Thursday, 8 October 2020

Can't find my stuff on Amazon? Here's why.

  



Armando Ourique

Why your books are not available at Amazon?


Just now
Armando, hi. I don't sell via Amazon for several reasons, but the main reason is their terms and conditions, which are not very friendly to authors and publishers. A friend of mine runs a small-scale poetry press (....). Almost everything they have published in the past ten or so years is commercially available. They try to sell via Amazon, but often their books are listed as 'not currently available.' If they don't like you, they will just cut you off.

You can buy my books from a number of large retailers (including Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, etc. and now even Walmart). The books are distributed to these retailers by my distributor Smashwords, and are always listed as available.

Amazon does not have a monopoly, but they have too much power. They are happy to throw their weight around. I'm well aware that many more people would find my books if they were listed on Amazon, but plenty find them anyway.

Best wishes, Thomas Yaeger.