One thing that endlessly annoys me about publishing on Amazon is the way they do their shipping. You might think that all shipping is standard Amazon 2-day free shipping, but it’s not. When you buy author copies, they are looking to fleece you.

Author Copies: books sold at cost, only to the author, for purposes such as a book signing.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not totally shocked Amazon is pulling this crap. It’s not as if Amazon is a shining beacon of mortality, and I keep trying to use them less. But anyway. Here’s the deal:

I ordered seven author copies of Encore, I paid $7 and change for shipping and they gave me a two week delivery estimate.

What they’re doing is banking on authors needing books for events that take place on a certain day and hoping they switch over to Express Shipping, which was over $20 for two-day delivery.

Now keep in mind, I was only ordering seven copies.

When you order more copies, the cost of shipping goes up because the package gets heavier. And they’re books! The package is going to get incredibly heavy!

If an author is truly doing a book signing and wanted to order 100, 200, or even 500 copies, I can’t even fathom how much money it would cost to ship that many books. You’re capped at ordering 999 copies per order. But with the amount of shipping they tack on, I’m sure it would be almost cheaper to order the books at cost on Amazon, not pay shipping and not wait two weeks for the delivery.

But unfortunately, if you’re ordering books at cost and selling them at cost, you’re not making any money. Which really irritates me because they’re taking advantage of indie authors, 99.9% of whom are probably barely breaking even when it comes to their publishing careers.

Indie authors, by and large, are not making the big bucks. Taking even more money from them is a punch to the gut.

Thanks for letting me get that off my boobs. I mean, chest. You know what I mean.