Amazon.com Acquires BookSurge

Posted on April 11, 2005

Amazon.com, Inc. has acquired BookSurge LLC, a print-on-demand (POD) publisher, based in Charleston, South Carolina. BookSurge maintains a catalog of thousands of titles that can be printed on-demand and are available for sale on Amazon.com. BookSurge offers its book fulfillment network to publishers through BookSurge Publisher Services and to authors through BookSurge Publishing.

The New York Times reported that Amazon.com would not speculate as to what it planned to do with BookSurge. The Times quoted Patty Smith as saying, "We feel we can do great things together. We're just not saying what that might be." Amazon.com also sells books from other publishing service providers including iUniverse.com and Trafford Publishing.

"Print-on-demand has changed the economics of small-quantity printing, making it possible for books with low and uncertain demand to be profitably produced," said Greg Greeley, vice president of media products for Amazon.com. "BookSurge makes it possible to print books that appeal to targeted audiences, whether it's one copy or one thousand. Our new relationship with BookSurge will provide Amazon customers an ever-expanding selection of titles that are not available through other channels. Thanks to print-on-demand, 'out of print' is out of date."

Some examples of the variety of titles available on demand through BookSurge include foreign-language books such as the Arabic-language version of the international bestseller The Da Vinci Code and Perez and Martina: A Puerto Rican Folktale, by Latina librarian Pura Belpre. BookSurge offers offers selections from New York Times bestselling author Robert Morgan as well as nonfiction works, including books produced by the Museum of Modern Art.