Petition Circulates Demanding Fair Treatment for Indie Authors’ Works
By Mercy Pilkington Oct 21
Yesterday, (See page 6) Good e-Reader radio posted an hour-long discussion of the current controversy surrounding the removal of self-published titles from specific UK retailers’ websites, an issue that affects an estimated one-third of self-published titles, according to Digital Book World’s data. While there is no clear solution to the issue, several indie authors have begun circulating a petition at change.org asking to not be forgotten.
One of the key aspects to the controversy that has been overlooked by both authors and readers is that Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo are not at fault here; in this particular instance, they are not the retailer, they are the distributor. As such, a separate retailer who derives its content from the self-publishing platforms built by those three entities has the right to say, “We’re not selling certain content.” It would be akin to a religious ebook website only allowing religious or inspirational titles, and shunning mainstream fiction, even age-appropriate and non-inflammatory titles.
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