Amazon to Compete with the Big 6

[Frida Fantastic]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Sorry, but the world we live in is the one where if somebody writes a book they don't need the blessing of a glass house priesthood of print to put it before readers and, maybe, get it to sell. A world where the choice whether that book sells or not is up to the buyer.

While there's almost no barriers to the ebook market, the barriers to promotional opportunities still exists. Indie authors are locked out of many sites where authors of their genre would typically get promoted or covered.

Looking at the SF/F reading audience, the most popular SF/F news blogs include io9, tor.com, and SFSignal, and they don't review or talk about indie or small-press titles.

Many of the most popular SF/F review sites don't review indie or small-press either. These reviewers get their review copies from the publisher, not from the authors directly.

But then, none of these sites have a monopoly over the reader's internet time. They're just the ones with the highest traffic and site ranking for now. There still aren't a lot of SF/F websites/blogs that actively review indie titles (not necessarily exclusively), but you can find the ones I'm aware of here http://indiesfreviewers.wordpress.com/.

Right now, online promotional opportunities on websites/blogs for this genre are still segregated. Trad published books have access to the big high-traffic SF/F sites. Indie books have access to indie book blogs. A major chunk of the SF/F reading public aren't on indie book blogs, they're on the big sites or on social media, so indie books right now are reaching a smaller audience.

There is some overlap happening, mostly at the single-author book blog/website level. Something like http://sfbook.com/ primarily reviews trad published titles and has nothing to do with the indie book scene (to my knowledge anyway, Ant doesn't follow Mark Coker on Twitter or & the usual indie characters), so it sits firmly on the SF/F side of the fence. But he's been reviewing a steady amount of indie over the months, and I think other single-author blogs are becoming more open to indie titles. The change isn't happening as fast with SF/F group blogs, but that's just to my knowledge.

But yeah, my point is that while in theory, it's readers who choose what to buy or what not to buy, choice only really happens when the readers are presented with it. If the target audience spends mostly their time on websites that don't cover indies, then indies are locked out of the promotional side. Authors aren't trying to reach indie readers, they're trying to reach readers of their genre. Some sites in the blogosphere are warming up to indie titles, but not many of the big high traffic ones, at least not yet. And there is no guarantee which sites will have the highest traffic in 3 years from now.

Promotional opportunities for indies will only grow, but I have no idea if they'll have access to the same routes as trad published ones or will continue to use different routes.

[din155]

The problem with bphs playing the role of gatekeeping is that they will have to publish everything that comes along their way. The pressure of shareholders who look for more than 20% growth every year does not help them. Plus, Amazon can earn more profit from publishing due to their highly polished and efficient integrated delivery system.
So in order to earn similar profit the bphs will have to publish more and more. The value of gatekeeping to provide quality content to the readers is just a statement in their office.

Off course, Amazon is no saint and they do the same thing by throwing everything at your face. The difference is how much trash you can get for the same amount of money. But at least they don’t claim to be the gatekeepers.