Amazon's BXGY: Good Letters, Bad Numbers?

by Staff -- Publishers Weekly, 4/18/2005

Small presses are reacting to news of Amazon's controversial co-op pairings by offering strong criticism—of a different program.

Some houses who read PW's story two weeks ago about BXGY, which allows a publisher to pay $750 to obtain title-page placement with bestsellers, said that they see the benefits of the program, but are critical of the policy that underpins the program: Amazon co-op.

The company requires publishers to contribute co-op dollars of roughly 3% of their Amazon sales in the previous year or risk not turning up in searches. The lax requirements for BXGY, which exercises little editorial control and basically allows any bidder to participate, is mostly favored by small houses. But some said they're participating only because it presents the least undesirable choice from among a set of evils.

"Rather than risk [not being found in searches], we 'chose' to spend co-op money with them, and the most affordable option for us is BXGY," said a publisher at one small house. If it were up to this house, the publisher said, they wouldn't spend the money at all.

The program's costs are a study in relativity: publishers of Amazon bestsellers believe $750 is too low a price and fosters unfair piggybacking. But small houses believe it is too high, given their limited budgets.

Indeed, one small press noted that the program "increased sales of our title, but not enough to justify the money it cost us to participate." Then the publisher added, "But given Amazon's stance on co-op and search placements, we will 'voluntarily' participate again."