Many of us will likely remember our friend @thepatwo’s 26Feb`24 SAS thread here:
The upshot of that event - as eventually admitted by KJ of the FMT-CMT (“Forum Moderation Team”-“Community Management Team”), and confirmed by a round of mea culpa emails sent to the original recipients - was that the restriction was intended only for the Brazilian Marketplace.
One of the seasoned forum veterans who still posts over in the NSFE has reported receiving the message again (embedded links ‘broken’ for Discourse Platform display):
I don’t recall if I got it the last time around or not.
It’s been several years since I’ve been able to list some of the big textbook publishers with any regularity; most Pearson and McGraw Hill titles (but not all) are blocked. Add the decline in the market due to e-books and online learning, and I’ve not focused on textbooks as I have in the past.
If the letter is based on having books listed that will be affected, it’s not surprising if I didn’t receive it.
Ditto to what Pick_by_Nisha said; I did not receive this email. I never sold standard textbooks (e.g. Organic Chemistry or such), but I do have titles that are more specialized academic reading and certainty found on reading lists for some courses - I don’t think of these as textbooks per se, but the Amazon catalog may have them classified as such - I don’t really pay attention because they have never bothered me about them. If I do wind up with an occasional title that is gated by the publisher (e.g. McGraw Hill) I just list it elsewhere.
Certainly, in some cases, they do (or at least did). When textbook restrictions were first a thing about 6 years ago, I checked some titles. Plato’s “Republic” was listed by Amazon as a “textbook”. No idea what else might be categorized such; but like you, I have a lot of academic type stuff; other than the big two publishers mentioned, no problems with listing them.
I saw the OP of that above-linked NSFE discussion reply earlier today, noting that he’s beginning to think it’s an account-specific notification - perhaps a one-off glitch - because no other seller has reported seeing the same.
Thank you for this heads-up. I did receive both the initial warning on Feb. 26 and the mea culpa on March 1, and none of my book listings were taken down. I have not received the more recent warning referenced above. I am 100 percent FBM, which might make a difference, at least on the timing of receiving the email.
I generally have not ever had problems listing textbooks, though occasionally I do acquire one that turns out to be restricted. Often, we try again at some later date and find it is no longer restricted. And usually when we go through the “apply to sell” dog-and-pony show, we get approved.
I read the handwriting on the Amazon wall at least a year ago, and I have been putting anything that looks like a textbook on eBay. I recommend that my fellow sellers do the same. ( Or move to China )
First they will come for the small US sellers with some ODR imperfections. This won’t prevent counterfeit textbooks. Driven by frustration and lawsuits, they will then come after larger US sellers, and/or those with good ODRs. That won’t cure the problem either.
Sellers in China, Turkey, India, and other countries will flicker in and out, selling a few books, getting banned, and coming back under another name within minutes.
Eventually, textbooks will be publishers-only listings.
This all is inevitable. The real fight will come over the definition of ‘textbook’.
I haven’t received anything from Amazon announcing new restrictions. I am 100% FBM, used books. Mostly niche, highly specialized within their subject area.
Occasionally an annoying high-price alert.
Last week I was trying to list a book by Saint John of the Cross, Spanish mystic, 1542-1591. Published by a Carmelite monastery in the mid-West US. Amazon restricted it to me, saying I needed permission from the publisher. The “publisher” listed was an online furniture company.
That’s the type of restriction that makes me crazy.