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Originally Posted by J. Strnad
. . .Since we don't know how many Amazon Prime members there are, there's really no way to even guess what the rate will be. We just have to wait and see.
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Even after waiting and seeing, what will you ultimately see? Amazon isn't going to tell you how many Prime members it has nor is it going to let you audit the programs to verify that when it says there were 500,000 borrowings there really weren't 100,000 or vice versa. The deal is a lot of smoke and mirrors.
Quote:
Originally Posted by J. Strnad
. . . If I received any noticeable sales from anyone other than Amazon, I wouldn't go for it. But apparently I have almost no non-Amazon readers to lose.
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Why is that? I've noted here on MR that many authors announce their book and give a link to Amazon. Someone has to ask if there are links at Smashwords or B&N or Kobo or anywhere else. Only then does the author provide the alternative links. Seems to me to be a self-fulfilling prophecy: only Amazon sells my books and then you (that is "you" generally, not specifically) justify giving Amazon exclusivity because your books only sell at Amazon. I can't tell you how many books I've bypassed because the only link was to Amazon.
In addition, there seems to be an unwillingness among authors to accept that Amazon has the largest share of the market in the U.S. but not worldwide and that even in the U.S. being Amazon centric means giving up at least 30% of the market.
One other thing worth noting. Amazon gives out no hard, verifiable numbers. So when Amazon claims to have x% of the market, how do you know it is true? How do you know that Amazon's market share hasn't plateaued while that of B&N and Kobo grows? There is an almost slavish belief that Amazon is your friend and will do you no wrong but everyone else is your enemy and will screw you.