I subscribe to a publishing industry newsletter called the Hotsheet, which is normally full of inside baseball chatter, where for baseball I mean the book biz.
This morning’s mail out might interest a wider audience, however. (It sure as hell interested me, as the target of some of these douchebags).
Bestselling author David Goggins sues Amazon over counterfeit sales
For years now, publishers and authors alike have suffered from the sale of counterfeit copies of their book on Amazon, in addition to numerous workbooks, summaries, and other material that is either outright fraudulent or dances in the gray area of copyright infringement.
Now, self-publishing author David Goggins—who has sold millions of copies of his books—has filed a lawsuit against Amazon to recoup damages. It reads, “Each of these bootleg sales unjustly stole revenue from Goggins. Amazon, however, received revenue from each sale, just as if Goggins’ authentic products had been sold.”
Goggins’s anger and frustration at this problem has been palpable for a while now. This lengthy Instagram video last year shows him discussing counterfeit copies and how people can avoid buying one. The lawsuit notes that within days of his Instagram post, Amazon called his representatives and shut down sales of counterfeit books: “Amazon could have prevented the listing, sale, and distribution of bootlegs at any time. Only after Goggins’s post exposed Amazon to public scrutiny did it decide to.” It would be fantastic to see this suit go to trial rather than be settled out of court, although that seems unlikely.
Related: Today Show host Savannah Guthrie recently published a book that sold out not long after release, resulting in an active counterfeit market on Amazon and renewed media coverage of the problem.
It’s pretty telling that Amazon only removed the offending titles after Goggins’ Insta post blew up. Proving of course that they have the tools to do so, but not the will, because as he explains, Jeff still gets paid no matter what.