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Originally Posted by avantman42
Interesting, thanks. It'll be a while before I release another book, but I'll have to look into that when the time comes.
I heard about that, and also saw this blog post complaining about the revised contract. It's only of vague interest to me, though, because they won't let me upload direct, so I have to go through Smashwords or someone similar. |
B&N's contract has never been as good as Amazon's. They don't pay the same 70 percent commissions and have not offered it from the start. I completely understand why many authors go exclusive. It gets more and more tempting EVERY SINGLE DAY, trust me.
As for that blog post, the differences aren't that great from the old one--all the contracts are basically saying "no agency model, we can change your price at any time." What is not clear from the B&N contract is who takes the haircut. Amazon clearly states that if they are price matching a deal they see on another site, the author takes the haircut. If AMZN does a sale, Amazon takes the trim.
B&N plays the game opposite Amazon. Amazon does everything possible to attract backlist authors and yes, even indie authors. B&N won't match the 70 percent of the two largest retailers (commissions) and they have put in minimal effort when it comes to programs to get the word out. They did do a very nice job with review bloggers and author matching -- but that program ran once about a year plus ago. I haven't seen them try it again. That was kind of a big lottery to create a review program and was nice because it highlighted bloggers with Nooks. But again, if they ever ran it a second time, I didn't see it. They need more reviews on all products.
They also don't pay commissions for ebooks for associates who talk about the products. That's a deal-breaker for any reasonable associate who talks mostly books. Instead of bringing people to their side, well, they kind of shut them out.
I keep hoping they will get some new projects going. But we'll see.