Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal

[frahse]

Any author that has the chance to sign up with Amazon with a reasonable financial deal should do it.

The only reasons an author might have to not sign are generally strange, whimsical, political and I think self defeating. They can do the J.K. Rowlings thing and declare that their book will not be sold in digital form at all because of strange emotional yearnings for old dark and musty stacks, and fragments of trees in their hands.

Well that is O.K. for people that own castles, but for the normal modern author, digital and Amazon are a big part of the future.

The online store provides used 1 penny copies of many of J.K. Rowlings books with $3.99 shipping for a total cost delivered to your house of $4.00 of which she gets nothing, but she is willing to eschew selling a $9.99 digital copy.

"Go figure!"

[BearMountainBooks]

Yeah, and now they are offering indie writers a deal if they sign up "exclusively" with Amazon. We'd get to be in prime lending and possibly get some marketing opportunities (the only one spelled out is 5 days of listing the book for free.)

I'd like to know how readers feel about this new possible contract (it's an addition to the existing terms, not a whole new term.)

We'd have to remove our books from all over vendors and formats. This is the largest international community I participate on so I suspect the feelings are not going to be warm and fuzzy for the plan.

From the indie perspective though...to be included in prime lending is a huge exposure op. And those who jump on quickly stand to gain the most.

Thoughts?

[Fbone]

Can you place just a couple of books in KDP Select and re-evaluate in 90 days before the contract renews?

If you are already offering a free promotion, it may make sense to place it in Select and get paid for the promotion.

[Suzanna]

Author Beware posted about this today, here.

As well as an exclusivity clause, there's also a non-compete clause:

During this period of exclusivity, you cannot sell or distribute, or give anyone else the right to sell or distribute, your Digital Book (or content that is reasonably likely to compete commercially with your Digital Book, diminish its value, or be confused with it), in digital format in any territory where you have rights.

(Bolding mine.)
Victoria Strauss goes on to say, in the comments:

This is a lot broader than just a followup book. Vagueness in non-competition clauses is a big problem--do visit the link to Passive Voice that I provided in my post, for a good rundown on the risks.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Yeah, and now they are offering indie writers a deal if they sign up "exclusively" with Amazon. We'd get to be in prime lending and possibly get some marketing opportunities (the only one spelled out is 5 days of listing the book for free.)

I'd like to know how readers feel about this new possible contract (it's an addition to the existing terms, not a whole new term.)

We'd have to remove our books from all over vendors and formats. This is the largest international community I participate on so I suspect the feelings are not going to be warm and fuzzy for the plan.

From the indie perspective though...to be included in prime lending is a huge exposure op. And those who jump on quickly stand to gain the most.

Thoughts?

Well, i don't own a kindle. So, to make it short, no ePub, no money from me.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Well, i don't own a kindle. So, to make it short, no ePub, no money from me.

See and that's the thing for me. You (or readers in general) are MY customer. I understand Amazon wants exclusivity and why, but I don't see how it helps me. Okay, yes. They have lots of eyeballs. BUT what good does that do me long term?

90 days is 90 days. I have a book about to come out. I cannot IMAGINE having to tell Nook readers and Sony and so on that, "Well, sorry, most of my sales are on Amazon so you have to wait 90 days."

That doesn't seem smart because I'm the one who will take the heat, not Amazon. The Nook customer isn't going to write Amazon and complain, they are going to write to ME.

Now then. What if an author offered something small. Like only a short story for the 90 days on Amazon. Would that bother people as much? Or would it be seen as just as much of a problem.

I never liked exclusive deals, especially if there wasn't exact monetary gain spelled out. Some authors are getting much better deals by SIGNING with Amazon as the publisher. That, I get. This...not so much.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Can you place just a couple of books in KDP Select and re-evaluate in 90 days before the contract renews?

If you are already offering a free promotion, it may make sense to place it in Select and get paid for the promotion.

Yes, you can put one book or all books. But there is no "payment" for putting it in (unless you mean the possibility of a small payment if the book is "lent out.")

I haven't ever offered a "Freebie" on Amazon. I've done giveaways, but none of my books has been 'Free' on any site. (I"m not trying to get into the business pros and cons of offering a freebie, nor do I pass judgement on that practice. I just haven't done it and don't intend to use that as a marketing opportunity.)

I'd actually like to be in the lending program or the library lending program, but I don't think this is *quite* the op I was looking for.

[EowynCarter]

Now then. What if an author offered something small. Like only a short story for the 90 days on Amazon. Would that bother people as much? Or would it be seen as just as much of a problem.

Most likely i won't even hear about the book if it's amazon only.

[Fbone]

I just noticed there are over 17,000 books Prime eligible. It seems many find it popular.

[rdjack21]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Well, i don't own a kindle. So, to make it short, no ePub, no money from me.

And not only no money from me but me not promoting your book to my friends. I really think it is in a Authors best interest to be in as many shops as possible. To limit yourself to Amazon just sounds plain nuts to me. It would be like any major publisher saying we are only going to allow B&N to sell your book because we only want to support B&M stores so your customers can actually look at your book before they buy it. Again sounds kinda nuts to me.

[Suzanna]

Originally Posted by Fbone

I just noticed there are over 17,000 books Prime eligible. It seems many find it popular.

I wonder if those people noticed the non-compete clause. If Amazon chooses to enforce it (and why include it if they won't?) many authors could be in for a nasty surprise.

Unless you have an expensive ebook available for sale, I really don't see the advantage. Prime members can only borrow one free ebook a month. Does any indie author really think Amazon Prime members are going to use that to borrow their .99 or 2.99 ebook?I know I'd be borrowing the most expensive ebooks.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by Sao

...I know I'd be borrowing the most expensive ebooks.

That's what I currently do. If the allowance were more than 1 book per month I'd be more flexible in my choices.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Yeah, and now they are offering indie writers a deal if they sign up "exclusively" with Amazon. We'd get to be in prime lending and possibly get some marketing opportunities (the only one spelled out is 5 days of listing the book for free.)

I'd like to know how readers feel about this new possible contract (it's an addition to the existing terms, not a whole new term.)

We'd have to remove our books from all over vendors and formats. This is the largest international community I participate on so I suspect the feelings are not going to be warm and fuzzy for the plan.

From the indie perspective though...to be included in prime lending is a huge exposure op. And those who jump on quickly stand to gain the most.

Thoughts?

If you go exclusively with Amazon, you won't get warm and fuzzy. You'll get people wanting your business to fail.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

See and that's the thing for me. You (or readers in general) are MY customer. I understand Amazon wants exclusivity and why, but I don't see how it helps me. Okay, yes. They have lots of eyeballs. BUT what good does that do me long term?

90 days is 90 days. I have a book about to come out. I cannot IMAGINE having to tell Nook readers and Sony and so on that, "Well, sorry, most of my sales are on Amazon so you have to wait 90 days."

That doesn't seem smart because I'm the one who will take the heat, not Amazon. The Nook customer isn't going to write Amazon and complain, they are going to write to ME.

Now then. What if an author offered something small. Like only a short story for the 90 days on Amazon. Would that bother people as much? Or would it be seen as just as much of a problem.

I never liked exclusive deals, especially if there wasn't exact monetary gain spelled out. Some authors are getting much better deals by SIGNING with Amazon as the publisher. That, I get. This...not so much.

Of course readers are going to complain to you. It is you who would have signed the exclusive deal. That exclusive deal leaves a lot of bad feelings for people who don't buy eBooks from Amazon. Sure I could buy from Amazon, strip the DRM, convert to ePub and read. But why would I want to? There's enough out there that I can get in ePub that I would not buy anything of yours ever again. Going exclusive with Amazon is a bad idea and anyone who does it is just looking for trouble.

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by Fbone

I just noticed there are over 17,000 books Prime eligible. It seems many find it popular.

Indie authors seem to be signing up for this 90-day Amazon exclusivity contract in droves! The figures I've seen are that at around 10 a.m. MST this morning there were 10,732 total books in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library. Just 4-1/2 hours later, there were 22,500 books!

My husband is choosing NOT to sell his book exclusively at Amazon, even though almost all his sales are there. He sells very few ePub books at Barnes & Noble, but those readers are important to him.