KDP Select and a Not-So-Speculative Jaunt into Ebook Hell
I love the ebook revolution. It’s fantastic that it’s easier for authors to be read more than ever before, and I heartily endorse ebook adoption across the world. My dream is that we will have a truly global reading and publishing culture, where stories will be read because there are readers for them, not because of the arbitrary decisions made by a small bunch of Americans in New York.
While this revolution can march into a better world, it can also descend into ebook hell.
This is my personal vision of hell:
- ebooks are only available in .azw and they’re DRMed
- Amazon is the only company that sells books in the world
- the retailer takes at least 70% of the cut
- all your ebooks only exist in the retailer’s servers (in the cloud), because you can’t back them up to your hard drive due to DRM
- the retailer can continue to pull books from its digital shelves without elaborating on how the book had violated its terms of conditions or responding to its customers, because it has an unexplainable beef against gay characters in fiction (because hetero smut is okay, but somehow LGBT smut isn’t).
- readers in “international” countries must continue paying an arbitrary surcharge
- there are no more public libraries, because all ebook lending is done through Amazon if there is any lending to be done at all
- and everything is YA paranormal romance
Hah! I am sort of kidding about the final point (I said that this is my vision of hell after all), but really–that world sucks. And that world can happen, especially when Amazon pushes aggressive measures like the KDP Select program.
I like what Amazon has done for the ebook revolution. They made ebooks mainstream and they’re bringing in more readers and authors into the fold. That’s wonderful. I also like their competitive prices on e-readers. But seriously, I don’t want Amazon to be even more of a Big Brother. I want competition, I want choice, and I want options. I want to be able to buy from independent publishers or authors directly if I choose.
I want different retailers for ebooks. From as big as Smashwords, to a publisher-specific model like the Angry Robot Store, to the friendly co-op model like Book View Cafe (Vonda N. McIntyre personally responds to their emails!), and as small as Gallivant Books. I support those options and I want them to flourish.
So readers, when you buy your next book, please think about what ebook future you are supporting. And authors, we have your back. We want your business partners to treat you well, and going exclusively with Amazon is not my idea of a healthy partnership.
These are my opinions. Feel free to comment below to discuss this at further length (and disagreeing with me is okay!). I’m interested to hear what your ebook hell looks like, and also, what vision you have for an ebook heaven.
- Writer Beware ® – The Fine Print of Amazon’s New KDP Select Program
- The IndieView – Step Up Or Shut Up
- Kindleboards – (forum thread) Mark Coker at HuffPo: Amazon Aims to Empty Competitor Shelves of Indie Ebooks
- David Gaughran – How Much Do You Want to Get Paid Tomorrow?
- B. Justin Shier – Frida Fantastic on Ebook Hell
- Mobileread – (forum thread) I chose to “boycott” Amazon (international DRM problem)
Posted on December 9, 2011, in ebook hell, indie ebooks, indie fantasy books, indie science fiction, indie speculative fiction, KDP Select, SF Chatter. Bookmark the permalink. 50 Comments.
dementedchris
Frida Fantastic
I agree with everything that you listed – especially the last line
I only have one book out there, am working steadily on making that two; neither will be in the KDP Select program. They would be if it weren’t exclusive. Exclusivity is not a good thing.
Judging by the mass shift of indie authors (30,000 and counting) I am in the minority in my decision.
The main driver, that I have read about, for indies, is not the money – it is the promotional tool that allows you to set your book at “free” for a period of 5 days within the 90 that you grant exclusivity to Amazon.
Early days yet, and another 89 days worth of data to see if it makes a drastic change to the ebook world – but some observations…
Traditional publishing, Big 6, are not in.
There will be 30,000 new “free” (as long as you’re a Prime member) books coming on line in the next 90 days – (a huge hunk of these around Xmas time when authors try to relive the halcyon days of the first kindle Christmas).
Book listings in iStore, Smashwords, Kobo, Sony etc etc are going to be leaner and … perhaps … wait for it … become to be perceived as the place to go for quality, if pricier. Why? (leaving out Smashwords where BS don’t go) the other ebook stores will still be selling BS + other indies who didn’t join Select…
Just some thoughts…
Thanks for the educational comment, Simon.
30,000 authors? That’s way too many >_< One small step towards ebook hell…
It's interesting that the "being able to set your book for free for 5 days" carrot being waved by Amazon is a carrot that only exists because they purposefully made it difficult for authors to list books for free. How is it like with other ebook retailers?
The main route to free for everyone up to now has been Smashwords – set it free there and hope Amazon price matches. It is a strategy that has worked to good effect for a number of indies.
I suspect that strategy will suffer now with the deluge that is coming. I also expect a backlash against “free” and the library as readers are exposed to more “slush” than they expected.
*waves to Simon*
You’d think independent authors would be the last people to go in for something like this, as, evil empire notions aside, this basically means they’re working for Amazon now. You know, The Man, The System. Where are our indie hippie roots?
If nothing else, this is making me re-prioritize my to-do list, and I’ll be setting up shop on my own site sooner rather than later. At the least, getting all of one’s income from one source means being entirely at the mercy of that source and being unable to rock the boat for fear of being let go. At the worst, this may be one of those first link in the chain types of things.
Hey Lindsay
“The Man, The System. Where are our indie hippie roots?”
Exactly. I think there is a first salvo (or maybe tenth) in getting “ownership” of the content – NO – don’t let it happen. At some point the Kindle will be going the way of the Palm; I reckon Amazon know this and are making the infrastructure play now to lock in the content.
@Lindsay: I think authors selling their ebooks through their own site is a good idea, and I think you’re in a good place to do it, since you already have a sizable following that visits your site + buys your releases on a regular basis.
“At the worst, this may be one of those first link in the chain types of things.” I think that is where Amazon is trying to go with this, yes.
I’m just not comfortable with forcing my readers to buy through a particular vendor. [Especially when Amazon adds a $2 Whispernet charge in large parts of the world still.]
I’ll be interested to see whether any of the other retailers try to lift their game so as not to lose self-published authors.
Yeah, I really have no idea why that Whispernet charge is around. And it’s bad for indie sales especially, since imposing a $2 tax on a $2.99 book is a big deal.
I love Smashwords, but I wished they implemented their changes faster so they could be a serious competitor with Amazon instead of merely a convenient way to hand out review copies to book bloggers (which is what I hear from authors sometimes). They need to change up some things from the author front (e.g. allowing the author to put up a formatted .epub if they already have one), and some things on the customer front–better UI, a recommendations engine, rankings, etc… all these things that make Amazon so competitive.
Yes to Smashwords getting their act together on those things you mentioned. It has been well over a year and still no advances in their basic set up. Mark and his team have done a great job but need to go further with what they have done.
For authors the difference between Smashwords and Amazon is abut 100 to 1. i.e. sell 1 book on SW for every 100 on Amazon.
I started a little thread in the Writer’s Cafe at Kindleboards about Mark Coker’s HuffPo article. Because of this thread and others at KB, I’ve felt a little surprised at how much support there is for Amazon’s exclusivity move among the indies who have spoken up there.
The most common sentiment I’ve seen is that Amazon does so much more for indies (and this is very true), so the other companies need to up their game if they want to keep indies happy. If you’re an author hoping to make any kind of decent living at writing, it does make sense to focus on Amazon (unless you write romance or erotica, as those books do seem to do well at B&N and iBooks) because Amazon is where almost all of the action is for most indie authors.
And at the same time, this sucks for all the reasons you gave in this post. But I think the hard reality is that as long as Amazon remains the only place giving indies a real shot at selling ebooks, we’re headed for an increasingly Amazon-dominated marketplace–at least for indie titles.
Thanks for the link, Moses. I’ve been reading indie authors’ reactions on the Kindleboards and Mobileread, and I think your observations are spot on.
I’m a huge supporter of Smashwords, and hope that Smashwords and the other retailers really step up their game. Smashwords has been focusing a lot on the distribution part of their business, but not on the retail part. And being a good distributor doesn’t matter if authors mainly see profits from Amazon, focus all their efforts on it, and make the move to exclusive.
At the same time, I want authors to make sure that they aren’t making some bad trade-offs because of extremely short-term thinking.
The short term gain of KDP Select is that authors have more control over when they want their book to be listed as free directly through Amazon (although the only reason why this gain exists is because Amazon had purposefully made it impossible to list anything as free unless you used the Smashwords backdoor… and Amazon seems to react to it in arbitrary ways… e.g. books being listed for free way longer than it should have been, as I’m sure Lindsay is familiar with ATM).
I don’t see the lending library hugely advantageous for indie authors. Indie authors tend to have inexpensive books anyway, and if a user of the lending library could only borrow one book a month, would they use that to borrow the $2.99 self-published title or the $12.99 trad published title? The financial incentives aren’t there either, considering that authors have a shot at a lottery pool of money instead of knowing that they’ll get $1 or whatever each time their book was checked out.
I don’t see a whole lot of long-term gains to this, other than a massive gain for Amazon. The more authors go exclusive with Amazon, the less bargaining power they’ll have. IMHO, it’s silly for authors to strike it out as indie because they want control over their work, and yet walk blindly into the KDP Select’s arrangement of an exclusive grant of rights and a non-competition clause. Isn’t that the sort of thing that make authors run away from scary-and-bordering-on-exploitative book contracts? So why be less wary?
I like Matthew Iden’s response on Kindleboards: http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,94862.msg1473444.html#msg1473444 “I don’t want to be beholden to Amazon, no matter how good they’ve been to me in the past. And I don’t want to be stuck with the other distributors who don’t seem to care about making a sound business model.”
After reading those responses, I understand why some authors would try out KDP Select for the business decision, but I’m still wary about the long-term…
Smashwords/Kobo/B&N/Apple: Step up your freaking game! Take indie writers seriously and help us readers connect to worthwhile books. Work towards that healthier ebook future, goddamnit.
I don’t necessarily think the whole exclusivity is -good-, but like a lot of people have said–Amazon is the only place that’s particularly friendly to indies. And while there’s a lot of theories and fear flying back and forth about the lending library, in practice it seems to be upping people’s some folks’ sales rankings from the exposure, and indies are seeing borrows, despite low prices. As long as it’s just a 90 day contract, I don’t blame anyone for opting in with a book or two, because if it ends up screwing you, you can get out before too long. There’s a three day period where you can opt out, and I’m using it to see if it makes any kind of impact on my sales one way or another before I make a decision, myself, because I don’t believe in blindly jumping in, but if it’s got a chance of upping my visibility on Amazon, it’s hard to say no to.
That said, I’d prefer a scenario where the other retailers upped their game. I love to write, and from a creative standpoint, I’d love to have my books in as many places as possible. But the sad truth is, these other places are dropping the ball. They don’t have to sell as much as Amazon, but they do have to make it so that whatever their share of the ebook reader market is, it’s possible for me to sell my book to those readers. And they don’t make that easy. As a Canadian, the only way for me to even upload to anywhere but Amazon is via Smashwords, which takes a huge amount of control out of my hands. I’ve got to wait weeks for price changes and things to go through. And once I get up on places like Barnes and Noble and so on, I have to get past the fact that they just don’t have a very good set up. It’s hard for anyone to find my books. Amazon has all sorts of bestseller lists and search filters and rankings and algorithms that we can make work for us, and no one else has… anything, really. With a few exceptions, everyone makes way less sales everywhere but Amazon.
The fact is, if other eBook sellers don’t want Amazon to take the whole pie, it’s up to them to make changes. It wouldn’t take much. If people sold even 10-15% of what they sold on Amazon everywhere else, it would make exclusivity a much less attractive option. Right now, for most people, it’s more like 1%.
Thanks for the insights Ben, much appreciated. How long has the lending library been around for, and how long have indie authors been participating in it?
I agree with you on the lackluster efforts of the other ebook retailers. I can imagine selling books in .epub format to be a hassle because you have to deal with so many other retailers (which authors outside of America can only deal with using Smashwords) and none of them are indie friendly. No direct uploads and stuff for non-Americans. Kobo could totally step up their game on this since they basically are the .epub ereader of choice outside of America (the American market is the only thing B&N has going for them), but they haven’t.
Being Canadian, I see a lot of Kobos in public (I saw an elderly Chinese-Canadian couple walk hand-in-hand with a pair of brand new ones still in the box… it was so cute), but I doubt that there are a lot of indie books in those ereaders.
The lending library’s been around for like a month now, but they only introduced the select program to allow indies in last week.
I wish it was easier for me to get my books read on the Kobo specifically–you’re right, it is the big one in Canada. Even my grandparents have ‘em. But it’s the worst one. I have to go through Smashwords there, but it takes like 4 times as long for them to respond to any changes made through Smashwords as all the other vendors, and since sales are so low there anyway, it’s easier to just opt out rather than have a month-old price from Kobo get price-matched on Amazon or something.
@bensdobson: Huh! I never thought about the issues w/ pricing lags + Amazon price matching. That makes discounting a book for a limited time period a logistical nightmare. Thanks for the insight. Just curious, do you think there is a way for indie authors to come together and get Kobo to push back against Amazon by being more indie-friendly, or do you think that just can’t happen? (I don’t really care about B&N, because while the American market is huge, it’s short-sighted to only cover one country…)
I don’t know that indie authors can directly join up to affect Kobo in any notable way–we’re not really an organized group, and Kobo isn’t very focused on being an indie book vendor, so any kind of boycott or such would probably be ignored. But I do think there’s a chance that this Select business will prod some of the other vendors into action. I mean, at a certain point, I’d like to think they gotta do something, or they’re just letting Amazon run away with the market.
I will say that this blog was the reason we decided not to participate in KDP Select.
The situation reminds me of what happened in the tabletop RPG industry about a decade ago. The dominant company (Wizards) offered its game rules (d20) to other publishers to use. Most publishers jumped on this ‘generous’ offer and countless new small publishing companies emerged to jump into the fray. Within a few years, d20 was pretty much the only game in town. Things boomed for a few years and then became bloated as mediocre to poor products flooded the market. This led to a collapse of the market. Wizards developed a new system and jettisoned d20. The tabletop RPG industry is slowing recovering but it isn’t as robust as it used to be, which goes to show that a little ‘generosity’ can go a long way to dominating a market.
The irony is that Wizards bid to dominate the market significantly weakened it as well. Diversity isn’t just good for ecosystems is also applies to markets.
Interesting example. I hope that the other ebook retailers do their part to keep the ebook market diverse and competitive in keeping both authors and readers. Thanks!
No need to kid on the last point. I consider it part of my vision of hell as well – one of those lower circles, you know…the especially nasty ones. Also sparkling vampires. Everywhere. Madness.
That said, I’d certainly agree on the “select” front. I recently published with Amazon myself, among other locales, but I’m nervous as hell about switching to any sort of exclusivity clause like they’re providing. Now, I’ve read their terms of agreement, and truly, I don’t think what they’re doing is intended to be bad in any sense; truly, it honestly seems geared toward helping the writers, despite the nervous outcries I’m hearing. But nonetheless, the concept of further clamping down competition and putting it into the hands of one group (however well-intentioned), sets the nerves a-tingling. I, too, like competition. Options are good for everyone.
Kudos to amazon for all they’ve done in popularizing the e-book format, and for shaking up the entrenched establishment of the publishing world…but this is one program I’m certainly going to enter a holding pattern on, circling a bit until I see how it truly shapes up.
Other groups need to get involved and start opening up other options, though. So many authors are signing up and joining in precisely because of how friendly Amazon has been to the indie culture – perhaps the only major, established organization that is. You have smaller time competition, to be sure, but they just can’t face Amazon on that higher level…which just furthers the classic point that the established members of the industry really need to get with the program already, and get things moving. It’s time to adapt…
Agree with all your sentiments Frida. But I’ve tried many of the other routes with my novel, which is YA dystopian. It’s a difficult niche as it is for an ebook, and I’ve had little success. I decided to try KDP Select for a trial run. So far, hundreds of my books have been “lent.” At this point, getting paid is an afterthought. The idea that more than a couple dozen people may actually read my book makes it worth it, for now. I also don’t like monopolies, but Amazon has the easiest, most user friendly platform for setting up an ebook account–from creating the product to setting it up for public view. If I don’t make money, I’ll curse the powers that be but have some satisfaction that every day readers–most of whom are not wealthy oligarths–are viewing my book. In 90 days, if I don’t like this system, I’ll part ways and try another route.
Thanks for the honest insight, Stephen. I understand that above all else, authors want to be read. Best of luck with your novel, regardless of which business program you choose to go with.
Hey all, reading through the comments, no doubt, there’s much room for improvement at Smashwords. We’ve always been up front and transparent about where we’re lacking (just visit our Site Updates). Anyone who has followed us closely knows we have consistently improved numerous aspects of our business every month for the last 40 months. 2011 was a big year for infrastructure build-out at Smashwords, and this sets the stage for our continued ability to scale quickly as our business grows (over 8,400 new titles published in last 30 days). We have a very aggressive development roadmap planned for 2012.
Although we operate a small retail platform (Smashwords.com), it is by no means our primary business. Distribution is our primary business, and this is where our authors and retail partners yield the most value from us. When we make decisions about where to invest our development dollars, we always ask ourselves which features will give our authors the greatest overall sales benefit.
I think it’s somewhat nonsensical to compare Amazon sales to Smashwords.com (retail site) sales. Of course Amazon is the largest seller today. Take a look at Amazon’s traffic advantage:
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/amazon.com#
(8.21% reach):
Amazon’s traffic dwarfs the traffic of Smashwords.com.
.025% reach
In other words, Amazon’s traffic is 328 times greater than Smashwords.com. They’re 29 times greater than Barnesandnoble.com (numbers according to Alexa, and imperfect measure).
When I see people question the commitment of Smashwords/Apple/B&N/Kobo to indies simply because they might sell more on Amazon, I cringe. Which retailer has the most restrictive contract for indies (Amazon). Which retailer is the most brutal enforcer of automated price matching, punishing authors for mistakes that are not their own (Amazon). Which retailer more than any other is building walls that encourage authors to go exclusive (Amazon). Which retailers make it the easiest for authors to supply their books through a distributor (*not* Amazon).
Of course most authors sell more on Amazon than they do at the non-Amazons we serve. Most analysts think Amazon has 60-70% of the ebook market. Though talk to just about any author who’s been fully distributed with Smashwords for more than two years, and they’ll probably tell you that disparity is shrinking each year. Some Smashwords authors are reporting they’re earning as much or more on our network than they earn on Amazon. Over the next few years, I think this trend will continue and Amazon’s market share will decline. Except, of course, for the authors who sell their titles exclusively on Amazon. They won’t see they same sales growth from the non-Amazons as our other authors who stay the steady course and recognize the importance of *never* removing their book from any retailer. Each time you remove a book, you’re yanking it out by the roots, killing sales rank, missing sales opportunities, and disadvantaging your book vs. others.
I think most indies agree that it’s in their best interest to see a vibrant and competitive ebook retailing ecosystem out there. The more retailers working to attract readers to books, the better it is for every indie. So if you believe in the value of many retailers, ask yourself how your actions today will impact the long term future. When indies go exclusive anywhere, they’re choking off the growth for the other retailers. If you believe, as I believe, that the power of publishing is shifting to indies, and Big Publishing will become less relevant in the years ahead, then you’ve got to understand the long term impact of the decisions you make today. Every indie’s decision has an impact.
If your books are broadly distributed, support each of your retailers. Give your fans a choice where they can find your book. Add direct hyperlinks to your books at each retailer on your blog or website.
I know a lot of authors will choose to disregard my concerns about KDP Select because I have a horse in this game (yes, we want to distribute your books!). So be it. I hope Amazon drops their exclusivity requirement, because if it weren’t for the exclusivity I think KDP Select could be really interesting as a new sales channel.
I wish everyone the best regardless of their decision.
In the meantime, we will continue to focus on our business and innovate as we always have. I’m very appreciative that so few Smashwords authors have fallen for Amazon’s exclusivity ploy. With your continued support, we will continue to work to serve you by opening up new distribution opportunities, and we will continue to improve every other facet of our systems including book ingestion, Smashwords.com retailing, distribution tools and sales reporting tools.
Hey Mark, cool to have you chime in.
I think Smashwords is offering a great service, and as a guy who can’t upload to most places any other way, I appreciate it greatly.
But here’s the thing: it’s not just about Amazon having more traffic and sales–it’s about a thousand times more user-friendly than most of the competition (and here I’m talking about the online stores of the big book retailers, not Smashwords). It’s got the best search algorithms, it helps you find what you actually want. Searching most of the other stores is a nightmare. Some people actually search for books on Amazon and -then- go to Barnes and Noble or wherever to buy it, because it’s such a headache to find what you want elsewhere. These other retailers are in desperate need of an upgrade to just the basic functionality of their online stores.
I don’t expect anyone to match Amazon in sales any time soon. I expect them to provide a place where I can make -enough- sales to make exclusivity a bad idea. I’m not at all attached to Amazon Select. I’d ditch it in a second if the competition would provide platforms that would allow me to have some confidence that I might make, say, 10% of my overall sales between them. It is my dearest hope that Select will scare them into getting on the ball in that respect.
All that said, I think Smashwords is doing great–like you’ve said, you continue to improve, which is more than I’ve seen from a lot of the non-Amazon booksellers lately (though I eagerly await the ability to upload a pre-formatted epub). None of this is at your feet, but the guys Smashwords distributes to need to do better, from my perspective.
@Ben: I completely agree. The problem is that Smashwords cares more about indies than the retailers it ultimately distributes to, and the value of a distributor is in what those retail channels could do for the supplier… the author. If those retail channels just aren’t delivering sales, then that competitive multi-format ebook future will look more like the future’s fiction rather than the future’s reality.
I understand that Smashwords isn’t in the best position to arm wrestle these retailers who are doing a subpar service for both indie readers and authors, but there’s gotta be some initiative here. These cats need to be herded. I can understand that we can’t expect Smashwords to fix all their problems one-handed (I know Smashwords is the small guy here that’s done magic… but still small all the same compared to these giants)… but Kobo/B&N/Apple/etc. need to step up their bloody game to fight the Amazon onslaught. I think Smashwords definitely has the opportunity for behind-the-scenes leadership in moving this industry forward.
I’m interested in brainstorming ways of how to get indie authors + supporters organized to tell Kobo/B&N/et. al how to step up their game. Perhaps they won’t answer to an individual author, but they’d answer to one of the thousand emails making all the same demands? What say you all?
@Mark: Thanks for taking the time to respond, Mark. While I certainly think both non-Amazon retailers/distributors and authors need to do their part in order to avoid the dreadful Amazon-monopoly hellopocalypse, I am still a fan of Smashwords and I look forward to the new features in 2012. I also hope that you’ll also take these authors’ suggestions into consideration, and strengthening the on-the-ground business case for choosing non-exclusivity. It’s in my interest after all as an ebook enthusiast that wants to see a DRM-free, multi-format, healthy and competitive, international readership & authorship, pro-indie future. I wish you and your team all the best.
Mark,
Firstly, thank you on behalf of all of us for responding. We appreciate it, and we understand the effort you have put into building a business around indie books. Also the support and opportunity you have given indies.
I have never reported sales figures, but I want to drive home a reality, the reality that I believe most of us face (yes there are exceptions but I believe *most* will have similar results in percentage terms to mine.
Amazon 1,500 +
B&N 8
Itunes 12
Smashwords 11
Kobo 2
Sony 0
I have been with you and your distribution channels for over a year.
Some comments:
“I know a lot of authors will choose to disregard my concerns about KDP Select because I have a horse in this game (yes, we want to distribute your books!).”
- we all have a horse in this game.
“if it weren’t for the exclusivity I think KDP Select could be really interesting as a new sales channel” – then build Smashwords Select (or Rare, or ??? ideas everyone); non-exclusive, non DRM ~ able to release free for 5 days and back to paid day 6 (the last one very important)
Further reality. A lot of Smashwords authors are International. We very much appreciate your efforts on our behalf to gain access to otherwise purely US centric sites i.e. B&N. The reality is though, that B&N and Apple, are not concerned about Indies (certainly not the international ones). Kobo don’t answer emails so hard to tell…
Big Publishing has always been irrelevant to indies. Just a fact. The reality is that as Big Publishing shrinks, authors who were within that fold will “go indie”. What does that mean? It means more competition, not less.
Right now, the authors who have stayed out of Amazon KDP Select, stayed out for the reasons you stated above (maybe we’re all hippies); are being hit with lower sales across the board. Fact. We’re waiting for a retailer and distributor to innovate and compete. To provide us with a way to claw back those lost sales…
Thanks for the numbers, Simon. And I agree with your sentiment.
“Right now, the authors who have stayed out of Amazon KDP Select, stayed out for the reasons you stated above (maybe we’re all hippies); are being hit with lower sales across the board. Fact.”
It might just be because I have a free book over at Amazon now, but I haven’t experienced any slowdown in sales there. B&N sales have been up a little, too, since KDP launched, though perhaps it’s just a coincidence. I still only sell 5 books or so a day there (versus a couple thousand a month at Amazon), but that does add up. I usually sell a few a week at Smashwords and probably a few more through its partners (I’m too lazy to pick out the paid ebooks from the free ones and tally things up on their big spreadsheet).
This isn’t directed at you, Simon, but I think something most indies aren’t particularly good at is marketing, period, and they’ve really just been fortunate that it’s (let’s be honest now) easier to game the system with Amazon than with the other retailers.
A couple of years ago, it was Amazon rushes. Then it was tagging and keyword stuffing in titles. Now it’s making a book free for a week, getting a whole bunch of downloads, and then cheering as those downloads are, for whatever ridiculous reason, counted as sales when it returns to the paid listings, something that causes the book to skyrocket up the charts and make the author a ton of cash for a while. KDP Select makes it a lot easier to do this than it was when one had to go through the Smashwords backdoor.
I really don’t know if Amazon is indie friendly so much as it’s such a big marketplace that people put more effort into figuring out how to trick its algorithms (tricks that eventually get shared on various author forums). I’m not anti-Amazon, but I think people give the company too much credit. They just want to sell books, and they could care less who’s on top and who’s selling the most, so long as they get their cut.
I’m not saying everyone who has done well has gamed the system (of course not), but some have and others have been rewarded, perhaps out of proportion to what makes sense, because they were a little lucky and got in early or were the first to go to 99 cents or were the first to figure out how to make an ebook free, etc.
I’ve only been at this a year, but I’ve already watched a lot of authors who were Amazon bestsellers when I started fade to obscurity. Sometimes I think being a hit on Amazon is a curse, because you don’t realize how much of it was luck and how fleeting success can be. You don’t put your heart into marketing and blogging and guest blogging and building a mailing list and cultivating a fan base and so on and so forth, because you get this crazy notion that you were just that special that you didn’t need to do much.
Maybe it’s good that the other platforms make us work for it a little more. I’d argue that you haven’t really “made it” as an indie until you can make a living selling books and ebooks from your own site, and when sales elsewhere are gravy. Until then, you’re always going to be beholden to someone else’s whims.
I know, big talk from someone who doesn’t even have a store set up on her site yet.
Authors may need to rethink exclusivity. The traffic may be huge at Amazon but enrolling in KDP does not necessarily provide authors with access to Kindle’s entire database of readers. Authors will be limited to prime members only who actually own Kindle devices. Are you willing to exclude the millions of readers (and potential readers)who are not prime members or own a Kindle but enjoy(or would like to enjoy) your books through the Kindle apps? Let me ask you this. Are you willing to have the fickle finger of fate pointed in your direction?
After reading Simon’s article at Indie View (http://www.theindieview.com/2011/12/17/step-up-or-shut-up/), B. Justin Shier’s hilarious recap on the publishing industry’s reaction to Amazon’s tactics (http://www.bjustinshier.com/2011/12/frida-fantastic-on-ebook-hell.html), and a couple of Kindleboard posts (http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,94862.200.html), I think there’s an overall sentiment that can be summed up like this:
Premise: Amazon has done wonders for indie ebooks. Smashwords has done wonders for indie ebooks, especially international authors, promoting DRM-free, providing a check & and alternative to the Amazon monopolistic approach.
Dilemma: Amazon is charging on with its monopoly, with the option of authors possibly going exclusive with it (inching us towards the Amazon hellopocalypse) with the trade off that they can have some additional pricing controls and take part in the Kindle lending program (which I am highly skeptical about). But this monopoly is made possible because sales through Kobo/B&N/Smashwords/etc. are insignificant enough for many authors to go exclusive.
Ebook industry reaction: Write angry articles about how Amazon is evil, and it’s shameful for authors and readers to enable its monopolistic practices.
Ebook indie author/readers reaction: Where are the new feature that everyone else is rolling out? We understand the criticism, but where are the improvements/programs that Kobo/B&N/Apple et. al implementing to stay competitive?
The thing is, we know that Amazon is gonna bring down the hellopocalypse. I really don’t want to see that. That’s why my blog post is titled “Ebook Hell”. But indie authors & readers can’t be guilted into supporting other retailers if they overall provide sub-par service and aren’t looking like they’re improving in the future.
It’s not a religion. Retailers can criticize Amazon all they want, but in the end, they need to implement features that are comparable to or better than Amazon’s. They can’t simply go “You’re dealing with the devil! You’re with us or against us.” Well, the devil has a better search engine! When was the last time you improved yours?
I advocate healthy business choices and consumer choices for the long-term (I buy local produce, shop at indie book stores for my paper books, shop at not-Amazon retailers first for my ebooks, etc.), but if there’s little benefit in the short-term and the long term benefit looks like improbable fiction, then suppliers + consumers are being expected to make these choices because of quasi-religious holier-than-thou faith, rather than it making business sense. We’ve really hit a crisis point, and we can’t push back against Amazon if the other retailers are not putting up a reasonable fight and taking indie authors seriously. I hope Smashwords will be responsive in 2012 and I’m trying to be optimistic. But the overall message is (especially to the other retailers)–we implore you to respond to the indie community’s needs and innovate, or else you’re gonna die.
I’d like to see more people buy from Smashwords too, Frida. Although the percentage of affiliate commission is slightly higher with SW, that isn’t my reasoning (and I’m sure not yours either). The reality is that the majority of affiliate income from Amazon is from people who click through on a book and end up buying a crate of diapers or something totally unrelated. If we were doing this to get rich the couple pennies an hour in income wouldn’t justify it.
I like the higher commission rates with Smashwords, I’m not gonna lie, but it’s not very important. I just like seeing DRM-free ebook retailers being supported, giving readers access to choice, and seeing that choice chosen.
One thing about the sales: Authors should tell people the book is available elsewhere, too.
I don’t buy ebooks from Amazon, and in addition CAN’T buy from B&N, and keep coming across people who only link to Amazone or B&N. If I care enough about a book to dig a bit, I often find out it IS actually available at Smashwords, where I could buy it, but that’s not even mentioned on the book’s page on the author or small-publisher website; I can only find it by searching Smashwords.
In the last two weeks this happened with EVERY SINGLE BOOK I saw an author or contributor blog about, or whose author’s website I checked out after someone mentioned a book with an Amazon-only link on Twitter. (I understand only including one link on Twitter, due to the character limit.)
Doesn’t surprise me that some authors get hardly any sales outside of Amazon when they only ever direct people to Amazon to buy their ebooks, and I wonder how many sales they lose because of that behaviour.
“Doesn’t surprise me that some authors get hardly any sales outside of Amazon when they only ever direct people to Amazon to buy their ebooks, and I wonder how many sales they lose because of that behaviour.”
As they say on the streets… Word.
I’ve had quite a few folks email this last couple of weeks and specifically mention that they first found my books on B&N or Smashwords. I think there was even an iTunes person in there (I should probably add Apple links to my site for more than the podiobook).
There are non-Amazon people out there who want your books, guys. Just be willing to work a little to help them find them.
Amen. Authors should provide direct hyperlinks on their blogs/websites/social media platforms to their book at each retailer so customers can choose. If a Nook or iPad or Sony Reader customer only sees links to Amazon, the author will usually lose that sale, and for ever reader who takes the trouble to ask if the book is available somewhere else, there are probably 10 others who don’t bother to ask.
@Anke & Lindsay: I agree with this sentiment. I really appreciate it when authors link to a non-DRM international-friendly retailer on their website whether it be Smashwords, Baen, Angry Robot, etc. That’s why we list the Smashwords (or other) book links in our Adarna SF reviews. I want this to be standard practice for authors. But at the same time, it doesn’t excuse Kobo/Apple/B&N/etc. from innovating. They shouldn’t remain stagnant and unresponsive to the needs of indies.
That’s true.
Kobo is my usual source for English-language ebooks by big publishers, and I really miss reviews and samples there. I hardly ever browse, only go there to buy what I’ve heard about elsewhere.
Frida,
I started including links to Smashwords on all my reviews starting in June. Looking at the numbers from my affiliate reports for Smashwords as compared to Amazon I’ve seen a definite trend. The number of people clicking through to Smashwords is actually much higher than I expected, but the number who then make the purchase is extremely low in comparison to Amazon. I’ve attributed that to two things. First, general reluctance to setup a new account for many people and, second, that the shopping experience is much different. I’m not sure if I’m different in this regard, but I doubt it.
Al
@BigAl: I see the same trend in Smashwords clicks vs. Smashwords purchases. I wished more people actually bought more books from Smashwords, because my affiliate earnings are higher with them. I barely get anything from Amazon. *has a tiny tiny tiny pony in the game*
I have one ebook on Amazon’s KDP Select–and that one book is exclusive to Amazon for 83 more days. Not that it matters much because it’s a fairly limited niche book when compared to other genres that are easier to sell. I’ve posted earlier on this thread that I agree with the anti-monopoly sentiment. I probably didn’t stick to my convictions, or revealed that I was lacking in convictions, and probably jumped the gun. But I’m looking forward to taking the next book I write to Smashwords and other retailers to see what happens. I think there’s a little too much hand wringing over this issue. Amazon’s not going to corner this market, even if they think they will. They’re going to make adjustments or end up losing more of their indie clientele. Their confusing system (“sales” vs “borrows”; 5 days of free marketing every 90 days and then nothing in the way of support for the remaining 85, not even responding to email requests)is going to cause most of their indie authors to bale when they get the chance. I would be very surprised if the vast majority of us make out much better via the select program. I expect to redirect my efforts come March.
Moses said: “The most common sentiment I’ve seen is that Amazon does so much more for indies (and this is very true), so the other companies need to up their game if they want to keep indies happy. If you’re an author hoping to make any kind of decent living at writing, it does make sense to focus on Amazon (unless you write romance or erotica, as those books do seem to do well at B&N and iBooks) because Amazon is where almost all of the action is for most indie authors.
And at the same time, this sucks for all the reasons you gave in this post. But I think the hard reality is that as long as Amazon remains the only place giving indies a real shot at selling ebooks, we’re headed for an increasingly Amazon-dominated marketplace–at least for indie titles.”
Hard to add much to Moses’ comment, but I’ll try : )
Amazon does an absurd amount to assist indies. They respond to author queries in less than 24 hours. They’ve given us a royalty rate of 70% (that compared to the anemic 6-8% first time traditionally published authors were offered). The also-bought algorithms they support are equivalent to thousands of dollars in advertising. They give us full control over our blurbs and covers. They let us link to our blogs and twitter streams via our author hubs. And lets not forget that they let us do all of this for free. Zero down, people. They do all of this for zero down.
And to those people that worry about Amazon’s motivations? Amazon is a giant multinational corporation. Amazon’s goal is to provide profit for their shareholders. They’re not evil. They’re just doing their job better than other retailers.
Personally, I haven’t signed up for KDP Select. I have my reasons (and I think they are valid ones), but they don’t matter to anyone but me. Amazon has yet again nailed the sweet spot of author needs with KDP Select. Moral arguments aren’t going to win the day on this one. We’re dealing with a bunch of starving artists here. Within a week of KDP Select firing up, 40K+ indie authors jumped on board. They didn’t join because they suddenly caught crazy. They joined because they hoping to pay the rent.
Mark and others warn about the long term dangers of stacking all of one’s eggs in one basket, but some of these folks need to eat. I don’t think everyone made the correct decision signing exclusive deals, but three weeks later, I know of at least 10 authors that were selling miserably prior to Select and are now having very happy holidays.
I read Mark’s post above. It is moving and impassioned. I don’t believe he is being motivated by his own financial interests. I believe he is motivated by his love of books. As a reader, I too am worried about Amazon’s dominance—but as a small businessperson I am beyond frustrated with the alternatives. I personally generate every B&N sale that I make. I can’t get clean copy through Smashwords ‘meat grinder’. What options do I have left? I’m in a secure profession and write for the love of it—but even I’m tempted to go Select. No wonder many authors are taking their chances in the jungle.
B.
Hey B. Justin, thanks for your thoughts. I’m curious to hear about those 10 authors 90 days from now and their experiences with the program.
Just you know, an anecdote from a not-author perspective, I combed through a lot of Adarna SF book submissions this week, and many Smashwords links in those emails led to a “This book is no longer available” page.
Yep, there’s that a lot that went KDP Select… maybe 1 in every 4 books. I still consider those books for review because I use a Kindle for reading, and I’m keeping my opinions on books and ebook business models separate… but yes, KDP Select is a big deal. I hope it doesn’t hurt Smashwords in the long-run.
I look forward to posting my comments. I’m already looking forward to jumping off kdp select–based on what’s offered. I’ve had increased sales, but nothing worth writing home about. I’d like to try Smashwords.
Superb website you have here but I was curious about if you knew of any user discussion forums that cover the same
topics talked about here? I’d really love to be a part of group where I can get responses from other knowledgeable individuals that share the same interest. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Thanks!
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