Amazon offers indie authors reward for going exclusive

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

*winks*

No, I meant practice with writing. Intimate experiences -- including sex and religious conversions -- are usually much harder to convey in writing than they are to experience in practice.

See also the IKEA Erotica trope.

I totally agree, it takes a greater skill to handle such subjects than we are
likely to encounter at the beginner level. To a lessor extent the same applies
to humor.

By the way my ereading device (jetBook Lite) runs on batteries as well.

Luck;
Ken

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

No, I meant practice with writing. Intimate experiences -- including sex and religious conversions -- are usually much harder to convey in writing than they are to experience in practice.

Especially if writing for an audience that haven't had that experience...

...and I'm soooo tempted to check out that link, but something tells me it might not be entirely work appropriate.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

Especially if writing for an audience that haven't had that experience...

...and I'm soooo tempted to check out that link, but something tells me it might not be entirely work appropriate.

It's TV Tropes, so it's safe for work. Whether it's SAFE FOR YOUR SOUL is another thing entirely.

[Fbone]

75,230 titles

The number has been bouncing around. Amazon must have deleted some but the number has finally reached 75,000.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

I'm all about the self-publish love. But I think JS Wolf is referencing... a tendency that seems to be cropping up lately in the sense that when Those Who Can't Write, Do they seem to churn out a LOT of erotica.

In my humble opinion, erotica is one of the hardest things to write correctly, but it's something that a good many people think must be easy because all you have to do is Write What You Know, right? But it's so much harder to convey an intimate experience like that without a lot of practice.

My 2 cents.

And they think it's OK to put up covers that are inappropriate for minors. So that makes browsing this bunch of books not a good idea to let kids do.

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

And they think it's OK to put up covers that are inappropriate for minors. So that makes browsing this bunch of books not a good idea to let kids do.

Minors? Some of us want to be able to read these during our break at work!

It's one of my biggest complaints with the erotica genre, actually. Thanks to eReaders they can now finally be read outside of a locked bedroom without resorting to concealment tactics that would make a Cold War spy proud, but this damned X-rated cover art makes that impossible. Make the cover neutral, or make two versions, one without cover art. Just don't flaunt all that cuddly nakedness all over an eReader that a co-worker or elderly family member might express curiosity in and want me to demonstrate to them.

[arcadata]

Well, JA Konrath is making serious bank - he just posted on his blog how he's earned $100K in three weeks for his self-pubbed KDP Kindle titles.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by arcadata

Well, JA Konrath is making serious bank - he just posted on his blog how he's earned $100K in three weeks for his self-pubbed KDP Kindle titles.

Doesn't surprise me -- he made several of his books free right before Christmas in (I assume) an attempt to ride the charts high in preparation for the gifted Kindles.

I thought about "buying" some of his freebies, but based on the reviews, I really don't think I'd like the books. Just not my thing. Still, I'm sure a lot of people did -- he's got a very big blog following.

I actually sort of feel Amazon shouldn't include free purchases and sample downloads in the chart rankings, but meh.

[Fbone]

Amazon reported 295,000 Select downloads. Less than I expected but I am sure there will be more for January.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by arcadata

Well, JA Konrath is making serious bank - he just posted on his blog how he's earned $100K in three weeks for his self-pubbed KDP Kindle titles.

Does anyone really know if this is true. He keeps saying it, and I don't have reason to doubt him, but I wonder if anyone has verified it somehow. It is easy to claim you are making millions when no one can see your tax return.

[emellaich]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

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

Did you see the following story:
Amazon's Plagiarism Problem ?

[emellaich]

This is probably already noted on these pages, but I'm on a slow connection and couldn't find it. Anyway, I just discovered today that Amazon's $500,000 pool of money was per month. They've already doled out the December funds and they have moved onto a new pot for January. Also, they had such strong response that they sweetened the offer by 200k.

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-f...lusivity-pays/

[spindlegirl]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Does anyone really know if this is true. He keeps saying it, and I don't have reason to doubt him, but I wonder if anyone has verified it somehow. It is easy to claim you are making millions when no one can see your tax return.

Who's to know? But one thing, he prices his e-books accessibly - people are "willing to give him money" for good writing that they like. I've downloaded his free stuff before - not my long term cup of tea personally, but he knows how to write.

I got a kick out of this quote:

No other industry allows this. There are always continuing production costs and shipping costs. There are always middlemen who take cuts. There is always a limit to distribution. There are always times when something is sold out or unavailable.

Not anymore.

Imagine having instant access to every person's checking account in the world, and stealing one dollar.

Now imagine them willingly giving you that dollar.

People are *willing* to give him a "that dollar" because he is a popular writer who prices his books so everyone can afford them. This is the future.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Does anyone really know if this is true. He keeps saying it, and I don't have reason to doubt him, but I wonder if anyone has verified it somehow. It is easy to claim you are making millions when no one can see your tax return.

Easy to claim something is a bestseller, similarly, a la New York Times...

[anamardoll]

I think a lot of his success is self-perpetuating at this point. I suspect a lot of self-published authors buy his books to see what "the secret" to success is. So while that works great for him, that probably doesn't leverage easily into other authors' efforts.