Amazon offers indie authors reward for going exclusive

[anamardoll]

Thank you, JSWolf, for the link! I'm planning to publish in as many places as possible, so that everyone can have it on the device they want from the store they want.

[L.J. Sellers]

I put a few of my titles in the Select program because I wanted the opportunity for the Amazon giveaway. The results were fantastic, and all nine of my novels are selling better now on Amazon (where I make 95% of my income). I had my ebooks available everywhere, but didn't sell enough through other retailers to make a financial difference.

In fact, the discounting issues I experienced through other retailers have hurt my royalties at Amazon, so they actually work against my profit. So pulling my books from Kobo, Sony, and Books on Board was a good move even without the Select program motivation.

My Detective Jackson books are still available on B&N and I hope to keep them there. I'm waiting to see my share of the Select program proceeds before making any more decisions.
L.J.

[Ken Maltby]

Could you explain "the discounting issues I experienced through other retailers have
hurt my royalties at Amazon", are you saying that Amazon pays you less if you have
ebooks listed at other retailers?

Given a few posts by authors, it would seem that Amazon is already well on its way to
a gaining a near monopoly for ebook sales. I think that the fact that Kindle ads are
about all that are out there, and that Amazon was wise and quick enough to have apps
for every platform, would make for them having a substantial lead on the other retailers,
but what I am reading here sounds unlikely. Still, if the authors are getting paid directly
by the retailers, they should have the royalty checks to go by, and that should be the
most important data source, from their point of view.

Luck;
Ken

P.S. Historically, publishing monopolies have squeezed the authors/writers as much or
more than they squeezed the readers.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

P.S. Historically, publishing monopolies have squeezed the authors/writers as much or more than they squeezed the readers.

Yeah... I know authors have to make a living, but as a reader and a writer, I'm really uncomfortable with how many people have jumped on the Only At Amazon bandwagon.

That said, B&N and the rest of the stores will not live or die by indie author availability. So I'm not thinking that Amazon will make a full-on monopoly out of this. Having said that, while I do currently buy from Amazon because they are occasionally priced lower for things on my "must have" paper-book conversion list, I never buy from them for indie titles or "browsing". I do all that on B&N.

[Lazybones]

I just published another book at the Kindle store this weekend, and I gave the Select program another long and hard look. It was tempting, but I'd also done my end-of-year spreadsheet on book sales, and even though my Amazon sales have been improving steadily, the "everybody else" category still represents about half of my total sales (I go through Smashwords, and let them handle the distribution to Sony, Apple, B&N, and Kobo). So not this time, but if my Amazon sales continue to grow I may reconsider next time.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by vaughnmr

Why would you want to buy ebooks from them? They only sell epub or pdf ebooks, so they won't sell ebooks to the majority of ebook readers. I'm not going to buy from them.

Sound familiar, Wolf?

Where you buy your eBooks is up to you. But the way I look at it, the more eBook stores anamardoll can get her eBook into (without being a Smashwords copy), the better as I'm pretty confident that she'll format it nicely herself and Smashwords would just mangle that.

As for your not buying the same format eBooks as I do, that blame goes to Mobipocket. They had this policy in place that said that in order be used in a dedicated reading device, they had to be the only format with DRM. Sony originally wanted to go with Mobipocket (before they went with ePub). But in order for that to happen, Sony would have had to have remove support for LRX (LRF with DRM). And that would have been a poor business choice back then. So, Sony went with ADE/ePub since Adobe didn't have any such restrictions. If Sony was allowed to use Mobipocket on the 505, I do think that Mobipocket would be the #1 format today.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Thank you, JSWolf, for the link! I'm planning to publish in as many places as possible, so that everyone can have it on the device they want from the store they want.

You are very welcome. If I come across any other place to self-publish that has nothing to do with Smashwords, I'll let you know.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You are very welcome. If I come across any other place to self-publish that has nothing to do with Smashwords, I'll let you know.

Thank you!

(We should start a list in the Writer's Forum....)

[Fbone]

65,600 titles

[stonetools]

I wonder where Amazon will go now that this promotion has drawn such indie author interest?

[Fbone]

67,700 titles

The Detachment by Barry Eisler is #2

[Fbone]

We passed 70,000 titles.

70,266 as of today.

[Fbone]

74,200 titles

Increasing at a faster pace.

Do we have December's figures yet? Maybe an author will post Amazon's total download numbers and commission rates.

[JSWolf]

But how many of them are not either poorly written, poorly edited, full of errors, or just plain smut?

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But how many of them are not either poorly written, poorly edited, full of errors, or just plain smut?

What difference does it make? How many lifetimes do you have to read 74,000 books?