Kindle books outselling print 2:1 for top 10 bestsellers

[jbcohen]

What I am concerned about is who is endgaget and what business do they have talking about ebooks. They are not the American Book Publishers Assocation who would have this information. They are not a prominant IT press journal such as pcmag and pcworld. I would not consider them an authoritative authority, as amazon would be on this subject.

[Ken Maltby]

I would like to see how many of these "Kindle" sales are to "Kindle For PC" where a
certain percentage of sales are to those like myself who remove the DRM. I for one
would not be buying from Amazon if I could not remove the DRM. (I realize that my
actions provide some contribution to Amazon's freemarket delinquency, but aside from
the DRM, they are offering the product at the best price.)

I wonder if they occasionally turn "Topaz" on, then note a drop in sales and decide to
stop using it?

Luck;
Ken

[NVash]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

Yeah, a lot of the reasons for my delays have been moral. In fact, they're so downright greedy and underhanded that I'm looking into doing two versions of my book: One for normal sale, and one for Amazon, the latter of which will be priced half again higher in order to break even on sales through Amazon. They're so blasted crooked that you could use them as a corkscrew. I'm really, really looking forward to someone stepping up and smacking them down hard one of these days.

Wow, theyre that bad? That raises alot of questions for me that Im not quite sure youd like to answer such as 'How crooked', 'What do you mean', 'If its that bad how do people sell their ebooks cheap through Kindle' and 'What about Nook and that new thing they have at Barnes & Noble, PubIt!'?

http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com/pubi...t=pi_reg_home?
Heres more info of PubIt!

As I said I have a friend thats an author and I cant understand why they dont just take the book themselves and make it into an ebook. They self published it so I have no clue whats holding them back. They did mention plans to get on the Kindle one day but thats it. Would it be better to just take it and have the book in various formats on ones own site for download or to publish it through a Kindle, Nook or PubIt?

[jbcohen]

Has amazon said anything about this matter?

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

Yeah, Amazon is out to create a new culture of vendor lock-in to ensure their sales. They know they won't be on top forever, but if they can force end users to remain with them, they can stay up there longer than they otherwise would have. I myself hate it, and think that it's a dirty, evil, anti-customer tactic. If you have to force people to stay with you, then you're doing something wrong, or else you're just flat out lazy and don't even want to try and keep people in your camp. You just force them to stay at gunpoint. Now on the other side of things, if you can make a product and/or service that's so awesome that they can't stay away from you, then you're doing something right. Most companies though chose the lazy way out, and I hate that, because they're more or less pooping all over their customers and insulting them at the same time.

Exactly! Too bad there's not enough people willing to do that.

I am lazy. I like buying from Amazon because I don't have to do anything. I know that I can buy from other places and convert and the like but why bother when I can find plenty that I enjoy reading at Amazon and not worry about anything?

ETA: No one is forced to stay with Amazon. Just like no one is forced to stay with B&N. There are options out there for people to use. Some folks don't know about them. Some folks are Lazy (waves). Some folks take advantage of them.

I get really tired of the "You are locked into Amazon" argument because you are not. The choice to act on that is left to the individual. The info is not hard to find if you want to find it.

[NVash]

See this is why Im asking questions. Maybe they have to sign some contract that says they wont take their book anywhere else.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

I get really tired of the "You are locked into Amazon" argument because you are not. The choice to act on that is left to the individual. The info is not hard to find if you want to find it.

Ditto this. There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of the source availability of ebooks for Kindles.


Is it possible that Amazon's "greed" is due to it reaching a wider audience than, say, Smashwords (at least in the U.S.)? For example, I would pay a much higher price to take out a full page ad in the New York Times than I would in my local paper because of the audience that the NYT commands. You get what you pay for.

[Steven Lake]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

What I am concerned about is who is endgaget and what business do they have talking about ebooks. They are not the American Book Publishers Assocation who would have this information. They are not a prominant IT press journal such as pcmag and pcworld. I would not consider them an authoritative authority, as amazon would be on this subject.

Engadget is one of the foremost tech blogs out there. Even in the FOSS community we had a LOT of respect for them. They're almost always spot on with their articles, and know quite a lot about technology in general. That doesn't always mean they're right, but they do a pretty darned good job at reporting about all things tech, and ebooks count in that arena.

[SensualPoet]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

AI may have to bite the bullet, shelve my hatred of Amazon for a bit, and allow my book to be put into Kindle format.

I would challenge you, again, to use the Amazon DTP, the B&N Pub It!, and whatever you use to get your title onto Sony Store and Kobobooks and Smashwords and Waterstones and WHSmith and Fictionwise and Booksonboard et al ... and then promote your book through your normal channels with links to all ebook vendors ... and then in six months report back to us where the majority of sales are and which channel has produced the most net profit for you, the author.

I'd be astounded to learn Amazon wasn't your best meal ticket: most gross revenue, most reviews, most word-of-mouth, most net revenue, most sell-through to additional titles ....

Will you take the challenge?

[BVLarson]

The Amazon CEO predicted they would outsell both print hard/paperbacks with Kindle books around next summer. Maybe its happening faster than they thought. Things do change fast...
-BVL

[BWhite]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

Has amazon said anything about this matter?

Yes, if you referring to the topic of this thread. Amazon is the one being quoted, the one releasing the figures. Amazon issued the original source. The link to Amazon's Press Release is further down in the Engadget article.

[BWhite]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

Engadget is one of the foremost tech blogs out there. Even in the FOSS community we had a LOT of respect for them. They're almost always spot on with their articles, and know quite a lot about technology in general. That doesn't always mean they're right, but they do a pretty darned good job at reporting about all things tech, and ebooks count in that arena.

While I enjoy Engadget quite a bit they actually seem to have two types of articles:
1) they review technology themselves (I think they do a good job at it)
2) they are just passing on (if it is English) or translating (if a non-English posting) information from another source.

In this thread's case the original source of the figures is claimed to be a Press Release from Amazon.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by NVash

See this is why Im asking questions. Maybe they have to sign some contract that says they wont take their book anywhere else.

In a word, NO. But they do have the right to match your lowest price offered by any other vendor, so you can't make a Kindle version and an ePUB version and sell the Kindle version for, say, $3.00 and the ePUB for $1.50. You can see why they would want that right--all the e-tailers have that in their offering terms, whether it's Nook or iBooks or Sony or Books on Board, you-name-it.

Hitch

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

I would challenge you, again, to use the Amazon DTP, the B&N Pub It!, and whatever you use to get your title onto Sony Store and Kobobooks and Smashwords and Waterstones and WHSmith and Fictionwise and Booksonboard et al ... and then promote your book through your normal channels with links to all ebook vendors ... and then in six months report back to us where the majority of sales are and which channel has produced the most net profit for you, the author.

I'd be astounded to learn Amazon wasn't your best meal ticket: most gross revenue, most reviews, most word-of-mouth, most net revenue, most sell-through to additional titles ....

Will you take the challenge?

If I may, I have some knowledge in this area. I produce eBooks for authors and publishers (micro- to mid-size). I produce Kindle versions and ePUBs, and I strongly push my authors to market to the ePUB market as well as Amazon. I've put their books on Nooks, on Kobos, on iBooks, Diesel, Books on Board...hell, everywhere that sells ePUBs.

But at the end of the day, the Kindle versions, priced identically to the ePUB versions, outsell significantly. In general, my clients sell 1.5 books on Nook for every 10 they sell on Amazon, which statistically is about right, as Nook has 12% of the eBook market. The other vendors together add up to about as many books per day as Nook...so 1.5 ePUBs per day from the other ePUB vendors (including Apple). So...3 ePUBs for every 10 mobi's, is the rough ratio.

I expect this to change as the iBookstore grows, but right now, those are the numbers, at least, those are the numbers my fairly solid mid-listing authors get on those vendors. I've just signed a NYT bestselling author as a production client, though, for his/her backlist...so I may be surprised when his/her books hit the e-tailers; we'll see.

FWIW, I have both a K2 Kindle and an iPad; I read on both; I love ePUBs for everything I can do, formatting-wise, that can't be done with a Kindle; BUT, having said that, nobody makes publishing easier for the DIY author than Kindle, and sales-wise, they really are the 900-lb. gorilla.

HTH,

Hitch

[NVash]

Thank you for the information Hitch. With that in mind why would an author not want to go to Amazon and put their book on the Kindle? It seems like a good idea and everything you said sounds fair. What would hold an author back? Am I missing something here?