Kindle only

[GoSharks]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Ad infinitum

Ad nauseum...

[pholy]

Originally Posted by wannabee

I tried to buy one of diana gabaldon's books on B&N last night and they refuse me with this in their response.

If you received this email regarding your order for a Barnes & Noble NOOK Book or NOOK App, please be advised that these purchases are limited to those customers physically located in the United States and Canada.

It was based upon my ISP address because I used the USA address we have as our registered office when I uploaded all our company's books to make the account.,

That's interesting... The last time I read the terms of service, they required a US address and credit card. I never tried to order from them... plenty of fish in the sea...

[HarryT]

B&N have always been "US-only" for eBook sales.

[MartinC]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But that is 10% of the customers he's screwing over. That's not fair to them. And it's not fair to people who do not buy from Amazon who do want to continue reading his Jack Daniels series.

It's not personal. It's business.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

B&N have always been "US-only" for eBook sales.

If B&N is not allowing me to buy an eBook from them because I appear not to be from the US when I have a US address and a US credit card registered to my account is wrong. For all they know, I could be in the UK on vacation and in that case, I'm still legally entitled to purchase from B&N even if they don't think so.

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

And Jon is free to whine about said decision.

Many, many, many, many times.

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Ad infinitum

Originally Posted by GoSharks

Ad nauseum...

Agreed, but it does get old.

Hey Jon, let me give you something new to complain about for awhile. I can't play Halo on my Wii. Microsoft won't release it on anything other than the X-Box system. It is not fair!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If B&N is not allowing me to buy an eBook from them because I appear not to be from the US when I have a US address and a US credit card registered to my account is wrong. For all they know, I could be in the UK on vacation and in that case, I'm still legally entitled to purchase from B&N even if they don't think so.

It's not a matter of the law. B&N have a policy of only selling to people who are physically located in the USA. I think it's a stupid policy, but that is their policy.
They don't care what your nationality is, just where you physically are.

[GoSharks]

Originally Posted by ucfgrad93

Agreed, but it does get old.

Hey Jon, let me give you something new to complain about for awhile. I can't play Halo on my Wii. Microsoft won't release it on anything other than the X-Box system. It is not fair!

And I understand Wii is a much better platform! Microsoft=Amazon=Evil.
Personally I think Bungie is just being dumb and lazy and missing out on a new market...it's just not fair...it's just not fair....it's just not................

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

For Kobo, I think they start the process via email to content@kobobooks.com. Ask to set up an account, and go from there.

According to their CEO, they're supposed to start making it easier

Thanks, Hellmark. It's my understanding that in order to sell at Kobo, a small (or self-) publisher has to submit their file through a digital aggregator (middleman), in this case either Smashwords or Author Solutions. Kobo doesn't presently allow direct upload, like Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Maybe that will be changing in the near future.

I'm grateful that Smashwords exists, but it certainly isn't ideal, since they don't allow authors to submit their own ePub and .mobi files. But it may be the only no-cost way to get into stores like Apple, Sony, and Kobo. I can submit a DRM-free ePub to Barnes and Noble directly through their PubIt service, and the book's already DRM-free at Amazon for Kindle.

[starrigger]

Originally Posted by ucfgrad93

Of course, each author needs to do what is best for them. If Konrath makes 90% of his money from sales at Amazon, then it makes sense for him to focus on Amazon. If you make most of your money from B&N then it makes sense for you to focus on their store and not others.

No, that's missing the point. I don't focus on B&N, I focus on getting the books into as many stores as possible (within reason). These things shift around all the time.

The way my workflow is, it's almost as easy to be in B&N, Amazon, and SW as to be in just one of them. Direct to Apple was way more difficult, by comparison, and forget direct-to-Kobo, unless they come up with a comparable system. (They don't answer emails, and they have no user-friendly system.)

[queentess]

Originally Posted by OneandonlyDoc

All readers are potential consumers for written product...but by releasing something as Kindle-only, they cut themselves off from a broader revenue stream and audience that they could be reaching if they took the time to release in epub format as well.

All I'm saying is that they're shooting themselves in the foot.

All readers are potential consumers for written product...but by releasing something as ebook-only, they cut themselves off from a broader revenue stream and audience that they could be reaching if they took the time to release in paper format as well.

All I'm saying is that they're shooting themselves in the foot.

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by starrigger

I focus on getting the books into as many stores as possible (within reason).

That is nice, but just because you do this doesn't mean other authors will. Perhaps Konrath just wants to focus on what is most profitable and not chase the small markets so he can focus on writing.

[starrigger]

Originally Posted by ucfgrad93

That is nice, but just because you do this doesn't mean other authors will. Perhaps Konrath just wants to focus on what is most profitable and not chase the small markets so he can focus on writing.

Since Konrath has his books in multiple outlets, I doubt that's his conclusion.

I wasn't critiquing Konrath. I was critiquing the implication that because Konrath makes 90% of his money at KDP, the rest of the outlets are obviously a waste of time.

And pointing out that, for many writers, getting your book into multiple outlets is not much more work than getting them into one.

[jehane]

Originally Posted by queentess

All readers are potential consumers for written product...but by releasing something as ebook-only, they cut themselves off from a broader revenue stream and audience that they could be reaching if they took the time to release in paper format as well.

All I'm saying is that they're shooting themselves in the foot.

That is true, but the marginal cost of publishing and distributing an existing Kindle-formatted book in epub format is very low compared to the marginal cost of publishing and distributing that same book in print format. The predominantly indie authors under discussion here presumably do not have the capacity to do a print run and then distribute the product. In either case it comes down to a business decision - a cost/benefit analysis of the different formats (various ebook formats AND print AND audiobook and any other formats I may have missed).

Personally, I don't have a problem with authors who choose to publish only in Amazon, or only offer epubs through B&N. It just means that I won't buy their product, which is my choice as a consumer. I read widely and there are no books that I *must* have. If my favourite authors all chose to release in Kindle format only, or only released in the USA, or only published in Xhosa [1], so be it - as another poster has said, plenty more fish in the sea [2]. It is entirely up to the author whether I, and others like me, are an important enough market segment in the cost/benefit analysis.

I'm not anti-Kindle or anti-Amazon, but I chose not to buy a Kindle because I preferred the Sony for various reasons. Those reasons still hold, and my Sony is going strong, and so I am not interested in buying a Kindle just to read indie books of unknown quality. Although I have the technical skills to convert, from my point of view if the author doesn't consider it worth their time to do the conversion then why should I? A lot of people on here say that the Kindle is better because of the ease of buying books. While I prefer to download and store books on my computer and then sideload only those that I am reading to my Sony, like many Kindle users I also want my book buying to be easy. I am not going to jump through hoops (converting formats or using a vpn to get around geo-restrictions) to get a book.

[1] Incidentally, I know someone who speaks several languages, including Xhosa and Zulu, and neither is her native language.

[2] The potential collapse in global fish stocks is a topic for a different forum.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ucfgrad93

That is nice, but just because you do this doesn't mean other authors will. Perhaps Konrath just wants to focus on what is most profitable and not chase the small markets so he can focus on writing.

But honestly, I don't see any reason not to continue supporting your customer base. You only alienate yourself from them and end up with a poor reputation. So maybe non-Amazon customers were not the majority of the sales. But they were still sales.