Samhain Publishing is winding down and will close

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I've reviewed books for two websites for three years now and I'm stopping. Yes I often got the book for free and my review was never biased by that but I'm worn out from constant reviews so right now I'd rather pay for the book and just read for pleasure. I do rate all my books on GR for my own benefit and as much as I understand why reviews are needed I get fed up with the constant pressure to review.

Completely understandable. I did reviews for a HUGE review site back before ebooks took off. I lasted about 2 years. It quickly becomes an unpaid job and starts to take some of the pleasure out of reading!!! I still do it for my own site and one of the reasons I take 'Guest" reviews is so that none of the reviewers feel that pressure to review every book they read.

[Atunah]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I
But readers are not as enthused about reviewing books. Many don't trust reviews, but there's also a lot of sites like GR where they can leave a ranking for their own records. (Which is really a benefit for that reader, not for other readers--nothing wrong with that either!)

I'd agree about not being enthused about reviewing. Its just extremely difficult for some of us. Debilitating so. I also agree with not trusting reviews anymore. Honestly, it has gotten much worse in that way. In the past, I found them just fine. Now there are so many "got this free from the author" reviews that are from street teams and arcs, I can't barely find any real reviews anymore I ignore and and all street team/arc reviews. Indies especially have glommed on to this phenom. Sure, trade has always had some advance copies, but nothing like this. Nothing like this sometimes mob of 100's and 100's of hard core fans of the author to not only come out with nothing but rah rah 5 stars the day the book hit, but they also often go after the other reviewers that dared not to give a rah rah 5 star.

Lots have stopped reviewing for reasons like that. I had some of my reviews downvote bombed by a mass of fanlets. It was books just like I was describing with a mass of arc/email list reviews.

This rush to get nothing but 5 stars to push the average rating into a totally unrealistic number, just to get the coveted pricey ad spot, has really ruined the review system for books I think.

So yeah, I kind of don't trust a lot of reviews anymore. But I can still find those I trust on goodreads. And for me, star only ratings are very important also. They are not just for the reader, they also for other readers like me. I don't need a text review anymore with readers on goodreads I friend/follow. After a while I know what they like, what I like and if we mesh in taste. So if I see a new book with lots of buzz on amazon, lots of good reviews, looks good and all that. I check goodreads and see my friends ratings. If they rate it a 1 or 2, I pass without even bothering further. But then again I "know" what those folks read and like.
I don't have to look at any other reviews other than those I follow at all.

But yeah, star ratings type reviews help me also a lot. So I hope mine do too for other readers and I just mostly don't have the heart anymore to review in text. Its such a chore.

[Cinisajoy]

I got offered my own website to review books. I decided against it. I am just too picky about what I read anymore.
Like Atunah, I have also had reviews down voted and at one point was called an overly-critical critic. Hey, if you are going to represent yourself as a professional author to get a person's biography then proofread the book before publishing. Don't make a very glaring error.
Yes, I actually found the person because I wanted to make sure the author had the guy's permission or blessing.
There is a big difference between East and West Texas.

[Terisa de morgan]

I agree with Atunah. I don't review because I like reading, not writing, always have been like that. And ratings are important, because they don't usually show the real opinion if the number of votes is high enough. And I've found friends at goodreads too, people I trust their opinion because I've had the same opinion a lot of times. That's more important than a glowing review from a person I don't know (it has always been like this for me).

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

I agree with Atunah. I don't review because I like reading, not writing, always have been like that. And ratings are important, because they don't usually show the real opinion if the number of votes is high enough. And I've found friends at goodreads too, people I trust their opinion because I've had the same opinion a lot of times. That's more important than a glowing review from a person I don't know (it has always been like this for me).

And there is NOTHING wrong with any of that. I merely stated it as changing behavior from readers. The part that bothers me is that Amazon now penalizes us with lower visibility if we don't get reviews on a regular basis. They probably do this because THEY want to stay relevant in the review world. They own GR so they see that people are more inclined to leave just a rating. The problem is that by pressuring authors to continue to get reviews, it just keeps the cycle of fake reviews going. Both GR and Amazon have admitted there are benefits to authors getting more than 100 reviews. More pressure for fakes.

Ad sites that require 5, 10 and even 100 reviews before accepting the ad also create a market for fake reviews.

When GR didn't exist, more readers tended to look for blogging review sites. Social media has changed that interaction. The sift to FB and GR and the like is just changed behavior (not worse behavior, just different).

[Terisa de morgan]

I've some time tried to rate a book at Amazon but I have to write a review, so I've left it. It's very strange I write a review, usually a book which has impressed me a lot. But I understand the change of behavior: as others have said, at the end, it's another job so, if you're not really invested it (as author, getting free books...) you prefer to step back, and I think it has happened a lot with people who has been reading ebooks a long time.

[Fbone]

I write a very brief review on GR mostly for my own benefit, a memory aide. It probably wouldn't help others except for the average rating.

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

In early days, the idea of cheap books on kindle was a Godsend. A book for 99 cents? Or 2.99? Readers couldn't snap them up fast enough. As I mentioned earlier, the kobo studies show that some 60 percent of books aren't even opened--so the key was to get enough sales to the people who WERE reading to create a fan base that comes back for more. (This period lasted about 5 years in my estimation--I was published during the last two. It was a very high growth period for indie sales and e-readers, especially the Kindle).

Ad sites (really Amazon associate sites)-- Books on the Knob, DailyCheapReads, ENT, ereaderiq -- most were happy to find good books and talk about them without charging. Fairly quickly, they learned they could charge a nominal ad fee and also made ad money (Books on the Knob and DailyCHeapreads STILL DO NOT TAKE ADS--they are associates and find their own bargains and choose what to talk about so far as I know).

Review sites were springing up all over the place because books were suddenly cheap, right there, right now. Many wanted free books in exchange for a review. The system was RIPE for indies. It could have been ripe for trad books too, but the trads didn't want to adapt--so they made it perfect for us.

These days, even free books elicit a yawn from many quarters (Even trad books don't get the downloads when free or cheap. I know this from my own site and tracking clicks and downloads). The cheap books? Well, they need good reviews, a great cover, good copy, AND just the right buyer.

But readers are not as enthused about reviewing books. Many don't trust reviews, but there's also a lot of sites like GR where they can leave a ranking for their own records. (Which is really a benefit for that reader, not for other readers--nothing wrong with that either!)

There are also more indies. There are also a LOT more backlist titles. All of these things change reader behavior. Seven or 8 years ago readers wanted to snap up the cheap titles before they got expensive. Now? Readers are happy to wait to see if they go on sale...

Pricing expectations are different and sampling habits are different (there's KU and SCRIBD, there's libraries delivering books online-all cheap and effective ways to read. They weren't as easy to access, or didn't exist, 10 years ago).

Thanks for that. So in a way it sounds like the market is 'maturing.'

[BearMountainBooks]

The market is definitely mature.

In more signs of the time, Nook is dropping its UK branch (sold to Sainsbury)

Dear Publisher,

We are writing to announce an important change to our NOOK Service that will affect NOOK Press vendors publishing content in the United Kingdom. Effective March 15, 2016, NOOK will no longer sell digital content in the United Kingdom. The NOOK Store on NOOK devices sold in the UK, on the NOOK Reading App for Android, and at www.nook.com/gb will discontinue operations.

NOOK customers in the UK will continue to have access to purchased NOOK Books until May 31, 2016. After this date, NOOK has arranged for the award‑winning Sainsbury's Entertainment on Demand to provide access to customers' purchased NOOK Books.

There is no change to NOOK Service or NOOK Press in the United States. If you are an author based outside the US in a supported country, you can continue to use NOOK Press to publish digital content in the United States and receive payment in your local currency.

After the March 15th, 2016 deadline, titles will be available for sale in the US only, with a list price in USD ($). For new titles, you will no longer be able to set pricing in British Pounds (£) or Euros (€). For existing titles, no changes need to be made by you at this time. If you are making a change to the Book Details, however, the Sales Territory Rights will default to "United States only". Your sales reports will continue to report any sales of titles in the UK that were sold prior to the discontinuation date.

To review more information about this change, visit our FAQs page.

[Rbneader]

Originally Posted by Dusky Rose

I'll third that. It's one of my top-listed series. Just under the Dresden Files.

As for Samhain, I had gotten some freebies and bought a few from them in the remote past, and didn't like the web site. So basically forgot about them.

With the sale, I ended up getting 13 books. But I felt I had to work hard to find them and just became annoyed at trying to find m/m books. I ran across one by accident, (The only clue being the cover of a series I'd read) and then hit the tags inside to bring up more. I found it hard to find series information, and some books were catagorised GLBT but not tagged that way.

I see the books have multiple tags, but never figured out how to chose more than one tag at a time. So that led to a lot of back-n-forth.

Reminded me why I didn't come back to their site after my first few experiences.

Yeah, if the site is irritating to use whether the book is good doesn't matter. Readers aren't going to get to the book.

Samhain outsourced the actual selling of books to Amazon some time ago, probably without realizing it. That was never going to work out well in the long-term, and now Samhain and many other small publisher or indie authors are learning that.

[Rbneader]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

The market is definitely mature.

In more signs of the time, Nook is dropping its UK branch (sold to Sainsbury)


To review more information about this change, visit our FAQs page.

Definitely a maturing market and the shakeout isn't over. In the US:

We are writing to announce an upcoming change to your NOOK® service and to explain what it means for you.

Effective March 15, 2016, NOOK will no longer offer third party applications (Apps) for sale from the NOOK Store™. All of your existing Apps previously purchased from the NOOK Store will remain in your NOOK Library™ and will continue to be accessible on compatible NOOK devices. This means that you will still be able to download and install previously purchased Apps from the NOOK Library on your device.

You will also continue to be able to discover, purchase, and use third party applications from the wide selection available at the Google Play store on your compatible NOOK device.

No action is necessary on your part, but should you have questions, please visit our FAQs page or contact us.

Please note that our standalone NOOK Reading Apps for Android and iOS are not affected by this change and will remain available on Google Play and iTunes respectively.

Of course, we will continue to offer our full service of books, magazines, and newspapers on both NOOK devices and our standalone Reading Apps, and look forward to bringing the best in digital reading to your NOOK experience.

Sincerely,

The NOOK Team

I just hope the eventual market still has a diverse group of players. If Amazon becomes the sole option that would be incredibly irritating.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Rbneader

I just hope the eventual market still has a diverse group of players. If Amazon becomes the sole option that would be incredibly irritating.

One single vendor (or maybe, the only relevant one if there are some others left) for the entire world-wide ebook market would not be an acceptable situation.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

One single vendor (or maybe, the only relevant one if there are some others left) for the entire world-wide ebook market would not be an acceptable situation.

Definitely.
But if the other contenders are incompetent or, worse, disinterested...?

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Definitely.
But if the other contenders are incompetent or, worse, disinterested...?

I thought comments on politicians had a special forum???

Sorry, couldn't resist
Back to our regular viewing.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

I thought comments on politicians had a special forum???

Sorry, couldn't resist
Back to our regular viewing.

I did say "disinterested" not "uninteresting", you know.

The main problem is that the parents of all four major Kindle alternatives have other interests with much higher priority than consumer ebooks. In the case of the one that should have been their biggest threat, Nook, (and was headed that way before the conspiracy kicked in) the bigger interest is surviving.