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To relate back to the article, I'm seeing quite a bit of renewed interest in print books. I've never sold tons in print, but kind of steady. There appears to me to be renewed interest in several forum groups that I'm on (especially FB--book clubs and the like).
In doing giveaways at my blog, I have started recommending authors do a print book giveaway (or ebook reader choice, but the print books are getting the attention). I think readers who never got into the e-reader thing are actively on the lookout for giveaways or reasonably priced print books (which is difficult to do for an indie).
I'm actually thinking about selling print versions of my books on my blog because if I order in quantity (any 5 to 10 books) I can sell them for $8.50 shipped and still make a buck per book (no, not a lot, but I don't make much per book anyway). I'd like to get that cost down to the magic $7.99, but I don't think I can sell the volume required. Anyway, it's something I'm looking at because there is more interest in it than I've seen in a while. It seems some readers have reverted to preferring print.
Re: the comment about indies go trad if they can--you don't hear about the ones who don't. There have been several who have blogged that they had offers. But in general, indies REALLY want to sell print rights and keep the ebook rights because they have spent years growing that type of audience. And to give up an income stream like that on "maybe you'll sell even more once it's in print" can be a "no game" for some authors.
For me personally, I am not looking to go trad. Sure, if an offer came to my door, I'd have to give it honest consideration, but I do not go out of my way to network or look for a publisher.
Re: Bookbub: It's just an advertising site. All the books on there are ad supported--to the tune of several hundred dollars an ad. They do some sorting in that they avoid the most obvious bad covers.
Re: Finding indie books:
I have a section on my blog where I track reads under 5 dollars that I enjoyed and/or reviewed (meaning that I found some of them competent enough to mention, but they may not have been my thing). Most of them are indie (I don't discriminate one way or the other.) BUT: I find it harder and harder to find books I want to read. I can't pay trad prices, so I rely on the library for many of those books. I've had a string of DNF from there lately. But yes, some indies aren't all that and more either because of typos or lack of plot. If anyone wants the link to the reviews/under 5 I mentioned, it's waaaay down on the left sidebar. Not that easy to find. If you PM me I can send you the link too. Your mileage will totally vary because I read in several genres.
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