Quote:
Originally Posted by Pajamaman
I'm confused. This contradicts what other posters have stated. Clearly Amazon plays a pivotal role in indie electronic publishing. They are the big gatekeeper. Other posters have said that the way Amazon advertises (and lists?) books is now less favorable to indies and more favorable to the Big 5.
Is this true? If so, how has it changed, and why?
Could you clarify that?
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That is assuming that readers shop for books by looking at advertising. I don't care what Amazon advertises, I don't want to see it. Any sponsored link I scroll right on by without looking. I don't want to see ads, I want to find what I like to read. I like browsing on my own, in the genres I like, seeing what gets released. Lets just say the wading through garbage has become too much. If they favor trade published stuff when it comes to my recommendations, its really just a function of the algorithm as I have shifted away from indy stuff back to trade published books. So its working.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pajamaman
There was crap before and there is crap now. That doesn't explain why (if) people are buying less of it.
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I am buying less indies because there is so much more crap now than ever before. There really wasn't as much crap out there before indies. Really wasn't. The crap that is out now would never have made it past someones desk.
I, along with many other readers, was an early reader of self published titles. I got my kindle in 2008 and I love romance. Among other genres. Indy+romance, match made in heaven right? It was for a while. It was fantastic. I read a lot of stuff indy that ended up being picked up by trade. It was quality stuff, fresh.
Last couple of years? Forgetaboutit. Really the down spiral started when everyone tried to jump on the bandwagons. Around the start of KU. Stuffing any kind of crap short into the system to make a buck. All the copy cats jumping on the 50 shades wagon, the billionaire wagon, the shifter wagon. Flooding the market with mediocre cookie cutter stuff that has no heart and pretty much just sex. Any day now when I try to find something to read that is all there is. 1000's of them taking up the listings in releases.
What happens to the indies that actually write good stuff? They get drowned out. Many of us have shifted back to reading the proven greats of genres. Backlist titles, some gone back to paperback.
And who is getting smart about it all? Trade publishers. They are now the ones coming out with the stories that are interesting and they also now have the best sales. $2.99, $1.99, I find many books on sale all the time now. And I buy all at Amazon as its all in one place. Why would I go elsewhere. There is no incentive.
Blossom is not the only one to see all the low quality slush.
I have actually read more library books in the last year than I ever before. I also have KU and oddly enough I have bought way more books in the last year than I did the year before that. In KU I read mostly Amazon imprints and indy authors that are proven and have a lot of books out. And back list titles which I don't really count as indy as they were published with a big 5 in the past.
If I could read the font in paperbacks still, I would probably scout out used books also. But I can't, so that option is gone for me. Voracious readers I think like to share their books, can't do that with digital.