Quote:
Originally Posted by J. Strnad
I had about 10 sales to B&N in 2011.
In December and January, I had 91 "borrows" through Kindle select. That's two months in the Select program vs. 11 months of B&N sales.
JSWolf and anamardoll, it isn't that I don't value you as readers. It's just that I don't value you fifty times more than I value the readers who borrow through Select.
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Although the following is based on J. Strnad's post, it is not intended to be directed at J. Strnad. It is directed more broadly and should be viewed that way.
Do I understand correctly that the "borrows" are free, that is the reader didn't have to pay for the book?
Also, there is a basic fallacy in the conclusions being drawn: 10 sales from B&N mean 10 people who paid for the book because they want to read it (OK, I admit that even this is an assumption but I think few of us would pay for an ebook that we did not intend to read). I don't think one can draw the same conclusion about a free ebook. Some, if not a lot of, people will download a free ebook and put it in their ever-growing to-be-read pile and maybe read the ebook some year or, perhaps more likely, not read it.
The other issue, I think, that no one yet can have the answer to is how sustainable is the borrowing program for their book. That is, if you had 91 borrows in the first few months, will that rate continue or will it diminish as more books are added to the borrowing? Also, how many of those 91 borrowers will become buyers of your books?
I think there remain a lot of unknowns and that it is too soon to draw valid conclusions about the value of the Amazon program. Additionally, we may never be able to draw valid conclusions because of the lack of hard data as a result of Amazon's secretness.
One other thing to consider, which is rarely, if ever, discussed is this: How much effort did an author put into promoting the availability of the author's books at places other than Amazon? I think this is both valid and important. I have noted that many authors list their books as being available at Amazon and only if they are directly asked do they mention other outlets. One cannot sell at B&N, for example, if one doesn't promote B&N with the same vigor as Amazon is promoted.