Hace unos días Madrid no Duerme informaba de la presencia en la capital de Mando Diao. Lamentablemente, el grupo sueco no tocará en España. De hecho, ha suspendido toda la gira europea porque su cantante principal está enfermo. No sabemos si tiene gripe porcina o alguna enfermedad venérea fruto de las orgías que todos creemos que tienen con sus grupis. Lo cierto es que han pedido disculpas a sus fans y prometen venir en primavera. De momento, eso sí, la fiesta programada en la sesión Independance de la sala Dubai se mantiene. Pasará de celebración preparatoria a concentración de fans desgraciados por la noticia.

La semana va de indies, ya que los creadores del Independance Club anuncian, quizás abullados por las aglomeraciones que se generan en la calle Santa Engracia, una nueva sala, lugar donde hasta ahora predominaba el petardeo. De hecho, hace unos días una compañera de trabajo, aficionada a la música de los 80 y al increíble bar Bukala (del que hablaremos próximamente) y al mítico Moroco, me comentó que el Club Yeyé, en el número 32 del Paseo Pintor Rosales, había dejado de ser lo que era… y ponían música de Los Planetas.

Aunque de momento mantiene el rótulo yeyé, el lugar se llama ahora New Indies Nights. Una multisesión que cada noche acoge nuevos sonidos desde temazos guitarreros, clásicos, remixes electrónicos, conciertos a primera hora, breaks, maximal, etc. Entre las fiestas, Blogger’s Day, Fashion Nation, Spinner Night, Babelia, Fight Club e Independance Reloaded, por ahora. Si por los nombres no te enteras, es mejor que vayas y lo veas. El horario, de jueves a sábado desde la medianoche hasta las 6 horas a ocho euros la copa y con entrada libre hasta las 2.30 horas. Después costará 10 euros con consumición.

Los creadores de la nueva sesión son tan heterogéneos que hasta piensan montar una noche sobre música electrónica de principios de los 90. Vamos, la máquina total de toda la vida, cuyo invitado especial y me la juego será Chimo Bayo. Pero no nos alejemos de lo indie. En el pasado post quizás minusvaloraba los otros garitos indies de Madrid. Pero haberlos, haylos, como el Nasti CLub, situado en el número 33 de la calle San Vicente Ferrer, el Fotomatón de la plaza del Conde de Toreno o en la joven sala Wurlitzer Ballroon, en el número 13 de Tres Cruces, entre otras más pequeñas.

Y mientras unos curan las heridas por la caída de Mindo Diao, otros no se perderán en unas horas a los mismos estilosos Muse y su rock dramático. Famosos por participar en la banda sonora de la exitosa saga cinematográfica Crepúculo, llenarán mañana el Palacio de los Deportes. Fama de conciertos excitantes y enérgicos no les falta. Si vas, grábame unas imágenes y mándamelas porque de momento sólo tengo el videoclip y claro, no es lo mismo:

The Susquehanna Writers, of which I’m an honorary member, have been reaching out to support area Indie bookstores.  We gave out gift baskets to two Indie bookstores this fall, and now we’re banding together for a group booksigning at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg, PA, on December 19, 2009. A large group of authors will have books for sale and will autograph them for you. From romance to history, from mystery to self-help, from thrillers to YA; you’ll find something to please everyone on your holiday gift list. And if these books aren’t enough to entice you (though they certainly should be), the Midtown Scholar offers the largest array of rare and used books between New York and Chicago. They have more than ONE MILLION secondhand and out-of-print books in all fields.

Need a gift for that hard-to-please person? Consider a book. It’s a gift they’ll treasure for a lifetime.

If you want to know where and when to show up, here are the additional details:

3-5 pm, December 19, 2009

3401 N 6th St
Harrisburg, PA 17110
(717) 236-2665

And I’ll be there to sign copies of Rihanna and Summer Lovin‘. Feel free to drop by and get your copy signed if you already have one, or pick up some as gifts for the teens in your life.

This is a blog I originally wrote for Musicnsw, written in Sydney, 24 September 2009:

The Law and the PPCA

Under the copyright act, owners recorded songs (artists and record labels) are entitled to licence fees from any business that perform their recordings in conjunction with their business operations. The PPCA was set up as a non-profit organisation to collect these licence fees from all businesses around Australia that perform music to the public.

Tariffs and Lattes

Since its inception, businesses have been required to buy such licences or tariffs in order to play copyrighted recordings of music. The fees collected are then pooled by the PPCA and and the funds are divvied up between the labels and artists that are represented by the PPCA.

This blog discusses the proposed changes to the licence fee that must be paid by the restaurant/cafe industry. Since the beginning of the PPCA, they have required that restaurants and cafes pay a pretty much nominal amount for the right to play recordings in their business. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, a coffee shop with a seating 55 punters currently pays PPCA $69 a year.

The PPCA has finished a comprehensive review of this tariff and has decided to markedly increase this tariff (based on various scales and formulae). So this 55 seater coffee shop will have to pay $5,500 per year – thats something like a 7-800% increase in fees!

Is this Fair?

To figure this out – theres a couple of things the PPCA had to say on the issue:

“Music is widely used by the restaurant and café industry to contribute positively to the ambience and atmosphere of an establishment. For example, research indicates that more than 75 per cent of a sample of cafés and restaurants typically use music in their day-to-day operations.”

“Research also shows that where used effectively, music can lead to a significant increase in the time spent by consumers in restaurant and café environments, and an increase in their expenditure on food and beverages, in a range of between 10% to 70%. “

The Value of Music

Basically, what they are getting at is that there is a significant commercial value in music. Having music in a cafe or restaurant significantly impacts on how much a customer is going to spend and how long they will stay. Up until now, cafes have been getting such a valuable asset in their business for basically a nominal value. Now, after all this economic research the PPCA wants a fairer deal for artists and record labels so that what they get paid realistically represents the impact their music has on the restaurant industry.

In the eyes of the PPCA – the bottom line is this: if you don’t think music is commercially valuable to your business – then don’t use it.

Backlash

Obviously, a 7-800% increase in a cost for a business will not be taken lightly as most restaurants and cafes struggle to break even as it is. Essentially, what lobby groups say in opposition to the increase is that the PPCA has not adequately taken into account the impact these increased costs have on each restaurant’s books.

The PPCA argues that all a cafe has to do is add 10 cents or so to each of its products to alleviate such stresses. But its my opinion that the PPCA has no right to suggest such ‘advice’ as price considerations are purely up to each business and their competitive environments and types clientele. Generalisations on the industry may prove harmful for many cafes.

Many restaurants and cafes have suggested that many cafes will now be silent as they simply cannot afford the huge tariffs. And if restaurants do adhere to the new scheme, they will be forced to increase the costs of their goods/services – by much more than 10 cents. End result? Customers lose.

Potential Ramifications

1. A Boost for Live Music

The PPCA only collects fees from businesses that perform sound recordings in their businesses. So a potential unintended impact of increasing the tariffs by such a large amount may be that cafes and restaurants will be more inclined to hiring live acts to play at their venues. This may, in the end, be cheaper than buying a PPCA licence, and may stimulate Australia’s live music scene (for some genres of course).

2. Music Direct

Another potential impact is that cafes and restaurants (or their lobby group) may go directly to one or two record labels and bargain their own licence deals, thereby bypassing the PPCA. One detrimental implication of this is that such restaurants will only play music from that labels repertoire – thereby leaving small indie labels and artists unheard at such venues.

3. A Creative loophole?

Bit of an aside here – USA in the 1930s: radio took hold of the country and was this was the first time that songs could be sent all across a country to be heard and loved by everyone. Due to the success of the wireless medium in increasing the usage of music, ASCAP (the PPCA of the times) argued that their artists/labels deserved much more income when their recordings were played over the radio. ASCAP then increased their license fees payable by broadcasters by a huge amount.

Instead of complying with such requests, the broadcasters formed a group called Broadcast Music Incorporated. BMI would then collect license fees from radio stations at a rate at which radio stations could operate properly. So instead of playing songs that were licenced to ASCAP, the radio stations were playing music that was free and in the public domain – like old blues and country tracks.

Now, back in the naughties – an unintended ramification of increasing the tariffs by such a large amount is that cafes and restaurants may cancel their licenses with PPCA and in turn play free and public domain music.

The Sydney Morning Herald says that this would definitely suck as music that is currently in the public domain includes things like Elvis and other old stuff. But, the use of new music created under creative commons licenses may be a another source of ‘unrestricted’ music. Music under creative commons licences may waive any performance rights and could be an answer for cafes and restaurants looking for modern music for their customers.

Fairness

Its my opinion that a compromise may be required here. The PPCA have an extremely valid point – music does add significant value to the ambience and experience of a restaurant. The problem arises from the way in which such ‘value’ is calculated.

It is unfair to expect artists and labels not to get a slice of the pie when their music adds to the taste of that pie. But its also unfair to expect cafes and restaurants to take on such increased costs without interrupting or even stifling their cash flows. A compromise needs to be reached where sides can agree on some middle ground or price that is acceptable and valuable to all.

21 de Noviembre:

1) Sabu y PAC derrotan a Dunkie D y Paul tracey

2) Sid Vicious derrota a Suicide Machine

3) Portia Perez derrota a April Hunter

4) X-Pac derrota a Raven en un Hardcore Match

5) Rene Dupree derrota a Shawn Maxer en un Flag Match reteniendo el Campeonato de AWR

6) Scotty 2 Hotty y Mascarita Sagrada derrotan a Omen y Mini Omen

7) Rob Van Dam derrota a Joe E. Legend

22 de noviembre:

1) Scotty 2 Hotty derrota a Paul Tracey

2) X-Pac y April Hunter derrotan a Raven y Portia Perez

3) Dunkie D derrota a PAC y Shawn Maxer en un Triple Threat Match reteniendo el Campeonato No Limit

4) Joe E. Legend derrota a Sabu en un Hardcore Match

5) Suicide Machine y Msacarita Sagrada derrotan a Omen y Mini Omen

6) Rene Dupree derrota a Rob Van Dam reteniendo el Campeonato de AWR

24 de noviembre

1) Scotty 2 Hotty y X-Pac derrotan a Raven y Joe E. Legend

2) Dunkie D derrota a Omen, Shawn Maxer y Suicide Machine en un Fatal-4-Way Match reteniendo el Campeonato No Limit

3) April Hunter derrota a Portia Perez

4) Sabu derrota a Paul Tracey en un Hardcore Match

5) PAC derrota a El Generico

6) Mascarita Sagrada derrota a Mini Omen

7) Rob Van Dam derrota a Rene Dupree en un 2 of 3 Falls Match ganando el Campeonato de AWR

Los detalles de la cancelación del concierto de Mando Diao y otras novidades sobre los indies de Madrid aquí

Hay fauna urbana que nunca ves porque suelen ir todos juntos a muy pocos sitios. Éste es el caso de los jóvenes indies de Madrid. Salvo la sesión Pop Room en la Sala Low de la Plaza de los Cubos, otros pequeños garitos en el centro y alguna que otra residencia semanal o mensual en alguna mítica sala, sólo les queda la sesión Independance Club en el número 26 de la calle Santa Engracia de Madrid. O acudir en masa, como hacen, a algún concierto de estos grupos de la escena independiente internacional, generalmente anglosajona.

Independance Club nació hace tres años y se movió en principio en la sala Bogui, situada junto al Clandestino y que el Ayuntamiento cerró por motivos difíciles de entender y por la presión de algún que otro vecinos respetado de la zona. Bien, pues luego pasó al antiguo Chesterfield Café. Por último, y desde tan sólo hace medio año llega a la sala Dubai, un espacio con un aforo de 600 personas y tres espacios interconectados.

Así, nos encontramos con una sala central a la que se accede por un pasillo que se vuelve meandro muy estrecho y clastrofóbico a ciertas horas de la mañana. En el centro, niñatos y adolescentes copan el lugar con los más modernos vestuarios indies, aunque nada fuera de lo normal. La sala de la izquierda la dominan puretas treintañeros, entre los que vemos rastas y algún que otro pijillo que se resisten a compartir habitación y cervezas con los jovencitos a la moda de los nuevos grupos independientes. Por último, en el fondo, incondicionales de todas las edades se pegan por tararear lo mejor que pueden las letras de las canciones, eso sí, con un acento muy spanish. El ligoteo y la mezcla se produce precisamente allí, en el fondo.

El repertorio del Independance está compuesto, entre otros, por Blondie, Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, The Spinto Band, White Rose Movement, The Cure, New Order, Primal Scream, The Flaming Lips, Phoenix, The Strokes, The Arctic Monkeys, Placebo, Libertines, Radiohead, The Morning Runner, Oasis, Kasabian, Depeche Mode, Stereophonics, Snow Patrol, Nada Surf, The Killers, Alkaline Trio, Kaiser Chiefs, The Automatics, Black Cab, The Legends, Gang of Four, Pixies, The Kinks, The Who, The Jam, The Clash, Pulp, Stone Roses, James, Blur, The Cramps, Billy Idol, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Iggy Pop, Charlatans, Suede, Siouxie, The Human League, Miffits, Ramones, Sex Pistols, Los Planetas, Babyshambles, La Casa Azul, Mika, My Bloody Valentine, New York Dolls, Battles, Black Lips, Facto Delafé, Lightspeed Champion, The Kills, Lori Meyers, The Raconteurs, The Ting Tings, y un largo etcétera.

La sesión más indie de la capital abre los jueves, viernes y sábados de 24 a 6 horas. La entrada varía, aunque no suele aumentar de los 10 euros, con copa incluida. O bien dos copas por 14 euros a la entrada, 8 cada una en barra. Nada mal, visto como se las gastan o, mejor dicho, nos las hacen gastar, en otros garitos. Además, si te apuestas en su página web y les dejas su DNI la entrada te sale gratis. Entre los inconvenientes están las largas colas que se forman a la entrada del local y también en su interior. La conclusión es rápida: los puertas no respetan el aforo máximo y atestan el local, algo muy peligroso en casa de incendio o abalanchas. No es raro algún desmayo, contusión, golpe o pelea a determinadas horas por culpa precisamente de las aglomeraciones.

Para este jueves 26, New Indie Night, con los hits de sus DJs Miki Ross, Dani Less y Oskar Destroy. Al día siguiente, la fiesta de la pegatina. Una ocasión para conocer a tu pareja o pegata ideal. Y el sábado, plato principal con la fiesta oficial del grupo sueco Mando Diao, que toca el próximo 2 de diciembre en la capital. Además, tal y como ocurrió el pasado sábado con la fiesta homenaje a The Muse, se sortearán muchos articulos del merchandising de la banda nórdica y entradas para su concierto, cañero como pocos:

1) Nick Jackson y Matt Jackson derrotan a Kevin Steen y El Generico reteniendo el Campeonato en Parejas de PWG

2) Colt Cabana, Jerome Robinson y Johnny Goodtime derrotan a Austin Aries, Brandom Cutler y Dustin Cutler

Cuartos de final del torneo:

1) Kenny Omega derrota a Scott Lost

2) Joey Ryan derrota a Brian Kendrick

3) Brandom Gatson derrota a Alex Shelley

4) Roderick Strong derrota a Human Tornado

Semifinales del torneo:

1) Kenny Omega derrota a Joey Ryan

2) Roderick Strong derrota a Brandom Gatson

Final del torneo:

1) Kenny Omega derrota a Roderick Strong ganando el Campeonato Mundial de PWG

1) Brandom Cutler y Dustin Cutler derrotan a Malachi Jackson y Ryan Taylor

Torneo para definir al Campeon Mundial de PWG:

1) Kenny Omega derrota a Kevin Steen

2) Scott Lost derrota a Jerome Robinson

3) Brian Kendrick derrota a Austin Aries

4) Joey Ryan derrota a Colt Cabana

5) Brandom Gatson derrota a Nick Jackson

6) Alex Shelley derrota a El Generico

7) Roderick Strong derrota a Johnny Goodtime

Human Tornado derrota a Matt Jackson

Wiz is on a roll .. Remember “Deal or No Deal” in stores November 24th .. You can Pre-Order it HERE

AS his side started its Australian tour in shaky fashion, Windies captain Chris Gayle is on his way home to be with his seriously-ill mother…. From The Australian. Full story

This site may contain information about: modern fashion. The blog is also related to: fashion news.

Check out my guest blog appearance at the Young Publishers Today Blog.

Look there for more guest blogging and what’s new in publishing!

With all the talk about the Price Wars of ‘09 and Border’s closing of 200 Waldenbooks stores in the new year, it seems about time to take a closer look at those quaint little retailers known as the indies.

Like Godzilla on his rampage, the major chains seem to be taking over the book world as we know it, especially the online market moguls like Amazon. So do who really needs the Independent booksellers anymore?

We do.

It’s not the fantasy-land, glass-half-full ideal that indies care about the book as a book, not as a means of profit; nor is it the intangible, feel-good loyalty and trust that the 1998 chick flick “You’ve Got Mail” was dead set on encapsulating.

No, it’s a much more corporate concept: Indie’s sell the unsellable book.

Anyone can push a unit of Stephen Kings, James Pattersons, and Stephanie Meyers. But it takes the skill and tenacity of an Independent to apply the right debut author to the right niche market. With hundreds of books coming out each season of each year, it’s a wonder readers don’t have the NYT Bestseller list memorized. How else can you get in and out of the mammoth bookstore with a guaranteed good-read, and NOT spend hours scouring the shelves?

Enter the Independent. Like the Caped Crusader, these stores swoop in unexpectedly, saving us from the shallow, trashy $7 paperbacks and the $30 bricks of predictable plot-lines. Instead we discover the next Garth Stein, Greg Mortenson, and Michael Pollan. Why does it work? Because Indies have a target audience, and know, it isn’t anyone who can read. They know their books like they know their alphabet; and when it comes time to buy from the publisher, their numbers are small, but they can play a huge roll in making or breaking your book.

Let me put it this way, when buying your vegetables, who do you trust more: the Stop & Shop CEO, or the gentleman at the Farmer’s Market? (I’ve always been a bit of a farmgirl myself.)

Yläpuolella on kansi S/mileagen kolmanteen indiessingleen, Suki-chaniin. Alapuolella myös singlen kappalelista. Single julkaistaan 23.11.

1. Suki-chan
2. Suki-chan (Instrumental)

S/mileagen kolmas indiessingle on nimetty Suki Chaniksi. Single ilmestyy 23.11.

En Los Angeles, California se celebrara la cuarta edicion de WrestleReunion para el mes de enero del 2010, WrestleReunion es una convencion de fans del wrestling que a la vez cuenta con una serie de combates,  los invitados de esta convencion seran los luchadores de ROH y PWG ademas de leyendas y ex-luchadores entre ellos:

* Rob Van Dam

* Bruno Sanmartino

* Jushin Liger

* Dan Severn

* Chavo Guerrero Sr.

* Bret Hart

* Scotty 2 Hotty

* Road Warrior Animal

* Larry Zbyszko

* Diamond Dallas Page

* Koko B. Ware

* Nick Bockwinkel

* Austin Idol

* Stan Hansen

* Demolition (Ax y Smash)

* Sunny

* Terri Runnels

Click here for a Barnes & Noble free novel. (And check out their Nook while you’re there. Looks pretty slick.)

Jonathan Poritsky wrote a post back in June outlining his thoughts on how Wave could streamline the movie-making process – specifically, post production workflows. He’s now made that post into a wave called ‘Google Wave for Filmmakers: Wave Edition.’

An early example of a filmmaking wave is a short film called Sanctuary. Their wave is entitled ‘Sanctuary – remixable film – dev wave.’

Sanctuary is a “re-mixable Science fiction film” directed by Michela Ledwidge. It’s been in production for a number of years, due to budget issues. The film is currently in post-production and Ledwidge is attempting to use Wave to assist with that process.

Sanctuary brief from Michela Ledwidge on Vimeo.

A useful sampler of articles, blog posts and resources for creating a social media plan for your film.

Social Media Resources and Inspiration for Independent Filmmakers | culturalentrepreneur.org | Britt | Bravo.

As you’ve been hearing or have already experienced firsthand, Amazon’s giving Indie Authors a real run for the money lately, making it harder and harder for the Indies to sell on their site–virtually no discounts now, no search suggestions anymore, no promotions, no nothing. This makes it more important than ever to create quality products to list on Amazon: Kindle books that are equal to or superior to the mainstream publications, and first rate paperbacks that can hold their own against unfair competition from mainstream publishers that Amazon overtly favors with major discounts, massive email marketing campaigns, site-wide promotions, etc.

It also means that the Indies will have to be more resourceful than ever, too, in driving the sales of their independently-produced titles on sites like Amazon and elsewhere.

With that in mind, if you’re an Indie Author (or publisher) of any genre, who sells on Amazon and other locations, too, we cordially invite you to post your titles FOR FREE on our blog here, *including images and active links to them, if you choose. We ask only that you NOT make your book blurbs too long-winded and that you properly place your title submissions by using the respective tabs up there on the menu bar. Note also that we won’t be pasting any PayPal ‘buy now’ buttons on our blogsite, either. (All this is intended to keep things neat and tidy for those readers just visiting us in order to peruse the Indie A-lists we’re compiling.)

And yes, there is an A-List in progress for Indie Artists as well. So, link up, musicians and filmmakers, but just be aware that the same guidelines apply as above in creating your listings, too.

Finally, a brief message to anyone considering listing titles with us: Don’t submit junk, spam, or porn links, please, because it won’t get approved by the Administrators. This is an Indie honor system and reasonable standards apply. (But that’s what an A-List is all about now, isn’t it?)

Have a great day all…and sell, sell, sell!

*Just click the ‘INDIE Store & More’ tab on the menu bar above for information on how to promote your titles here for free, with images and links to them galore.

Amazonged Again: Just as Amazon’s Kindle is about to take the big plunge and make its way across the ocean–glub, glub, glub, another Kindle swindle flub, as the world’s most tedious and awkward publishing platform since chisel and stone continues its slow-mo implosion toward oblivion, a fate which, if ever fully realized, I’d have to say is well-deserved.

Chiseled Again: Indie Publishers and Authors utilizing Amazon’s Digital-Text-Platform to release their e-books into the Kindle Store got another rude awakening this week as they logged into their accounts to check the monthly sales reports and discovered to their dismay that they had all been wiped clean by Amazon! About the twelfth such DTP accounting “glitch” in as many months now.

Defying All Statistical Probabilities Again: You’d think, with all these frequent accounting irregularities of Amazon’s–years’ worth of them–that once in awhile the Indies would come out ahead.from a glitch, maybe wake up to find $10,000 or so of unearned royalties accidentally misappropriated into their accounts, BUT, NOPE, IT AIN’T HAPPENED YET…

“Fixed” Again: Understandably, the DTP Publishers’ forums quickly filled up with pandemonium and, of course, with urgent posts demanding an explanation from the typically AWOL administrators who make it a habit to ignore such important requests. Hours and hours and hours passed by in silence, and then:

“Dear Publishers, The problem with the Month-to-date reports has been fixed. Please check your reports and write to us at dtp-feedback @amazon.com in case you’ve further questions. Thank you.”

But No Answers Again: Yeah, yeah, yeah, they don’t mean a word of it. And, what’s worse, there are still plenty of DTP publishers claiming that their sales reports still aren’t “fixed” today!

So, don’t touch that dial–I’ll be keeping you posted on all this.

Francine

World-famous cricket legend Brian Lara shows President Obama how to properly swing a bat on April 19, 2009. April 20, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

With his brand-new, big, beautiful, gay thing The GLBT Bookshelf, Down Under’s, Mel Keegan, isn’t going south just because Amazon won’t get off its radical right-wing soapbox concerning independently-produced GLBT titles on its site. No sirree…

BUT FIRST: Yes, Ol’ Bezos has been very, very busy these many months since his April 2009 Glitchfest caper/debacle/fiasco. Busy, busy, busy burying the Indies alive on Amazon, especially those offering–gasp!–queer literature. Take a stroll now along Amazon’s virtual bookshelves and you’ll find lots and lots of missing items there! Gone too from its site are the many important features that all the savvy Indies once relied upon to market their drastically under-promoted titles on Amazon. For instance:

• The once popular Amazon-Connect profiles and blogs, which used to appear on all participating authors’ individual detail pages, have now been replaced with the exceptionally inferior (but highly-touted) “Author Central” profiles. Next to impossible to find, Author-Central is a boring and cheesy substitute for its predecessor, and deliberately antithetical to “connecting” Amazon customers with writers, unless those writers are already well known to them. It’s also cumbersome for Amazon itself, since every single one of its listed authors, dead or alive, has to have a profile created for them now, whether or not they want one! And the blogs themselves, with no image loading capacity, etc? What a freakin’ joke. Only three posts allowed per author and any earlier ones in excess of three are automatically deleted–geesh, what a bunch of cheapskates! Of course, they’re pretending they’re actually doing authors a favor here, but, in reality, Amazon’s paltry Author-Central will probably never even be fully implemented because, with over 25,000,000 print books alone in their catalog, it’s a pretty daunting task to complete. Clearly, however, it’s well worth all that wasted effort and the huge inconvenience since it’s already effectively silenced and obscured the tens of thousands of Independent Authors listing on their site and, not incidentally, all but decimated their sales. And that’s just part and parcel of the bigger plan to give back to the major publisher’s the 20% market share they claim the Indies “stole” from them…
• No more Indie discounts in the Kindle store, either, means that sales of the majority of the alleged 350,000+ Kindle books in there are being deliberately hindered by Amazon in order to give the remaining overpriced ones of the beleagured majors an advantage they just haven’t earned, or deserve. On this note, it’s never a very good economic indicator, folks, when a company starts cannibalizing one class of its vendors in order to prop up the lagging sales of another with deeper pockets. Nope, not a good sign at all, Amazon.
• The case of the disappearing Search Suggestions–bezillions of them!–looks pretty bad too, as both customers and Indie booksellers alike have been stricken (and gagged) by this new policy. Could deleting millions of search suggestions really have a negative impact on the Indies’ book sales? Egads, better believe it!
• A disappearing sales ranks, or missing sales rank, or a rank which is frozen periodically, despite sales, SUCKS big time! While this practice has fallen under the public’s radar of late, rest assured, it’s still in full force on Amazon, in both their print and digital catalogs. You’re not hearing too much about it in the major presses, however, because Amazon doesn’t pull this stunt on them. In fact, it’s to their benefit!
• Digital Text Publishing: “It’s your thing. Do it. Your way…or else!” Amazon’s big come-on to its U.S. customers to just log on and start publishing in the Kindle store is a true bait-and-switch technique, if you’ve ever seen one. When the Justice Department finally gets wind of this scheme, here are a few deceptive practices they will probably eagerly investigate:

1. Massive Digital Text Platform accounting failures and irregularities.
2. An erroneous accounting system constantly being redesigned to provide less and less sales information and data to its DTP Publishers.
3. Major Publishers’ “freebies” and Amazon’s “freebies” misrepresented site-wide and in direct e-mail marketing campaigns as “bestsellers” and “also-boughts” (anti-trust violation).
4. Blocking DTP Indie Publishers from offering “freebies” of any kind and barring their participation in the rather unique free promotion (anti-trust violation)
5. Blocking DTP Publishers from publishing the most popular public domain titles and removing those published in the past from the Kindle shelves, so that from here on in only the majors and Amazon can offer these books for purchase (anti-trust violation).
6. Blocking DTP Publishers’ from making real-time price changes and product updates, allegedly to police Indies from public domain publishing.

• Discount Disparity & Discrimination: Yes, Amazon is the world’s largest discount retailer, but less than 9% of all Independent titles are ever discounted by Amazon in their print catalog, and a shocking 0% of those Indie titles published through DTP (Kindle) are discounted in the Kindle Store! Hurting Indie book sales any? OUCH!

(To be continued, so please do check back for the complete and updated post. And thank you for dropping in right now!)

1) Caleb Konley derrota a QT Marshall

2) Bruce Santy derrota a Slyck Sleazy

3) La lucha entre Kory Chavis y Jon Davis contra Mike Shane y Todd Shane termina en No Contest

4) TJ Perkins derrota a Sal Rinauro clasificando al combate por la “Copa en memoria de Jeff Peterson”

5) Chris Jones derrota a Chasyn Rance clasificando al combate por la “Copa en memoria de Jeff Peterson”

6) Brad Attitude derrota a Rhett Titus, Phil Davis y Amy Vitale ganando el Campeonato Heritage de Florida

7) Tommy Taylor y Chris Gray derrotan a Roderick Strong y Erick Stevens en un Steel Cage Match ganando el Campeonato en Parejas de FIP

Davey Richards derrota a Kenny King en un Steel Cage Match reteniendo el Campeonato Mundial de FIP