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Originally Posted by ScalyFreak
Yikes. Either B&N are shafting indie authors, or Amazon are DaVinci-level geniuses at marketing indie books.
That's just depressing.  |
Or perhaps the readers at B&N are different than the readers at Amazon and thus look for different types of books.
The one question that is always avoided in these discussions, probably because it is speculative and because indie authors mostly want to believe it will not matter, is this: What will Amazon do once it has a monopoly of the ebook market?
It seems to me that the recent dispute between Amazon and IPG gives a clue as to what can be expected: Amazon will want a larger share of the pie and will be able to get it because there will be no competing outlets.
Even though Amazon sales of Strnad's books swamp the sales at B&N, should Amazon decide to muscle indie authors for a larger share of the pie, there is an alternative place to go. Should B&N fold like Borders, Amazon will have no credible competition in the United States and indie authors will be at Amazon's mercy.
I understand why an author would think about giving Amazon exclusivity, especially if sales of the author's abooks at B&N are 1% of sales at Amazon. Yet I have not seen an analysis of why that is. What is it that Amazon is doing to promote the specific books that B&N isn't? How much of the author's own promotional efforts are aimed at directing prospective readers to Amazon rather than B&N?
Considering that Amazon has about 65% of the ebook market and B&N about 28%, I would have expected B&N sales of a title to be about one-third that of Amazon's, by Strnad reports differently for his/her books. I think trying to discover why would be very important to an author.