In this world today there are two types of people. The
first group loves Amazon. The other believes it is the spawn of the devil. Sure,
it’s impressive that this digitally based company will sell you anything, anytime,
anywhere. Who wouldn’t be, its reach is simply amazing. But the thrust of this
article is more refined and targeted – I’m talking books here.
All my books (see left and right) are available on Amazon
both digitally and in paperback (through Createspace), so I have a vested interest
in their operation. It is a store, plain and simple, they have things I want, I
can buy them, and then they are shipped to my door. It is the perfect retail
operation for an agoraphobic that spends their days looking through narrowed window
blinds for the UPS truck.
Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), is actually very cool. It
allows me, the author and publisher of my work, to directly sell to the
customer, whether in the United States or Patagonia. I can post my book and access
my market in less than 24 hours and can adjust my message hourly if I want. I
can revise covers, fix typos, and even serialize my work. It’s all mine, all
the good and the bad. I have actually more control than I do in a bookstore.
You, the author, determine the royalty rates (which vary
depending on the ebook sales price), and you set the price. And it translates
the dollar price into euros, pounds, and even yen. They send you the royalty
check on schedule. How cool. This has made some writers very rich, and others
disappointed. For most of us the numbers posted on the Reports schedule are
never as good as we hope. That is the toughest part of writing – financial satisfaction.
Having a specific location where you can send your reader
has changed the whole direction of the publishing industry. Before, in the pre-Amazon
era (PAE), books were found in three locations, the bookstore, the library, and
when you borrowed a friend’s copy. Not much else. So marketing was critical,
and still is. Now, with a web site or blog, I can send my readers to my book’s
site, they can peruse my author’s page, read the first chapter, see other books
I’ve written and read reviews. I don’t have to have hundreds of copies in
boxes, Createspace prints and mails in one day. And reviews, posted right
there, are critical to the author and the book’s placement in Amazon’s readership
firmament. (BTW, if you have read one of books, pleeeeease post a review, very
simple, just click and throw out a few words, kind or not, thanks – more reviews
= more clicks).
There are other portals that place the book in front of
an audience; Mark Coker’s Smashwords is one that I use as well. KDP supports
Kindle, that’s obvious. Smashwords gets your ebook into most of the other
formats and sales locations, B&N - Nook, Kobo, Sony, and Smashwords own ebook
service. Again every one of these is free to post, royalties vary somewhat, but
all are easy to use.
If there is one disappointment, it is Amazon’s KDP Select
(kdpselect). This is a lending library that Amazon runs where, after paying a
monthly fee, the borrower has unlimited access to millions of ebooks through their
Kindle. But the publisher/writer can’t market the ebook through any other
distributor while it’s listed (minimum 90 days). I thought it would help kick
the book off, now I’m not sure. Rentals have been minimal, and I wonder what I
missed on Smashwords. So I’m pulling it next month and finally posting 12th
Man For Death on Smashwords.
All of this is a learning process, and requires the
author to market their work from digital ebooks to face to face book readings.
The life in the lonely writer’s garret creating wondrous fiction is over, some
days I feel more like a politician than a scribbler – all glad-handing and
kissing babies.
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