As much as I don’t like feeding the Amazon collective, I had to publish the new AutoHotkey Hotkeys book on the Internet behemoth. I’ve never cared for the heavy handed way that Amazon treats independent authors. However, since they dominate the e-book market, it would be foolish for me to boycott the e-tail giant. Plus, I don’t want to make it more difficult for those people who love their Kindles.

Other than a royalty structure which forces me and other independent authors to conform to arbitrary pricing rules, Amazon imposes on the writer an exorbitant download fee on every e-book sold. (Even iTunes doesn’t do that, but I don’t put the books on iTunes because I haven’t found it worth the effort—at least for Windows related books.) If you happen to include any graphics in the book (which I do), then you get charged through the nose. Since we can’t exact a higher price on Amazon than anywhere else, we must begrudgingly accept the terms.

Plus, the European Union recently forced Amazon to charge a country’s individual Value Added Tax (VAT) on each purchase. I wouldn’t have minded that so much, but Amazon, rather than just tacking the VAT onto the price of a book, automatically took it out of the author’s cut. Now, I’m forced to increase the price individually for each country with a VAT.

Amazon is not a huge source of sales, but it always does well on Google searches. I regard Amazon more as a marketing opportunity for AutoHotkey than a viable outlet for my books. I would certainly prefer that people buy directly from ComputorEdge E-Books where I’m not encumbered with silly rules. Overseas buyers will likely find better deals since I don’t collect VAT. (I’ll go underground before I do that.) Plus, I can proffer deals by putting together bundles with books not available on Amazon.

I created the AutoHotkey Library Deal for two reasons. First, I could offer the entire set of books as an AutoHotkey reference set for a reduced price. Second, by combining all the books and e-book formats (EPUB, MOBI, and PDF for viewing and printing) into one package, it reduced the sifting necessary by the reader. It’s not always easy to know where to start or which e-book format is best for you. Remember, this package is only available at ComputorEdge E-Books.

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If you own a Web site or blog, you can join the ComputorEdge E-Books affiliate sales program free and earn extra income on Jack’s AutoHotkey books. For more information, check out my blog on the “ComputorEdge E-Books Affiliates Sales Program.” Qualifying AutoHotkey sites can earn higher commissions than those listed in the program by contacting me directly: