#Amazon global selling

[klubwork]

The Role Of Cultural Differences In Cross-Border E-Commerce

Understanding cultural differences is crucial for success in cross-border e-commerce. Cultural nuances can significantly impact customer behavior, marketing strategies, and overall business performance. This guide explores the role of cultural differences and provides strategies to effectively navigate them.

Understanding Cultural Nuances

Culture influences how people perceive and interact with brands, make purchasing decisions, and respond to marketing messages. Key cultural factors to consider include:

Language and Communication: Language preferences and communication styles vary widely. For instance, while English is widely understood in the USA, Arabic content is more engaging in the MENA region.

Values and Beliefs: Cultural values and beliefs shape consumer behavior. Understanding these values helps tailor your messaging and product offerings to resonate with your target audience.

Social Norms and Etiquette: Different cultures have unique social norms and etiquette that influence shopping behavior. For example, in the MENA region, modesty and family-oriented values are important considerations.

Tailoring Your Marketing Strategy

Localized Content and Messaging: Create content that resonates with local audiences by addressing their specific needs, preferences, and pain points. Use native speakers for translations to ensure accuracy and cultural relevance.

Culturally Relevant Imagery and Design: Use imagery and design elements that reflect the cultural context of your target market. Avoid using symbols or colors that might have negative connotations in certain cultures.

Cultural Sensitivity in Advertising: Be mindful of cultural sensitivities in your advertising campaigns. For example, avoid themes or messages that could be perceived as offensive or inappropriate.

Adapting Your Product Offering

Product Customization: Customize your products to meet the cultural preferences and needs of your target audience. For example, offer modest clothing options in the MENA region or holiday-specific products in the USA.

Packaging and Labeling: Adapt your packaging and labeling to align with local cultural preferences and regulatory requirements. This includes using local languages, adhering to labeling standards, and considering cultural aesthetics.

Enhancing Customer Experience

Localized Customer Support: Offer customer support in the local language and understand cultural nuances in customer interactions. This enhances customer satisfaction and builds trust.

Cultural Sensitivity in Policies: Ensure your return policies, shipping options, and payment methods consider cultural preferences. For example, offering cash on delivery in the MENA region can increase conversion rates.

Real-Life Success Story: BeautyBloom

BeautyBloom, a skincare brand, successfully expanded into the MENA region by understanding and embracing cultural differences. They localized their website content, adapted their product packaging, and offered Arabic-language customer support. Their culturally sensitive marketing campaigns resulted in a 70% increase in sales and a strong brand presence in the region.

Amazon UAE Sale: A Case Study

One notable example is the Amazon UAE sale. Amazon’s localized approach, including offering products that cater to local tastes and providing customer support in Arabic, has significantly boosted their market presence in the UAE.

Leveraging Amazon Global Selling

For businesses looking to expand internationally, Amazon global selling provides a robust platform. By utilizing Amazon global selling from India, companies can reach a wider audience and streamline their international operations.

Managing Your Amazon Seller Account UAE

To succeed in a new market, managing your Amazon seller account UAE effectively is crucial. Utilizing Amazon account management services can help ensure compliance with local regulations and optimize your sales strategies.

Conclusion

Cultural differences play a significant role in cross-border e-commerce. By understanding and embracing these differences, you can create a more engaging and relevant customer experience, build trust, and drive international growth.

Ready to navigate cultural differences and expand your e-commerce business globally? Sign up with Klub Commerce today. Our all-in-one platform provides the tools and support you need to succeed in diverse international markets. Start your global expansion journey with us and unlock new growth opportunities. Whether you need international eCommerce solutions or assistance with Amazon account management services, we have you covered.

Join the Klub

[kazifatagar]

MATRADE-Amazon MoU To Empower SMEs To Go Global

On June 18, 2024, the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) and Amazon signed a MoU to enhance the export capabilities of Malaysian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The “Go Global with Amazon and MATRADE” initiative aims to help Malaysian brand owners and sellers capitalize on cross-border e-commerce opportunities through Amazon Global Selling. This partnership will…

[5shortstories]

It is an international story that goes from one side of the world to the other, transcends time, and, along the way, ventures into kingdoms and introduces Kings, Queens, princes, princesses, prominent high society, love, war, and secrets. There are mysteries and clues in the details of the twists and turns. Royalty Among Us, Hidden in Plain Sight.

Royalty Among Us: Hidden in Plain Sight https://a.co/d/920pO06

[theprivatewolf]

Move To Dubai From UK: A Complete Guide

Are you an Indian seller looking to expand your e-commerce business globally and tap into the potential of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) market? Selling on Amazon UAE is a lucrative opportunity for those wanting to reach a wider customer base and increase sales. In this blog, we’ll take you through the step-by-step process of selling on Amazon UAE from India, highlighting the advantages of entering this market and shedding light on the associated costs.

How to Start Selling on Amazon Globally

Before diving into the specifics of selling on Amazon UAE, it’s important to understand how to start selling on Amazon globally. Here are the key steps:

1. Register for an Amazon Seller Account: If you don’t already have an Amazon Seller account, you’ll need to sign up. Visit the Amazon Seller Central website and follow the registration process.

2. Choose the Marketplace: Once you have your seller account, select the global marketplace you wish to sell in. In this case, it would be Amazon UAE.

3. Prepare Your Business: Ensure your business is equipped to handle international sales. This includes having the necessary inventory, shipping capabilities, and a customer service plan that can accommodate international customers.

4. Listings and Product Listings: Create product listings in the UAE marketplace, making sure they adhere to local regulations and are optimized for the UAE audience.

5. Fulfillment and Shipping: Decide whether you want to fulfill orders yourself or use Amazon’s Fulfillment Centers. You can also utilize Amazon’s Global Selling program to simplify international shipping.

Steps to Sell on Amazon UAE

Selling on Amazon UAE involves specific steps that cater to the needs of the local market:

1. Verify Eligibility: Ensure that your Indian seller account is eligible for global selling. Typically, you should be a Professional Seller with a positive seller performance.

2. Add International Shipping: In your seller account, enable international shipping. This will allow you to send your products to Amazon Fulfillment Centers in the UAE.

3. Product Compliance: Confirm that your products meet UAE’s legal and regulatory requirements. You may need to adjust your listings and packaging accordingly.

4. Translate and Optimize Listings: Translate your product listings into Arabic, as many customers in the UAE prefer to shop in their native language. Also, optimize your listings to appeal to the local market.

5. Price Your Products: Consider the cost of doing business in the UAE and price your products competitively. Take into account exchange rates, import duties, and shipping costs.

6. Choose Fulfillment Method: Decide whether to fulfill orders from India or use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) in the UAE. FBA simplifies the logistics and provides excellent customer service.

7. Set Up International Payments: Amazon provides currency conversion services to help you receive payments in your preferred currency.

8. Manage Customer Service: Ensure your customer service team can handle inquiries and concerns from UAE customers promptly and professionally.

Advantages of Selling in the UAE

Selling on Amazon UAE offers several advantages for Indian sellers:

1. Thriving E-commerce Market: The UAE has a rapidly growing e-commerce market, with a tech-savvy population that prefers online shopping.

2. Global Reach: By expanding to the UAE, you can tap into a diverse international customer base.

3. Fulfillment by Amazon: FBA services in the UAE make logistics and customer service hassle-free.

4. Tax Benefits: The UAE offers a tax-friendly environment, which can be advantageous for international businesses.

5. Currency Convenience: Amazon’s currency conversion services make it easy to manage international payments.

6. Cultural Diversity: The UAE’s diverse population provides opportunities to sell a wide range of products.

What is the Cost of Selling on Amazon from India?

The cost of selling on Amazon UAE from India can vary based on several factors, including the type and quantity of products you sell, the fulfillment method you choose, and advertising expenses. Amazon provides a cost calculator on their website to help you estimate these costs accurately. It’s essential to factor in listing fees, referral fees, storage fees, and shipping costs to ensure your pricing strategy remains competitive.

In conclusion, selling on Amazon UAE from India can be a profitable venture if done right. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can access a thriving market, leverage Amazon’s global selling infrastructure, and potentially achieve significant business growth. Just remember to stay informed about local regulations, optimize your listings, and manage your costs effectively to make the most of this international opportunity. Happy selling!

M.Hussnain

Private Wolf facebook Instagram Twitter Linkedin

[mostlysignssomeportents]

2600’s amazing Hackers on Planet Earth con may go down under enshittification

Catch me in Miami! I'll be at Books and Books in Coral Gables on Jan 22 at 8PM.

It's been 40 years since Emmanuel Goldstein launched the seminal, essential, world-changing 2600: The Hacker Quarterly. 2600 wasn't the first phreak/hacker zine, but it was the most important, spawning a global subculture dedicated to the noble pursuit of technological self-determination:

https://www.2600.com/

2600 has published hundreds of issues in which digital spelunkers report eagerly on the things they've discovered by peering intently at the things no one was supposed to even glance at (I'm proud to be one of those writers!). They've fought legal battles, including one that almost went to the Supreme Court:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeCSS

They created a global network of meetups where some of technology's most durable friendships and important collaborations were born. These continue to this day:

https://www.2600.com/meetings

And they've hosted a weekly radio show on NYC's WBAI, Off the Hook:

https://wbai.org/program.php?program=76

When WBAI management lost their minds and locked the station's most beloved hosts out of the studio, Off the Hook (naturally) led the rebellion, taking back the station for its audience, rescuing it from a managerial coup:

https://twitter.com/2600/status/1181423565389942786

But best of all, 2600 gave us HOPE – both in the metaphorical sense of "hope for a better technological tomorrow" and in the literal sense, with its biannual Hackers On Planet Earth con:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers_on_Planet_Earth

For decades HOPE had an incredible venue, the Hotel Pennsylvania (memorialized in the phreak anthem "PEnnsylvania 6-5000"), a crumbling pile in midtown Manhattan that was biannually transformed into a rollicking, multi-day festival of forbidden technology, improbable feats, and incredible presentations. I was privileged to keynote HOPE in 2016:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1D7APjmVbk

But after the 2018 HOPE, the Hotel Pennsylvania was demolished to make way for the Penn15 (no, really) skyscraper, a vaporware mega-tower planned as a holding pen for luxury shopping and empty million-dollar condos sold to offshore war-criminals as safe-deposit boxes in the sky. The developer, Vornado (no, really) hasn't actually done all that – after demo'ing the Hotel Pennsylvania, they noped out, leave a large, unusable scar across midtown.

But HOPE wasn't lost. In 2022, the ever-resilient 2600 crew relocated to Queens, hosted by St John's University – a venue that was less glamorous that the Hotel Pennsylvania, but the event was still fantastic. Attendance fell from 2,000 to 1,000, but that was something they could work with, and reviews from attendees were stellar.

Good thing, too. 2600 is, first and foremost, a magazine publisher, and these have been hard years for magazines. First there was the mass die-off of indie bookstores and newsracks (I used to sell 2600 when I was a bookseller, and in the years after, I always took the presence of 2600 on a store's newsrack as an unimpeachable mark of quality).

Thankfully for 2600, their audience is (unsurprisingly) a tech-savvy one, so they were able to substitute digital subscriptions for physical ones:

https://www.2600.com/Magazine/DigitalEditions

Of course, many of those subscriptions came through Amazon's Kindle, because nerds were early Amazon adopters, and because the Kindle magazine publishing platform offered DRM-free distribution to subscribers along with a fair payout to publishers.

But then Amazon enshittified its magazine system. Having locked publishers to its platform, it rugged them and killed the monthly subscription fees that allowed publishers to plan for a steady output. Publishers were given a choice: leave Amazon (and all the readers locked inside its walled garden) or put your magazine into the Kindle Unlimited system:

https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/arp/B0BWPTCP4K?deviceType=A1FG5NAKX0MRJL

Kindle Unlimited is an all-you-can-eat program for Kindle, which pays publishers and writers based on a system that is both opaque and easily gamed, with the lion's share of the money going to "publishers" who focus on figuring out how to cheat the algorithm. Revenues for 2600 – and all the other magazines that Amazon had sucked in and sucked dry – fell off a cliff.

Which brings me to the present moment. After 40 years, 2600 is still at it, having survived the bookstorepocalypse, the lunacy of public radio management, the literal demolition of their physical home by an evil real-estate developer, and Amazon's crooked accounting.

This is 2600, circa 2024, and 2024 a HOPE year:

https://www.hope.net/

Once again, HOPE has been scheduled for its new digs in Queens, July 12-14. Last week, HOPE sent out an email blast to their subscribers telling them the news. They expected to sell 500 tickets in the first 24 hours. They didn't even come close:

https://www.2600.com/content/hope-ticket-sales-update

It turns out that Google and the other major mail providers don't like emails with the word "hacker" in them. The cartel that decides which email gets delivered, and which messages go to spam, or get blocked altogether, mass-blocked the HOPE 2024 announcement. Email may be the last federated, open platform we have, but mass concentration has created a system where it's nearly impossible to get your email delivered unless you're willing to play by Gmail's rules:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/10/dead-letters/

For Emmanuel Goldstein, founder of 2600 and tireless toiler for this community, the deafening silence following from that initial email volley was terrifying: "like some kind of a "Twilight Zone" episode where everyone has disappeared."

The enshittification that keeps 2600's emails from being delivered to the people who asked to receive them is even worse on social media. Social media companies routinely defraud their users by letting them subscribe to feeds, then turning around to the people and organizations that run those feeds and saying, "You've got x thousand subscribers on this platform, but we won't put your posts in their feeds unless you pay us to 'boost' your content":

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/platforms-decay-lets-put-users-first

Enshittification has been coming at 2600 for decades. Like other forms of oddball media dedicated to challenging corporate power and government oppression, 2600 has always been a ten-years-ahead preview of the way the noose was gonna tighten on all of us. And now, they're on the ropes. HOPE can't sell tickets unless people know about HOPE, and neither email providers nor social media platforms have any interest in making that happen.

A handful of giant corporations now get to decide what we read, who we hear from, and whether and how we can get together in person to make friends, forge community, rabble-rouse and change the world. The idea that "it's not censorship unless the government does it" has always been wrong (not all censorship violates the First Amendment, and censorship can be real without being unconstitutional):

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/04/yes-its-censorship/

What can you do about it? Well, for one thing, you can sign up for HOPE. It's gonna be great. They've got sub-$100 hotel rooms! In New York City!

https://store.2600.com/products/tickets-to-hope-xv

If you can't make it to HOPE, you can sign up for a virtual membership:

https://store.2600.com/products/tickets-to-hope-xv-virtual-attendee

You can submit a talk to HOPE:

https://www.hope.net/cfp.html

You can subscribe to 2600, in print or electronically (I signed up for the lifetime print subscription and it was a bargain – I devour every issue the day it arrives):

https://store.2600.com/collections/subscriptions-renewals

2600 is living a decade in the future of every other community you care about, weird hobby you enjoy, con you live for, and publication you read from cover to cover. If we can all pull together to save it, it'll be a beacon of hope (and HOPE).

I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/19/hope-less/#hack-the-planet

[copperbadge]

Every time, you guys. Every time I look into alternatives to Lulu.com for self-publishing I come up with “Wow Lulu really is the best of a bad set of options, huh?” 

Recently, Draft2Digital bought Smashwords in order to bring a print book company under their aegis; they’d formerly only done ebooks. I thought I might investigate them as an alternative to Lulu, which I’ve used for about twelve years now. For ebooks I would venture D2D is probably top of the line. For print books they are....not. 

I’m writing this out half so other folks can see it but half so that in the future I can look this up and remind myself of why I’m still with Lulu. 

TLDR: Not only does Draft2Digital want 60% of my print book royalties where Lulu takes 0%, and $30 for a proof that costs me $11 at Lulu, but I also appear to have solved the problem of why Lulu was making me price my books so goddamn artificially high. Which is like. Honestly the best anti-anxiety drug I’ve experienced this week. 

Basically there are a number of elements that go into self-publishing with a print-on-demand service. For some publishers, there’s a “setup fee” which doesn’t really set anything up, it’s just there to be a fee, everything is done by computer on the back end. Traditionally, Lulu has not charged a setup fee. Smashwords used to charge $50, but Draft2Digital currently waives it. I was heartened by that because the setup fee was keeping me from migrating, since I can afford $50 but I balk at knowing I’m paying them $50 for nothing. 

Next is the cost of printing -- what it costs the company in paper, ink, machinery, labor, etc, to just make a book with no profit. Lulu’s price calculus isn’t super clear and I’ve never bothered looking at what the breakdown is, because they’re pretty up-front -- they tell you in the process of setting the book up how much it’ll cost. In this case, a 140-page 6x9 trade paperback, no frills, which is how all my books are printed, is $5. Draft2Digital doesn’t tell you the flat price anywhere but they do offer the breakdown information; it costs $1.22 flat plus $0.0133 per page. So, for a 140 page book, the at-cost is $3.08. So far so good. 

Now, if you’re going to sell through Lulu, the “at cost” is the minimum price. You won’t make any money but you CAN charge just $5 for a $5 book. Any pricing above that is your cut. So -- let’s price this 140 page trade paperback at $13-$15. That’s a bit high to be honest but let’s just see. At Lulu, your take is roughly $6-$8 based on those prices, because you’re just dropping out the cost of printing from the retail price. 

At Draft2Digital, the same 140-page trade paperback, which remember is quoted as costing roughly $1.20 less to print than Lulu charges, gets you $2.75-$3.50 in royalties per book.

....wait, what? 

So now we need to sidetrack a little but I promise it’s for a reason. One of the motivations for looking into a change to Draft2Digital is that I didn’t like that Lulu was setting higher “minimum prices” than I was accustomed to -- they would tell me the book only cost $5 to print but require me to sell it for $12 or similar, and I couldn’t work out why. I’m an idiot but the penny did finally drop: it’s because when you distribute them outside of Lulu (say, on Amazon or Barnes & Noble or similar) your royalties drop like a stone. $7 in royalties purchased through Lulu comes out to like twenty-five cents purchased through Amazon. So Lulu forces you to price the book at a point where you even GET royalties and don’t end up weirdly owing Amazon money. The “global distribution” is what’s driving that minimum up. 

So in price-quoting a competitor I actually solved the problem with Lulu. 

Which is good, because the fun doesn’t stop there. If you want a proof copy of a book from Lulu, it’s the at-cost of the book, plus tax, plus postage. Buying a proof copy of this book from Lulu would cost me $11. Lulu makes you order a new proof copy every time you make a change, which is shady, but usually I only need to make 1-2 changes across the life of a book, so at most the cost will probably be $35 and for that I’ll get three copies of the book. Draft2Digital doesn’t give you an option. If you want a proof pre-publication, it’s $30 flat. If you want to publish and then buy a copy you can, but you can only make one change to the book every 90 days once it’s published. If you want to make more than one change, it’s $25 every time you upload a new version of the manuscript within that 90 day period.

So Draft2Digital’s books cost less to print but they take a massive cut of your royalties out of the retail cost of the book. If the book costs $3 to print, and I price it at $15, that’s $12 in profit on the book. Of that $12, however, I only receive $4. Draft2Digital literally wants 2/3 of my royalties per book. They want $20 more than Lulu to send me a proof copy. If I need to correct the proof, the correction is free, but I’m assuming the second proof will also cost me $30. Any changes after that, within 90 days, will cost $25 plus $30 for a new proof.

Which means my upfront costs at Lulu are about $35 per published book; to do the same thing at Draft2Digital is between $60 and $105 depending on whether I need to make changes after the second proof copy. And even after that, my royalties at Lulu are just about twice what they would be at Draft2Digital per purchase. 

So, well, Lulu it is. And the problem I was having with Lulu is solved if I decide to just retail through Lulu rather than selling globally. Which...selling globally has done two things that I’m aware of:

1. Fucked up my author page so badly on Amazon that one of my books is still attributed to Kathleen Starbuck, and one of her books is for sale on my author page. 

2. Raised the minimum price I’m allowed to set my books at by like, 40%. 

So I think probably what’s going to happen is going forward my books will be for sale only on Lulu. I can still assign them ISBNs and they still will ship worldwide, and the prices will fall significantly. My deepest apologies to those of you who have paid an artificially inflated price for the last few books; I’m going to fix that going forward, I’m going to go in and try to fix it retroactively in the books that are already on Lulu, and if it’s any consolation at least the cash came to me, and TWO THIRDS OF IT didn’t go to Lulu. 

It’s gonna take me a little time, untangling Lulu’s relationship to other retailers is tricky, but eventually the Shivadh Omnibus and Twelve Points should come down significantly in price, and there ought to be a dollar or two drop for the older books as well. 

This is why it always pays to do the math, even if like me you are dreadful at it. 

[godzilla-reads]

✨ How to Resist Amazon and Why: The Fight for Local Economies, Data Privacy, Fair Labor, Independent Bookstores, and a People-Powered Future by Danny Caine

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Danny Caine (bookstore owner) has been an outspoken critic of the seemingly unstoppable Goliath of the book selling world: Amazon. In this book, he lays out the case for shifting our personal money and civic investment away from global corporate behemoths and to small, local, independent businesses.

This book held so much information in such an accessible way that I feel lucky for reading it. I found a copy at one of my local indie bookstores and thought “sure, I think I know why Amazon is bad” but no, Amazon is way worse than I thought it was. The part that really hit hard was Amazon’s Ring doorbell and being partnered with city police forces and ICE to identify “criminals” and illegal immigrants, which is horrific if you remember how terrible their software is at correctly identifying people.

I feel like everyone should read this book, whether you use Amazon or not, there’s a lot of things out there that are owned by Amazon that I had no clue about. This book opened my eyes to the truly horrific way Amazon does things. As saddened as I am by this, it’s always a good reminder to fight for our future and never stop trying to push back against Goliaths like Amazon.

[hussyknee]

Guys, Z-library is back up, but it desperately needs our help.

Z-Library is one of the largest online libraries in the world. We aim to make literature accessible to everyone. Today, Z-Library contains over 12,140,413 books and 84,837,000 articles Z-Library has many servers all over the world. Our stored data now totals more than 220 TB! Every month, millions of people use Z-Library for their purposes — and that means we are on the right track. But it will be difficult to achieve our goals without your help.

As you may know, almost all public domains of the library were blocked in November 2022 by order of the US Secret Service. The inner infrastructure of the project suffered some substantial damage too. Today, we are still under unprecedented pressure. At the moment, Z-Library is going through the hardest times in all the 14 years of its existence. The library might work with interruptions, and we ask you to be patient. Be sure – we are doing everything possible to provide free access to knowledge for millions of people across the globe, and we expect you to help us with that and to support us.

But despite all the difficulties, the library continues to function and develop. We have recently introduced several important features: the new recommendations section, comments to booklists, the new web-site menu, personal domains and Telegram Bot, and more.

Your active support gives strength to our Team and inspires to work. Each donated dollar is not only money for us, but it is also the confidence that you really need our project!

On 15 March 2023, as in March and September of each year, we launched additional fundraising to project maintenance and development. We will be extremely thankful for every dollar that will be donated. Furthermore, UNLIMITED downloads (for 1 month) are available for ALL contributors who will donate during the fundraising period. The fundraising will run until 1 April 2023

Millions of people use Z-Library every month for their purposes — this shows us that we are on the correct track. But it will be difficult to achieve our goals without your help.

Please consider making a donation.

I know there's a lot of discourse around book piracy right now, but you know who absolutely cannot afford to buy your books in dollars, afford the shipping fees, or don't have access/ travelling distance to the kind of fully stocked libraries you have in the West? The Global South. Our factories make your Kindles, your phones, your textbooks, and then we can't afford to buy them from your corps that sell them at around 300% grate price, and half the books are not even available for our region. Our universities don't get your funding or recognition, and when we do sell our personal possessions to get the money and work our asses off to get admittance to Western universities, y'all use us as grunts, exploit us and pass our work off as your own. Worse still, you buy out our local publishing houses and shut them down.

You cannot imagine the extent of global apartheid and colonial economic order that capitalism runs on. Amazon cheats you out of royalties? We can't even afford to buy your books. A dollar can buy someone a full dinner here. These sites – Z-lib, Internet Archive, Libgen, Open Library, Sci-Hub, PDF Drive, LibriVox – they are essential to granting the global majority our human right to knowledge, education and access. Z-Lib is by far the best one of them all.

You will first need to sign up to Z-Lib and access it through the private domain link they send you. It's a simple process, and every little bit counts. You're a leftist that believes in equal access for all? Then literally, put your money where your mouth is.

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

The Amazon Good Omens Press Release! :)

In a special celebration for fans, Neil Gaiman collaborated with superfans Hilly & Hannah Hindi of the The Hillywood Show to reveal the ineffable premiere date in their original video “Good Omens Parody”

Official Teaser Art Available HERE Fan-Created Parody Video Viewable HERE 

*NOTE TO EDITORS: Please refer to our streaming service as Prime Video and not Amazon Prime Video*

CULVER CITY, California—May 10, 2023—This summer, something’s going down in the up!Good Omens Season Two will  premiere July 28 on Prime Video. After the global success and enthusiastic response to the first season, co-creator Neil Gaiman is satisfying fans’ hunger for more on-screen  adventures of the beloved unholy duo with an entirely original story. The ineffable Season Two premiere date was revealed on the 33rd anniversary of the publishing of the original novel Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Gaiman, which was the basis for the first season of the television series. As a special celebration for fans, Gaiman collaborated with superfans Hilly & Hannah Hindi of the The Hillywood Show to reveal the date in a fan-funded video, “Good Omens Parody,” which can be viewed HERE. The six-episode season will be released exclusively on Prime Video on July 28 in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide. Fans can catch up on the first season of Good Omens streaming now on Prime Video, part of the savings, convenience, and entertainment that Prime members enjoy in a single membership.

Season Two of Good Omens explores storylines that go beyond the original source material to illuminate the uncanny friendship between Aziraphale, a fussy angel and rare book dealer, and the fast-living demon Crowley. Having been on Earth since The Beginning, and with the Apocalypse thwarted, Aziraphale and Crowley are getting back to easy living amongst mortals in London’s Soho when an unexpected messenger presents a surprising mystery.

Good Omens Season Twostars Michael Sheen and David Tennant as angel Aziraphale and demon Crowley, respectively. Also reprising their roles are Jon Hamm as archangel Gabriel, Doon Mackichan as archangel Michael, and Gloria Obianyo as archangel Uriel. Returning this season in new roles are Miranda Richardson as demon Shax, Maggie Service as Maggie, and Nina Sosanya as Nina, with new faces joining the misfits in Heaven and Hell: Liz Carr as angel Saraqael, Quelin Sepulveda as angel Muriel, and Shelley Conn as demon Beelzebub.

Neil Gaiman continues as executive producer and co-showrunner along with executive producer Douglas Mackinnon, who also returned to direct all six episodes. Rob Wilkins of Narrativia, representing Terry Pratchett’s estate, John Finnemore, and BBC Studios Productions’ head of comedy Josh Cole also executive produce, with Finnemore serving as co-writer alongside Gaiman. Good Omens is based on the well-loved and internationally best-selling novel by Pratchett and Gaiman. The new season is produced by Amazon Studios, BBC Studios Productions, The Blank Corporation, and Narrativia.

ALL THE EPIZODES WILL BE RELEASED AT ONCE!!! 🥰🥳 WAHOO!

[thebibliosphere]

Question about self publishing that is not urgent or necessary for you to answer, but I'd love your feedback!

I'm shopping around for places that will do well with a children's picture book. IngramSpark is rated highly on one platform for being trustworthy, but I also saw you express frustration with the coloring they did for your book. I don't know if there's a reliably better option in the US (Amazon's doesn't allow landscape formats, annoyingly, and tbf it seems there's limited landscape formats with IS :/)

(Thank you for the resources btw! They've been a great help and I've been reading the Gaughran book nonstop)

Ingram Spark is trustworthy in that they are one of the biggest printing and distributing platforms in the world, used by both indie and trad pub alike. You might not be able to get a "true" landscape option with them, but I've seen them print plenty of children's books with the kind of standard kids' book formatting. (I think they call it US A4 letter print)

They are also apparently updating their color and photo print options, so I might recheck with them in a few months to see if their options have changed.

I used Mixam Print for my hardbacks and was very impressed with the quality and customer service, and I know they offer a wide selection of shapes and sizes. They do not, however, offer distribution at this time. So if you wanted retailers and libraries to be able to stock your book, your best bet would probably be Ingram.

It might also be worth looking at Draft2Digital, though they are likely restricted as well because they use Ingram printers.

I know Lulu and Blurb offer landscape printing, but they're not the greatest when it comes to customer service, print quality, and overall expense. I also don't think they have as far a market reach as Ingram. I do think they can work well if you plan to print small batches and sell yourself, but if you want global retail distribution, I'd still go with Ingram.

[digiaansh]

Unveiling the Best E-commerce Agency Offering Amazon SPN Services

[5shortstories]

Thank you to Synergy Network Worldwide for editing the Spanish version of Barcos de batalla, huérfanos, gitanos, bodas, y una Con

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Bengiyo's Queer Cinema Syllabus

For those who are not aware, I have decided to run the gauntlet of @bengiyo’s Queer Cinema Syllabus and have officially started Unit 2: Race, Disability, and Class. The films in Unit 2 are: The Way He Looks (2014), Being 17 (2016), Naz and Maalik (2015), The Obituary of Tunde Johnson (2019), Margarita With a Straw (2014), My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), Brother to Brother (2004), and Beautiful Thing (1996)

Today I will be writing about

Naz and Maalik (2015) dir. Jay Dockendorf

[Available on Amazon, Run Time- 1:24, Language: English]

Summary: Two closeted Muslim teens hawk goods across Brooklyn and struggle to come clean about their sexuality, as their secretive behavior leads them unknowingly into the cross-hairs of the War on Terror.

Cast: Kerwin Johnson Jr. as Naz Curtiss Cook Jr. as Maalik

__

Another great film down, and plenty more to go. I very deeply appreciate the authenticity of this film in the way it highlights religion and the shittiness of cops. 

I like that there is a kind of war against the older ways and the newer ways between Naz and Maaling. Naz appears to be much more religious than Maalik, he wears a kufi, he gives alms, he tries to pray five times a day. Not to say that Maalik isn’t religious, but he isn’t as hung up on what is and is not haram, he’s more comfortable in his sexuality, more willing to engage in PDA, but he’s less idealistic about the world. 

I love the hustle and grind we see from these boys, but even more so I love when they spend time alone together. I love how much time we get to see them goofing off, touching shoulders, flirting, racing, just having fun. I love how much time this film dedicates to showing how Naz and Maalik’s relationship works. How it could work. I love that in New York City they have so many shots dedicated to just the two of them, to the peace and quiet and light that follows them when they are together.

I love even more that they fight, that they are messy and complicated, and how much of that is driven not by themselves, but everyone else around them. This film takes place post 9/11, during the War on Terror. For those who are not aware, the War on Terror is/was a global counterterrorism military campaign following 9/11. And like I said, this film does some pretty decent realism, especially when it comes to the portrayal of the FBI agents that spend all day tailing Naz and Maalik because they have been #profiled. 

One of the main conflicts kicks off when an undercover cop tries to sell Naz and Maalik a gun. Maalik, trying to be funny, haggles for the weapon but does not end up buying it. But engaging in a joke like that is enough for this FBI agent to decide they should be followed. At which point, these two FBI agents essentially end up acting as voyeurs to Naz and Maalik’s secret love life. 

The FBI waits until each boy is alone and isolated to question them, and Maalik is completely honest while Naz, scared about his parents finding out about his sexuality, lies about where he had been the night before. Once again, I loved the portrayal of this, of two eighteen-year olds trying to navigate the system that was built to punish them. Not because I’m thrilled they are being harassed, but because I am appreciative of not being subject to propaganda about law enforcement and how “good” they are. 

I liked seeing the dichotomy between Naz and Maalik’s handling of the FBI agent, versus an older Black man handling questioning. How he’s trying his best not to give her any information, how he cites his right to not say anything to her without an attorney present. And in response he is treated with suspicion, the FBI agent tries pressing and pushing for more information, because that’s what cops do. 

And I remain unsurprised when the FBI agent pulls a gun on Naz when he reaches in to his bag. I think there are statements being made when the FBI agent is pissed at Naz and Maalik for “wasting her time” and that the boys are compelled to apologize for the inconvenience, despite the fact they were literally just existing as Black muslims and the FBI agent decided that not buying a gun was enough of a reason to tail them all day.

But it is those outside pressures, the concern that they will be outed, that they will be disowned, that they will lose everything that starts driving a wedge between Naz and Maalik. That Naz’s sister finds out and Naz is scared she’ll tell their parents. Those all start when the FBI starts questioning them, though there are multiple other forces at play.

Now. I think I wrote up a post after I watched Love of Siam, and how fucking furious I was that they ended that film on a separation. But that does not mean I hate separation narratives in queer cinema (I hated the one in LoS because I felt tricked). But Naz and Maalik separating at the end makes sense given their circumstances. There is no winning here. Naz is too kind to slaughter a chicken, Maalik feels compelled to show that he can do it, and Maalik ends up wounded and the chicken ends up dead without either of them laying a hand on it. There are repercussions here, a car accident, an injured person that could have been spared by just killing the chicken. I like that despite the fact that Naz and Maalik do have multiple fights in the film, it is not a fight that breaks them up. 

They both knew this was an inevitability, there aren’t hard feelings about it. It’s sad for both of them, but it happens almost casually. TI did find the ending of the movie very interesting. Because they chose to end it before Naz arrives home. Naz gets on the subway, sad about his separation with Maalik, scared about what is waiting for him at home, and he is stopped by the very same cop that tried to sell him a gun the other day. He is ticketed for riding his bike in the subway, and one of the last lines Naz has in the movie is something like “don’t I know you from somewhere?” 

Because no matter what, he’ll just never catch a fucking break. 

As an aside, I love how frequently homeless people are included in this film and how they are never regarded as scary or terrifying. One guy is mostly quiet and he either stares or sleeps. Another man is loud, rambunctious, and fucking funny. Naz and Maalik talk to a homeless woman, talk to some boys begging for money for medical treatment. I just love when homeless people are humanized, and I am glad that Naz and Maalik spends time focusing their lens on the people society often refuses to look at.

By/For/About Queers

Naz and Maalik is loosely based on an interview director Jay Dockendorf did with a closeted Muslim man that he sublet a room from. Dockendorf used this man’s life story as a jumping off point for his film. And it certainly feels like a film that is made for queer people, the way that it is structured. So ultimately, I think this is a gay trifecta.

Favorite Moment

My favorite moment is near the end of the film. Naz and Maalik have just made out and Naz has rejected the offer to take things further. Naz and Maalik lay in bed together, in just their boxers, and they read each other these shitty little poems that are attached to beanie babies that Naz acquired earlier in the film. I just love gay boys and their plushies, I’m a simple person. And once again considering that Ben created this syllabus to be a wind up to BLs, I think the plushie moment is worth noting because boys and their plushies is a recurring theme in a number of BLs. Teh and Oh have matching monster plushies in I Told Sunset About You. Bai Lang’s entire apartment is covered in plushies in My Tooth Your Love. Chinzilla keeps a plushie of a chinchilla on an alter in the music room in My School President. etc. etc. 

And I love plushies every time because I love seeing moments of softness portrayed on screen.

Favorite Line

“Barack Obama*. It’s crazy. It makes white men smell like black men, so white women will like black men more.”

*fake name of a scented oil

I mean…come on. It’s perfect.

Score

8.5/10

I think the story was pretty good, and there are these incredible bright spots of powerful acting. But the director allowed space for a lot of improv, which in some capacities I think is good. However, it does often result in awkward line deliveries, that tend to take me out of the story because the acting fluctuates so much between brilliant and smooth, to conscious and stilted.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The super-rich got that way through monopolies

Catch me in Miami! I'll be at Books and Books in Coral Gables on Jan 22 at 8PM.

Just in time for Davos, here's 'Taken, not earned: How monopolists drive the world’s power and wealth divide," a report from a coalition of international tax justice and anti-corporate activist groups:

https://www.balancedeconomy.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Davos-Taken-not-Earned-full-Report-2024-FINAL.pdf

The rise of monopolies over the past 40 years came about as the result of specific, deliberate policy choices. As the report documents, the wealthiest people in America funneled a fortune into neutering antitrust enforcement, through the "consumer welfare" doctrine.

This is an economic theory that equates monopolies with efficiency: "If everyone is buying the same things from the same store, that tells you the store is doing something right, not something criminal." 40 years ago, and ever since, the wealthy have funded think-tanks, university programs and even "continuing education" programs for federal judges to push this line:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/13/post-bork-era/#manne-down

They didn't do this for ideological reasons – they were chasing material goals. Monopolies produce vast profits, and those profits produce vast wealth. The rise and rise of the super rich cannot be decoupled from the rise and rise of monopolies.

If you're new to this, you might think that "monopoly" only refers to a sector in which there is only one seller. But that's not what economists mean when they talk about monopolies and monopolization: for them, a monopoly is a company with power. Economists who talk about monopolies mean companies that "can act independently without needing to consider the responses of competitors, customers, workers, or even governments."

One way to measure that power is through markups ("the difference between the selling price of goods or services and their cost"). Very large companies in concentrated industries have very high markups, and they're getting higher. From 2017-22, the 20 largest companies in the world had average markups of 50%. The 100 largest companies average 43%. The smallest half of companies get average markups of 25%.

Those markups rose steeply during the covid lockdowns – and so did the wealth of the billionaires who own them. Tech billionaires – Bezos, Brin and Page, Gates and Ballmer – all made their fortunes from monopolies. Warren Buffet is a proud monopolist who says "the single most important decision in evaluating a business is pricing power… if you have to have a prayer session before raising the price by 10 percent, then you’ve got a terrible business."

We are living in the age of the monopoly. In the 1930s, the top 0.1% of US companies accounted for less than half of America's GDP. Today, it's 90%. And it's accelerating, with global mergers climbing from 2,676 in 1985 to 62,000 in 2021.

Monopoly's cheerleaders claim that these numbers vindicate them. Monopolies are so efficient that everyone wants to create them. Those efficiencies can be seen in the markups monopolies can charge, and the profits they can make. If a monopoly has a 50% markup, that's just the "efficiency of scale."

But what is the actual shape of this "efficiency?" How is it manifest? The report's authors answer this with one word: power.

Monopolists have the power "to extract wealth from, to restrict the freedoms of, and to manipulate or steer the vastly larger numbers of losers." They establish themselves as gatekeepers and create chokepoints that they can use to raise prices paid by their customers and lower the payout to their suppliers:

https://chokepointcapitalism.com/

These chokepoints let monopolies usurp "one of the ultimate prerogatives of state power: taxation." Amazon sellers pay a 51% tax to sell on the platform. App Store suppliers pay a 30% tax on every dollar they make with their apps. That translates into higher costs. Consider a good that costs $10 to make: the bottom 50% of companies (by size) would charge $12.50 for that product on average. The largest companies would charge $15. Thus monopolies don't just make their owners richer – they make everyone else poorer, too.

This power to set prices is behind the greedflation (or, more politely, "seller's inflation"). The CEOs of the largest companies in the world keep getting on investor calls and bragging about this:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/11/price-over-volume/#pepsi-pricing-power

The food system is incredibly monopolistic. The Cargill family own the largest commodity trader in the world, which is how they built up a family fortune worth $43b. Cargill is one of the "ABCD" companies ("Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus") that control the world's food supply, and they tripled their profits during the lockdown.

Monopolies gouge everyone – even governments. Pfizer charged the NHS £18-22/shot for vaccines that cost £5/shot to make. They took the British government for £2bn – that's enough to pay last year's pay hike for NHS nurses, six times over,

But monopolies also abuse their suppliers, especially their employees. All over the world, competition authorities are uncovering "wage fixing" and "no poaching" agreements among large firms, who collude to put a cap on what workers in their sector can earn. Unions report workers having their pay determined by algorithms. Bosses lock employees in with noncompetes and huge repayment bills for "training":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/04/its-a-trap/#a-little-on-the-nose

Monopolies corrupt our governments. Companies with huge markups can spend some of that money on lobbying. The 20 largest companies in the world spend more than €155m/year lobbying in the US and alone, not counting the money they spend on industry associations and other cutouts that lobby on their behalf. Big Tech leads the pack on lobbying, accounting for 82% of EU lobbying spending and 58% of US lobbying.

One key monopoly lobbying priority is blocking climate action, from Apple lobbying against right-to-repair, which creates vast mountains of e-waste, to energy monopolist lobbying against renewables. And energy companies are getting more monopolistic, with Exxonmobil spending $65b to buy Pioneer and Chevron spending $60b to buy Hess. Many of the world's richest people are fossil fuel monopolists, like Charles and Julia Koch, the 18th and 19th richest people on the Forbes list. They spend fortunes on climate denial.

When people talk about the climate impact of billionaires, they tend to focus on the carbon footprints of their mansions and private jets, but the true environmental cost of the ultra rich comes from the anti-renewables, pro-emissions lobbying they buy with their monopoly winnings.

The good news is that the tide is turning on monopolies. A coalition of "businesses, workers, farmers, consumers and other civil society groups" have created a "remarkably successful anti-monopoly movement." The past three years saw more regulatory action on corporate mergers, price-gouging, predatory pricing, labor abuses and other evils of monopoly than we got in the past 40 years.

The business press – cheerleaders for monopoly – keep running editorials claiming that enforcers like Lina Khan are getting nothing done. Sure, WSJ, Khan's getting nothing done – that's why you ran 80 editorial about her:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/14/making-good-trouble/#the-peoples-champion

(Khan's winning like crazy. Just last month she killed four megamergers:)

https://www.thesling.org/the-ftc-just-blocked-four-mergers-in-a-month-heres-how-its-latest-win-fits-into-the-broader-campaign-to-revive-antitrust/

The EU and UK are taking actions that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. Canada is finally set to get a real competition law, with the Trudeau government promising to add an "abuse of dominance" rule to Canada's antitrust system.

Even more exciting are the moves in the global south. In South Africa, "competition law contains some of the most progressive ideas of all":

It actively seeks to create greater economic participation, particularly for ‘historically disadvantaged persons’ as part of its public interest considerations in merger decisions.

Balzac wrote, "Behind every great fortune there is a crime." Chances are, the rapsheet includes an antitrust violation. Getting rid of monopolies won't get rid of all the billionaires, but it'll certainly get rid of a hell of a lot of them.

I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/17/monopolies-produce-billionaires/#inequality-corruption-climate-poverty-sweatshops

[blueiscoool]

Stunning Greek Mosaics Uncovered in Syria

A rare and stunning mosaic panel depicting Greek scenes has recently been uncovered in the Homs province of Syria. Experts say it dates back to the Roman era.

Syrian state news agency SANA reported that archeologists unearthed the sizeable mosaic panel constructed 1,600 years ago in the city of al-Rastan, adding that “the panel has no parallel in the world”.

The Syrian Directorate of Antiquities noted that it was found in an area previously held by the opposition forces of Syria.

Dr. Humam Saad, director of excavation studies and the archaeological mission in al-Rastan, said that the discovery actually took place in 2018. But the Syrian opposition forces who controlled the Homs province meant that archeologists could not uncover it earlier.

However, with the return of Bashar Assad’s regime forces, archaeologists finally received access. This allowed them to reveal the mosaic, which has a length of 20 meters and a width of 6 meters.

Archaeologists still believe there is a possibility of finding more remains under the mosaic.

Unearthed Mosaic depicts two main Greek Scenes

The uncovered Mosaic features two main scenes. One depicts soldiers carrying swords with shields seen with the names of Greek leaders who took part in the Trojan War. The war was a legendary conflict between the ancient Greeks and the people of Troy more than 2,000 years ago.

The second is a portrayal of Neptune(Greek Poseidon), the Ancient Roman/Greek god of the sea, and 40 of his mistresses.

Around the 12th century BC when the rift between the ancient Greeks and the people of Troy began, the Trojan prince Paris abducted Helen, wife of king Menelaus of Sparta.

When Menelaus demanded her return, the Trojans refused. In turn, Menelaus persuaded his brother Agamemnon to lead an army against Troy.

The Greeks ravaged Troy’s surrounding cities and countryside for nine years. The city held out nonetheless, being well-fortified and commanded by Hector and other sons of the royal household.

On the 10th and final year of war, the Greeks had the brilliant idea to build a large hollow wooden horse and hide a select force of men inside. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. In this manner, they entered the city of Troy and won the war.

A long-held argument about whether the battle actually took place is still raging. Nevertheless, there is enough evidence indicating its truth. Unfortunately, however, no one has ever found the giant wooden horse.

The reality of the battle now justifies all the stories spread about the war. This includes the tale of Achilles. The great ancient Greek warrior was invulnerable because his mother dipped him in the River Styx while a child. Yet according to ancient Greek mythology, he was left vulnerable at the part of the body by which she held him; his left heel.

Greek Mosaic in Syria “complete and rarest of its kind”

Dr. Saad said “It is not the oldest of its kind, but it’s the most complete and the rarest,”

“We have no similar mosaic,” referring to the significance and uniqueness of the unearthed mosaic.

He also told the press that “What is in front of us is a discovery that is rare on a global scale.” Furthermore, he stated, the images are “rich in details, and includes scenes from the Trojan War between the Greeks and Trojans”.

In Ancient Greek and Roman mythology, the Greek demigod hero Hercules slayed Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, in one of his 12 labours. That finding apparently connects with history.

Saad further added, “We can’t identify the type of the building, whether it’s a public bathhouse or something else, because we have not finished excavating yet.”

Prior to the armed conflict in Syria, there had not been significant excavation efforts in the city of al-Rastan, despite its historical significance in the country, Saad said.

He added that “Unfortunately, there were armed groups that tried to sell the mosaic at one point in 2017 and listed it on social media platforms.”

By James Ssengendo.

[copperbadge]

In the grand tradition of daft-ass covers...

The top image there was the first draft of the cover for the Omnibus V1, and it looks that insane because it's actually four different covers combined, so that I could buy one proof copy and see what all of them looked like in person. I've refined my process a little for V2 as you can see (I used the xcf file from V1 as a template) but I still wanted to see if the lighter or darker base pattern looked better, and whether the white text was legible in the lighter version. I would have loved to have simply converted the blue to black and the orange to gold from the final first cover, but that proved too technically difficult given what I was working with.

Getting closer to publication! We'll see how it looks when it arrives, and then I have to proof the physical copy, tweak the cover, and reupload both, but at that point the omnibus should be ready to go.

Only vaguely related but when I ordered the proof copy at one point I accidentally toggled between "only sell on Lulu" and "Sell via global distribution", ie, through Amazon and other big retailers, and it doubled the base price. The book is currently $20 to print, before any profit I make. If I want to sell it through Amazon, I have to price it above $40 just to sell it there, and that's before I start seeing profit. Fucking unreal.

[ID: Two images; top, the cover of the first Shivadh Romances Omnibus, in lurid orange and blue with weird bars of color and contrasting text, looking a bit like some kind of crazy patchwork quilt. Bottom, the cover of the second Omnibus, not yet released, has a gold-and-black background and white text with a gold star on the front, but the background consists of two boxes of a "light" version of the pattern and two boxes with a much darker version.]