This is the content of an email just sent to digitalrights@amazon.com
Now, I don’t think Amazon is trying to mess me up. Probably it’s a case of one group working without awareness of the legal and practical issues involved. But it is still more work for me. I wouldn’t bother you guys with it, other than this blog has always included a fair number of articles about the nuts and bolts of publication. This is just another case of nuttiness.
— Henry
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This is the third occurrence of Amazon illegally creating unauthorized Kindle editions of my books.
PLEASE STOP DOING THIS.
Please merge sales records from the illegal versions into my authorized editions and remove the bogus ones from your catalog.
In addition to the reasons stated below for keeping one authorized edition per title, these new pirate editions are not under my control and I am unable to provide corrected editions, price changes and other maintenance as necessary.
Please notify me when this is done.
— Henry Melton, Wire Rim Books
Authorized Kindle Edition
|
Author
|
Price
|
Release Date
|
|
Unauthorized Editions
|
Emperor Dad
(ASIN: B001EQ60X0)
|
Henry Melton (Author)
|
$4.99
|
Jan 23, 2010
|
|
B001N7QNOQ
|
Extreme Makeover
(ASIN: B001LNOPBU)
|
Henry Melton (Author)
|
$4.99
|
Nov 20, 2008
|
|
B001N7QNPK
|
Falling Bakward
(ASIN: B001ULBTX0)
|
Henry Melton (Author)
|
$4.99
|
Mar 5, 2009
|
|
B0024NP3GW
|
Follow That Mouse
(ASIN: B0040V4AN8)
|
Henry Melton (Author)
|
$4.99
|
Aug 26, 2010
|
|
B0040RV37S
|
Golden Girl
(ASIN: B002PSD2SC)
|
Henry Melton (Author)
|
$4.99
|
Sep 20, 2009
|
|
B002PNW6JI
|
Lighter Than Air
(ASIN: B001LRQ816)
|
Henry Melton (Author)
|
$4.99
|
Nov 22, 2008
|
|
B001N7QNQ4
|
Pixie Dust
(ASIN: B003EIIWZU)
|
Henry Melton (Author)
|
$4.99
|
Mar 30, 2010
|
|
|
Roswell or Bust
(ASIN: B001LRQ82U)
|
Henry Melton (Author)
|
$4.99
|
Nov 22, 2008
|
|
B001N7QNOG
|
Time Quadrants
(ASIN: B002G9UFXU)
|
Henry Melton (Author)
|
$0.99
|
Jul 6, 2009
|
|
Here are copies of the previous demands for elimination of duplicates.
Sent 07/08/09
I have been publishing titles through the DTP web interface and also creating mobipocket versions distributed through ebookbase. When I realized that this could lead to duplicated titles showing up on the Kindle store, I explicitly revoked amazon as a downstream reseller of the mobi versions just to avoid this duplication. That occurred on 4/19/09. Unfortunately, that was not enough to stop additional duplications from appearing in the catalog.
Because
1. I do not want the ranking dilution of having two copies of each of my titles,
2. and because your downstream conversions of my ebookbase titles likely have the DRM that offends many e-book purchasers while my DTP versions do not,
3. and because splitting the revenue stream into two smaller branches will cause reduced income to me,
4. and because (in some cases) I am maintaining separate ISBN numbers for the ebookbase and kindle titles,
I would like the five duplicated titles to be removed asap and as new titles appear in ebookbase, that they not be automatically be converted to Kindle titles. I will be managing the Kindle distribution myself through the DTP website.
Here are the codes for the five titles that are not authorized:
Extreme Makeover B001N7QNPK
Roswell or Bust B001N7QNOG
Emperor Dad B001N7QNOQ
Falling Bakward B0024NP3GW
Lighter Than Air B001N7QNQ4
Please notify me when this process is completed.
— Henry Melton, Wire Rim Books
Sent -8/03/10
I have been publishing titles through the DTP web interface and also creating mobipocket versions distributed through ebookbase. When I realized that this could lead to duplicated titles showing up on the Kindle store, I explicitly revoked Amazon as a downstream reseller of the mobi versions just to avoid this duplication. That occurred on 4/19/09. Unfortunately, that was not enough to stop additional duplications from appearing in the catalog.
Because
1. I do not want the ranking dilution of having two copies of each of my titles,
2. and because your downstream conversions of my ebookbase titles likely have the DRM that offends many e-book purchasers while my DTP versions do not,
3. and because splitting the revenue stream into two smaller branches will cause reduced income to me,
4. and because (in some cases) I am maintaining separate ISBN numbers for the ebookbase and kindle titles,
I would like the three duplicated titles to be removed asap and as new titles appear in ebookbase, that they not be automatically be converted to Kindle titles. I will be managing the Kindle distribution myself through the DTP website.
Here are the codes for the three titles that are not authorized:
Pixie DustB003CV7SPY
Golden GirlB002PNW6JI
Time QuadrantsB002HJV6GO
Please notify me when this process is completed.
— Henry Melton, Wire Rim Books