Amazon Exposed for its Highhandedness
Amazon Inc., highly reputed across the globe, is actually behaving absolutely highhandedly and NOT even paying its due royalty share to its authors (myself no exception) under its banner of so-called direct publishing OR self-publishing, that is KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing)!
I’ve authored so many books for KDP/Amazon Inc., including the highly famous ‘KALIYUG KI RAMAYAN’ series of 21 e-books / HALF AN AUTUMN (Poetry, Novella & Short Stories) / Human Values & Ethics, any Takers! / 31 Fateful Stories / ‘The Autumnal Voice (Happiness within N without)’ / The C Programming Language / Systems Analysis and Design / See Thru C++ / The Essentials of JAVA / Java-J2EE Interview Questions (with Ready Answers) / The Essentials of C#4.0 / ‘a-z ‘!
Of these, ‘KALIYUG KI RAMAYAN’, HALF AN AUTUMN, 31 Fateful Stories &
‘a – z’ were written exclusively on the KDP platform.
‘Human Values & Ethics, any Takers!’ was first published on my own with ISBN 978-93-5067-828-2 in 2012 and then later passed on to Amazon Inc.
The Autumnal Voice (Happiness within N without) of which I hold all the copyrights reg.no. L-10337 dated 27/11/2017 was first published by Notion Press with ISBN 978-1-947634-47-3 and they too duly passed it on to Amazon Inc. under KDP.
The C Programming Language with ISBN 978-81-7319-812-0 was published by one MR NK MEHRA H/o NAROSA PUBLISHING HOUSE PVT. LTD. 22, Darya GANJ, DMA Road, New Delhi 110002 in the year 2008 and reprinted first in 2009 and then again in Oct’2015 with subsequent raises in L.P. of the book significantly, showing & indicating its popular worth amongst esteemed readers, undergraduate & postgraduate students, teachers and professionals alike.
He used to send me pre-fabricated royalty statements and then passed on the publishing rights to US based global concern Amazon India Ltd. without my express permission as the sole author of the aforementioned book in gross and total violation of the publishing contract & agreement per se.
Amazon Inc. has gone on to translate this book into Spanish, French, German and Russian without paying me a single pie!
On similar lines, one MR ASOKE KR GHOSH H/o PHI LEARNING PRIVATE LIMITED, RIMJHIM House, 111, PATPARGANJ IND. ESTATE, DELHI 110092, has abused his powers and indulged in gross harassment and non-payment of actual amounts by way of actual royalties due to me and indulged in gross violation of the contract agreement for the richly technical book – “Systems Analysis and Design” with ISBN 978-81-203-4284-2 which I wrote exclusively & inclusively for them in the year 2011.
He has not only sent me pre-fabricated royalty statements ever since then but even passed on the publishing rights to the US based global concern Amazon India Ltd. without my express permission as the sole author of the aforementioned book in gross & total violation of the spirit of the publishing agreement & contract per se.
Again, one MR ASHOK KHANNA H/o KHANNA BOOK PUBLISHING CO. (P) LIMITED, Delhi (4C/4344, ANSARI ROAD, DARYAGANJ, New Delhi 11002 with apparently fake-run assumed office 1695-95, First Floor, NAI SARAK, DELHI 110006 within India) has abused his powers and indulged in gross harassment and non-payment of even a single penny by way of actual royalties due to me for the following four richly enriching technical books the last three of which carry appropriate CD-ROMs alongside specially & especially prepared for them by me starting with the year 2011 –
1 See thru C++ with ISBN: 978-93-80016-73-3
2 The Essentials of JAVA with CD-ROM, first edition 2012, ISBN 978-93-81068-63-2
3 Java/J2EE Interview Questions [with ready Answers] CD-ROM included; first edition 2013 with ISBN: 978-93-81068-84-7
4 The Essentials of C# 4.0 with CD-ROM, ISBN: 978-93-810016-47-2
In the latest turn of events, he too has passed the sale & distribution of these exemplary book-treats to the multinational US based MNC Amazon India Ltd. to further maximize his profits without having had to pay me a single penny per se.
HALFANAUTUMN Copyright © 2017 ARUNESH GOYAL (All rights reserved)
ISBN-10: 1973191547,
ISBN-13: 978-1973191544
Is divided into three genres – Poetry, Novella & Short Stories, but each one carries an undercurrent of deep rooted love, ancient Indian culture, philosophy as well as spirituality.
The poetry part is titled “I am NOT a poet……BUT Life is a Song of LOVE”, and that is exactly what it is! I do not claim to be any poet but whatever I pen down are but lyrics of pure N pristine Love at its best; you may now call them poems, rhymes or verses, or whatever you choose to! I write about life which is nothing but a magnum opus of sheer Love & Beauty! I’ve tried to jot down 22 such melodious lyrics, in all.
Then, follows the short, petite N concrete novella “BOOM-BOOM………..BANG-BANG”, which is a description of college life, the various events N interactions that take place with some of its ten parts, especially the latter ones beginning with ‘BIRTHDAYS’ having some spiritual content and/or message at their back. It’s a novel way to write a novel like story!
Finally, comes the third section on Short Stories, viz. “Time Keeps Moving……….”; Herein, each of the thirteen stories may look like mundane N a routine affair, but every story carries a moral message or something of the kind, deal as they do with sensitive matters concerning women, scenarios @ some famous N reputed institutes etc.
In KALIYUG KI RAMAYAN (KALGUT), there are 21 booklets beginning with ISBN: 9781718113909 Copyright ©2018 ARUNESH GOYAL (All rights reserved) moving on to the seventh part Copyright ©2019 ARUNESH GOYAL (All rights reserved) ISBN: 1234567890abc for the e-book, then on to the 14th one again ISBN: 1234567890abc for the e-book with Copyright ©2020 ARUNESH GOYAL (All rights reserved) and finally on to the final 21st booklet Copyright ©2020 ARUNESH GOYAL (All rights reserved) once again with ISBN: 1234567890abc for the e-book!
Each one of these 21 booklets carries varying snippets like in the twenty-first
e-book there are 94, the fourteenth one has 44; the 7th one again has 94 while the first part has got 78 bits to boot!
Most of these snippets & bits are based on Bollywood Hindi Songs which have been translated into rare pieces of solid steel like English based upon my own experiences N saga of life; physical, mental as also the spiritual facets in all their dimensions, length, breadth N width.
A complete & total picture do they convey as towards the latter parts, the fourth dimension of time too comes along, especially beginning with the fourteenth booklet.
The mystic aspect or facet of life comes along very well in five booklets – the 14th, the 16th, the 18th, the 20th & the 21st!
31 Fateful Stories Copyright © 2018 (All rights reserved)
ISBN: 9781980581031
Carries 31 fateful vivid encounters between men & women -
i. The Cost of Love
ii. Win at Last
iii. Invisible Wall of Separation
iv. Atonement
v. The Best Compromise
vi. Shadow
vii. “It so happened …………
viii. Dark Moon Shining Forth?
ix. Only ‘you’ for Me
x. Picnic Spot
xi. The Final Moment
xii. Those two Strangers
xiii. Punished to Live
xiv. Relations Changing like Clothes
xv. Marriage
xvi. Wonderful Relationship
xvii. For Sheer Pride
xviii. Fearless Decision at Last
xix. Unique Relation
xx. On my Own at Last
xxi. Win @ what Cost?
xxii. Striking the Perfect Match
xxiii. Relation of Sorrow
xxiv. One Step Above
xxv. Not willingly, but Anyway
xxvi. Going off the Track
xxvii. Dark White Spot turning Spotlessly white & sweet
xxviii. This N what else is Goodness!
xxix. Crying over Spilt milk!
xxx. Big D’s big Largesse
xxxi. The Evening Begins to Smile
Finally, we come to ‘a – z’, a treatise containing essays/memoirs/thoughts on both the mundane and the spiritual level, on each & every letter of the English alphabet!
It’s a sort of running commentary on virtually all aspects of life based on my own first-hand experiences of all sorts, good & bad, bitter & sweet, tasty & tasteless, salty OR sugary!
It even sends a cordial invitation to one n ALL to COME & Openly Debate on the following ten –
[1] Openly Looting the Public
- In the name of religion
- In the name of providing customer care n ostensible help
- In the name of modernity n debatable consumerism
- In the name of all leftover jargon n paraphernalia
[2] Parking Nuisance N Road Mayhem
- Traffic on the increase
- Lack of adequate public transport
- Lack of coordination between civic authorities, that be, such as MCD, NDMC Etc. etc.
- No ‘parking sense’ and lack of sensitivity towards others (case example: an ambulance carrying an emergency heart patient ‘obstructed’ due to road blockage)
- No rules / regulations at all, literally N virtually, being adhered to; rules / regulations, if, at all, exist only on paper!!
- Utterly disdainful selfishness on the part of each one of the commuters, or, for that matter, on the part of each one of us forming the social fabric, the so-called members of the modern ‘civil’ society!
[3] (Lack of Proper) Places / Spaces for Social Events N Public Toilets
[4] Corruption N its Ramifications
[5] OUR Unreserved ‘Reservation Policy’
[6] DEFILING the Very Places WE Worship
[7] LOOKING WITHIN rather than WITHOUT
[8] Public Dealing APATHY n Lackadaisical ATTITUDE
[9] Meditation & how to
[10] Happiness & how to be
Needless to add that these can work as a sort of self-help or guide to anyone willing to pick up & learn from them; not to forget the key role they can play towards a better life, better governess , over all betterment & a better morrow!
Well, I had thought that foreign publishers would be better than our Indian lot. They would be fair and impartial in their dealing.
But, nothing of the sort happened. If anything, Amazon Inc. under its banner of KDP has shown itself to be even more highhanded, unfair and partial in its dealings with me.
First, it started to sort of taunt me by sending amounts in single digits into my account. It tried to show off that it’s very-very righteous and was not robbing me even of a single penny due to me.
When I requested it to take off all the books published by Indian publishers under my name off its shelves, it sort of dilly dallied and put me off instead!
It even used to send me threatening emails regarding the quality of my e-books. Just imagine it had first agreed to publish them without any sort of external pull or pressure. So, why on earth should it now go back on its word & agreement, and that too, when it was not paying me virtually anything!
So, totally disheartened and completely broke, I decided to de-publish all my books which I had written exclusively for it viz., the KALIYUG KI RAMAYAN series, 31 Fateful Encounters, HALF AN AUTUMN (Poetry, Novella & Short Stories) as well as ‘a-z’!
And, just imagine, I got another email from it dated 22nd October 2020 (Thursday) which warned me about e-book quality!!
This is sheer & shocking hypocrisy, if anything!
When I’ve already broken off with Amazon Inc. & its sister concern KDP for good, why one earth should it continue to try and behave as my boss?
For one thing, it has paid me virtually nothing!
Second, it has taunted me by paying me royalty amounts in single digits
(And these amounts were almost for a period of at least three months which is just impossible by any standards even as the books I published for it were priced quite on the higher side especially the foreign paperbacks.
The Indian e-books for which I chose not to keep a very hefty price; in fact, they were priced on quite the lower side as low as Rs.51/- to Rs.101/- only so as to keep them affordable even for the common man, sold a lot.
This much I know from the reactions of the people around me, be it the ISBT or the metro station or even my neighborhood shopkeepers, ‘KALIYUG KI RAMAYAN’ was the talking point literally everywhere and literally wherever I went.
Other Indian e-books like 31 Fateful Encounters, HALF AN AUTUMN, and ‘a – z’ too must have picked up and sold quite a lot especially amongst the educated ones; this fact readily follows quite logically and quite understandably so!).
Finally, it has been earning from my books published by people of Indian origin and refused to take them off even upon my most humble & earnest request!!
This is nothing but brutal highhandedness at its highest peak!
The story has continued; first, it was NAROSA, then PHI LEARNING, on to M/s KHANNA BOOK PUBLISHING CO., all of them being local Delhi/New Delhi publishers!
Well, I thought Notion Press, being publishers from Chennai, would be better. But, they proved to be even bigger cheats robbing me off my publishing amount of almost half a lac rupees and then telling me that only two copies of THE AUTUMNAL VOICE were sold in 2017-18 for which they very righteously paid me 100% royalty as per the agreement! What a grand show off!!
And, all these publishers, whether from Delhi/New Delhi OR Chennai, passed on the publishing, distribution & sales rights to that brute of an MNC that is Amazon very conveniently since there is no law and order worth the name be it India or anywhere else.
I tried as best as I could by approaching the Police and launching a complaint with them especially with regard to the local Delhi/New Delhi publishers. But the Police chose to keep quiet and did nothing about it except silently sleeping over it and advising me to take the matter to the Court.
Now, what can a gentleman like me who has literally no income to boot, do under such circumstances? Matters in the Court take years to resolve and are both time consuming and expensive as well. Even hiring a lawyer is too cumbersome, inconvenient and involves hefty expenditure.
The publishers in Chennai that is Notion Press are sitting pretty as they know that any legal action against them would involve coming over to Chennai and fighting the court battle in their local backyard of Chennai itself, which is just totally impractical in fact virtually impossible!
Similar and even tougher is fighting the legal battle against Amazon by going over to USA and filing a case against it in the US courts!!
You can now well imagine the plight of a decent man/person/author when he has to face the onslaught of the whole publishing world especially when he has nobody to support him with not even the Police who are said to be custodians of a law abiding person.
He may be truthful and totally righteous in his conduct but how does he prove his truthfulness & righteousness is the grave question especially when he has no other means of income except writing and authoring!