Amazon to return posting power (but not rights) to authors

Remember back in the early days of Amazon when they had a thing you could click that said "I am the author of this book and would like to comment on it"? Somwehere around 1999 or 2000 that went away.

But now, acording to Publishers Marketplace, they are launching a new feature that will again allow authors to post some stuff that will appear with their books' listings. However, authors must sign a release of all rights to their postings to Amazon.

Here is the entire blurb from the Publishers Marketplace newsletter:

Amazon Expands Connection--But Retains Rights

Amazon has officially announced their Amazon Connects program, covered earlier by the NYT. As the e-tailer explains it, the program lets authors "post messages directly to their readers" on Amazon--which is really just a blog-era expansion of the old "I am the author and would like to comment on this book" feature that dates back to Amazon's early days.

In this case, the posts will have a more limited display, than an open page or blog: "To ensure that author posts are relevant, the posts are shown only to customers who have purchased that author's work in the past, or to those who explicitly sign up to receive that author's posts." Amazon says over 1,000 authors are already participating, with of course some posting more vigorously than others.

Anyone with a book for sale on Amazon can enroll now. But everyone considering this
program (and even those who have already posted) should, however, note carefully this element of the mandatory Terms and Conditions: "You hereby grant Amazon a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual and irrevocable right and license throughout the world in any media to: (1) use, reproduce, publish, translate, create derivative
works from, distribute, and display all of your Works." In other words, Amazon can do whatever they want with any of your written posts, for free and without further permission. Which for many people will pretty much kill the program, or limit it to insignificant posts.

Amazon Connect explanation page:
http://click.email-publisher.com/maaerXqabnXE4bmFF9AbaeQxXH/
Release:
http://click.email-publisher.com/maaerXqabnXE5bmFF9AbaeQxXH/

Amazon, bookselling, blogs