[stonetools]

Originally Posted by rhadin

That's a lot of authors and books that will not build a very large audience worldwide. I wonder how many authors really carefully analyzed what the program could mean to them. I asked these questions in my blog article on the exclusivity deal, but no one has come forward with answers:

1. Are the terms offered to the million sellers like the JA Konraths and Stephen Kings the same terms that author Sally Unknown is given or were the Konraths and Kings able to negotiate? (And if they were able to negotiate different terms, why would they do so if this was such a sweetheart deal?)
2. Why (according to the rumors) are the Agency 6 being dangled a set payment on every borrowed book? If the deal offered to Sally Unknown is such a sweetheart deal, why are the Agency 6 being offered something "less sweet"?
3. What exactly is the indie author getting by participating — not what does the indie author hope to get by participating?
4. As what the indie author's book earns is based on a percentage of all borrowings, does the indie author have the right to audit the entire program to ensure that the calculation is correct? In other words, other than blindly accepting Amazon's pronouncement that there were x number of total borrowings, how does the indie author verify it?

There are lots of questions that need asking and answering. This may, in fact, be a great opportunity for indie authors, but how does an indie author make such a determination based on the information currently available?

I'm not an author, but, at least here on MR, there are constant grumblings about geographical restrictions and one often reads an author's statement in opposition to such restrictions, yet Amazon's program is an even more severe geographical restriction than the standard. Exclusivity is worldwide and covers every conceivable possibility yet the program is U.S. centric.

As a business matter, I've never understood the willingness of an author to simply accept as gospel "Amazon is my friend and will do me no harm."

(For those interested, my blog article is eBook Exclusivity — A Good or Bad Idea?)

All your reservations are well noted, but it seems clear that there are 56,000 authors who are more interested in getting help seeking an audience than in asking those questions. Your questions are more reader-centric ( "How can I get unfettered access to this book, should I want it") than author-centric (" How can I get paid for doing the creative work that I love").