issue! All vendors like myself are forced to accept Amazon’s agreement which takes 55% of the retail cost of a book. For example, The Hidden History of Humanity I: Mysteries of the Rootraces and Cycles – sells for US$60, less 55% = $33 for Amazon, $27 for me.
From that must be subtracted production costs. As a small publisher, printing 100 at at time is the best option, working out to $20 per book. (Printing 1,000 would be much cheaper but would take 10 years to sell – and a lot of dry storage space!)
$27 – $20 = $7 profit – minus postage to Amazon warehouse by my shipper, eats up most of any profit. My other cheaper books do a little better but the margins are minimal – overall, I am breaking even. My books are printed as a service – and if they are “breaking clear” business-wise – then it is still viable to continue this service.
Some of the author’s 17 titles, past and present!
Other Distributors or Publishers
Four of my books are on Kindle, each book takes many hours to set up properly. Putting my other books on Kindle is not worth it – time-wise, nor from the either/or deal Amazon offers. Printing with Ingram’s Lightning Source has been tried but found to be much inferior book quality, compared to using a private printer.
Other distributors like Baker and Taylor or Ingrams require you to jump through all sorts of hoops, even for established authors who have nearly 20 titles, like myself. Been there, tried that! The big New Age distributor in the USA – Newleaf, went out of business a few years ago.
Mainstream publishers like Penguin, Harper & Collins etc., basically steer away from esoteric material. Even the more alternative publishers like Bear & Co., Ozark Mountain Press, Theosophical Publishing House or LLewellyn – are not interested; some editors have personal biases or do not understand esotericism.
How Amazon contnually frustrates and wastes the time of their sellers
(Let me count the ways!)
1. Amazon algorithms are psychotic! Amazon continually orders books for which they already have sufficient stock at their warehouse.
2. Conversely, Amazon does not order books that are out of stock, and which show zero quantity on their website. This is detrimental because a customer will hesitate to purchase, if they know it might take 2 weeks instead of 2 days to receive the item.
3. One wonders whether these ploys are deliberate to some authors! Possibly due to the controversial content of one of my books such as the C*vid crisis (Destiny of the Nations and Races vol. V.), Amazon appears to practice “shadow-banning” – by minimising product appearance on their website, or burying them below pages of other titles when doing a search. Not just one title, but in my case – all five books in the same Destiny of the Nations and Races series, unrelated to any controversial topics.
4. Despite many letters to Amazon (the author has over 10 years of letters in a large file!), they come back with the most convoluted and unhelpful responses. (24 pages of letters since 2021!) It appears that the culture at these “help” centres, mainly based in India – are about clearing their quota of enquiries – as quickly and by any means possible; if you call them on the phone, some of their English accents are so thick – only half of what is said is understood.
Amazon has grown too big – now like a lurching Frankenstein that eats up small publishers and many other vendors. There are loads of stories online and in forums that repeat what is being stated here. It’s a wonder no one else has bothered to start up a large alternative book distributor which operates on fairer principles. (There are a few small ones popping up at the moment, using print-on-demand methods.)