12 Amazon “Countries” in One Link

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With the limited 140 characters on Twitter for example, character space counting is necessary.  To reach your potential worldwide readers, you have to tweet the link for each country separately. For some reason Amazon divides the world by countries and has separate platforms for each country, the wonderful Word-wide-Web seems not to exist for them…

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Great Amazon Link Shortener
A smart software developer created a program that lets you send out one link, and no matter where your readers are, they come to their own countries’ Amazon website, even though you give the link as viewbook …. It works great. Try it out with our own Amazon sales link. Just sign in with the developers site: http://www.booklinker.net/

Viewbook provides you with a link, which sends the customer to the Amazon site in your country, via their (viewbooks) site. It is a seamless process, and the customer doesn’t realize that it is happening. This is great for using on Twitter, as it does not matter where your potential customers live, because once they click on your link, they’ll be taken to the most appropriate Amazon store.
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Track the Progress of Your Link
Another great feature provided by Viewbook.at is the ability to track the progress of your book links.  Each link you post on Social Media gives you an estimate of how many clicks the books are receiving, and the countries they are coming from.  Two more companies currently offer a similar service: SmartURL and Georiot.

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Even if You Don’t Use Their Distribution Service…
Books2read.com links to: Amazon, Apple iBooks, Kobo, B&N Nook, Google Play, ScribD, 24Symbols, Thalia, Inktera, Smashwords, Baja LIbros, Playster, Blio, Bookmate, Browns Books for Students, Casa del Libro, Family Christian, Hive, Buch.de, BOL.de, DriveThruFiction, Indigo, Angus & Robertson, Bücher.de, FNAC, Hugendubel, Libris, Livraria Cultura, Mondadori, Rakuten, WHSmith, BOL.com, Eason, eBook.de, Gandhi.mx, LaFeltrinelli, Overdrive etc.

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Pro and Con’s
Yes, the service is free, or at least almost, as  Booklinker.net is an Amazon affiliate and this way they receive a tiny commission from Amazon, for a $2.99 book about 6 cents.  If the customer orders more items within 24 hours through this initial Viewbook link certainly more.  However, if you are an Amazon affiliate, you will not receive small  commission on the sale of your book – will receive this tiny amount (approx. 6cents) for their great service.

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To Link or Not to Link?
On the other hand: you might even sell more, as more potential readers are learning about your book by way of the “translation” of your sales page link. Your royalties will not be affected in any way. This single global link to many countries is really a superb invention, reducing lots of customer barriers, and it might improve your overall sales a little bit. There is some discussion on the Internet about Viewbook’s affiliate programs, on the other hand, if customers order free or 99cent books through referral of BookBub and similar services.  BookBub receives a commission too – on top of the hefty ad fees they charge for sending out a newsletter with advertisers’ book campaign info with a single click. That’s all they do!  I have never heard someone on the net discussing these affiliate commissions.
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I personally think the “worldwide” link helps book sales a lot.  And you can certainly use both links, your “old” ones from Amazon for each country and the “worldwide” universal links.

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The Power of Book Trailers for Your Book Sales

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You might have read my e-book 111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer where I explained:

Book trailers are one of the best ways to introduce your book to millions of readers worldwide. Learn how to plan, create and most important: market your video which is step for step shown.
e-book $2.99 on Amazon
In the following graphic the business side of book trailers and video content is shown, and how much power and influence video has in marketing:

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Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

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Check out our tips for free music, free graphics and images and free video hosting sites on our blog http://SavvyBookWriters.com/blog. Just type in your search words and the articles will appear. And don’t forget to post your video(s) on your Amazon and Goodreads site and on Google+ and other Social Media sites.

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $179 for three months – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

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Disappointing Results and a Scandal: Amazon’s Withdrawal

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Promoting local public libraries since fifteen years, and running a great website, PublicLibraries http://www.publiclibraries.com/  reported about Amazon’s withdrawal from becoming a big trade publisher:  “Amazon is toning down its plans to become a full scale publisher. The retreat from publishing appears to be a result of black listing of author’s signed with Amazon by brick and mortar book retailers.”

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Opposition from Bookstores
“Amazon has struggled to gain traction for its publishing division. It appears that Amazon underestimated the amount of opposition that it would experience from the traditional publishing and book retailing world. Major book retailer Barnes & Noble refused to carry any of the titles published by Amazon. Amazon has also had trouble attracting major authors to its division.”
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Disappointing Results and a Scandal
“Authors that have signed with Amazon have experienced disappointing results. Amazon’s first big title, Penny Marshall’s My Mother Was Nuts, performed poorly in print sales. This was largely due to the fact that brick and mortar books refused to carry the Amazon title. Even the eBook edition was effectively blocked outside of the Amazon marketplace as Google, Barnes & Noble Nook Store and Apple iBookstore all refused to distribute the digital version.”

Industry Newsletter Shelf Awareness also said that “In connection with [Kirshbaum’s] departure, the most ambitious part of Amazon’s publishing operations will be scaled back. Already several editorial people have left or been let go, and Amazon has not been a factor in bidding on major books the way it had been just two years ago.”

Wallstreet Journal Online wrote: “In quick succession, Mr. Kirshbaum signed up a number of well-known writers and personalities, among them actress and director Penny Marshall and best-selling writer Timothy Ferriss. The signings worried rival publishers who were concerned that Amazon’s deep coffers would enable it to pluck many of the book industry’s biggest stars.  In January 2012, Mr. Kirshbaum’s efforts were effectively checkmated when rival bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc. said it wouldn’t put titles published by Amazon on its shelves. A number of other retailers followed suit, making Amazon a less attractive alternative for many writers and their agents. The big-name signings stopped…”

Read the whole story how bookstores and trade publishers fought back here on PublicLibraries, NY Times, Gigaom.com and PublishersWeekly.

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $159 for three months! Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars
Or visit http://www.e-book-pr.com/book-promo/ to advertise your new book, specials, your KDP Select Free Days or the new Kindle Countdown Deals.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 970 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
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Amazon Trivia since 1994

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Forbes.com wrote recently: “A few months ago Amazon reached what its founder and CEO Jeff Bezos demurely tells me was “an interesting milestone.”  The retailing giant, so ubiquitously associated with books, then music and video, now has tens of millions of products in stock -and a majority are non-media goods: drills, dress shoes, tennis rackets and almost anything else that a human can ship. That turning point might be Bezos’ greatest accomplishment.
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by infographiclabs.
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Amazon Prime
After Kindle3, Amazon introduced the Prime Membership, a brilliant move. The average member makes $1,224 in Amazon purchases each year,  compared with $505 for non-Prime customers. The TIME wrote: “Membership in Amazon Prime, which offers unlimited free two-day shipping, has doubled in less than two years. Analysts predict it’ll double again by 2017.
Even more interesting than the growing Prime ranks is what Prime seems to do to subscribers. A 2010 Businessweek story stated that Amazon Prime broke even within three months of launching, not the two years predicted by its creators. That’s because customers spent as much as 150% more at Amazon after they became Prime members. Subscribers not only ordered more often, but after paying the $79 fee, they started buying things at Amazon that they probably wouldn’t have in the past. Since shipping was always speedy and free, members saved themselves a trip to the store for things like batteries and coffee beans.” “In all my years here, I don’t remember anything that has been as successful at getting customers to shop in new product lines,” Robbie Schwietzer, vice president of Amazon Prime, told Businessweek.

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See also: The Hidden Empire, Update 2013, a Slide-Share

http://www.slideshare.net/faberNovel/amazoncom-the-hidden-empireWhy Amazon Prime Could Soon Cost You Next to Nothing

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Former executives all have stories about Bezos’ obsessive focus on the customer – and a perfect delivery system. Read the Amazon e-Commerce Success Story by CBS – or hear it directly from Jeff Bezos’ speech.   And here is his advice for entrepreneurs:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVZAIss-A-Y.  And who has contributed to Amazon’s success as well?  You and me!  By uploading our books to Amazon.  Let’s pad us on the shoulder too!
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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/ Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

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Young Readers Use Social Media to Discover Books

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Young E-Book Consumers Three Times More Likely to Use Social Media for Book Discovery reports Digital Book World.  Social media is an increasingly important discovery tool for all forms of entertainment, and the survey shows the impact it is having on the book publishing industry. 

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E-reading consumers who use Amazon or Barnes & Noble e-readers are more likely to use online and e-book storefronts as a book discovery tool, according to new research by NextMarket Insights.

Another interesting finding is the drastic difference in the usage of social media for e-book discovery by age group:
According to the survey findings, e-book reading consumers aged 18-29 are two times more likely to use social media for book discovery than those aged 45-60, and over three times more likely as those aged over 60.

Read the whole article / Press Release at Digital Book Worlds’ website.

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11 Reasons Why You Should Offer Print Books Too

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Last October I wrote a blog post why every author should offer print versions of their e-books. 
In the meantime I discovered even more reasons to have at least a small amount of printed books
listed.  Read on:

E-book authors might be happy with their sales on Amazon, Apple, Kobo or Barnes & Noble. You might have even turned it into an audio book. But the questions for a “real” book, paper back or hard-cover copy from conservative friends or elderly family members are nagging… And wouldn’t it be nice to walk into a Chapters or Baker & Taylor or one of these rare independent book shops and see your book in the shelf?

You will not earn a fortune, not even a living, but for a couple of months it is a nice pocket change. Only months… yes, because longer than this, barely any book will stay in the book store, unless it really is a bestseller and gets re-printed.

If you go the indie route and choose for sample the POD services and worldwide distribution through Lightning Source, (provided you have at least 3 books to be considered a small publisher) your book is printed on demand and will never get discarded (good: no-return-policy in POD worldwide distribution). See my blog from last month How to Distribute Your Book Worldwide.
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All you need is the spine / back of your cover designed and professionally formatted (graphic designer, book designer, lay-outer). To work with Lightning Source you need to have at least three books to be considered a publisher and you will not receive technical help. Using CreateSpace as a POD service is the better choice if you are not a computer geek and you have less than three books.
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Due to the high print-on-demand printing costs, you need to sell a 180-page fiction book for more than $10 to make any profit at all. Still you don’t make real money with your paper book, unless you are a marketing pro, very entrepreneurial and able to organize a small publisher business and invest in your written work and in letterpress print.
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Role models are enough out there and they will tell you exactly how to do start as a real publisher with their books and blogs – from Dan Poynter, Aaron Shephard to John Kremer, Joanna Penn and Joel Friedman. Author David Gaughran wrote in one of his blogs: Making Money from Paperbacks  “I was really slow to see the potential in print, and it was probably the biggest mistake I made over the last year.”
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But then again: Why on earth should you go with a paper edition of your e-book?

1. The majority of book buyers still chooses printed books at the moment (that will change)
2. You can give out review copies to newspaper/magazine or book blog reviewers
3. To be hosted at local media / TV interviewers who want to show a copy of your book
4. To sell your book easier to libraries
5. To participate in a Goodreads giveaway
6. To sell your book to those who really don’t want an e-Reader or just love paper books
7. If you write non-fiction it is almost a must to offer it in paper as well
8. You have an ISBN number and can get listed with Bowker at worldwide bookstores
9. Physical books are just nicer to give on Christmas – unless you put an e-book on a new e-Reader and wrap it
10. To sell more e-books! Yes – because they seem to cost so much less in comparison…
11. To list your book in more categories / genres on Amazon: per book type you are allowed to choose two categories / genres. Two print and two digital versions – which increases your books’ visibility and also shows you exactly in which genre you have the most success.
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And last but not least: Think hurricanes or other reasons for power outage. I know e-Readers have batteries. But guess what: just yesterday my Kindle went dead and needed to be re-charged! With heavy thunderstorms around the house due to hurricane “Sandy”, I did not want to plug it in – and instead I read a paper book surrounded by lots of solar lamps and candles.

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 570 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

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3 Marketing Tips for Your Amazon Book

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Already have an Author Central  page on Amazon.com? Terrific, it’s a great start for your author brand on the internet!  Now to your next steps for maximum exposure: create your very own author website:

Your personal website AND your Amazon Author Central page work together and will help you to build your credibility as an author. Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines take the information from these two websites – which helps your name to come up every time when online visitors are searching for the subject of your book or for your author name. Moreover it is one important step in building your author brand and your platform. Read more about author brand and platform here.

This is a very good chance to tell readers something interesting about yourself, include any details about your (writers) background, awards, other books you have written and personal details customers might want to know. Your author photo should be a professional, high-resolution image for quality display. You can share your book trailer, video interviews, book signing videos or the new Google Search Story trailers with readers. Your videos should focus on specific features of your books or your experience as an author.

IMPORTANT: Use the same words and language on both your Author Central page and your personal website. Key word consistency is essential to assure you are optimizing your search engine results.
The links to and from your Amazon Author Central page to your personal website and your book’s page will tell search engines that your book is relevant to people searching either for you or the content of your book.

A web page or blog and an author website on Amazon’s Author Central are the marketing basics for every writer. Don’t delay creating these.  When writing a guest blog (e.g. for this blog) do include links to your websites.

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are more than 520 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

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CreateSpace, Lightning Source – or Both?

CreateSpace, Lightning Source – or both?
a guest blog by author Linda Austin
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Most authors are familiar with CreateSpace (CS), Amazon’s self-publishing arm. With little financial outlay, authors can upload their formatted manuscripts to CreateSpace and post their own cover, or perhaps one made using a free CS template or one designed at extra cost by one of CreateSpace’s designers. CS also offers editing services for a fee. CS will provide an ISBN for free or allow you to use your own.

Their program is easy to use, and Amazon takes control of all sales and shipping and will direct-deposit monies earned, minus its cut, to the author’s bank account each month. Authors can purchase copies of their own print book at a discount, and can choose to pay for an Amazon service that creates an e-book from the CS print version if the author doesn’t want to do it herself. For those who choose to go the self-publishing route, what’s not to like?

For one thing, CreateSpace books are found only on Amazon. This in itself is not necessarily bad as Amazon owns the lion’s share of print book sales. What about selling to libraries and real, physical bookstores? Libraries and physical stores don’t buy from Amazon unless a customer requests a book that is available no other way. Libraries and physical stores purchase through their favorite wholesaler-distributors, usually Ingram and/or Baker & Taylor, who give them an industry-standard discount rate. They will not buy from your website, either, as they like to keep their accounting simple.

Many experienced self-publishers use Lightning Source, Inc. (LSI), as their printer because of its connection to Ingram. Ingram opens up distribution of their books nearly worldwide, including on Amazon, and offers industry-standard discount rates to book buyers –the LSI author has total control of his/her book pricing and can set the discount sales rate to standard 55% with returns allowed.

LSI requires an author to have her own ISBNs registered to her own company. LSI also requires a high-quality pdf book file, such as those created by Adobe In-Design or other professional publishing software program, and there is an initial set-up cost. Not quite as simple or inexpensive as using CreateSpace for your MS Word file, however this Ingram connection is important for authors who expect their well-written and well-formatted books to be attractive to libraries and booksellers because of subject matter or popularity due to their determined marketing efforts. For $25 per year, your book will appear in the Ingram online catalog.

Cherry Blossoms in Twilight

But, have you heard CreateSpace has an expanded distribution option for only $25 per year? Yes, it does, making your book available through Ingram and most other online bookselling sites, including Barnes & Noble within the United States.

The Amazon-Ingram connection, though, does not allow Ingram to offer the industry standard terms expected by libraries and physical bookstores, so these entities will likely not want to buy books this way unless necessary, by customer request. Again, perhaps this is not a concern, depending on type of book, quality of writing and book production, and the author’s marketing determination.

Unfortunately, since last summer, Amazon has taken to posting availability times for LSI books coming out as anywhere from 2-8 weeks, even though the digitally-printed books ship almost immediately, as usual. For this reason, many serious authors have taken to loading their books to both CreateSpace for online orders from the general public as well as to LSI for its professional-level, low-cost worldwide distribution. And the same (author-owned) ISBN is used since it is the same book, just through different printers. The same author-provided cover should be used to avoid confusion.

In summary, an author who plans to be a serious contender in the book market, and has a book that will pass muster with librarians and store book buyers, should consider going beyond the Amazon experience.

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Linda Austin wrote and published her mother’s story, “Cherry Blossoms in Twilight,” a WWII Japan memoir of history and culture. She is owner of Moonbridge Publications, encouraging life writing and educating authors on the art of successful indie-publishing. She is a board member of the St. Louis Publishers Association.

http://moonbridgebooks.com

Twitter @moonbridgebooks

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AMAZON on Shopping Tour?

Amazon has acquired Avalon Books, a small publisher that focuses on hardcover mystery, “wholesome” romance and Westerns, and will make its titles available digitally for the first time. Avalon Books have been geared and marketed primarily toward the library market; now Amazon will seek to market them to a wider audience.

The acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, covers Avalon’s entire backlist of about 3,000 titles. Avalon launched in 1950 and is now run by the founder’s daughter Ellen Bouregy Mickelsen, who said she chose Amazon to buy her company because “they care deeply about the writers, readers and categories that have long mattered to our family business and they are uniquely positioned to assure that our titles make the leap forward into the digital future.”

Amazon will release the Avalon titles under its West Coast imprints, including Montlake Romance and Thomas & Mercer. The press release says “these books will continue to be available in print for booksellers and libraries nationwide. Amazon acquired Marshall Cavendish’s children’s book list last December.

To get the whole story about Amazon’s almost 20 years “THE AMAZON EFFECT” (I almost typed: “The Amazon Waste Land”, when I read the last sentence of the story)  – have a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and take your time : )  it’s an extensive article, almost a novella or an Amazon “Shorts” to speak in their language.

You will learn not only about Amazon, but about the last 20 years of publishing and book selling. Print out the article, it might make an interesting part of literature and publishing history one day…

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Free Book: Love Story of a War Bride in Canada’s North

Perfect Valentine’s Gift – doesn’t make fat, doesn’t wither, doesn’t cost anything…

Kathleen’s Cariole Ride 

Kathleen, a courageous British women who made immense personal sacrifices, left everything behind – family, friends and way of life – to follow her husband in 1927, as (probably) the last war bride from WWI right into the Northern Canadian Wildernis to help evangelize the First Nation Indians.

War brides, moved thousands of miles away – usually to Canadian cities, villages and farms – joining their husband, a man they barely knew. Kathleen’s future husband, a minister, worked and lived on the extremely remote reservation of  Oxford House, Manitoba, in Canada’s northern wilderness, close to Hudson Bay.

After Margaret Kell Virany’s parents died, she found diaries, photographs and love letters that let us peek into a fascinating social history, describing challenges and details of pioneer life on this Northern reserve and struggle in a minister’s family.

Many touching stories and exciting details include canoe trips along the old fur trade route, generous native neighbors, a dangerous journey to the hospital in mid-winter on a horse drawn toboggan to deliver her baby, life-threatening forest fires and pre-television social life.

Get this amazing book here for FREE:
http://www.amazon.com/Kathleens-Cariole-Ride-ebook/dp/B006NFSYV8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1329144788&sr=1-1

 

Battle of the Giants: Amazon – Barnes & Noble

Amazon published at least 122 books in the fall of 2011.
Barnes and Noble, who cannot sell e-books from Amazon’s published works, has decided not to sell the print versions of those Amazon-published books in its stores. This marks a continued battle for control over distributing the words of (at least English-speaking) authors.

Publishers Weekly reported a week ago:

Amazon has proven they would not be a good publishing partner to Barnes & Noble as they continue to pull content off the market for their own self interest.
B&N: “We don’t get many requests for Amazon titles, but if customers wish to buy Amazon titles from us, we will make them available only online at bn.com.

Independent booksellers had a mixed reaction last week to the New Harvest (Amazon) announcement. While some said they have no intention to carry New Harvest, or other Amazon, titles, others said they will sell the books if they get good terms.

Comments on these news:
“Ah, the business world. Was it just yesterday it seemed like that everyone was villifying B&N for closing down lesser competitors, and mom and pop stores? I’m confused who is good and bad in this struggle for dominance.”

“Books, their authors and readers, are all consumed as fuel in the titanic struggle for shareholder value.”

“It appears publishers and retailers have forgotten the very reason for their exisence, the author. When any industry neglects the inventor and the consumer, the life cycle of the industry comes to an end. Instead of competition and innovation in business models, executives run to the least costly method – protectionism.”

What are your thoughts?

 

KDP Select gets the Boot from GoodReads

Belinda Frisch, an author, reviewer and librarian at GoodReads wrote in her recent blog:
“It was only a matter of time before someone fired back. I’m not sure how I feel about this, yet. Seems to me this is aimed at KDP Select. I’m a librarian at Goodreads and can rescue titles if I can find alternate sources of information including from CreateSpace. If you’re in e-version only, you are up the creek, friends.”

Here’s the official word from Goodreads:
“At Goodreads, we make it a priority to use book information from the most reliable and open data sources,
because it helps us build the best experience for our members. To that end, we’re making a major change.
On January 30, Goodreads will no longer display book information that comes from Amazon. This includes data such as titles, author names, page counts, and publication dates. For the vast majority of book editions, we have imported this data from other sources. Those few remaining editions for which we haven’t found an alternative source of information will be removed from Goodreads.
Your data is safe. Your ratings, reviews, and bookshelves are safe, but your data may be moved to a different edition of the book. If we can’t find a matching edition, then your review will be attached to a book with no title or author.”

I asked Belinda what an author is to do. Her answer:
“The only thing to do if you want to stay included in Goodreads listings is to make sure your book is available
elsewhere (other than Amazon.) B&N, CreateSpace, Lulu, any of those site would save you. If you are enrolled in KDP Select and do not have a print edition of the book available, you can’t do anything.”

My thoughts: You still can participate in the GoodReads forum, talk about your book and have an image of it there. If it is soooo important for you to be listed on GoodReads and have your book sold on their website, get some books printed by a POD – if not, just forget the whole thing. This seems to be a stare-down between GoodReads and Amazon… 

Let a small amount of books print from a POD company, such as Lulu.com, BookBaby or CreateSpace – or if you are more entrepreneurial, get quotes from digital printers. In any case create your own cover image and get your own ISBN number and be the publisher. Set your retail price not too low, at least five times the production cost. POD books will be distributed to retailers and whole sale as well.

Samples of POD book printing for you to compare with quotas of digital printers (January 2012):

Lulu.com
5.5 x 8.5″ black & white content, $0.015 per page – for a 100page book= $ 1.50 plus $2.50 for binding.
Lulu’s commission is 20% of profit or 25% of revenue / royalty.

CreateSpace.com
Basic production cost for black and white books with 24-108 pages = $2.15 per book. They have a calculator for
your royalties – between 40-80%, depending where the book is sold. Expanded Distribution Price: $25.00 These
additional sales channels make your book available for order to online retailers, bookstores, libraries, academic
institutions, and distributors within the United States.

BookBaby.com
5.5 x 8.5″ black & white, 100 books, Perfect Binding, Soft Cover, Gloss Cover Finish, Paper 60lb Natural 420PPI 94 Opacity
Price for 100 books: $440.00, Shipping within mainland USA: $49.00 = Sub Total: $489.00 plus tax. One book would then cost you around $4.89 net. There is currently no distribution program for printed books at BookBaby.

 

$ 15.000 Advance? Amazon Breakthrough Novel Competition

AMAZON BREAKTHROUGH NOVEL COMPETITION

No Entry Fee !
Amazon.com, in partnership with Penguin Group (USA) and CreateSpace, has announced the fifth annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, an international competition seeking the next popular novel.

The competition will again award two grand prizes: one for General Fiction and one for Young Adult Fiction. The 2012 competition is also open to novels that have previously been self-published.

Each winner will receive a publishing contract with Penguin, which includes a $15,000 advance. Hurry up!  Open submissions for manuscripts begin today, January 23 and continue through February 5, 2012.  Don’t delay–only the first 5,000 entries will be accepted in each category.

https://www.createspace.com/abna

 

 

Wrong Book Prices

Set your book price between $2.99 and $9.99 to receive the maximum royalty at Amazon. Having set a lower book price, under $2.99 you will only receive half of 70%, lousy 35%. Same unfavorable royalty conditions for Amazon books over $9.99.

Let’s say you set the price of your book at $9.99.  Submitting it directly to Amazon will give you almost $7 for each work sold, compared to: 60% of the List Price from major e-book retailers or 85% “Net” on a distributors website (which means the 70% you would theoretically receive from Amazon, minus the “aggregators / distributors cost” (which can be anything…) and then 85% from what’s left…maybe $4 in the best case, instead of $7 at Amazon.

When you go through a certain “publisher” / aggregator, who’s name starts with S, and who promises your work to be uploaded to Apple’s iPad, B&N, Sony, Kobo and gives you a “free” ISBN number and free e-book conversion, you will lose out way more than only on your royalties:

•  they, as the owner of the ISBN, are regarded as the publisher, not you
•  conversions are at the best mediocre (you get what you pay for, well, nothing)
• uploading to booksellers and distributors takes weeks or even months
• copy editing / proof reading is non-existent, just to name a few of the drawbacks.

If you only sell a hundred books, you would have offset easily conversion and ISBN costs and would be your own publisher and upload your work to all the bookstores and distributors you want. Uploading is easy; you are guided step by step on all these websites. And you are the one who sets the (same!) price at all book stores.

 

Your Earnings for e-Books

 

e-book on the beach

Royalties at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple (iPad) e-book distributors / sellers:

All prices in US Dollar, percentage is from the e-books list price.
None of the Distributors pay royalties for free books or those over $200.

Amazon’s relatively strict pricing structure, which is meant to keep competitive in the e-book market, encourages that digital book prices are between $2.99 and $9.99, as well as 20% cheaper than the same book in paper-and-ink form.

 

AMAZON

$ 0.99 – 2.98 = 35%
$ 2.99 – 9.99 = 70% (minus $0.15 for each MB transfer)
$ 10.00 – 199.99 = 35%

BARNES & NOBLE

$ 0.99 – 2.98 = 40%
$ 2.99 – 9.99 = 65%
$ 10.00 – 199.99 = 40%

APPLE iPAD

$ 0.99 – 2.98 = 70%
$ 2.99 – 9.99 = 70%
$ 10.00 – 199.99 = 70%