COMMENTS ON:
UPDATED – 2018 Print on Demand (POD) Price Comparison!
I highly recommend BookLocker, and have from my first book to my fifth, now headed to publishing. They are the best!
– Deborah Midkiff
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In reply to Deborah Midkiff –
We love you, too, Deborah! Can’t wait to see your latest!! 🙂
– Angela Hoy
I recommend BookLocker whenever I can.
– Pamela Allegretto
Bridge of Sighs and Dreams
Two women clash in World War 2 Nazi-occupied Rome.
COMMENTS FOR:
Are Money Launderers Using CreateSpace to Victimize Authors? And, is CreateSpace to Blame for Not Vetting Books?
Angela, your lawsuit against Amazon illustrates something deeply embedded in the company’s corporate culture. There’s no integrity, no internal check on right and wrong. What Amazon can get away with, it will do. That’s actually a trait of several of the rich, high-tech companies. Several of them are battling the European Union over their ‘double-dutch’ schemes to evade billions in taxes.
Only bad press, a lawsuit, or (eventually) government intervention motivates them. And why should Amazon feel otherwise? In most cases they get away with their misdeeds. Look at how long Amazon got away with not paying sales taxes even though they had a business presence in various states.
This CreateSpace scam is hardly Amazon’s only problem. The company plays games with its search results, so much so that, when I lived in Seattle, one of its software developers told me “Never trust Amazon’s search results.” Even a search for a book by its title might not turn it up at the author’s or publisher’s source if someone else is selling it at an inflated price. And just a few months ago, I needed an accessory for a popular kitchen device. The company sold it for $30, which I considered too much. But despite the fact that I was describing the accessory in unmistakably precise terms, it took me a half-hour of trying this and trying that to discover a third-party selling an identical replacement for $10 less. If Amazon can get away with selling the pricey version and hiding one less expensive it will. I had a lawyer justify just that policy to me. And that Amazon software developer told me that, if I really wanted to find the best price for something on Amazon, I should use Google or DuckDuckGo.
I have a suggestion for someone with tech skills (or a friend who does) who is looking for a job they can run from their kitchen table while the kids nap. Most authors don’t want to spend time checking for various scams, including this CreateSpace one, as well as the Internet Archive posting copyrighted books without permission. Many authors and publishers might pay someone to monitor online for efforts to rip them off, particularly if that was coupled to advice about how to fix those problems, i.e. a contact at CreateSpace.
Doing that myself takes a lot of time since I’d need to check Amazon’s links to several dozen titles manually. But someone a little tech savvy could find a way to automate that, so they could check hundreds of titles an hour at Amazon and elsewhere. That’d provide a ready source of income no matter where they live. And they’d be a friend of authors and small publishers.
–Michael W. Perry, Inkling Books
I like to read indie authors. I have discovered so many wonderful self-published works. But I must say that many of the CreateSpace books, although meriting worthy literary content, are somewhat spoiled by the distraction of sloppy interior formatting.
– Pamela Allegretto (a BookLocker.com author)
Bridge of Sighs and Dreams
Two women clash in World War 2 Nazi-occupied Rome.
When I was looking for a self-publisher I visited Charleston, S.C. and called the Create Space office there to check it out. Bad experience. The receptionist, although, pleasant enough, told me the site was off-limits. I asked her why. Her response? “Company policy; privileged information could be compromised.”
Thanks but no thanks, Create Space.
– Andy Burtis (a BookLocker.com author)
Surviving a year-long odyssey to reach the shores of America, a Venetian mariner realizes his dream of settling on that western frontier island called by the native Algonquian’s ‘Pamanack,’ or ‘Land of Tribute.’ There, a passionate love grows between Pieter Alberti and Machequa, who epitomizes all that is noble…
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