My E-Book Road: 4 - Harper Collins Imprint Gives No Advances

Curiouser and curiouser.

Harper Collins has recently announced a new imprint that would not provide any advances to writers (stupid) although this doesn't seem to be set in stone just yet. (Writers would get paid through some type of profit-sharing plan - check out MediaBistro for the best scoop on this story.)

Meanwhile, Joseph Weisenthal of paidContent.org, over at WashingtonPost.com, opines that this Harper Collins step is in reality a spin on the usual POD setup which would allow untested writers the opportunity to be published by HarperCollins without that nasty inventory risk.

I'm just wondering if Amazon's BookSurge bit correlates with this HarperCollins spin in some way ....

My E-Book Road: 3 - Amazon's Booksurge for Print on Demand, The Only Choice Now?

Well, I'm learning.

Print on Demand ("POD") through Lightening Source was coming highly recommended (see My E-Book Road post no. 2), and POD sure seemed to make sense to me for my purposes (see My E-Book Road intro post).

Today, however, I learn that Amazon.com is demanding that its own Print On Demand service, BookSurge, be used for any books sold on the Amazon site.

MediaBistro is reporting on the public backlash that appears to be growing: apparently, the American Society of Journalists and Authors has issued a press release relaying its "disgust" with Amazon's move, and the Authors Guild is mentioning that big, scary word of "antitrust" (which wouldn't be the first time that someone used "monopoly" and "Amazon" in the same sentence).

In fact, this story is building by the minute - so much so, that Writers Weekly has devoted a specific page on its site to this issue, with continous updates. Go here to read the latest.

There's talk of boycotts. Lawsuits. Anti-Amazon blogs are popping up. It's a big deal today.

Post I like best so far? Angela Hoy's personal take on the story over at Media Mensch -- she's the co-owner of BookLocker.com (a POD company) and the publisher of WritersWeekly.com.