Kindle MatchBook: Get the Kindle version of a previously-bought paper book cheap/free

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Julius Caesar

Amazon already charges printed books a lot more than other book sellers. So, whether it is a good deal remains to be seen.

I remember that I bought a brand new text book for $50 from half.com while it would cost me $135 from Amazon. Same book, same condition, same edition, same ISBN.

The price of a book has absolutely nothing to do with Amazon. It's the publisher who sets the price, or the seller if it's a 2nd-hand copy. Don't blame Amazon for something that they aren't responsible for.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I bought a shedload of paper books through Amazon. Unfortunately, I've already re-bought all my favourites as ebooks .

same here. I've been replacing my paper books with ebooks for quite a few years now. The vast majority of books that haven't been replaced already aren't available as ebooks, or they were simply books that I found that I didn't like. Of course, most of my paper books came from local book sellers, the paper books that I ordered from Amazon tend to be very specialized books that were not available locally. The program probably is a pretty good thing for those who bought most of their books through Amazon though.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by avantman42

That's a fair point I've been doing something similar with OneBookShelf (with the ebook at free when bought with paper) for some time, so I've already enrolled mine.

That said, though, I've been surprised at the indie author reaction that I've seen. There seems to be a lot of hesitancy, rather than the immediate jumping on that I'd expected

Really? I wonder why? Did they give reasons?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Really? I wonder why? Did they give reasons?

Do many independent authors sell printed books? I would have thought (but perhaps I'm wrong?) that most of them only sold ebooks.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Do many independent authors sell printed books? I would have thought (but perhaps I'm wrong?) that most of them only sold ebooks.

A lot of them I've encountered do offer pbooks, not sure how many are sold. POD options make it easy to offer and not limit your potential market to e-only.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Do many independent authors sell printed books? I would have thought (but perhaps I'm wrong?) that most of them only sold ebooks.

It seems to vary, quite possibly by genre. I sell a handful every month, which is less than I sell of ebooks, but three libraries picked up the Sedona series (humor mysteries). I have had no luck getting any library to carry the urban fantasy series. I've even offered to donate it to a library or two and they still won't even LOOK at it. And I think that is more genre than my indie status. I could be wrong. (EDITED: Wait! There is one library in Indianapolis that carries the Moon Shadow series. For some reason they have several copies of the last book--4 or 5.)

I didn't have the print versions for a long time and another author told me she sold a few every month. She also writes humor mysteries. So, I tried it. I sold 20 or so of the first Sedona book the first month. Well that lit a fire under my, uhm, under me, so I put the rest out there. The Sedona series are available at B&N and libraries, as is the other series. The stand alones didn't seem to do as well, so I didn't make them available everywhere (There is a fee to make them available anywhere but Amazon).

I actually sell almost as many copies at B&N as I do at Amazon and for no reason I can fathom, I sell more urban fantasy copies at B&N in print than I do at Amazon.

It is a HUGE amount of work to do a print copy in addition to an ebook so I can completely understand why authors don't bother. If you don't want to figure out the formatting (which is not a piece of cake) you have to pay to have it done and it's going to be very difficult to earn that back. It runs anywhere from 60 to 100 dollars and if you make a fix to change a typo some places charge you the entire base rate again. Others have a 20 dollar fee.

There's a lot of other time consuming tasks to it--the cover is a lot of work. You have to do a front and back and spine and that is either going to take time or cost. And that cost can run anywhere from 100 on up if you don't know how to do it yourself.

Even doing it yourself runs an average of 25 to 50 because you have to order proofs to make sure that the color is correct and the placement. The online tools are better now, but they are still not perfect.

If I couldn't do it myself, I wouldn't do it. It would simply be too expensive and earning back the investment would take months and months. Doing it myself I generally break even within a couple of months. I wasn't going to do Under Witch Curse (the latest UF) but...I got actual requests. I wasn't expecting that. So, I put it out there and it is selling.

Your mileage is going to vary on this.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

....

It is a HUGE amount of work to do a print copy in addition to an ebook so I can completely understand why authors don't bother. ....

That's exactly why I haven't persued it at this point, plus the much lower earnings.

I've had readers/potential readers ask for print editions or offer to purchase a pdf version so they can print it out. I've declined so far.

I feel ebooks are the future and in all honest my book of science essays has a lot of color images and links that actually work best on a tablet for the full experience. It works fine on e-ink as well, but just not as snazzy. It's difficult to follow links in a paper book.

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Really? I wonder why? Did they give reasons?

Re-reading the thread, it looks like the early commenters simply didn't see any benefit (in at least some cases because they have low paperback sales), but later comments have pointed out that it's a useful marketing tool, the "Buy my paperback as a gift, get the ebook for yourself cheap/free" concept seems particularly popular. A lot of people seem to be pricing the ebook at 99c, though some have said they've put them at free.

On a side note, one author said "I won't be going free. I don't believe in free ... Let's not keep teaching the public to expect free." Am I the only person who finds this "teaching the public" concept to be slightly patronising?

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by avantman42

Re-reading the thread, it looks like the early commenters simply didn't see any benefit (in at least some cases because they have low paperback sales), but later comments have pointed out that it's a useful marketing tool, the "Buy my paperback as a gift, get the ebook for yourself cheap/free" concept seems particularly popular. A lot of people seem to be pricing the ebook at 99c, though some have said they've put them at free.

On a side note, one author said "I won't be going free. I don't believe in free ... Let's not keep teaching the public to expect free." Am I the only person who finds this "teaching the public" concept to be slightly patronising?

Ah, if only it worked that way. Really, the reading public has a habit of teaching ME. They tell me what they will or won't buy. Although I must admit that the proliferation of freebies has trained the reading public that "Those who wait might get it free" at least in the case of indie writers. I don't do the Amazon freebie days for various reason, but I certainly do giveaways and promotions/sales.

I did some free and some as a 99 cent purchase. I'm going to listen in on threads like these to see what the reading public expects and/or is willing to pay.

[John Carroll]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

It is a HUGE amount of work to do a print copy in addition to an ebook so I can completely understand why authors don't bother. If you don't want to figure out the formatting (which is not a piece of cake)

There's a lot of other time consuming tasks to it--the cover is a lot of work. You have to do a front and back and spine and that is either going to take time or cost. And that cost can run anywhere from 100 on up if you don't know how to do it yourself.

It is work, but not really that hard once you get used to it. Everything about self-publishing is hard work and a steep learning curve. It's totally worth it though.

I currently have my 8 novels plus a couple of others in print. But I have to format differently for Smashwords and Amazon, so I just take care of all of them at once. It takes about 2 hours to format the novels for print now with custom chapter headers and other steps to make it pretty. It's kinda fun now and I get a heck of a sense of accomplishment.

As far as the covers go, I make my own. When I made my first book, the cover was 500x700 and not very good quality. Now, when I make the covers, I start with the 6x9 print cover. When I'm done with that, I just cut the front off to make the ebook cover, which is 1850x2750. So it's a better quality in all aspects.

Back to the original topic, I just haven't decided whether or not to give away the ecopy with the print book. I'm probably going to do it. I've spent the last couple of days considering it. It makes sense to do so and will result in positive feelings from my fans.

I just don't want to promote the print books I suppose. I don't make much off of them and they're expensive. It doesn't make sense to buy print anymore in my opinion. But the more I consider, the more it makes sense to give away the ebook with the print book. It will act as a hook to get the readers to buy ebooks in the future.

So many decisions to make.

[djulian]

I wonder if Amazon has opened up a potential windfall for B&N with the MatchBook program. If B&N can find a way to match that, then they can sell very low-cost e-books to match the books bought in-store, and they've got themselves a possible advantage over Amazon. People still enjoy visiting a bookstore.

They won't be able to give discounts on previous books bought, obviously, but going forward, they might be able to make a dent.

[kennyc]

I don't see why it would give B&N an advantage. Particularly not a windfall??

I understand the appeal of a physical bookstore, but Amazon and on-line stores serve my needs much better.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Do many independent authors sell printed books? I would have thought (but perhaps I'm wrong?) that most of them only sold ebooks.

A fair amount seem to do so.
The incremental cost for doing so through CreateSpace POD is low and now that Ingram and BAKER AND TAYLOR--the major US pbook distributors to B&M retailers--are treating indie POD books the same as tradpub titles many indie publishers are evolving from ebook-only to ebook-first to reach B&M bookstores.

This new program from Amazon fits in with that evolution: for people already predisposed to buying a new title in ebook form (anybody with a Kindle, no?) the bundle is actually discounting the pbook by (at least) half the ebook price. Given that most traditional publishers not named Angry Robot (and maybe BAEN) are unlikely to jump in soon, the biggest beneficiaries of this plan are going to be the indie publishers. So I would expect to see a lot more indies doing POD via CreateSpace as a result of this program.

One author that signed up for MatchBook right away said that the readers buying her pbooks were her most loyal and she was happy to have a way to reward them with a free ebook copy.

Not all authors intend to give the ebook version for free but since the price of the ebook can be changed at a moment's notice the promotional potential is very high.

Of course, the naysayers are already out in force:

http://www.mhpbooks.com/amazon-to-be...iment-of-both/

Bonus rant:
http://www.mhpbooks.com/amazon-your-kids-are-next/

The angst is just beginning; wait until the program launches and people start buying bundles for XMAS. "Gift the pbook, read the ebook."

[DreamWriter]

I think MatchBook is a great idea!

[Connallmac]

Originally Posted by djulian

I wonder if Amazon has opened up a potential windfall for B&N with the MatchBook program. If B&N can find a way to match that, then they can sell very low-cost e-books to match the books bought in-store, and they've got themselves a possible advantage over Amazon. People still enjoy visiting a bookstore.

They won't be able to give discounts on previous books bought, obviously, but going forward, they might be able to make a dent.

If anything, I would this is likely to be another nail in B&N's coffin. Even if they wanted to do this I don't think could actually deliver it. Not with all the complaints I've read about their mixing in store and ebook promotions.