Quote:
Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks
Okay, gotcha. The "only Amazon" thing could be true. I think when he had his earlier one on special, he had it on his website too, but I can't swear to that (I download too many books.) I didn't pay particular attention to whether he was offering it on his website this time either.
The thing is, you have to test the market somewhere. I wouldn't be able to hold it against him for testing it on the largest ebook market. I mean, it's only logical. If you can't sell enough copies there, it's going to be hard to justify trying it other places.
That said, I agree that you can't go with a single market very long. The only way to build an audience is to go hunt them down, mug them, er, I mean, find where they like to be and offer them the product. 
Given the emails I've seen from him in the past, he's the kind of guy, who, if you pointed out he was not making it available to other markets, would probably make it available to other markets. Shrug. But I don't really know him. I've just seen the emails/posts. |
I read into the "only Amazon" as a single format. Sure, I can buy the eBook from Amazon, strip the DRM and convert to ePub. But why should I have to? Why not have it available in ePub? ePub is the #1 format worldwide.
When you have an eBook only on Amazon, you do cut out a lot of potential customers. And publishing on Smashwords as an alternative to Amazon is not always a good idea as the meatgrinder there can make spam of your eBook. So if we get a nicely formatted (like a book, not an eReader file) ePub, then that can be used as the source to make the other versions (Mobipocket, MS Reader).
I should not have to point out to the author about missing formats. he should know better from the start. However, if you want to let him know of this problem he's possib;e going to create, then please do. I do feel that exclusivity is a good reason to not buy his books. I know legally it's wrong to pirate eBooks. But if an author is going to be exclusive, then let the mast fly and the eBooks loose.