First of all you can "set" your book to be non DRM on Amazon. You can. It is a fact. As a writer who wants to sell books, Amazon is somewhere between 80-90% of the market. So to avoid marginalizing yourself you have to be Amazon.
Secondly, books sold on Amazon, can and are read on Computers, Ipods, Ipads and a host of other electronic devices - not just the Kindle.
Regarding your rant against the "author" who slapped her NaNoWriMo on Amazon and stuck a price tag of $9 on it. I agree with you 100%. London Bridge has also been sold several times. I'm guessing she'll sell about the number of copies you predict.
In Thai we have an expression, "Som Nom Na" - literally translated it means, "You deserve it" - so to her, Som Nom Na. If you want to be an author that sells books then that wish has to be treated with respect. Not just for yourself but for the many others who
are writing great Indie books and, often, burning the midnight oil on both ends of the candle to do it.
Now let's get to serious Indie Authors - the one's who treat their work with the same vigilance (perhaps more these days) as a NY Publishing House. Producing an indie book of quality means:
- writing a good story
- getting it professionally edited by a known editor
- having a cover professionally produced
- working out what distribution model is best
- getting the legal stuff sorted (ISBN, taxes etc)
The above is the reason that "self-published" doesn't work for the majority of quality indie authors these days - they don't do it alone. I certainly haven't.
As for distribution I will go with ebook on Amazon, Smashwords (excluding Kobo because the discount will screw up pricing at Amazon), and Pubit. I was originally only going to produce ebook, however since a few people asked I will put it through Createspace POD. Perhaps later, because they will have a facility in Australia covering AsiaPac (where I have a few hundred contacts) I will go to Lightning Source. I estimate ebook to print sales of about 50-1.
Why did I go down this route? Mainly on the advice of this
guy, who worked on Tag with me. There were several reasons:
- Cross genre: Literary, science fiction, technothriller, thriller (try getting that across in a query)
- Time conservative estimates were 2 years from date of landing a sale
- State of the market - looking at it as a businessman I think there'll be a huge shift within next five years - when that happens I want to own ALL of the licensing rights for my work
- Word count: 130,000 words = immediate rejection for a debut author (this despite my own research here on MR which says most people love long books)
- Did I mention time? The first draft of Tag was finished in March 2010. It'll launch on or about 5th December 2010. The time in between has been proofing, editing, more proofing and more editing. Marketing and cover design. That six months (next time I reckon I can cut it to three) is still a heck of lot shorter than the two years people were talking about.
To make it clear. I have nothing against mainstream publishing - I buy their books often (less so now that I have found so many great authors here on MR); their business model just didn't suit me. If they come knocking on my door, I would listen to what they have to say.
I'd want to know:
- How big is the check you've got in your hand, unless there's six numbers before the decimal point, we can save ourselves some time.
- What promotion will you put behind the book beyond what I am doing
- Super important - what are your thoughts on ebook pricing (or can I retain my electronic rights)
Depending on the answers to above I may or may not go with them. These days another way of looking at Vanity is ~ I am published by a mainstream publishing house ~ I got a 10K advance, a 5k print run, and I pay for my own travel on my "book tour" ... a different kind of vanity.