THE GREAT AMAZON ASSOCIATES SWINDLE

  

Today I received an email telling me that various parts of my agreement between Amazon and myself have changed.

I have a few links on websites to books that I have read and think others might like. Just makes for a slightly better, more interactive experience etc

For this I would receive a small (and it really is small) % of the selling price of the book. This works well. I've probably made about £50-£100 in total since 1998 when I first used this system. It's not a business empire!

But today's slight amendments to their operating agreement include this little gem hidden away in the legal speak and small type..

"If you have not earned any advertising fees in the 3 years prior to any given calendar month, then on the first day of that calendar month we may charge you an account maintenance fee that will be deducted from your unpaid accrued advertising fees. That account maintenance fee will be (i) £10 if your advertising fees were earned from Qualifying Purchases occurring on the Amazon UK Site or €10 if your advertising fees were earned from Qualifying Purchases occurring on each of the Amazon DE Site, Amazon FR Site or Amazon IT Site; and (ii) the amount of unpaid accrued advertising fees in your account. We may also in this case close your account and terminate this agreement."

What?!

So, if your account isn't used for a while and you decide to go back in and help Amazon make more sales you'd better make sure you have earned something from the referral system in the past 3 years.

If not, the way I read it, your referral income better be more than £25 in total (they hold fees until they reach this limit to pay direct your bank). If it falls under £25 and you have not earned any fees on your account for 3 years then they will charge you £10 off your fees earned (the text in green) PLUS take all your fees earned to date (the sky blue text).  Then they say they 'may' - presumably if they are feeling particularly miserly that day -close your account and terminate the agreement.

Nice one Amazon.

I've been sat here thinking I'm doing you a favour all the time and now you're about to kick me in the face and chuck me off the programme.

Not before I've terminated 'my' agreement with you you're not.

Suffice to say, my websites won't feature book recommendations with links to Amazon on them any longer. Amazon should remember one thing. There are other booksellers on the web. And some of the household web names of today didn't exist only a few years ago.

Good business strategy Amazon.

 

AND ON THE SMOOTH TIP..

  

Most of the people that read my blog will not have a clue what I'm talking about with this title.. but hey! you have to learn (at least) one new thing every day don't you? Read on.

I currently have two books in my live reading list pile - one hilarious and one very very enlightening and informative..

So to hilarity..

Touch Wood, Confessions of an Accidental Porn Director... I found this book by accident in a store in London.  Heading for lunch with a few hours to spare before my next meeting and on my own.  I read the back and it sounded brilliant - a fly on the wall, possibly spoof? docu-diary by an anonymous author.  An account of setting up a porn movie business and running around England making mistake after mistake in the process.  It was cheap enough to take a chance on so it was bought.  I opened it and couldn't stop reading and laughing - whizzing through most of the book by the time I stepped off the train home that evening.

It is hilarious, revelatory, I think probably written by someone in the business but maybe not a real porn business owner.

The thing is it seems to have hit a vein in the UK public and is selling like crazy.  I checked amazon to provide a link on this blog and they appear to have only 3 left in stock?!  For a cheap new release that is some going.  So - unashamedly - I recommend everyone who reads this to click the link and buy the book (new or second hand).  And, yes, I do get a referral fee! Not much, but it might add up to the price of my next book over time.

So, on to the much more enlightening (but also at times funny)Jeff Chang. This book is called Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-hop Generation. A proper account of the social/economic/political impacts of the hip hop generation.

In case you're already jumping to the all too wrong conclusion that I'm talking about rap music here. Think again! Hip hop is a culture, it is a culture that has roots way back and is far greater than the pop-rap world that most (very unfortunately) associate with the hip hop tag these days. Hip hop truly is a way of life - one that I and many of my white British friends follow in the way they live, view the world, etc as far apart as we are from the Bronx in the 80s or LA in the early 90s and certainly even further away from the diamond (diamante?) wearing bling rappers of today. Why do they wear stupid jewellery like that?

This book does concentrate on the hip hop phenomenon from a US perspective - and that's the only criticism I'd have of it - but it sets out the roots of the culture well; the interactions between the black inner city deprived neighbourhoods and Jewish middle class white boy world that is US hip hop, telling tales of some very strong minded people along the way.

Again, if you have an interest, click the link.

What was that about the smooth tip? Sorry, this does come from rap - an old phrase that people used to use instead of the more modern 'chillin' out'... (also the title of a favourite 12" vinyl of mine - a 1988 release by female rapper Sweet Tee - On The Smooth Tip) so, now you know.

I will resume my usual ranting broadcast of things that annoy me in my next blog.
  

DAMN FLYERS!

  
So, it's Philadelphia Flyers v Chicago Blackhawks in the 2010 Stanley Cup Final..

.. and there was me getting all excited that it might just feature the Montreal Canadiens (my favourite team).  They were rank outsiders going into the playoffs and managed to weed out both Washington (the No.1 contenders) and Pittsburgh (the current holders of the Cup).

Oh well, back to reading tales of the Stanley Cup!

A great book I picked up in New York a few years ago.