So…you sell editing services, but you don’t proofread? You are “a traditional publisher that let’s the crowd select our books.”? (Cold contact letter, Thad, 7/11/14) Not that traditional publishers don’t have a few mistakes slip through, but they generally do employ editors, copy editors, proofreaders—and authors are expected to pitch in and proofread as well. You only get one chance to make a great first impression! Your mail client? Your stubby fingers? General paucity of sleep? Which will be your answer if the typo is on the title page of my book, 1,000 copies crowdfunded and printed?

   So…you sell marketing services? But you cold-contacted me without researching me or the book you referenced, The Ring of Allaire. (Ballantine Del Rey Books, paperback original 1981.) You are a start-up. I am not. I have a background in advertising and extensive experience with a major publisher, having published 7 Mass Market paperbacks with Del Rey Books. What can you do that they could not? That KDP and Createspace are not better platforms for? (FYI—I get a 70% royalty from both. Without Inkshares.) And if you still aren’t sleeping after launching in January…but wait, was the letter written in January, and sent to me in July? Is it by some chance a form letter? Are you marketing your start-up with a badly edited form letter?

   One marketing strategy traditional publishers employ is the Cover Quote. It’s like a product endorsement. M.R. Brazear is a many times self-published author with respectable sales. You might have wanted a cover quote from her, for one of your projects. But if there ever was a bridge possible there, you burned it when you replied to her post on the KDP Voice of the Author forum and addressed her as “Margie”. In fact, napalm comes to mind. (Her given name is Margaret.)

   I made it a point to read your online information, first the FAQs and then the contract. I know you say it only takes five minutes to read, but I like to read for comprehension, so I took a bit longer. I’m not sure why you suggest reading a legal document so quickly—unless it’s so no one notices the typos. (Bejeweled is a word, bedecked, is a word, benighted is a word, bedazzled is a word—but “bedeemed” (Page 13) is not, at least not in English. You surely meant “be deemed”—two words.) Your contract also states that it is “non-exclusive” (Pages 2, 11) Your usage suggests that you meant to write “exclusive”.  (…irrevocable, and transferable right to print, publish and sell your work worldwide, in both electronic and print format. Page 2.) I submit that if I can’t sell a work anywhere else in the world, that contract is exclusive. A non-exclusive contract would have both parties able to release, say, a Kindle edition of a work. Does the wording of the contract present legal difficulties? I’d only care if I’d been dumb enough to sign it. If it makes difficulties for you….well, you wrote it.

   The bottom of your contact email reads “No thanks—Unsubscribe. Thad. Jeremy. You contacted me. When did I subscribe? What did I subscribe to? Please take me off your list—though I suspect you already have.

To Whom it May Concern--

(Seems stupid to address this to Dear Hachette & Amazon)

As an author, I have no right to an opinion on anyone’s e-book prices—those are the business of the publisher. I self publish on several platforms, and I set my prices as I choose. (I will observe that I enjoy a much higher royalty rate than I ever did as a mass-market, mid-list author under traditional publishing. And as an Indie Author/Publisher, I am able to bring out the books my readers want to buy and read.)

As a reader and purchaser of books in all formats, here’s my policy: if the price is too high, I don’t buy the book. If I want to read the book, I go to the public library, or I wait for remainder copies to hit the used book market. I still read the book. You lose the sale. Your authors lose the royalty.

The rest of this fracas? Follow the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Both of you, Amazon and Hachette.