US publishers face issues after change to Amazon sourcing policy

American publishers are reportedly losing sales and facing higher costs after a change to Amazon’s sourcing policy requiring them to make their books available closer to the point of sale in Europe, rather than shipping them from where they were printed.

The retail giant says the change in policy has been made to help it meet its sustainability goals, but publishers speaking to Publishers’ Weekly have said it has caused issues, such as raising costs and making it harder to keep popular books in stock.

Until spring 2023, Amazon imported books from American distributors and publishers to European and UK warehouses to fulfil orders.

One anonymous publisher said that print on demand printers, whether Amazon itself or another manufacturer, can typically only print trade paperbacks, which means a lower cover price and higher per-unit cost, resulting not only in lower revenue but lower margins.

Another said short run printing in the UK and/or Europe can require new processes and possible local European inventory-holding, which also raises costs.

An Amazon spokesperson told Publisher’s Weekly that the company forewarned many publishers that the change was taking place, up to 18 months in advance. “We began notifying publishers over a year and a half ago that beginning this spring we would no longer be ordering books from the US to ship to the UK and EU to fulfil sales,” they said.

“We asked publishers to look into locally sourced options and provided a number of solutions for publishers to choose from including local printing, print on demand, and alternative shipping.”