Quote:
Originally Posted by John Carroll
My belief is that once a book is published, it's the readers that truly matter, not the companies that distribute the book or even the writer.
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That may depend on if you're in it as a business or a vanity hobby. I have had several high-on-Google projects, including an informative website and a technical blog; obviously those aren't money-making, and therefore I wouldn't be likely to give Amazon an exclusive.
But I have written quite a few paid published articles as a regular featured contributor and a few other forms. All were "exclusive" to the magazines or other distribution channel. I don't have any problem with that.
If I ever get around to publishing the "book" I've been working on (which is looking decreasingly likely over the years), I'd like to maximize exposure and likelihood of revenue. Amazon-featured is probably a better way to do that than everywhere-but-shuffled-in. Consider that Amazon outsells Borders
plus Barnes & Noble, and those are the three big dawgs. And B&N stated in their 2006 call that most of their sales were backlist, not new items.
Really, you may ask? Emma Donoghue's
Room was subject to
some interesting analysis. They estimated 40% of the sales were Kindle
and that Amazon sales were over 50% of sales in all formats of it. And that was before the Fire increased Kindle marketshare.
My guess is that most buying readers will be on Amazon
and possibly a few other channels... but mostly Amazon because that's where critical
convenient mass is. So putting an exclusive there won't harm. Putting an exclusive at B&N, or at my favorite bookstore (Powells, 200 miles from me), would cost me more than it could possibly bring in. But also getting Featured by Amazon will benefit me more than all sales through Powells ever could.
There have been several (music) albums I've wanted but never bought simply because the annoyance of surfing, registering on a new site and ordering was there. I have One-Click on Amazon. I like it.