Samhain Publishing is winding down and will close

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

You are right! Amazon doesn't tell and because each person's browsing habit is different, the results will be different. A chance I see might not be evident to someone else who never saw what I saw in the first place!

Exactly.
Amazon shows different promos to different readers based on their shopping and browsing history.

The diferences also extend to authors: growth or decline isn't uniform across genres. Some genres and subgenres are seeing a flood of new titles while others are more stable. And the sizes of the customer bases are different so it is perfectly possible for one segment to see big growth while another sees stagnation.

Also: Quality of prose aside, there are a lot of writers who target whichever segment is supposed to be hot at any time, so any genre that is supposed to be hot gets flooded, eroding earnings for everyone in it, while authors in other segments sail on untouched. It's not a monolithic business where everybody sees the same results but rather a very fragmented one where there will always be winners and losers.

Finally, the peril of relying on forum plaints is that the internet by nature skews negative; we're more likely to hear from folks hurting than the ones making out like bandits.

.

[BearMountainBooks]

I personally believe Amazon changed the algos to favor the big 6. Whether this was because of negotations, reader preferences or a combination or some other factor doesn't really matter. As an author, I have to deal with the new set of circumstances and try to make good decisions based on the info I have at hand. I also think Amazon changed their search engine over the years and this has the same effect of helping or hurting various parties.

As FJTorres said--it's a fluid market. I'm suddenly seeing more complaints about higher prices for books and noticing it myself. I think that will cause another shift. I see more people ignoring the free books (I post them occasionally, but no more than two a month). I read less free books. Way less. I don't have time to sort them. I download less of them too because I know I'm not as likely to read them. After all, I'm grabbing them because they are of moderate interest, but I probably wasn't sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for it to show up either.

Yup, I talk to authors. We compare notes and strategies. In my case, we do this OFFLINE, not online. That's not to say that I don't read forums and also utilize that info. But the offline information is generally not negative/complaining in nature--we're comparing stats, ad results, real sales info, various experiment results with ad sites, you name it. We're there to learn and help each other as opposed to brag about sales or whine about sales (that sort of thing can get completely out of hand on forums).

That doesn't mean my data (especially concerning Amazon) is any better than anyone else's data because experiences vary so widely. Genre sales vary VERY widely. Covers vary. The data is valuable, but it's open to interpretation. One author might tell me, "I sold x because of this." I look at what they did and think, "Hmm. Maybe it's really because of y."

I also tend to go right when everyone else is going left. I'm contrary that way.

[gweeks]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

It's obvious indies have grown over ten years. We are discussing growth patterns over the last year or two. You say last year saw growth. That disagrees with anecdotal statements posted here. Perhaps there is growth, but more books.

A growth in the overall market does NOT imply growth for any individual title.

100 sales of 50 titles vs. 50 sales of 200 titles.

5000 vs. 10000 is 2x market expansion.

The overall market is larger, but any individual title saw fewer sales.

Greg

[Blossom]

It's not people are ignoring free books it's there are less and less quality freebies especially in the romance arena. When we started the romance deals threads it was wonderful. Freebies everywhere, fast forward a few years and the freebies dwindle to a trickle. Now they are very rare. I was just helping a lady with no money setting her up with some freebies. There are hardly any compared to when I started doing the daily romance finds. Still she was grateful for the ones I found. I sorted by most reviews for free romances for her. I taught her how to avoid the slush pile but the freebies bubble busted a very long time ago. Sourcebooks still does some and Random house but it's rare these days.

Sent from my Nexus 7

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Blossom

It's not people are ignoring free books it's there are less and less quality freebies especially in the romance arena. When we started the romance deals threads it was wonderful. Freebies everywhere, fast forward a few years and the freebies dwindle to a trickle. Now they are very rare. I was just helping a lady with no money setting her up with some freebies. There are hardly any compared to when I started doing the daily romance finds. Still she was grateful for the ones I found. I sorted by most reviews for free romances for her. I taught her how to avoid the slush pile but the freebies bubble busted a very long time ago. Sourcebooks still does some and Random house but it's rare these days.

Sent from my Nexus 7

I'm noticing this also. Very few free offerings lately in the genres I check and those are mostly repeats. However, the pubs have been having good sales recently in the $1.99-$2.99 range.

Fortunately, many libraries are adding significantly to their inventories for those on a tight budget.

[Pajamaman]

Amazon came to an arrangement with the Big 6 a couple of years ago (the very public "negotiation" with Hachette, and the agreements that rapidly followed with the other BPHs afterward.) What arrangement did they reach? Was it publicized. Is it also a secret?

I checked. The deals with the BPHs and Amazon were inked in late 2014 aprox. None of the details were disclosed. As such, their terms of business certainly changed, and we don't know how, but it might explain a possible change in the algorithms favoring the BPH imprints beginning at some point during the last couple of years.

On reflection, it is not unreasonable to expect Amazon's algorithms to have changed as a result of those deals. It's just a question of how.

[Pajamaman]

During negotiations, Amazon's declared goal was that the vast majority of ebooks should be priced $9.99 or less. Has that worked out?

[BearMountainBooks]

Probably. Although I think as the last two years have aged, the prices are definitely creeping up. Others have given me the impression I was just not looking at the right books. For books I read, I noticed that David Coe's third in the series (Baen author) is priced at 9.99 and most of Baen's books were 6.99 and 7.99 for a long time. I tend to wait for a Kobo coupon and buy any Baen books from Kobo so I'm generally not paying market price. I do that with a lot of indie reads as well. Five years ago I know I bought a Patricia Briggs book and a Tuttle book (by a publisher other than Samhain--his All the Paths series) that were 9.99 or more. That is the last time I've spent more than 7.99 on a book Tuttle is now independent with both series so his books have all been under 5. I no longer buy Brigg's books; they are library fare for me. Ilona Andrews is both library or buy depending on the price. Rachel Aaron used to put her books on Kobo (the self-pubbed ones) and I'd buy them there with a coupon. She no longer does that as she blogged something about the bulk of her sales are on Amazon so she publishes there now. I think she may have tried some experiment with letting Kobo have it for a couple of weeks and then going exclusive Amazon, but I am not sure because if it happened, I missed the window.

It will be interesting to see if the price creep continues and holds. I know I am blogging fewer and fewer titles over 5 dollars because they simply aren't selling.

[gweeks]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Probably. Although I think as the last two years have aged, the prices are definitely creeping up. Others have given me the impression I was just not looking at the right books. For books I read, I noticed that David Coe's third in the series (Baen author) is priced at 9.99 and most of Baen's books were 6.99 and 7.99 for a long time. I tend to wait for a Kobo coupon and buy any Baen books from Kobo so I'm generally not paying market price. I do that with a lot of indie reads as well. Five years ago I know I bought a Patricia Briggs book and a Tuttle book (by a publisher other than Samhain--his All the Paths series) that were 9.99 or more. That is the last time I've spent more than 7.99 on a book Tuttle is now independent with both series so his books have all been under 5. I no longer buy Brigg's books; they are library fare for me. Ilona Andrews is both library or buy depending on the price. Rachel Aaron used to put her books on Kobo (the self-pubbed ones) and I'd buy them there with a coupon. She no longer does that as she blogged something about the bulk of her sales are on Amazon so she publishes there now. I think she may have tried some experiment with letting Kobo have it for a couple of weeks and then going exclusive Amazon, but I am not sure because if it happened, I missed the window.

It will be interesting to see if the price creep continues and holds. I know I am blogging fewer and fewer titles over 5 dollars because they simply aren't selling.

Baen's pricing scheme is based on what the cheapest paper copy available is. If the book is hard cover only it's 9.99 if it's trade paperback it's 8.99 and if it's mass market paperback it's 6.99.

As of December 16th, 2012, Baen ebooks are now available for sale at other vendors as well as at this site. At the same time, prices for our individual ebooks were raised to meet the rest of the market. Titles available in print as hardcovers only will be $9.99, trade paperbacks $8.99, and mass market paperbacks $6.99. As part of the adjustment, we have also raised ebook royalties to authors by 25%.

Greg

[BearMountainBooks]

Ah, that explains it! So if I wait for the paperback, it will be cheaper. Cool! I can wait. It's already been out for a while so maybe the paperback will come out this year sometime.

[pwalker8]

Growth has cycled through the various genres ever since I started buying books in the mid 70's. I'm most familiar with it from a SF&F point of view, but I have watched some of the various mid-list authors drift from genre to genre following the sales. In addition, authors drift between sub-genres as well.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Blossom

It's not people are ignoring free books it's there are less and less quality freebies especially in the romance arena. When we started the romance deals threads it was wonderful. Freebies everywhere, fast forward a few years and the freebies dwindle to a trickle. Now they are very rare. I was just helping a lady with no money setting her up with some freebies. There are hardly any compared to when I started doing the daily romance finds. Still she was grateful for the ones I found. I sorted by most reviews for free romances for her. I taught her how to avoid the slush pile but the freebies bubble busted a very long time ago. Sourcebooks still does some and Random house but it's rare these days.

Sent from my Nexus 7

Have you showed her how to use Overdrive?

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Growth has cycled through the various genres ever since I started buying books in the mid 70's. I'm most familiar with it from a SF&F point of view, but I have watched some of the various mid-list authors drift from genre to genre following the sales. In addition, authors drift between sub-genres as well.

Following the sales is something a lot of authors MUST do to survive. In some cases a publisher will say, "We need you to write x." So they do. If their current series/books aren't selling well enough (for the publisher) sometimes to stay in business, you write what you are asked to write. Most writers read across genres so it isn't as though they are attacking a genre they've never heard of. I know a trad author who was told about a year ago..maybe slightly more that: "UF is dead. Write and submit something else." For that publisher they simply didn't want any more UF for now. I think she wrote a romance and is currently working on a cozy.

I had the choice of writing another cozy book or a UF book after I finished Executive Dirt (I write both cozy and UF). Cozies are selling better right now so I wrote One Good Eclair (rather than continue the existing series or branch off and do a different UF). I've also written books that have nothing to do with any market (Soul of the Desert--women's fiction, short stories, etc).

One thing that indies have over trad publishing is we can really stretch our wings and try different genres. There aren't a lot of trad published authors who get to try that (Barbara Michaels comes to mind--Gothic mystery, cozy/Historical mysteries-writing as Elizabeth Peters, some chicklit type books and some amateur sleuth mysteries.) I'm sure there are others, but on a writer group I used to be on, many authors complained that their publisher would not even look at anything they wrote outside their successful series. They simply didn't have room for it so the writer was stuck writing the one series.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Have you showed her how to use Overdrive?

Her local library has a very small collection of ebooks.

Sent from my XT1528

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I have hundreds of freebies not worth it to read. It's too much work to go through them so they just sit in my Calibre library.

Sent from my XT1528

Me too, i keep them in a separate cloud collection.