What writers can do about the amazon POD freeze-out.

Which is spreading to B&N and other other web retailers, by the way. There isn't going to be competition on this, there isn't going to be a fight or a boycott or public opinion reversal.

However, I've come up with an idea of how writers can fight this...and also increase book profits, save readers money, and exercise some solidarity with our peers. This is a viral solution: spread the word.

The chink in the armor is "third party selling". What I suggest is the formation of large co-operative selling groups of writers with the intent to sell their books as "New or used". The BUY botton may evaporate, but the "third party" links are still there and I think even amazon would think twice about removing that activity.

It costs money to be a third party vendor. Not a problem for 20 writers from a coffee house clach. Or 100 joined by some organizer from a website. Or a "big small" POD publisher like Bewrite or Whiskey Creek. And they could easily acheive enough sales volume to save money by becoming the amazon equivalent of a Power Seller. And could easily post prices for new books well under amazon's list, making the link look attractive. It might actually be a better way to sell your book than letting amazon take a cut.

Of course, there's a good chance some beancounter jerk up in Seattle would end up seeing this as detrimental to fiscal performance against leveraged expectations of increase in the decrease of BookSurge projected revenues and get rid of THAT, though.

But I think it's the only effective tool writers can use against this. At best, the threat of it might cause a reversal of this policy. At best, it might provide more profit for writers, some exercise in solidarity, and cheaper books for the public.