Quote:
Originally Posted by Arithonne
I know for a fact that Michael Stackpole offers his self-pubbed ebooks for sale through Kobo and Amazon as well as through his website. It wouldn't surprise me to learn they're also for sale through B&N and at other places as well. So if a store employee points a customer to the store website to purchase ebooks, they're going to see both the trad-pubbed and the self-pubbed. So yeah, brick and mortar store employees are going to be pointing customers to self-published books too.
|
Are they? Will customers "pointed to the website" see indie authors... or will they only see the Big Pub authors who pay to get displayed up front, crowding indies into the back?
The big problem with the idea that customers will see more indies is, it doesn't indicate how those customers will actually find the indies... or even know to look for them. B&N and Amazon make it harder and harder for indies to be seen past the walls of books that Big Pub pays to advertise. Amazon only recently segregated indie author advertisement in the discussion groups, forcing any posts with links to their books into a separate forum, away from all others.
This is the trend in digital publishing, making sure those with the deepest purses can crowd out the little guys. Yes, indies that somehow "break through" into serious sales will get pushed up front, to make money for the bookstore. The rest are only going to be found by specific, time-taking searches.