Amazon offers indie authors reward for going exclusive

[John F]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

This is not a B&N issue.

If an author tells B&N to stop distributing their book, B&N must stop.
If an author tells Smashwords to stop distributing their book, Smashwords must stop.
If an author tells Amazon to stop distributing their book, Amazon must stop.

...

Wouldn't this depend on contracts/EULA/TOS also? I'm willing to gamble that Amazon isn't going to consider archives from other vendors "distribution".

Let me see... the big six are evil for price fixing, indie authors are stealing, what am I supposed to buy?

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I mean no offence to anyone by saying this, but I'd consider that scenario to be purely the fault of the buyer. Expecting the store to "hold" your book for you indefinitely is unrealistic. Books can be withdrawn for all sorts of reasons, most of which are totally outside the store's control. Buy it. Download it. That way it's under your control.

Welp, not offended.

But I disagree. 100%.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

Welp, not offended.

But I disagree. 100%.

As do I.

[J. Strnad]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

The only thing I have heard is when Amazon was yanking books on their own. People who had purchased said books that Amazon removed found that their d/l links for those same books had disappeared.

I don't buy kindle books so...

That was a different issue. The sellers didn't have the right to sell the books, so Amazon went in and deleted them from people's libraries. They also refunded the purchase price. The big problem came with people who'd bought the book for class and marked it up with notes, and the notes were lost.

I don't trust them to not do this with the 25-cent editions of Fight Club and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, that appear to have been price-matched with Google's special sale. But, we'll see.

[John F]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I mean no offence to anyone by saying this, but I'd consider that scenario to be purely the fault of the buyer. Expecting the store to "hold" your book for you indefinitely is unrealistic. Books can be withdrawn for all sorts of reasons, most of which are totally outside the store's control. Buy it. Download it. That way it's under your control.

+1

Also, any reputable company would offer a refund/credit. I here Amazon is your friend when it comes to customer service.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by John F

Wouldn't this depend on contracts/EULA/TOS also? I'm willing to gamble that Amazon isn't going to consider archives from other vendors "distribution".

Let me see... the big six are evil for price fixing, indie authors are stealing, what am I supposed to buy?

Baen.

But I don't think self-pubs are stealing. I think they are making decisions that work for them...and I do the same. It just seems our interests are at cross-purposes.

I feel that books should be for sale everywhere. I should be able to whip out my cc and go to town without worry. Especially since I am giving something up by getting an ebook vs a pbook.

Hey, you do what you do. I can only speak for myself and my habits. But I spend a crap-load of money a year on books. So I get them the way I want or I don't get them at all.

I also don't bother to pirate books, either. If I can't be arsed to buy them, I won't bother to read them.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

That was a different issue. The sellers didn't have the right to sell the books, so Amazon went in and deleted them from people's libraries. They also refunded the purchase price. The big problem came with people who'd bought the book for class and marked it up with notes, and the notes were lost.

I don't trust them to not do this with the 25-cent editions of Fight Club and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, that appear to have been price-matched with Google's special sale. But, we'll see.

Nope, not talking about 1984. I'm talking about Amazon yanking books on their own - there were a slew of erotica books and some others that were yanked.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by John F

+1

Also, any reputable company would offer a refund/credit. I here Amazon is your friend when it comes to customer service.

Amazon is not my friend.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

But I disagree. 100%.

The trouble is, though, that if the publisher withdraws the book from the servers, it's gone. The store no longer physically has the file to give to you. That's the way that Adobe Content Server (the server software that pretty much all bookstores other than Amazon use) works, and there's nothing the store can do about it - that's just the way it is.

You may expect the store to keep the book for you indefinitely, but your expectations are not going to be realised. Once you've bought it, it really is your responsibility, not the store's, to keep it safe.

[J. Strnad]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

Yes.

As well as smashwords.

Not sure what happens if the author used to sell the book themselves.

That kind of sucks.

Still, I wouldn't buy something and then leave it at the store and tell them I'll be back in a month or six to pick it up and necessarily expect it to be there, so I wouldn't do this anyway.

But thanks for letting me know how it works!

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The trouble is, though, that if the publisher withdraws the book from the servers, it's gone. The store no longer physically has the file to give to you. That's the way that Adobe Content Server (the server software that pretty much all bookstores other than Amazon use) works, and there's nothing the store can do about it - that's just the way it is.

You may expect the store to keep the book for you indefinitely, but your expectations are not going to be realised. Once you've bought it, it really is your responsibility, not the store's, to keep it safe.

Huh. It seems to work well with other stores...

My Baen books are sitting rather comfy. So are my HQNs.

My buck, my opinion, my vote.

[anamardoll]

How many store-linked eReaders like the Nook have the majority of the eReader disk space roped off for store downloads? It's simply not realistic for an unknown, needs-every-penny-they-can-get indie author like me to expect readers to side-load their entire B&N library.

Okay, sure, I can say, Mrs. Joseph, if you want to read my book from your device, buy a Kindle! but she's not going to because she doesn't want a Kindle. It will be far, far cheaper for her to simply not buy my indie book.

This isn't about what customers "should" do. It's about customers like me, JS Wolf, Mrs. Joseph, etc. saying what they do do. This -- at least for me -- is not an argument. It's customer-buying-habits information.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

Huh. It seems to work well with other stores...

My Baen books are sitting rather comfy. So are my HQNs.

My buck, my opinion, my vote.

Both Baen and (I'm guessing?) Harlequin? are publishers who are offering books from their OWN servers. That's a different scenario to a commercial bookstore which uses ACS.

[howyoudoin]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

This is not a B&N issue.

If an author tells B&N to stop distributing their book, B&N must stop.
If an author tells Smashwords to stop distributing their book, Smashwords must stop.
If an author tells Amazon to stop distributing their book, Amazon must stop.

Disagree 100%. I'd be very disappointed if Amazon had this sort of policy. Amazon sells me ebooks (licenses books ,rents books, whatever) on receipt of payment from me. The sale, at least in Amazons case, to the best of my knowledge, includes their online backup service. The author has no right to tell me or Amazon that I can't re-download the e-book that I've already paid for. This is completely different to demanding that Amazon stop selling any new copies of their book.

[howyoudoin]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

Amazon is not my friend.

You're not their customer, hence they are under no obligation to be your friend when it comes to customer service