|
They'd be mad to stock any ereader in store. Every one sold is lost sales.
Why does it work for Amazon? Or why did Daunt grow to hate Kindles?
Because from the beginning Amazon was a mail order book seller. Internet is just mail order. If Amazon sells a Kindle, or to an extent a Fire, then that may increase their book sales. They were ALREADY an Internet only based book seller, now they have added near instant free delivery (free delivery on physical goods from Amazon costs them. Even the Mobile Kindle delivery is a tiny fraction of that). Less inventory too.
So naturally it benefits Amazon to sell ebooks (and also broadens catalogue as Indy content costs the indy people zero, paper costs about $10 to $30 per title to proof even if POD used (Amazon owns the leading POD and now CreateSpace books are Amazon branded). Amazon also now own Audible.
Then Amazon offers all sorts of incentives via KDP select. Both for paper and ebook. Those titles can't be sold anywhere else.
So Amazon now has 82% of ONLINE physical book sales (they bought Book Depository and Abe Books because they are online sellers). They bought Goodreads so as to predict what people are doing and incentivise purchases. Amazon now has about 90% of ALL ebook sales and the bulk of audio books, which are now podcast/streaming rather than the traditional CDs or cassettes. Which means subscription. I mentioned they bought Audible?
Of course Amazon wants every title in KDP Select, not regular KDP. Of course they push Prime in your face. Ask ANYONE selling subscriptions or Contract phone usage. Free Money!. Ordinary people subsidise the heavy consumers. The "free" stuff isn't free, EVERYONE's sub is paying for it and a minority consume the free.
Kindle Unlimited and Prime also cheat the content providers and make the content seem cheaper.
Physical bookshops need to do the following:
Let customers order in store or online, not just staff at the till. From the Publisher, to be collected at the shop.
Sell ebooks in store, via USB transfer. Not via an app, not selling their own brand ereader, but for EVERY ereader, like Smashwords do. No DRM. DRM DOES NOT STOP PIRACY!
Cut out wholesale. There is no place for wholesale today. It's a parasitical business. Publishers MUST sell direct to even the Indy corner bookshop.
Publishers need to do the following:
Supply any retailer direct.
No discount for Supermarkets or Big chains.
Ditch wholesalers.
Have every title on POD. Even at normal wholesale price they'll still make a profit, esp the big five who should have "in house" POD.
Unique use once serial number on a paper book. Lotto style scratch to show tampering. You then get a FREE ebook copy with every paper book. Some small Indy publishers do this now. It cost nearly nothing and deprives Amazon.
No DRM on eBooks.
Kindle Dual Mobi (old mobi & KF8) and ePub2 covers about 99.9% of ereaders in use.
Call electronic books that are fixed layout and need tablets something else, not ebooks, even if not PDF. There is a need for them, especially text books.
Do not use fix layout for novels. EVER. Test on an old Kindle, a new Kindle and typical epub based readers, all 6". Test on ePub apps on a 5" widescreen phone. Remember ebooks are MEANT to reflow and be read at user chosen margins, line spacing and font size.
Stop chopping and changing covers! How many times has someone bought a book and discovered they already have it!
|