by Kenneth Black

Created on: September 13, 2008

Amazon.com offers one of the most interactive and vibrant Web sites in the world for shipping products. Unlike many other bookstores, when it comes to stocking your products, Amazon makes no distinction between traditionally-published authors and self-published authors. Although it is important to note that Amazon does not necessarily by your products and resell them outright.

In some cases, especially for those authors who are self published, they may have to pay a fee, currently set at $39.99 US Dollars, in order to have their product listed on the site. In some cases, this may be counterproductive for the author. It may be possible to spend much more in fees than you make in profits. No business model can survive long under these conditions.

However, for those authors who find their work is not selling, it may be time to re-evaluate their situations, not necessarily blame Amazon. No retailer is responsible for a product not selling. Ultimately, it is the job of the producer to make sure they have a product people want and an effective marketing strategy. While listing a product with one of the largest retailers can be a part of that marketing strategy, it will certainly fail if it represents the entire strategy.

For those who need help with a strategy, it may be time to network with other authors. What do they do to help sell their materials? How many reviews for your work have you sought? Where have you gone to get those reviews? What about personal appearances and book signings? Eventually, if your work is widely accepted, it will sell itself and Amazon could become a money train. But first there has to be those initial sparks.

In this sense, Amazon is not a rip-off. After all, why would any author want to blame one of the few sources that will offer to sell your work without begging and pleading from a major publishing house? They are doing these authors a good service, not taking advantage of them. Of course, they have expenses to pay for offering this service and everyone is out to make money, so a charge is not unreasonable.

For those who do have a successful marketing strategy, Amazon can be a Godsend. It can take away the pain and trials that so often go along with trying to find an outlet for a new author's materials. Who knows? The next work you write may get enough attention that publishing houses will have to look up and take notice.

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