Why do some authors only offer their ebooks on Amazon?

[hildea]

This happens fairly often: Someone mentions a book that seems interesting. I search a bit, and find that the ebook is only sold on Amazon. I've only seen it with self-published books, but I've seen it both with established authors who sell most of their books in many places, established authors who sell all of their books only on Amazon, and starting authors who have just one or two books for sale.

Does anyone know why this happens?

• Is the hassle of adding the book to more booksellers so big, and the sales outside Amazon so small, that for many authors it's just not worth it?
• Or does Amazon offer some significant advantages if they get a monopoly on specific books?

I have a huge list of books I'd like to buy, and look at it whenever I need something new to read. But if I can't buy a book outside of Amazon, it's not going on my list. This is partly practical (the last time I got a freebie from Amazon, I wasn't able to remove the DRM and convert it to a usable format, so now I don't trust that I'll be able to do it for books I buy), and partly principled (I think Amazon's market dominance is bad for both readers and authors, and I don't want to give Bezos another cent if I can help it).

[Dazrin]

Amazon has a program where books have to be exclusive in order to get the highest royalty rate (KDP Select?) Since Amazon has by far the largest customer base that means going exclusive makes sense for many people. The additional money they make from being exclusive more than offsets the money they lose from alienating some readers. Doesn't work for everyone or for every book but it works for enough apparently.

[Uncle Robin]

In addition to the above, Amazon also occasionally runs promotions for its exclusive authors. One author whose works I first saw when I switched to Kobo 4 years ago recently put out 2 new series on Amazon only and when I asked why she said that she had done it as a condition of entry in some sort of prize draw

[Quoth]

A sort of bribery. Amazon does more marketing and gives better terms if you give them exclusivity. KDP Select.

Amazon's size and marketing practices results in about 92% of English language ebooks being sold via Amazon. Yet less than half our sales are via Amazon.

It stinks and we won't sign up to Amazon exclusivity. Our ebooks breakdown:
1. Smashwords
2. Amazon
3. Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble: All similar sales. (Dist to them by Smashwords)
4. A couple of other sellers. (Dist to them by Smashwords)

Oddly Google are rubbish. Zero Playstore/Playbooks sales. We upload direct only to Amazon, Smashwords and Google.

Smashwords has become part of Draft2Digital.

[Sirtel]

It's still possible to remove the DRM from Kindle books, but it requires a bit of jumping through hoops. Amazon tries to make it difficult. Nevertheless, so far I've managed to liberate every Kindle purchase I've made.

There is a detailed thread about this in the Calibre forum.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

It's still possible to remove the DRM from Kindle books, but it requires a bit of jumping through hoops. Amazon tries to make it difficult. Nevertheless, so far I've managed to liberate every Kindle purchase I've made.

There is a detailed thread about this in the Calibre forum.

Sorry, but it does not require jumping through hoops once setup with either KindleforPC or MAC or a Kindle.

Steps to remove DRM if there is DRM (sames steps if there is no DRM).
1. Buy the eBook
2. Download the eBook with Firefox
3. Load the eBook into my Calibre library

That's it. No hoops involved. My next steps...
1. Convert to ePub using the KindleUnpack plugin.
2. Load the ePub into he Calibre editor and run epubcheck and fix any errors.
3. Once the errors are fixed, fix the formatting to my liking.

Sometimes you can find that Kindle eBooks can be not all that good. Self-published can be the worst. For example, all the chapters in one HTML file.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Sorry, but it does not require jumping through hoops once setup with either KindleforPC or MAC or a Kindle.

Steps to remove DRM if there is DRM (sames steps if there is no DRM).
1. Buy the eBook
2. Download the eBook with Firefox
3. Load the eBook into my Calibre library

That's it. No hoops involved. My next steps...
1. Convert to ePub using the KindleUnpack plugin.
2. Load the ePub into he Calibre editor and run epubcheck and fix any errors.
3. Once the errors are fixed, fix the formatting to my liking.

Sometimes you can find that Kindle eBooks can be not all that good. Self-published can be the worst. For example, all the chapters in one HTML file.

You need a physical Kindle to download a book via the browser, and as to the Kindle for PC, you need an older version of that. Which you'll have to search for, locate, install and disable updates. If all this isn't jumping through hoops, I don't know what is. It used to be that you could just install the current version of the Kindle for PC and that was it. Not for a long while now.

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

You need a physical Kindle to download a book via the browser.

Does that mean you need a Kindle connected to the PC at the time of download, or you need to have a Kindle registered on your account?
Because you can select the Download option and save the file locally, then sideload at a later time.

Maybe that option is only there because I own a Kindle?

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Karellen

Does that mean you need a Kindle connected to the PC at the time of download, or you need to have a Kindle registered on your account?

The latter. I download via the Amazon account I setup for my Dad a few years ago when I gifted him my PW3. It's with him several hundred kilometers away

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

The latter.

Thanks

Obviously I could not see what the menu options are for non-kindle owners.

[MGlitch]

Honestly if I can buy from somewhere other than Amazon I do it. Strictly because of how they make it difficult to strip the DRM. It’s also among the reasons I ditched Nook years ago and went with Kobo, and not looked back in regret once.

The barriers a company puts between me and deciding what to do with an ebook are barriers they put between them and my wallet.

[library addict]

Also if the book is in KU (exclusive), people who subscribe to Kindle Unlimited can borrow the book for "free" and every borrow counts as a sale when it comes to rankings (which helps with visibility, the higher a book is ranked the more Amazon's algorithm will suggest it) .

And when the customer reads the book, the author is given money per page read. (They have to read past 10% or something like that).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

Honestly if I can buy from somewhere other than Amazon I do it. Strictly because of how they make it difficult to strip the DRM. It’s also among the reasons I ditched Nook years ago and went with Kobo, and not looked back in regret once.

The barriers a company puts between me and deciding what to do with an ebook are barriers they put between them and my wallet.

You can buy from eBooks.com, Kobo, and Google. They all serve ePub that can have the DRM removed.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by library addict

Also if the book is in KU (exclusive), people who subscribe to Kindle Unlimited can borrow the book for "free" and every borrow counts as a sale when it comes to rankings (which helps with visibility, the higher a book is ranked the more Amazon's algorithm will suggest it) .

And when the customer reads the book, the author is given money per page read. (They have to read past 10% or something like that).

That only works if you have a Kindle and read it on the Kindle with WiFi on. If you have a Kobo or Pocketbook, you'd have to strip the DRM, convert to ePub and read that way. The author then gets nothing from your read.

KU is a really bad implementation given it's requirements. I have a PW3 and if I was to read a KU eBook, I'd not be giving them any money per page as WiFi is off.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by library addict

Also if the book is in KU (exclusive), people who subscribe to Kindle Unlimited can borrow the book for "free" and every borrow counts as a sale when it comes to rankings (which helps with visibility, the higher a book is ranked the more Amazon's algorithm will suggest it) .

And when the customer reads the book, the author is given money per page read. (They have to read past 10% or something like that).

The KU cheats Authors compared to sales.

An Amazon subscription Library to cheat authors, lock in readers and build a monopoly.

Cheats readers of privacy too.

The rankings thing shows how Amazon games the system to build its monopoly.