Well, I’m delighted to report that Amazon not only has zapped the DRMed version of Scandals at my request, but also has deleted the listing for this phantom edition. Big thanks to Sarah B and her team. She reports that the delay in the removal of the obsolete listing “was due to a search system transition, and we’ve taken measures to ensure that publishers and authors will not be so adversely affected in the future.” Great! I knew the glitch could affect others and am glad I spoke up. The nonDRMed Kindle edition from Twilight Times Books remains listed, along with the trade paperback

Tip: Do become a member of Author Central and try the contact form there. My current impression—tell me if I’m wrong—is that Amazon does seem to be working harder on author relations than in the past.

Now here’s the real kicker for many e-book writers—an annoyance that beset me today when I wanted to advertise the Kindle edition of my own novel. Amazon’s database setup wouldn’t even let me run the ad for $0 commission so I’d at least earn extra money via royalties from my publisher. Jeff Bezos’s people would permit only an ad for the paperback edition of the same novel.

But why did Amazon cut out the Kindle e-book ads from affiliates in the first place? Because, among other things, Amazon apparently wants people to shop for e-books through their Kindles’ built-in store, not the Web—so the company reduces affiliate payments.

As helpful as the new arrangements are for Jeff, however, this is yet another indication that Amazon needs close watching by federal regulators—just as rivals such as Google do.

Who says corporate abuse of suppliers—not merely consumers—is just something out of the history books?

Related: Amazon botches my ‘Scandals’ listing, hurting sales: Others harmed by inept database work?

It existed only because Twilight Times Books had used the Mobipocket Store, which required DRM. Then, against Twilight Times’ wishes and my own, a DRM edition reached the Kindle Store. It wouldn’t go away even after publisher Lida Quillen killed the Mobi edition. The unwanted file competed with our DRM-free Kindle version and lowered its rank. The authorized  nonDRMed Kindle edition is here.

Now, with the DRMed edition gone from the Kindle Store, I’ll proudly apply the tag drmfree to my suspense novel there, knowing there won’t be consumer confusion. A paperback is also available. Now to get Amazon to deal with another issue—redundant blurbs in the listings for Scandals.

And speaking of DRM: New York Times columnist David Pogue says his Windows guide was pirated without DRM, but that the sales of his paper edition showed a slight increase. Yes, the lock-in issue is on a few more consumers’ minds, now that some Kindle owners are defecting to the Nook.

But, yes, unfortunately, my account is true—an unwanted DRM edition of The Solomon Scandals is very much up there for real—and here’s the sequence of events:

1. My publisher posted the Scandals as a nonDRMed book in the Kindle store. Cool. Yes, I agree it is possible to post DRM-free books at that store owned by Amazon.

2. But at least in my case, the nonDRMed edition did not preempt Amazon’s embarrassing me with an unwanted DRMed edition. Amazon would not post Scandals at the Mobipocket store unless my publisher consented to the use of DRM. Then, likewise against our wishes, it repositioned the Mobi store’s DRMed edition in the Kindle store.

3. By way of a customer feedback form, I asked Amazon to take down the DRMed edition.

4. So far, it has not.

5. The end result is that with two Kindle editions, my ranking is suffering since some readers buy the DRMed version and some don’t.

Check out Alan Wallcraft’s analysis of the two files or get the DRMed edition yourself if you doubt me about the unwanted DRM.

Although, as noted, Amazon currently will let you post nonDRMed books at the Kindle store, one wonders about the future if the company gains yet more clout within the book business. Amazon may yet make DRM compulsory, as it did in the Mobipocket store.

In addition to leaving the unauthorized DRMed edition online, Amazon messed up the listings for the nonDRMed editon of Scandals—unwittingly, I would hope. Notice how journalist Jim Fallows’s blurb for the book shows up three times? So does the blurb from ABC Washington correspondent Bettina Gregory. In addition, Amazon botched the word wrapping in the second paragraph from the bottom of the product description.

The listing for the Scandals trade paperback also has a problem with repeated blurbs.

Image credit: CC-licensed photo from Jbonnain.

So much for Jeff Bezo’s claim to Jon Stewart that Amazon is agnostic on DRM. Once again he comes across as two-faced on this issue. “Publishers get to decide whether they want to encrypt the books and put DRM on or not,” he told Stewart.

If you feel you must buy from Amazon rather than elsewhere, get the nonDRMed e-book or the paper edition. Please, boycott Amazon’s DRMed Scandals. Hey, Jeff, I love the way you respect my intellectual property.

A little more background: My publisher couldn’t get Scandals into the Mobipocket store unless we agreed to DRM. Then Amazon used the DRMed edition in the Kindle store. It remained there even after we removed the Mobi edition. Still there. Hello, FTC? Time to stop scaring mom-and-pop book reviewers (wittingly or not) and get the guts to  investigate Amazon for real? No, I’ll not link here to the proprietary-DRMed book but will gladly point federal investigators to it.

Amazon has also bungled the writeup on my book—with, for example, horrible formatting and blurbs from Jim Fallows and Bettina Gregory reproduced three friggin’ times, each—but that’s another story. I know it ain’t so, but it’s almost as if Amazon is trying to sabotage me.

Look, I see many good things about about Amazon and love my Kindle’s text to speech. May Bezos not just be agnostic on DRM, but also work to get publishers to drop it—perhaps substituting social DRM as a compromise! He was clueful enough to do a DRMless MP3 store. Time to work with consenting publishers to do the same for e-books, so they can be read on a variety of devices? Yes, I also hope Jeff will also let the Kindle natively render ePub-standard books.

The definition of DRMfree can be tricky. I’d hope that little Twilight Times Books in Kingsport, Tennessee, the publisher of my novel, could go on the list. At the same time, yes, like certain other anti-DRM houses, Twilight sells through outlets that taint all books with “protection.” Twilight has no choice. Publishing is a brutal business.

Another issue is whether social DRMed books, a compromise approach, would qualify as DRMfree. Social DRM means embedding a buyer’s name into a book to discourage copying. It is not a perfect system, given the privacy risks. But it is rather different from traditional DRM, which erects barriers against copying, even the legitimate private kind for backup purposes and the like.

However Liza treats social DRM, I hope that her list can help, and that a publication like Consumer Reports will pick up her work, refine it and circulate it widely, just as she has openly built on the efforts of others. If you want books you can truly own, then think about buying from the fiction and nonfiction names on Liza’s list, especially if the titles are in ePub format, which I suspect virtually all of them are, at least as an option.

This is not just a consumer issue, by the way. It is also one for writers. I applaud Carina Press, a new imprint from Harlequin, for promising writers not to insist on DRM—a technology that diminishes the literary value of books by linking them to the survival of individual publishers and specific technologies. I want books to be a permanent medium. DRM—beyond the penalties it imposes readers, especially the disabled—is the enemy of that.

My other proposed addition, besides Twilight Times: Baen, which for years has shunned “protection” and probably has never published a DRMed book.

(Via @jafurtado.)

Henry Allen, senior citizen and ex-Marine, is POed over the decline of the long feature story—although other, less cerebral reasons arose here: namely the obscenity that a colleague taunted him with during an editing session. Allen just didn’t like the copy. More at SolomonScandals.com.

Well, so much for newspapers. Anyone with some charming editor-writer stories from the world of e-books? No fistfights, I’d hope—although a passion for QC always helps.

To learn more about Scandals, you can check out an elaborate Web site about the novel and the history behind it, such as a powerful, respected Senator’s hidden investment in a CIA-occupied high-rise, as well as a deadly building collapse. The Washington City Paper recommended Scandals and made nice Chandler and Hammett comparisons, and the book has drawn some preliminary Hollywood interest. But the daily press—possibly because I have a small publisher, and possibly because Scandals mocks the media—has yet to publish a single review. This is a great opportunity for stores to experiment with a media bypass, then hone the technique for other titles.

Scandals’ most likely readers: People in the D.C. area, Jewish readers, progressive activists and others, suspense and thriller readers, those interested in historical fiction and people everywhere who are simply interested in the causes of corruption in Washington.

Let’s hope that B&N follows up on the idea, quickly, and that publishers will go along. Like Seeking Alpha, I think that the bundles shouldn’t sell for that much more than paper books alone. Most people buying paper books aren’t going to buy e-books and vice versa, but they would appreciate the convenience. At any rate, keep in mind that books aren’t just competing against other books, but also against other forms of recreation. We need to make them as enticing, as easy to use, as possible.

Detail: The Alpha site is currently down, so try again if you don’t get through.

My selfish interest in P: My publisher, Twilight Times Books, is having a sale. Prices of individual titles vary all over the place, but I notice that The Solomon Scandals is currently going for $8.77 in paper at Amazon—new. Yes, I’ve raised the possibility of bundling the E and P editions. Speak up if you’d like to buy books that way!

Even so, as long as Amazon taints bestsellers and so many other books with proprietary DRM, I’ll consider the Kindle a closed system—at least in ways that count for many readers.

Open systems, moreover, don’t include the capability for the hardware provider to zap books—even 1984! Nor do open systems let publishers prevent disabled people from using text to speech.

Looking beyond the machine, if the Kindle is so open, how come my publisher can’t even get a DRMed edition of my novel removed from Amazon.com. She couldn’t offer The Solomon Scandals at the Mobipocket Store without tolerating a DRMed version of my novel at Amazon.com in addition to the nonDRMed file. Trouble is, the DRMed edition remained at Amazon.com even when we withdrew from the Mobi store. Is that really openness?

Dave “Evil Genius” Slusher is a good guy, but I’d very respectfully disagree with his recent thoughts on the Kindle’s so-called openness. And the same for you, Paul.

Related: Mitch Ratcliffe’s comments.

Image credit: Creative Commons photo from Quinn Anya Domrowski.

When will the Federal Trade Commission, the bureaucracy housed in the building to the left, crack down on that—in a truly meaningful way?

Just why isn’t the Amazon site full of big, conspicuous reminders mandated by the FTC?

So you can bet I was more than a little baffled when the FTC announced hefty fines for bloggers who didn’t play by a newly announced set of rules about free products (PDF alert), including review copies of books. Bottom line: You’d better disclose if you review a book and keep a copy, even an e-book that cost the author virtually $0 to email you. Isn’t this a little inconsistent, given the FTC’s laxity on DRM at Amazon.com and elsewhere, despite a recent hearing?

Book costs are small compared to reviewing time

Interestingly, the cost of a typical book tends to be small compared to the time spent reviewing it properly. Maybe the FTC could include an exemption for a review of greater than a certain length, with suitable documentation showing time devoted to it.

I’m all in favor of reasonable disclosure rules, but read Ed Champion’s interview with Richard Cleland of the FTC and see if the agency isn’t going too far. Also see Galley Cat here and here and here and here, as well as Slate. The odd thing is that the rules are aimed at bloggers while sparing the mainstream media, which is interesting, given the number of MSM folks who received free Kindles from Amazon. What’s more, we know how much we can depend on the MSM to review first novels and e-books, right? Don’t you love how the feds are encouraging E?

In fairness to the FTC, the $11K fines are really aimed more at advertisers than bloggers, and first offenders won’t have to pay a nickel. Just the same, I’m appalled by the singling out of bloggers. Perhaps the MSM will be next—and deservedly so, if they don’t speak out against this craziness.

Meanwhile here’s an excerpt from Champion’s post on Cleland:

Cleland insisted that when a publisher sends a book to a blogger, there is the expectation of a good review. I informed him that this was not always the case and observed that some bloggers often receive 20 to 50 books a week. In such cases, the publisher hopes for a review, good or bad. Cleland didn’t see it that way.

“If a blogger received enough books,” said Cleland, “he could open up a used bookstore.”

Disclosure: Yep, I’ll still corrupt reviewers with free review copies in E or P of The Solomon Scandals for them to praise or pan.

Well, here’s some handy ammo for the folks who say, “No threat to lit.”

Russell Brooks, a Canadian writer, paid an actor to read Pandora’s Succession, Brooks’ thriller, to help woo agents and editors. Enjoy the recording here.

Yes, this was before Brooks, aka Russell Parkway, sold his book, reports Jeff Rivera at GalleyCat.

Brooks still hasn’t made a sale. But at least the right people may be noticing him now (disclosure: Brooks got promo help from GumboWriters, Jeff’s firm, and of course Cat is among our fave blogs).

Presumably the same idea could have worked after publication, just so Brooks controlled the audio rights. And as I recall, that’s exactly what I do with The Solomon Scandals.

So what’s next? Hire an actor not just for the reading Scandals but also to go on TV for me without people knowing the full story? Who should the performer should be? Woody Allen in his actor’s incarnation. Hell no, I’ll hold out for George Clooney.

Meanwhile I’m already thinking of a Cyrano de Bergerac-style plot for my next novel. I’m not talking about love letters of hidden origin—rather, a different twist.

A beautiful female fan, a Kate Winslet lookalike, falls in love with this resonantly voice hunk performing on YouTube and in a multimedia e-book.

Trouble is, he isn’t a real writer. He’s merely paid to act like one on TV and elsewhere.

Actually, as I recall, a French actor did go on TV to promote a sexy romance he hadn’t written—unknown to the world. “So,” a cynic would say, “what’s wrong here? Aren’t most celebrity books like that already?”

Our friends at GalleyCat have the story, following up on SmartBitches, Trashy Books.

Somebody at one publisher is even said to have emailed writers: “I’m not exaggerating when I say they WILL NOT ORDER the book unless their site is listed.” Ouch!

Now here’s a special e-book angle. When happens when interbook linking is common? Will B&N—and Amazon!—seek special favors? And do some very nasty things to avoid disintermediation?

In fairness to B&N: GalleyCat reports: “One editor writes in to say the message she’s seen from B&N hasn’t been quite so stark: ‘What I’ve heard is B&N requesting that if you are linking to Amazon to please link to them as well.’”

How I’m currently handling this for The Solomon Scandals: I avoid displaying any particular store logo and instead offer detailed buying information, with many options. What do you think, gang? Am I doing the right thing?

Related: ‘The Solomon Scandals vs. Dan Brown’s latest, ‘The Lost Symbol’: Same city, different books.

(Thanks to Paul Berinstein of The Writing Show.)

As a debut novelist published in E and P, I’m wondering if my soul is intact. Did the trade paperback edition save it? Or must I tell Twilight Times Books to kill off the e-book edition?

Keen’s actual words: “The traditional book is the most physical of things, a text to be bent and fingered and written on and imprinted with human signatures. Something to be physically loved. The ebook revolution changes all that. In the new digital age, readers and writers and publishers will increasingly come to reflect their soulless product.”

Nothing against P: I’m rereading on paper a wonderful Luddite book by Philip Roth, Exit Ghost, whose hero doesn’t own a television, much less a laptop or e-reader. I actually agree with warnings that Twitter and the like can get in the way of enjoyment of linear text. But loss of soul by readers or writers? Is it possible that individuals so threatened never had much of one to begin with?

Got any questions for me in advance? Email them to Tom Peters, the librarian serving as moderator—who can choose.

Tom will give away five free nonDRMed copies of the book (ePub format), at the end of the chatcast. He’ll pick the winners. Maybe for the best question?

Scandals is also available as a trade paperback.

At any time, blind people and other persons with reading-related disabilities can enjoy free access to Scandals MP3s that Tom graciously recorded. Email him for access info.

Update, July 30: You now can hear the chatcast via streaming or a downloadable MP3.