I've had a couple of people today send me some worrying news about Amazon effectively delisting any print-on-demand books that aren't produced by BookSurge, it's own POD service.

Amazon Tightens Grip on Printing
By JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG
March 28, 2008; Page B4

Amazon.com Inc., flexing its muscles as a major book retailer,
notified publishers who print books on demand that they will have to
use its on-demand printing facilities if they want their books
directly sold on Amazon's Web site.

Full story here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120667525724970997.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Other links:

http://www.writersweekly.com/the_latest_from_angelahoycom/004597_03272008.html
http://news.slashdot.org/news/08/03/29/2240209.shtml

So I've just sent the following email to Amazon:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I've read today of multiple reports that print-on-demand books by printers other than your own BookSurge are being effectively removed from Amazon by having the buy button disabled.

As someone who currently has a Lightning Source produced book available on both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, this news greatly worries me. I am currently an Amazon affiliate; my book's main webpage has affiliate links to both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. In accordance with your terms, I have not put links to any other book sellers on that page.

http://www.jonnynexus.com/gamenight/

Can you reassure me that my loyalty is not misplaced, and that you will not be removing my book from sale?

I should stress that BookSurge is not an option, as I understand such books are *only* available from Amazon and don't have unique ISBN numbers. I need my book to be available for order in bookstores, in addition to being available online.

If you do delist my book, I will obviously have no option but to remove your (now non-functional) affiliate links, and replace them with links to other book sellers such as Barnes & Noble.

Yours,

Jonny Nexus

I await a reply. But as of this moment, Game Night is still up there. For now.