The Bookseller.com

12th October 2008

John R Ingram is chairman of Lightning Source Inc.

An inappropriate action

09.04.08

The questions that are being raised about Amazon.com and its Booksurge division don't directly relate to Ingram – either Lightning Source Inc or Ingram Book Group – but it clearly is alarming many of our publisher partners.

Publishers are telling us they feel Amazon.com's actions are not appropriate. They have called us in recent days about confusing communications they have received from Booksurge, and we have attempted to learn about this from Amazon.com directly. And today, we have just received an "open letter" from Amazon.com, which we and the publisher community will attempt to digest. So far we've been unable to get a response directly from Amazon.com.

We all live in a world where decisions are made about insourcing and outsourcing, and free choice is important. At Ingram Book and Lightning Source, we are going to work really hard to continue to be the compelling choice as publishers make their outsourcing decisions. Our breadth of distribution channels including the online retailers remains the same, and Ingram still provides one day turnaround in the fulfillment of orders for books including print on demand titles.

At Lightning Source, we produce a great product and thus do justice to our publishers' valuable titles. There is no question that we provide the highest print quality, the fastest turnaround speeds, and the most comprehensive portfolio of channels for a publisher's books.