Amazon Sales Reporting Present Irregularities

May 21, 2011 - PRLog -- Antellus, a private independent publisher of science fantasy adventure and nonfiction books and ebooks by author Theresa M. Moore, has received a faulty sales report for the month of April indicating that ebooks published with the Kindle Direct Publishing program were sold for prices less than those set by the publisher and royalties earned did not fall within the specified range as agreed to. Amazon further exascorbated the issue by "discounting" ebooks placed by the publisher below the established retail price to escape its obligation to pay out a 70% royalty during the month of May.

"Naturally we were shocked," Antellus owner and CEO Theresa M. Moore said. "This kind of thing has never happened before, and we are seeing a marked loss of revenues we would normally receive. The daily reports did not match the weekly reports, and the weekly reports did not match the monthly reports. Further, the continual changes we have seen on Amazon in terms of placement of book listings, movements of community threads and even the removal of reviews on the listings for a brief time signals a growing trend toward a discontinuance of support for independent authors dependent on Amazon for consistent sales."

Notable among these changes is the announcement that Amazon plans to begin publishing out of print and public domain titles under its own imprint in a variety of genres, in essence excluding authors not enrolled in its distribution program and placing itself in direct competition with them. "If this is the beginning of a paradigm shift toward Amazon making itself into a publisher, then I for one don't plan on keeping my titles listed on its site in the future. I may have to just publish and sell exclusively on my own site from now on, or avail myself of other opportunities, though what they are is not clear at the moment. I had fully expected Amazon to remain a retailer only, and open to independent authors and publishers as its suppliers."

Amazon has apparently not been very transparent in terms of reporting statistics or sales on a consistent basis, which makes it the only company to do so. This makes it a risky venture to get involved with for any small business struggling to keep pace with the current economy. "I am still studying my options, but in this case I think the writiing is on the wall and it may be time to go. We have not had enough sales of either the print books or ebooks to make Amazon the ideal marketplace to sell from. In order to market our ebooks we are forced to price them below par on Amazon, and therefore there is no incentive to use Amazon as a future seller."

The author is the publisher of 12 books, with equivalent ebooks available in a variety of formats. The books are also available direct from the Antellus site, CreateSpace, Lulu and Barnes & Noble's Nook.

Antellus is a trademark subsidiary of Nagrasanti Enterprises, Los Angeles, California.

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A publisher and seller of science fantasy adventure, historical fantasy and nonfiction books on related subjects such as history, mythology and science.