Crappy paper on Amazon books

[BookLover1990x]

Whenever I order a non-fiction book from Amazon now, it is usually printed by Amazon themselves and the paper quality SUCKS. The pages are wavy and the paper is thinner than regular books printed by a publisher.

There is no way of knowing in advance if the book will be Amazon printed or not. AIBU to think they should have to flag it up?

I've never had this problem.

Why don't you return it as faulty ?

Because I want the book.

I've had some books from Amazon that are shocking quality. I've often been sent them free for a review so arranging a refund isn't straightforward.

They’re basically pirated. You have to make sure it’s from the original publisher.

Complain as faulty and they'll let you have the book for free usually. Very irritating though, do agree.

I've had this and assume they are fake, like so much else from Amazon. It does not differentiate.

I was rather disappointed recently to discover a book that i tried to order from my local bookshop was unavailable because it was published by Amazon who do not supply to normal bookshops, while Amazon insist that other publishers make their full list available to them, from the first day of publication. Bad news for the author and Bezos as it's still in an Amazon warehouse somewhere, if it was ever printed.

Amazon is over for me. I use world of books or Waterstones.

For all the random tat I buy I've just cut down or just find alternative sites.

This.
I have developed a massive dislike for Amazon, it has gradually filled with cheap tat and following this the quality has gone downhill. It is getting harder to find the branded items that I used to buy on there. Also, if I'm paying for postage I would much rather buy direct from the product's website or support a British supplier, at least I know the product is more likely to be 100% genuine.

Check the isbn number on the book you’re buying - Amazon lists them for all books. Check that against a legit source and see if it’s the same.
I’ve never had this from Amazon but I’ve not been buying much non fiction from them recently.

We had this about a fact book we got DS for Christmas. It looked like it had been printed at home by someone.

We kept it, but we don't buy books from Amazon anymore unless we can see it for sale elsewhere as well. To confirm it's an actual book.

Problem is with a non fiction book you need to make sure it's legit and not AI shite.

Also, in the product information section, it will tell you who the publisher is. If it says “independently published” it’ll likely be the poorer quality “printed at home” style - not necessarily, but if it is a legit publisher, there’s more chance it’ll be a normal book.

Isn’t it sad really and I may be mis remembering, but did Amazon not start as being a book selling operation?

Same here.

I don't think they are fake unless they claim to be published by someone else. Mine say they are published by Amazon. Some are fine, some are not.

If you scroll to the last picture on the images you can recognise the ones printed by them by the back page and barcodes.

That’s right. I remember when it first started. Ordered all my uni books off it as was much cheaper.

And they still only make you spend a lower amount on books to get free postage as opposed to other things.

You’re buying self-published books. They rarely if ever have the same quality of production as a book produced by an actual publisher. A lot of them are printed on demand. If it says published by Amazon, or Createspace, or Independently Published, it’s likely someone just paying Amazon to print their stuff for them. Could be written by AI. Could be gibberish. Will be printed as cheaply as possible.

A traditionally published book will be of the same quality regardless of where you buy it.

I know what you mean op. The paper feels very different in texture to a normal book that isn’t published via KDP. They’re readable and not worth exchanging because they’re all that quality.

Side note, I’m trusting those KDP ones less and less due to the increasing numbers of people doing “side hustles” with using ai to generate the entire book.

Exactly. Amazon is a place where the “self published” books can be sold, where bookshops won’t stock them. So as well as all the normal well published books you can get, you can also get some poorer quality ones. The info is all there and visible when you buy them in the product details.
The quality of the books you can buy everywhere else hasn’t gone down - it’s just that you can also buy rubbish ones.

I am not referring to self-published books or knock off books sold by third parties through Amazon. The books are published by a variety of household name publishers. Amazon then prints them (I presume to order) at their own facility. They do not use the same quality paper as the original publisher.

No, Amazon don't offer you to keep the book when it is £20+ and you say you want to return it.

If you want to make sure you’re buying the edition sold by an established publisher, check the isbn number and make sure that publisher is listed in the details. I’ve never had a book sent me from Amazon that wasn’t as described in the product details.

What books are these? Seems really weird.

I stopped buying books from Amazon sometime ago due to this. The covers also feel slimy. I successfully received refunds for any they sent to me.

One of the pleasures of books is the print design, quality and feel. Amazon is an abomination to print. In fact, it’s just an abomination—I don’t trust any products sold by them as they do nothing to prevent fakes and dodgy items from being sold. I believe all items are stored in the same place, regardless of which seller you buy from so fakes are sitting alongside genuine products.

I have come across specialist interest and academic books, published by mainstream publishers, that are print on demand presumably because the expected sales are low, but the technology exists to keep them available at low cost. I don't think OUP want a repeat of David Wilkins' translation of the new testament from Coptic to Latin that took 191 years to sell out an edition of 500.

Really interesting. I guess for the OP the question would be “do better quality versions of this book exist, or if I want it is it printed-on-demand or nothing?”