Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
But it's not available for people who do not own a Kindle. So you really want to alienate a lot of people who do not own a Kindle? This is one of the major issues we have with Amazon. Exclusive Kindle eBooks does more harm than good. It prevents people without a Kindle from reading them and it gets them pissed enough to not want to read anything else that author may have that they could read. So all you do is piss off potential customers and a bad word of mouth can go a long way.
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Good word of mouth also goes a long way. Without Kindle I'd have NO word of mouth about this book.
To create a paper vanity version of my book would cost more money than I have in my budget and more than I've made (a lot more) so far selling it. It would take me 3 or 4 years to recoup the cost. At 99 cents a pop I'm making just a few dollars a month, but the key is in establishing a base of readers who enjoy this type of writing and story. I'm just delighted that there are people who enjoy the book, and that's my #1 reward.
For those who don't think it's difficult to market a romance . . . it has taken me six years to get this book to see the light of day ANYWHERE (I have a thick file of rejections from agents and publishers, and I still get rejections from the legacy publishing industry, even though it is selling well on Kindle).
I put it on Kindle store (it was free to self-publish, and my daughter created the cover art for free). This was what my budget allowed me to do, and I'm sorry I can't afford the investment for paperback at this time . . . if that pisses some people off, well, I'm sorry. They should contact the mainstream publishers that keep rejecting me.
The competition in this space is fierce. Legacy publishers rabidly protect their stable of established authors (they've spent megabucks branding and marketing those names, so they are protecting their investment in those brands).
Bezos is breaking the established paradigm . . . giving new authors a great venue, and the reading public a chance to decide what they want and like (vs. the old model, where publishing houses, B&N, and Borders decide what you'd like to read).
Kindle has given me a way to market my brand -- without it I'd be just another nobody with an aging manuscript sitting in a desk drawer.