From Forward:
In 2005, Internet giant Amazon swallowed up yet another smaller fish, the self-publishing company CreateSpace, which made it possible to market titles in dozens of languages. Last year, in a decision that you would be forgiven for missing, Amazon announced that CreateSpace was merging with another division: Kindle Direct Publishing, now known as KDP. One Amazon province cannibalizes another. Nothing new there.
But it turns out that this move might endanger the important and unique realm of new Yiddish prose — a forum particularly important to Hasidim since a book released by CreateSpace can be publicized affordably, and sold on Amazon without the author giving his real name. (In the Hasidic community, anonymity is useful and even necessary online). Hasidic blogger Katle Kanye, one of the Forward 50 and often mentioned in the Yiddish Forward, chose CreateSpace to publish his sharp critique of what he says is the failed Chasidic education system.
Another Hasidic forum for self-expression in Yiddish is the online journal Der Veker, or The Alarm, a publication aimed at Hasidim who want to read about sensitive topics. In other Hasidic publications these topics might be censored or not discussed at all.
. . . .
Moving CreateSpace to KDP has made it impossible to self-publish titles on Amazon in a number of languages that used to be available, including Yiddish and Hebrew. Without CreateSpace, it becomes prohibitive for small periodicals written in minority languages, like Der Veker, to keep publishing.
. . . .
Why did the language selection change when CreateSpace merged with KDP? It’s not clear. Even years ago, when there were several separate divisions of Amazon devoted to self-publishing, each had its list of permissible languages which were technically possible. One should also note that other languages written right-to-left, like Arabic, are still publishing options on KDP. Why Arabic and not Yiddish, Hebrew, or other languages? It seems plausible that larger languages are economically and culturally valued by Amazon, while minority languages are left in the dust.
Reached by the Forverts, an Amazon spokesperson responded: “We are aware that because certain CreateSpace languages are not yet available on KDP, some authors and readers will be unable to publish and read new titles in those languages (all previous titles remain available). We are actively reviewing author and reader feedback to evaluate which features and services we offer in the future, including expanding KDP’s supported languages.”
Link to the rest at Forward
The issue described in the OP was completely absent from PG’s radar prior to his reading the article.
Without knowing details, he wonders if Amazon may have problems finding enough employees who are fluent in some languages to review POD books for errors of various types or for content that violates KDP’s Terms of Service.
PG will be interested to see how this matter plays out.
Without knowing details, he wonders if Amazon may have problems finding enough employees who are fluent in some languages to review POD books for errors of various types or for content that violates KDP’s Terms of Service.
—
They’re an “internet company.” They can hire remote employees who speak almost any language.
Has Amazon ever advertised for Yiddish speakers? Or they set their bar so high (credentials, low pay, relocation) nobody was interested?
It’s all Amazon’s fault. Everything is all Amazon’s fault. Always…
Speaking of dead bodies . . .
I have evidence that Jeff’s divorce has distracted him enough from business that Amazon has suffered.
1. The ‘Share’ option — the one that gives ‘Link: az.shorturl.com’ — no longer works. At least not for me. But I just disabled Microsoft Outlook. I don’t see how they can be connected, but maybe they are.
2. Breaking News.
Last week, I opened my Kindle for PC to discover that Breaking News was gone. (PG, On a side note, I sent a note to you through your Contact option at the top of the page. Before I have received an auto-reply to each note, but this time — zilch.) I navigated to Content and Devices under My Account at amazon.com and had it delivered (or so I thought) to my Kindle for PC. Never got it. I see that the cover has changed. Could this have something to do with the absence of Breaking News from my Kindle inventory?
I still have the book in my Calibre library — and that is the reason my Calibre library is there.
I see the first cracks in the monolith.
There are other cracks. The Atlantic is sometimes hysterical, but this article touches down on a topic that Amazon needs to deal with, even though dealing with it is not in Amazon’s DNA.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/01/counterfeit-canada-goose-amazon/581041/
The problem with fakes and dealing with them is that we have people screaming ‘fake’ about things that aren’t – because they don’t like them or the company selling them. Heck, there are companies paying to have other companies stuff pulled to reduce competition.
So, should Amazon let the fakers enjoy their ride until they get enough complaints – or should they lock them out at the first claim of ‘fake’?
Before anyone answers that, please remember we’ve watched Amazon in action on these very pages. The fake/junk ebooks on KU sucking up the page counts – and a piece of the money pot. Oh the cries that ‘Amazon must do something’ – and the even louder cries when Amazon did indeed ‘do something’ and it caught some of those that thought that they weren’t doing anything wrong by those same rules.
It used to be (sadly it is no longer) said that it was said that it was better that a hundred guilty go free than one non-guilty be hung. Now it seems the only time we worry about that non-guilty one is when it turns out to be ‘us’ …
The Atlantic is sometimes hysterical, but this article touches down on a topic that Amazon needs to deal with, even though dealing with it is not in Amazon’s DNA.
Why do they need to deal with it? What if they don’t?
I remember all the folks a few years back who told us Amazon had to deal with the poorly edited and written independent books. They didn’t. Consumers figured out how to deal with the market.
Consumers figure out how to deal with the market.
In this case, if a good-sized mass of consumers come to feel that brands sold on Amazon can’t be trusted, they’ll figure out that they should shop somewhere else. Thus, if Amazon doesn’t do something about the problem of fakes posing as real brands, Amazon will suffer.
The article details a shopping experience for a pricey winter jacket called “Canada Goose” brand, and how the writer purchased a jacket from “Canada Goose” only to receive a poor quality fake.
This happens because Amazon does not require sellers clearly identify themselves. Some guy in China with crappy knock-off jackets can say he’s “Canada Goose”, and Amazon allows that. It is misrepresentation, and Amazon is complicit, and it ultimately hurts Amazon.
In this case, if a good-sized mass of consumers come to feel that brands sold on Amazon can’t be trusted, they’ll figure out that they should shop somewhere else.
Could be. That’s what we were told about books. Without policing books for editing and quality, consumers would go somewhere else.
We heard the same thing about how authors would reserve a place in one of the hordes that was scheduled to leave due to Select, exclusivity, KU, KU payments, cancellation of accounts, word counts, and a lack of concierge author care.
The track record of Amazon exit predictions is a bit dim. We are learning how consumers deal with the online market. Observation will tell us about consumer behavior.
Oy vey. Not again. Oy gevalt.
I may just be a mashugana goyim, but that doesn’t sound right.
I’m all fertummelt.
Since the paper books use pdf to create the book, that’s text and picture, why should they care about the language since pdf is just an image.
I suspect that the author simply likes to kvetch. HA!
I don’t mean to kibitz(that’s not true, I was born to kibitz), but give them time to transition fully to KDP and things will work out. After all, they have to schlep all those files over to the new system, then fine tune things.
Now, I need to get off my tuchus and get back to work. The books don’t write themselves. HA!
And of course, if Jeff Bezos can not be made to see reason, there is the old Yiddish curse:
“My the hair in your ears grow long and curly.”
I’m still trying to figure out who, when, and how I annoyed a Yiddish speaker.
Adobe can handle Yiddish, but only with third party add-ons (so my quick research tells me).
So far as I know (could be incorrect, I haven’t kept up with this for a couple of years), Ingram Spark will take a PDF and print it directly (no conversion step), and will distribute through Amazon as well as others – for a fairly hefty cut, of course. When I looked at it, though, you have to create a PDF with extremely stringent formatting, because it is just fed directly into the printer. Embed all fonts, get the bleed margins correct, etc.
I just noticed, on the old Yiddish curse, that it should be “May the hair…” not “My…”
Goodness! I’m so verklempt.
So, what did the Forward 50 and the Yiddish Forward use before CreateSpace came along?
Mimeographs, most likely. Maybe Kinkos.
So, an author can’t hide his identity while writing in a language that is not available?
You can sell books on KDP under a pseudonym, so I’m not sure what the OP is getting at there.
A pseudonym won’t help when KDP doesn’t accept manuscripts in the language.
http://www.myebook.co.za/will-amazon-kdp-publish-a-book-written-in-your-language
An interesting unspoken context here is that the OP considers Amazon such an important platform that if it’s unavailable, new Yiddish writing is “DOOMED”, IE, that there are no workable alternatives.
Yeah, I’m not sure what the issue there is, either. There are still a number of Jewish presses and publishing houses, and there are other venues like Nook Press, Lightning Source, etc.
Do any of those support Yiddish, though?
What they’re bemoaning is the loss of an un-gatekept, open, channel that supported their language.
KDP language support is a sore point with a lot of people; I’ve seen similar concerns from Poland and India, from people who wish they had comparable distribution for their ideas and stories.
For Amazon it’s an economic issue about the cost of supporting alternate typographies but for them it’s a “freedom of expression” issue. It might not be world-shattering but it isn’t trivial either.
Btw, the concern seems to be more about print than digital.
So, while Smashwords supports Yiddish, they don’t do print.
Considering the Jewish press houses regularly publish books in Hebrew, my guess is yes. But you’re right, they aren’t for indies. If they’re looking for something like Createspace, nope, can’t think if anything like that for print books. Ingram Spark isn’t quite the same.