Interview with a Trainer -- Jerry Bradshaw - Page 1

I read this interview with great pleasure and was very impressed by Mr. Bradshaw - so much so that I immediately went to Amazon to purchase his book "Controlled Aggression." I’m very much looking forward to the book, but am posting this message as a word of caution to others who might be interested about purchasing it from Amazon, I was very dissatisfied with my purchase experience when I bought the book. Amazon.com is selling this book for more than it can be purchased directly from the publisher and I feel, being less than forthcoming with information that should clearly disclosed to the purchaser. I received quite an education on "print on demand" publishing today and intend to share this so that others don't end up bearing the additional expense or going through the frustration I have.

The book, "controlled Aggression" is a "print on demand" title available through LuLu Press. Evidently, this is a new kind of publisher that saves costs by not having to mass produce titles in large quantities, allowing for small and niche authors to have their books printed, where in the past they might not have been - as the large publishers might not have picked them up due to limited interest in the title due to niche focus. This sounds great to me as it allows books (such as Controlled Aggression - which looks to be a great read) to be published, where in the past it might not have been. Essentially what happens is that they (LuLu) do not print copies of the book until someone purchases one. Great idea on the surface – however, also a very “new” angle on the standard practice of purchasing a book and frankly something I’d guess most people haven’t experienced yet. This has direct bearing on my dissatisfaction with Amazon during this purchase.

Amazon never (that I could tell) indicated to me that the book is print on demand – and in fact, I only realized it AFTER my purchase. I noticed there was something unusual, based on my previous purchase experiences with Amazon, when I received an email (from Amazon) which stated “You have chosen to ship your order via Standard shipping. The delivery estimate for this method to your address is 2 to 15 business days after shipping.” (which equals up to 24 or more “real” days when including weekends and a holiday or two…) To my knowledge there was never any mention on Amazons part that made me aware of the “print on demand” nature of this product during the order process – certainly nothing that stood out to me – and even this quote doesn’t spell it out. They use the term “standard shipping” to cover a lot more than one might assume –since shipping typically means just that, not actually producing the item as well. This is my first big problem with the whole thing, I feel to not clearly disclose such information (that what you are purchasing might not even made yet and could possibly take much longer to receive than an already printed volume) is simply a deceptive business practice. I don’t appreciate being duped – which is how I felt I was treated. If the process of printing and delivering a “print on demand” book took no longer than the typical timeframe for a purchase of a book already in print that would be one thing, but when it could take substantially longer (since many, if not most in-print books through Amazon can be had in a few days or less depending on availability) that fact should be clearly disclosed up front.

continued in next post...