Samhain Publishing is winding down and will close

[Cinisajoy]

Unemployment rates encompass all states.
I have seen our area have 50% unemployment while the rest of the states were at less than 5%.
I have also seen our area have .9% unemployment while everyone else was at 20% or more.
So that wouldn't have much affect on sales.

[Fbone]

Regarding unemployment, I am quoting official numbers. Whether they are accurate or not is a topic for the Politics forum.

The economic recovery doesn't need to be real, only imagined, for people to buy goods and services. Consumer sentiment is at the highest level since 2004. Link

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Unemployment rates encompass all states.
I have seen our area have 50% unemployment while the rest of the states were at less than 5%.
I have also seen our area have .9% unemployment while everyone else was at 20% or more.
So that wouldn't have much affect on sales.

Agreed. I think it safe to say people are buying less and budgeting their money.
Retail is down. Several B&M stores are closing or downsizing. Most romance readers I know off forum are dealing with financial difficulties in one way or another. They've turned to used books and the libraries. They get really excited when I tell them about Google Rewards, Harlequin Rewards and sites like Swagbucks. They just can't afford to spend like before. I recently helped one reader find freebies who had lost her job.

Sent from my XT1528

[Josieb1]

I have a Coming Soon list of ebooks from my favourite authors, I will pay up to £6 a book to get the ones I want, only yesterday I pre ordered one through Amazon that's Book 9 in a series, for £5.38, but generally I don't hunt for books, I have enough good authors I follow writing that it would take something's special to attract my eye and move me to a new author. Books are still, and always will take most of my disposable income, I'm just more choosy nowadays where I spend it.

Plus I'm on instafreebee so I get free books thrown at me constantly. I do 'buy' free books but generally they sit in Calibre waiting for the day I can't afford one books and have nothing to read.

I do agree that free books and constant sales, while being financially good for me, do devalue the whole industry. I don't think in the long term that's a good move. What I prefer are reasonable length excerpts so I can read a decent amount before I decide to buy.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Blossom

The unemployment rate is seriously altered. There are so many people out of work right now but unemployment laws have changed so they don't qualify for unemployment and are not counted in that percentage.

Sent from my XT1528

Correct.
Official stats are seriously flawed in many ways and in no way reflect the state of the economy much less the book market.

The book market has been mostly driven by BPH pricing policies and those policies over the past six years have been for higher prices. In the process, they have provided a big price umbrella for Indies and smaller tradpubs.

As pointed out by Maria there has indeed been a big hike in BPH ebook prices in the past two years.
It was intended to drive sales from ebooks to pbooks.
It sort of succeeded, for a while, but one side effect was to draw BPH sales away from non-Amazon ebookstores to Amazon online pbook sales. That weakened non-Kindle ebookstores.

Getting back to Samhain, they were primarily a publisher; their bookstore, like BAEN's was a supplement to their main business. Their failure is due mostly to the forces impacting Indies and tradpubs and less so the forces affecting ebookstores in general. Whatever the BPHs have been up to is mostly irrelevant in that sphere. With one exception:

In the last year the bigger tradpubs have latched on to Bookbub as a means to promote their backlist titles on markdown. They have crowded out a lot of Indies and small presses and Bookbub does drive a fair amount of sales. Especially among people pining for gatekeeping. This has shifted a fair amount of sales away from smaller publishers.

[BearMountainBooks]

It's not just bookbub. They only rarely take indie ads anymore (and they are one that "suggests" free if you want to get on there as an indie. Maybe they'll do 99 cents. I don't know.) I know of three other sites that no longer take indies that used to take indies. The big publishers now "feed" these sites with decent books at 2.99 and under and once the site found them or got on the right emails they have no need to sort indies (or sort anything).

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

It's not just bookbub. They only rarely take indie ads anymore (and they are one that "suggests" free if you want to get on there as an indie. Maybe they'll do 99 cents. I don't know.) I know of three other sites that no longer take indies that used to take indies. The big publishers now "feed" these sites with decent books at 2.99 and under and once the site found them or got on the right emails they have no need to sort indies (or sort anything).

Where could you find indie authors then?

[Blossom]

As a bookbub subscriber I can assure you indies are still top offers both paid and free. You seldom see mainstream advertised on sale and if so just a couple. Where'd you get the idea they don't allow indies in their picks?

Sent from my XT1528

[BearMountainBooks]

ereaderiq still does a newsletter/mailing list and takes indie books. They vet them to the extent of usually making sure the covers aren't terrible. EreaderNewsToday checks covers and checks reviews. They pick the "best" of what they are offered so some books mysteriously never make the cut...this doesn't mean you won't get stinkers, but I like their choices better than most. I also post books at my blog, and while I have accepted at least one ad that had bad covers, I try to...advise the author to upgrade them. Generally, I am posting non-ad books that I find via recommendations here at mobileread or another forum I'm on. That doesn't mean you won't get stinkers, but I try. I review books I read on my blog and take guest reviews. I post both trad books and indie books. I pay attention to reviews in all cases.

As I mentioned, I'll sometimes even post a book that isn't a bargain, but lately those have not sold (books I review may have been bought as bargains or may have been bought at full price. Price isn't a consideration when I'm reviewing something I read.)

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Where could you find indie authors then?

Freebooksy or bargainbooksy then there's Bookgorilla and eBook Discovery, Robin Reads just to name a few. These are all bookbub like. Bookgorilla is the best as you set it to 50 books an email.

Sent from my XT1528

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Blossom

As a bookbub subscriber I can assure you indies are still top offers both paid and free. You seldom see mainstream advertised on sale and if so just a couple. Where'd you get the idea they don't allow indies in their picks?

Sent from my XT1528

Check any author board discussing it. Apparently it is very difficult to get on, even if you are willing to pay their prices and from what I have read --mind you--I have only READ this from authors, I have no personal experience--they were/are only taking indies willing to price at 99 cents or free, while taking trad authors at the higher prices. For a while there, (This was before the christmas season) there was a thread asking if any indie had been accepted at other than free.

I'm sure things change depending what Bookbub is being offered (by both the indie and the trad market) AND by what people are buying.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Check any author board discussing it. Apparently it is very difficult to get on, even if you are willing to pay their prices and from what I have read --mind you--I have only READ this from authors, I have no personal experience--they were/are only taking indies willing to price at 99 cents or free, while taking trad authors at the higher prices. For a while there, (This was before the christmas season) there was a thread asking if any indie had been accepted at other than free.

I'm sure things change depending what Bookbub is being offered (by both the indie and the trad market) AND by what people are buying.

That's a good thing. You don't want picks influence by authors. You want them to choose what they think the readers would like. I only look at their picks. I never read any ads in the email. Gmail cuts them off so you never see them. I only look at the picks.

Bookbub seldom has any book over $2 on it. This is why they are so popular.

Sent from my XT1528

[Terisa de morgan]

Thank you, both of you, I'll check because I'm not so sure about my liking of traditional publishers (I'm sure I don't like the majority in romance )

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Blossom

That's a good thing. You don't want picks influence by authors. You want them to choose what they think the readers would like. I only look at their picks. I never read any ads in the email. Gmail cuts them off so you never see them. I only look at the picks.

Bookbub seldom has any book over $2 on it. This is why they are so popular.

Sent from my XT1528

Their picks are paid for ads, in case that isn't clear. To be in that newsletter, free or otherwise runs 800 and up per day. The entire newsletter is nothing BUT an ad and their "picks" are merely whatever theme or book they have decided upon. They do a decent job of vetting their choices.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Check any author board discussing it. Apparently it is very difficult to get on, even if you are willing to pay their prices and from what I have read --mind you--I have only READ this from authors, I have no personal experience--they were/are only taking indies willing to price at 99 cents or free, while taking trad authors at the higher prices. For a while there, (This was before the christmas season) there was a thread asking if any indie had been accepted at other than free.

I'm sure things change depending what Bookbub is being offered (by both the indie and the trad market) AND by what people are buying.

I'm sure the authors feel as if Bookbub is making it difficult, but I can assure you that my experience is the same a Blossom's--I get Bookbub emails every day, and *at least* 50% of the books included in the emails are indie.

I think authors need to step out of the author forums and talk to readers. (I'm not including you in that statement--you obviously are the exception) I used to read author forums regularly, and I stopped because too many authors were acting (IMHO) like spoiled children, and it was making me not want to read any of them. They crawl inside their own heads and bounce off of each other, and when an actual *reader* gives feedback, it's ignored.

Sorry for the rant...that just pushed one of my buttons.

Shari