I wanted to thank a TeleRead community member for caring about the accuracy of a post telling how Amazon forced DRM on my publisher and me. TeleRead is not infallible, and we encourage people to speak up to help arrive at the truth.
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.
Thanks for the update. That’s interesting, because supposedly we’re the ones uploading the files, and making the choices…according to Bezos and Amazon.
What you’re saying is that Amazon is overriding both the author and publisher wishes in this regard, for whatever reason, we don’t know.
That’s an unhappy situation, especially when both files are up, and the sales statistics don’t reflect total purchases for the book.
One can only hope that new eReaders and book store efforts give Amazon a run for its money, and it finally starts to pay attention.
Sorry to hear of your problems.
I must say that in that situation I’d of been instructing my lawyer to write a legal letter. Immediately.
Despite the situation with Amazon, David’s novel The Solomon Scandals has been noticed elsewhere. I am sure that he is too humble to mention it, but it deserves to me mentioned.
The Solomon Scandals and another of David’s favorite things — Ebooks Without DRM — have been selected as two of the most interesting works of the year, in the Epublishers Weekly list of 24 Favorite Books of 2009:
http://epublishersweekly.blogspot.com/2009/12/epublishers-weekly-our-24-favorite.html
A fast and interesting read, the novel is filled with drama, humor, and surprises. It’s also affordably priced, and — as to be expected — available free of DRM.
Michael Pastore
50 Benefits of Ebooks