Amazon offers indie authors reward for going exclusive

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by Scott Nicholson

As for auditing, good luck. Many authors have long believed publishing is full of little gopher holes where their money disappears between the bookstore cash register and their royalty checks. I don't see why digital would be any better or worse, or how there would ever be the financial effort and will to audit anyone on a massive scale. You just have to fly on faith that most people will do what they say they will do.

Although very few authors have ever exercised their right to audit and that an audit may be cost prohibitive, the mere fact that one has the right helps shore up the idea that honesty generally prevails. When the right is wholly denied, I wonder why that is the case; what is there to hide?

When I was publisher at a small press, I encouraged authors to jointly pay for an audit every couple of years. It wasn't a matter of dishonesty but one of mistakes can and do happen. But the contracts I offered included the audit right; an author did not have to negotiate for it.

Why doesn't Amazon's contract offer audit rights? Why is trust a one-way street?

[starrigger]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Why doesn't Amazon's contract offer audit rights? Why is trust a one-way street?

Good question. I don't think I've seen an audit clause in any self-pub contract -- not just Amazon, but Pubit, SW, Apple, etc. (I could be wrong, but I don't recall seeing one.)

I can think of two reasons:

1. These companies do not have history in publishing. They're writing the rules, they don't necessarily even think of things that are the accepted norm in traditional publishing, and there are no agents pushing back as a group demanding them.
2. They probably wouldn't agree to it anyway, unless very powerfully prodded. I imagine the vision of a thousand semi-professional indie writers coming at them with audit orders in hand would be enough to make them shudder.

Doesn't mean it shouldn't happen, though.

[Fbone]

We've reached 56,000 titles in KDP Select.

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by rhadin

That's a lot of authors and books that will not build a very large audience worldwide. I wonder how many authors really carefully analyzed what the program could mean to them. I asked these questions in my blog article on the exclusivity deal, but no one has come forward with answers:

1. Are the terms offered to the million sellers like the JA Konraths and Stephen Kings the same terms that author Sally Unknown is given or were the Konraths and Kings able to negotiate? (And if they were able to negotiate different terms, why would they do so if this was such a sweetheart deal?)
2. Why (according to the rumors) are the Agency 6 being dangled a set payment on every borrowed book? If the deal offered to Sally Unknown is such a sweetheart deal, why are the Agency 6 being offered something "less sweet"?
3. What exactly is the indie author getting by participating — not what does the indie author hope to get by participating?
4. As what the indie author's book earns is based on a percentage of all borrowings, does the indie author have the right to audit the entire program to ensure that the calculation is correct? In other words, other than blindly accepting Amazon's pronouncement that there were x number of total borrowings, how does the indie author verify it?

There are lots of questions that need asking and answering. This may, in fact, be a great opportunity for indie authors, but how does an indie author make such a determination based on the information currently available?

I'm not an author, but, at least here on MR, there are constant grumblings about geographical restrictions and one often reads an author's statement in opposition to such restrictions, yet Amazon's program is an even more severe geographical restriction than the standard. Exclusivity is worldwide and covers every conceivable possibility yet the program is U.S. centric.

As a business matter, I've never understood the willingness of an author to simply accept as gospel "Amazon is my friend and will do me no harm."

(For those interested, my blog article is eBook Exclusivity — A Good or Bad Idea?)

All your reservations are well noted, but it seems clear that there are 56,000 authors who are more interested in getting help seeking an audience than in asking those questions. Your questions are more reader-centric ( "How can I get unfettered access to this book, should I want it") than author-centric (" How can I get paid for doing the creative work that I love").

[J. Strnad]

However, I don't see any money at all in this. With more than 50,000 books already enrolled, that's an average payout of $10 per month per book, and most of the average will be skewed to the popular bestsellers anyway.

The more books that are available, the less useful the program is to each book, and I'm sure you're right that it's the very popular books that will get the most borrows. I'd also expect that books from traditional publishers with higher list prices would likely get borrowed more. Some books may not get borrowed at all.

But the real question is, how many borrows will there be? With a $500,000 pool to divvy up, if one of your books was the only book borrowed that month, you'd pocket a half million bucks! On the other hand, if there are 500,000 borrows, each book gets only a dollar per borrow. Five million borrows means each book gets a dime per borrow.

Since we don't know how many Amazon Prime members there are, there's really no way to even guess what the rate will be. We just have to wait and see.

I have just one book, so I'm not putting it up for free for any amount of time. That part of the Select deal doesn't pertain to me.

If I received any noticeable sales from anyone other than Amazon, I wouldn't go for it. But apparently I have almost no non-Amazon readers to lose.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

The more books that are available, the less useful the program is to each book, and I'm sure you're right that it's the very popular books that will get the most borrows. I'd also expect that books from traditional publishers with higher list prices would likely get borrowed more. Some books may not get borrowed at all.

But the real question is, how many borrows will there be? With a $500,000 pool to divvy up, if one of your books was the only book borrowed that month, you'd pocket a half million bucks! On the other hand, if there are 500,000 borrows, each book gets only a dollar per borrow. Five million borrows means each book gets a dime per borrow.

Since we don't know how many Amazon Prime members there are, there's really no way to even guess what the rate will be. We just have to wait and see.

I have just one book, so I'm not putting it up for free for any amount of time. That part of the Select deal doesn't pertain to me.

If I received any noticeable sales from anyone other than Amazon, I wouldn't go for it. But apparently I have almost no non-Amazon readers to lose.

Your site has a link to Amazon for purchasing your book, Inkmesh shows it
available at B&N, Diesel, Kobo, Apple iBookStore, and even the Sony ebook
store. Going to your site I would only be directed to Amazon.

Luck;
Ken

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by stonetools

All your reservations are well noted, but it seems clear that there are 56,000 authors who are more interested in getting help seeking an audience than in asking those questions. Your questions are more reader-centric ( "How can I get unfettered access to this book, should I want it") than author-centric (" How can I get paid for doing the creative work that I love").

I don't see my questions or concerns as reader centric; I see them as author centric. As a reader, I could care less whether an author gets screwed by Amazon -- I just want to read the book. As an author, I would be very concerned about getting screwed by Amazon -- I want to get paid and I want to keep my rights.

I know that 56,000 authors have signed on, but I have yet to have any author answer the question I have repeatedly raised: What is the author really getting by the deal as opposed to what the author hopes to get by participating?

And I'll repeat what I have said before: if this exclusivity deal with Amazon is so great, why are the terms different for different authors and publishers? A great deal is a great deal and everyone should be clamoring to get aboard on the same terms. But that doesn't appear to be the case.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

. . .Since we don't know how many Amazon Prime members there are, there's really no way to even guess what the rate will be. We just have to wait and see.

Even after waiting and seeing, what will you ultimately see? Amazon isn't going to tell you how many Prime members it has nor is it going to let you audit the programs to verify that when it says there were 500,000 borrowings there really weren't 100,000 or vice versa. The deal is a lot of smoke and mirrors.

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

. . . If I received any noticeable sales from anyone other than Amazon, I wouldn't go for it. But apparently I have almost no non-Amazon readers to lose.

Why is that? I've noted here on MR that many authors announce their book and give a link to Amazon. Someone has to ask if there are links at Smashwords or B&N or Kobo or anywhere else. Only then does the author provide the alternative links. Seems to me to be a self-fulfilling prophecy: only Amazon sells my books and then you (that is "you" generally, not specifically) justify giving Amazon exclusivity because your books only sell at Amazon. I can't tell you how many books I've bypassed because the only link was to Amazon.

In addition, there seems to be an unwillingness among authors to accept that Amazon has the largest share of the market in the U.S. but not worldwide and that even in the U.S. being Amazon centric means giving up at least 30% of the market.

One other thing worth noting. Amazon gives out no hard, verifiable numbers. So when Amazon claims to have x% of the market, how do you know it is true? How do you know that Amazon's market share hasn't plateaued while that of B&N and Kobo grows? There is an almost slavish belief that Amazon is your friend and will do you no wrong but everyone else is your enemy and will screw you.

[Ken Maltby]

I always search for an alternative to Amazon for ebooks, even though I purchase many
other items through them. In fact I often check at the B&N "Nook" site, even if there is
no listing on "Inkmesh", as it seems B&N is not updated as often as the others on Inkmesh.

As a matter of fact, I personally purchased Mr. Strnad's "Risen" at B&N not long ago.

But if I were only to go by the one link on his site, I would have to assume that it
was only available at Amazon. Or perhaps that the author preferred the use of Amazon,
for the purchase.

It is hardly a surprise that most of his sales take place at the store he has been sending
his readers to.

Luck;
Ken

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

I always search for an alternative to Amazon for ebooks, even though I purchase many
other items through them. In fact I often check at the B&N "Nook" site, even if there is
no listing on "Inkmesh", as it seems B&N is not updated as often as the others on Inkmesh.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one to notice this. B&N is my preferred store of choice (DON'T JUDGE ME, LOL) and Inkmesh doesn't update those listings hardly at all (for reasons that are probably B&N's fault).

[Giggleton]

Who thinks that having different "prices" for the same digital file is a good thing? Meaning we only need one retailer/server for our texts, as long as that server is accessible to everyone.

This experiment by Amazon is a step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't go far enough though...

Subscribe to server, download books, authors are paid out based on number of downloads? What if I download the book but only read a few pages, to be honest I haven't read the fine print on this KDP Select program... But I assume that we do not have AI strong enough to recognize that I have not enjoyed a book, hence the current need? for star ratings and such.

For this program to be most effective at uncovering new literary talent, a payment cap must be implemented...

[teh603]

Originally Posted by Fbone

We've reached 56,000 titles in KDP Select.

First off, that's titles. Can't an author submit multiple titles?

Also, how many of those were assembled from FOSS content using aggregators?

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by teh603

First off, that's titles. Can't an author submit multiple titles?

Also, how many of those were assembled from FOSS content using aggregators?

Yes, an author can submit multiple titles. Currently 1291 individual authors are listed as having books in the Prime Eligible program.

We're up to 57,800 titles.

[J. Strnad]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

I always search for an alternative to Amazon for ebooks, even though I purchase many
other items through them. In fact I often check at the B&N "Nook" site, even if there is
no listing on "Inkmesh", as it seems B&N is not updated as often as the others on Inkmesh.

As a matter of fact, I personally purchased Mr. Strnad's "Risen" at B&N not long ago.

But if I were only to go by the one link on his site, I would have to assume that it
was only available at Amazon. Or perhaps that the author preferred the use of Amazon,
for the purchase.

It is hardly a surprise that most of his sales take place at the store he has been sending
his readers to.

Luck;
Ken

Ken,

Since I published Risen a couple of years ago, I've had links on my website to everywhere it was sold: Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, Kobo, Sony, Diesel, Apple. I made a point of obtaining logos when I could. Only when I went exclusive with Amazon a couple of weeks ago did I delete those links to other retailers.

The website's never been much of a sales tool anyway. I sold a lot more books at Amazon than I ever got hits on my site.

I really don't know why I sold 100 books at Amazon for every book I sold at B&N. (Thank you for buying Risen, BTW!) I'm very disappointed that epub sales have been so miserable, as I'd rather see a vibrant, competitive marketplace. But it just hasn't worked out that way for me.

Edited to add: I guess Inkmesh is a little behind the times.

[J. Strnad]

"Even after waiting and seeing, what will you ultimately see?"

I'll see how big the check is. Is it accurate? Did people actually download more copies than I'm being paid for? I won't know.

I don't know if B&N's figures are accurate, either. Maybe I'm selling up a storm at B&N and they're cheating me! (I don't believe that's the case, but it could be.) I just know what they pay me for.

So, if (IF) I make as much as $10/month from my Select borrows, that will be as much as my top B&N months and better than several others.

I don't know how many borrows it'll take to add up to $10. Using Amazon's example, it'll take 2! Maybe it'll take 100.

That's what I'll find out eventually.