Going to B&N (and having a kid) made me realize how pervasive Amazon's exclusivity is

[ZodWallop]

Last weekend I went to B&N with my kid. She doesn't read enough for my liking, and while I have no control over that, I do like to do what I can to encourage her to read more.

She likes romance. Specifically a category called New Adult Romance. As she would puruse the books, I would look up digital copies to see the price difference vs. paper books (one side effect of my moving to ebooks is I have little to no interest in browsing bookstore shelves myself anymore).

I was surprised at how often a paperback that was popular enough to be carried at Barnes And Noble would only have a digital edition available via Amazon.

The ones that really sticks with me is a book called A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole. I can tell you that in the teen world, this is a big book. It was originally published in 2016 and remains popular enough that Target carries it even with their limited book space. So does Walmart. It's currently #6 in teen romance. And digitally, it's only available on Kindle.

I've bought a fair amount of Amazon exclusive stuff. But I'm old enough that I'm not reading what's popular and my impression of the exclusive books that I bought is that they are back catalog stuff republished by Amazon's imprints, or niche titles that I wouldn't expect to ever see paper copies of. I was wrong.

[ownedbycats]

The exclusivity clause of KDP Select is a scourge. I hope they get slapped down with an antitrust suit.

[John F]

I seldom come across a Kindle exclusive that is a "must have". When I do, I add it to my wishlist. When I have several, I subscribe to Unlimited and convert to EPUB. Wash, rinse, repeat.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by John F

I seldom come across a Kindle exclusive that is a "must have". When I do, I add it to my wishlist. When I have several, I subscribe to Unlimited and convert to EPUB. Wash, rinse, repeat.

What do you do for Kindle exclusives that are not on KU?

[John F]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What do you do for Kindle exclusives that are not on KU?

Could you give me an example?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

The exclusivity clause of KDP Select is a scourge. I hope they get slapped down with an antitrust suit.

Though it only applies to self-publishing authors and very small publishers.

Larger publishers don't even use KDP and can be on KU without being exclusive.
Amazon has bought some publishers and likely their ebooks are exclusive and not in libraries.

Who publishes "A Thousand Boy Kisses" in the USA?

In the UK it's Penguin. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/4549.../9781405955317
eBook on: Amazon, Apple, Google Playstore Books, Kobo and Hive (who I never heard of. https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Tilli...ation/27454041 )

I was trying to get ebook of Jeanne M. Dams's "Winter of Discontent" and it unlike her other titles is Macmillan USA. She wanted the ebook rights (for Severn or Joffe) as they only had it on paper. Instead they refused and published the ebook.
The paper version can be bought to Ireland or UK from USA (via Amazon who mostly ignore territories for physical stuff they ship). The Macmiilan site claims there is an ebook:
The macmillan links to ebooks go to actual stores!
So it's on Kindle (but only for USA). It's on Apple (but you need an iThing (no Apple App on Android?), and maybe not UK or Ireland even if you had.
Kobo USA (not UK or Ireland) has only some of her books, not that one.
The ebooks com (which I can use if the publisher hasen't geolimited a title) doesn't have it (only 6 of hers) despite Macmillan links to those two.

And she's a mainstream author published since 1995 and won at least one award! She can't understand why her ebooks are not available everywhere. "It's cyberspace!"

Google Playstore link fails too. They seem to only have some audiobooks by her.


The publishing industry is broken and Amazon is happy with that.

P.S. As well as obvious English Language markets, Malta like Ireland is officially English Speaking in EU (mysteriously some people thought no English in EU after UK leaving). India, Cyprus, Israel, Netherlands, Kenya, Botswana, Philippines.

So USA is only one market.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by John F

I seldom come across a Kindle exclusive that is a "must have". When I do, I add it to my wishlist. When I have several, I subscribe to Unlimited and convert to EPUB. Wash, rinse, repeat.

No-one needs to subscribe to KU to buy a KU title exclusive to Amazon. You just buy it.

If you convert a subscription title, the author/publisher is never paid!

[maddz]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Hive (who I never heard of.

They supposedly support your local bricks and mortar indie bookstores by giving them a cut of the sale when you buy an ebook. I purchased some titles from them 2 or 3 years ago (CJ Cherryh, Glen Cook, Judith Merkle Riley) that weren't available elsewhere, and was offered a selection of local bookstores to support.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Quoth

No-one needs to subscribe to KU to buy a KU title exclusive to Amazon. You just buy it.

If you convert a subscription title, the author/publisher is never paid!

I believe we've had this discussion before. Feel free to review previous threads/posts.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

The exclusivity clause of KDP Select is a scourge. I hope they get slapped down with an antitrust suit.

You and me both, brother (or sister).

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by John F

Could you give me an example?

Son of Heaven, the first book in the Chung Kuo series by David Wingrove.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by John F

I believe we've had this discussion before. Feel free to review previous threads/posts.

I've run publishing for nearly 12 years. I don't need to review it. It is a stupid system Amazon has for loans/subscriptions, but that's how it works.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Son of Heaven, the first book in the Chung Kuo series by David Wingrove.

About FRAGILE BOOKS
A private gallery and a limited-edition publisher in Tokyo. Our book collections can be viewed and purchased online. Open Atelier days are held irregularly.

From their website

Also

"Fragile Media is owned by Susan Oudot and David Wingrove and deals with Fragile Writers and Fragile Workshops, as well as incorporating the newly-formed Fragile Books. A small independent publisher, the imprint launched in spring 2017..."

see https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubs_n...ries.cgi?62751
Extremely few books! Seem to only have six and all by David Wingrove and same cover artist.

Edit I think at least 17 books. That site seems inaccurate See https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Davi...alEnabled=true

So practically self-publishing. Odd that it's exclusive to Amazon but not KU. Possibly they've used KDP and no other online ebook seller rather than contractually exclusive.

Certainly I don't see the title anywhere other than Amazon, even on paper.

[DNSB]

I run into several self-published authors who only use Amazon but are not using KU. For the most part, they seem to feel that the increase in income from going wide does not make up for the additional work to manage multiple sites.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I run into several self-published authors who only use Amazon but are not using KU. For the most part, they seem to feel that the increase in income from going wide does not make up for the additional work to manage multiple sites.

Yes I see that too, though if they are doing it properly it's about 10 minutes extra work per site, ONCE per title! Smashwords adds Kobo, Apple, Barnes&Noble (Nook) and others, and it uses the same epub and cover upload and same metadata as KDP. In reality they'd add another 20% to 35% just using Smashwords. Google is useless for sales, but it's a free listing and people will download a free edition (start of series etc) from Google. You can't easily or reliably have "free" on Amazon without KDP Select.