Jake Needham's Experience With Amazon's KDP Select Program

Jake Needham, author of The Ambassador's Wife and crime novelist, tweeted me in response to one of my articles about the changes in Amazon's ranking algorithm and what they could mean for writers in Amazon's KDP Select program. What he had to say stunned me. Before we get to that, though, let me give you a bit of background.

Amazon's KDP Select program demands it's authors sell exclusively through Amazon, but it provides authors with perks: your books are included in Amazon's prodigious lending library and you are allowed to offer your books free a maximum of 5 days every 3 months. Every time a book is borrowed and every time a book is downloaded--even when it's free--the book's rank goes up.

Or at least it used to.

It seems the recent changes to Amazon's ranking algorithm mean free downloads now count only a fraction of what they once did, and it's pretty much the same for borrows. Since the rule of thumb is that the higher ranked a book is the better it sells authors are wondering whether Amazon's KDP Select program is still worth the price of exclusivity.

Enter Jake Needham and his tweet. Here's what he wrote (I'm using this with his kind permission):

After a big free promotions (20,000+ copies), paid sales were far lower in June than after same number of free in April.

That agrees with what I've heard from a lot of other authors. So, if Jake's experience is representative, should authors abandon Amazon's KDP Select program?

It depends.

It depends on how many books an author would have sold through other retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and iBooks, etc.

Here's what Jake said:

I sell thousands of copies of my titles every month for Kindle. So far this month for the Nook? O-n-e. Seriously.

Let's put this in perspective. Here are the books Jake has for sale on Amazon (I'm only looking at books available as ebooks):

The Ambassador's Wife
Laundry Man
Killing Plato
The Big Mango
World of Trouble

And here are the books he has for sale in the Nook store:

Laundry Man
Killing Plato
The Big Mango
World of Trouble

So the only difference is that The Ambassador's Wife is sold exclusively on Amazon. And of the thousands of copies he's sold this month, only one, one, was sold through Barnes & Noble. Wow. That's amazing.

What should we conclude?

I suppose it depends. On the one hand selling thousands of books a month on Amazon is great. I'd be swinging from the rafters. I'm guessing that even with the drop in revenue after Amazon tinkered with it's ranking algorithm, Jake is doing just fine.

On the other hand, what if Amazon breaks the algorithm? I think that's the fear, that Amazon will, intentionally or otherwise, change their algorithm in such a way that it becomes hostile to independent authors, and if Amazon is the biggest and most lucrative market out there, then we could be in very real trouble.

For what it's worth, my take on this is that it's a good idea to continually be on the look out for other places to sell ebooks, places such as Kobo's Writing Life portal for self published writers, now in beta.

That said, Amazon has shown every sign of being friendly to independent/self published authors. I believe the changes they're making to the ranking algorithm have to do with maximizing book sales and aren't intended to discourage indie authors. On the contrary, they recently featured author Jessica Park and her recently self published book Flat-Out Love on the front page of Amazon.

While there may be turbulence ahead I don't think Amazon's plane is going to crash anytime soon.

Next week I'll be posting an interview I did with Jake Needham, so stay tuned and keep writing.

Cheers.


Related reading:
- Kobo's Self-Publishing Portal: Report From A Beta Tester
- Amazon's Ranking Algorithm Has Changed: what this means for indie authors
- Amazon's KDP Select: Another Author Shares Her Experience

"Jake Needham's Experience With Amazon's KDP Select Program," copyright© 2012 by Karen Woodward.

Audiobook Sales Up 33% From Last Year

Net Sales Revenue From Book Publishing Is Up

According to a recent article in gallycat, revenue from downloaded audiobooks has increased by a whopping 32.7% from last year (25 million vs 18.8 million). That's amazing, and excellent news for folks, such as myself, who love listening to stories.

Lately, I've been putting together a list of book bloggers who review self-published books, or who do author interviews with self published authors, and I've noticed a startling trend: increasing numbers of reviewers prefer submissions in audiobook format. Good news for authors who have made an audiobook version of their story and something that could give self published authors an edge.

But that isn't the only interesting statistic. Net sales revenue from ebook sales (283 M)  has surpassed that from adult hardcover sales (230 M)--although not from adult paperback sales (300 M), although adult paperback sales have gone down by 10.5 percent. But the largest decrease of all was in the category of sales revenue from mass market paperbacks; sales in this category have decreased by an amazing 20.8 percent.

For your viewing convenience, I've included the table from the original article, above.

To read the original article, head over to galleycat.com and read eBook Revenues Top Hardcover.

Thanks to Passive Guy for writing about this (eBook Reviews Top Hardcover).

Amazon's KDP Select: Another Author Shares Her Experience

P.J. Sharon writes:

I’ve come to the end of my ninety days of exclusivity with Amazon’s KDP Select program. That means that I’m now able to upload and distribute SAVAGE CINDERELLA on other sales channels, such as B&N,  Smashwords, and coming soon, Kobo. I thought I would give you my final analysis on my experience.

PROS:

1)      All sales on one distribution channel. Easier accounting and focused marketing plan.

2)      Cross promotion opportunities with other KDP Select participants.

3)      Five days to offer the book FREE in an effort to gain exposure and readership.

4)      Participation in the Prime Lending program (approximately $2 per borrow).

CONS:

1)      Narrows your readership to Kindle owners, and may alienate Nook or I-pad owners.

2)      Contributes to Amazon’s attempt to monopolize the e-reader market.

3)      Unable to post excerpts for advertising purposes.

All in all, I’m very pleased with the outcome of my KDP Select experience. I’m not sure if I will do it again, only because I think it’s generally bad for the publishing industry for any one entity to have exclusive rights to our work, but I can’t deny the short term benefits are very enticing.

Read the rest here: The End of Select

Although it seems P.J. won't be re-enrolling in Amazon's KDP Select anytime soon, I'd say her experience makes the program seem attractive.

The problem is it's devilishly hard to decide if a book would have done better if it hadn't been placed in the KDP Select program. From what I've seen, when authors report their sales, generally over 60% come through Amazon.

Are Amazon's promotional efforts worth losing up to 40 percent of your sales? I don't know. I'm very interested to read what authors say about their sales (thanks P.J.!) after the changes Amazon made to its all-important ranking algorithm.

Stay tuned and keep writing!

Publishing With Amazon: The Hidden Cost Of Delivery

Andrew Hyde's book, This Book Is About Travel, is selling well at 9.99 per download, but after delivery costs are factored in Hyde found, to his amazement, that Amazon pays the worst of all the platforms.

Kindle: $5.10
iBooks: $7.00
.PDF: $9.25
Nook: $6.50

He writes:

Wait, Amazon pays out the worst?  What? This can’t be right! They are the best right? Everyone loves them.  I love them.  I dig a bit deeper and find this little gem:

Avg. Delivery Cost ($) 2.58. 

So for every $9.99 book I sell I, the author, pay 30% to Amazon for the right to sell on Amazon AND $2.58 for them to deliver the DIGITAL GOOD to your device.  It is free for the reader, but the author, not amazon, pays for delivery.

The file itself is under their suggested 50MB cap Amazon says to keep it under at 18.1MB. The book contains upwards of 50 pictures and the one file for Kindle needs to be able to be read on their smallest displays in black and white and their full color large screen Mac app).  I’m confused.  Amazon stores a ton of the Internet on S3/EC2, they should have the storage and delivery down.  If I stored that file on S3/EC2 it would cost me $.01 PER FIVE DOWNLOADS. Hat tip to Robby for that one. Use Amazon to run your website: .01 to download a file.  Use amazon to sell your book: $2.58 per download + 30% of whatever you sell.
- Amazon’s markup of digital delivery to indie authors is ~129,000%

Read more here: Amazon’s markup of digital delivery to indie authors is ~129,000%

The delivery cost of your book is something to keep in mind. In general, if your book is only text the cost for delivery won't exceed a few cents. Also, keep in mind that only those offering their book for between $2.99 and $9.99 have to play delivery costs.

5 Points To Ponder Before You Self Publish

From Mashable Business:

[S]elf-publishing means you won’t get all of the resources that a publishing company might provide, and you’ll have to pull a lot of the weight yourself. Here are some things you should consider before embarking on your journey to publication.
- 5 things to consider before publishing your book

I agree! This is the kind of article I wish I'd read before I published my first book.

1. Publishing Platform

The number of publishing platforms is increasing. Just last week, Kobo announced the creation of a self publishing portal called Writing Life. Here are a few more:

Ebooks:
- Amazon KDP
- Barnes & Noble PubIt
- Smashwords
- Kobo Writing Life (in beta at the moment)

Print On Demand:
- CreateSpace
- Lulu
- Lightning Source

The choices may seem bewildering. If you've never published a book before then I'd suggest you get your feet wet by publishing an ebook, forget about putting out a paper version for now. Perhaps you have a short story that you would like to offer for sale?

Now that we've established the format, what about the platform? It's up to you, of course, but if this is your first time I would suggest publishing on Smashwords. In my opinion the only reason not to publish on Smashwords is Amazon's KDP Select program and that is a topic for another time (see the Related Links section, at the end).

It's easy to publish your book on Smashwords IF you follow the advice Mark Coker gives in his Smashwords Style Guide. I have found the Smashwords Style Guide to be the single most helpful book for formatting (or un-formatting as the case may be) a .doc file so that the finished ebook is error free.

If you do decide to publish through Smashwords remember to download all the different formats (mobi, epub, etc.) your book has been converted into and check each one for formatting errors. For instance, a table of contents that looks wonderful in Amazon's mobi format might look terrible in the epub format.

It may take you a few tries, but it gets easier each time you publish. Also, the hints Mark Coker offers in Publishing on Smashwords apply whether you are publishing on Smashwords or Amazon. And the book is free! I know this reads like a commercial for Coker's book, but it's not just me, many self-published authors have found his book invaluable.

2. Cost

While anyone can publish an ebook at no cost--other than your time which, arguably, is the most valuable thing of all--many people chose to contract various professionals to help them with tasks like editing, formatting, cover art, and so on. The money spent can add up, and quickly, so it's a good idea to sit down at the very beginning and decide how much of the work you're comfortable doing yourself.

The Cover
First impressions count--sometimes a glance is all anyone will give your book--so you don't want your book discounted because of a cover that screams "self-published".

You could hire someone to do the cover, and if you choose this option keep in mind you can expect covers can run anywhere from $100 to $350. Of course you could get a cover for less or more, but you should be able to get a decent cover in this price range.

If you decide to do it yourself, and I'm an advocate of at least trying this before you hire someone, there are some excellent image manipulation programs available for little to no cost. GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), for instance. Of course if you already have Photoshop on your computer, use that!

When I do my covers my goal is this: Don't make it ugly. I'm not a graphic designer so, for me, simple is better and I let the principle of "the absence of ugliness" be my guide. Good luck whichever way you decide to go.

Editing
Get someone else to edit your work before you publish it. Period. There is no way you will be able to catch the errors in your manuscript the way another, more objective, person can.

If you can't afford to pay an editor then get together with other self-publishers and help edit their work in exchange for someone else editing yours.

Goofy tip: Lately I've been running my blog posts and stories through a text-to-speech program, NaturalReader. It's amazing how many errors it catches! I still need a human editor to go over my work, but the cleaner the copy your human editor gets, the better!

ISBN Numbers
While doubtless a worthy investment, if you're planning on publishing your book exclusively in electronic form and only through Amazon or Smashwords, you probably don't need to buy an ISBN number. Smashwords will provide one for free, if you ask, and Amazon will give you an ASIN number. (See 'Related Articles' for more on publishing through Amazon).

3. Marketing

For the self-published author nothing can replace building a platform. "Platform" is one of those abstract words which can mean almost anything. In my opinion, you'll need to set up a website, or at least a blog, and you'll need to blog regularly. This need not be onerous, even if you blog once a month you'll start to build an audience.

Google Analytics
Google Analytics is an invaluable tool, especially in the beginning when it looks as though no one is reading your blog. And it's free!

I'd been blogging for a few months before I set up my account with Google Analytics and it was a revelation. I remember jumping around the living room because a whole 5 people had come by my blog that day.

Twitter
I'd also advise setting up a twitter account. If you don't want to do Facebook that's fine, but I suspect you would be missing out on an opportunity. I know I should do more with Facebook, but I've found the interface to be mildly cantankerous--or perhaps that's just me.

Remember: Whatever you decide to do, keep writing!

Related Articles:
- More on Amazon Select: Is exclusivity worth it?
- Amazon's Ranking Algorithm Has Changed: what this means for indie authors
- Changes in Amazon's Algorithm: An Update

Books on Publishing (Free):
- Smashwords Style Guide, Mark Coker
- Smashwords Book Marketing Guide
- The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success

"5 Points To Ponder Before You Self Publish," copyright© 2012 by Karen Woodward.

Amazon Rank: How Related Is It To Author Earnings?

I've always wondered this. Let's say your book has an Amazon Sales Rank of 50,000, and lets say it stays there for a month. What does this mean in terms of how much money an author could expect their book to make?

Is there a correlation between sales and Amazon Rank?

Passive Guy brought up this topic today in one of his rare posts. He posed three questions:

Question #1: Is this [Amazon Best Sellers Rank] a fair way of evaluating how well an ebook-only or mostly-ebook publisher performs for authors?

Question #2: While we’re discussing Amazon Best Sellers Rank, has anyone seen any credible discussions concerning how sales rank translates into dollars for indie authors? If you’re at 20,000 with a $2.99 ebook, are you making $500 per month from that book? Or is Amazon’s algorithm too volatile to make it a useful gauge of the dollars coming in the door?

Question #3: Everybody knows that lots of ebooks have experienced sales spikes immediately after Christmas as new ereaders and tablets are packed with ebooks. What about other sales patterns? For example, do sales go up on the weekend when many people have more leisure time to read?

PG hasn’t seen any analyses of sales rank that address these kinds of questions.

He doesn’t want to trigger obsessive-compulsive behavior centered on your KDP dashboard, but would be interested in whatever tribal knowledge his readers might have about sales rank.

The rest of PG's article is here: Amazon Sales Rank vs. Author Earnings.

Cheers.

Clive Barker Doing The Rewrite of Zombies vs. Gladiators

Although in a coma this February because of blood poisoning, Clive Barker is now fully recovered and looks forward to rewriting Zombies vs. Gladiators:

I’m excited by the opportunity to interweave two very rich narrative threads. One of them concerns itself with the reality of the decadence of Rome and its rise and fall. The other is a fantastical narrative element - the living dead. My brief to myself on this project is to give the audience not only zombies they have never seen before but also a Rome they have never seen before.

Amazon Studios offered up the dream ticket with this project. In twenty-five years of working in this town, I've rarely had people listen to what I had to say as closely and as carefully as they did and then simply give me the freedom to go do it. Amazon Studios is an innovative creative concept. I am looking forward to providing my own perspective to make Zombies vs. Gladiators a highly commercial and entertaining movie.
- Amazon Studios' 'Zombies vs. Gladiator' script to receive a Clive Barker rewrite

This is the Roman version of the zombie apocalypse so, of course, the action takes place in a Roman Colosseum. A shaman is set to become the latest casualty of the Romans casual barbarity when he casts a spell that brings the victims of previous battles back to life.

Rumor has it that the hero is going to be a male version of the Alice character in Resident Evil.

Books, household items and now movies, Amazon is focused on capturing ever bigger slices of the entertainment pie. I'm looking forward to see how this story develops.

To read more about Zombie vs. Gladiators, click here:
Amazon Studios' 'Zombies vs. Gladiator' script to receive a Clive Barker rewrite

No Kindles Allowed At The Hay Festival

Why are no Kindles allowed at the Hay Festival? Apparently it "goes against the ethos of a town to have a machine you can read a story on (From the transcription of the video No Kindles Allowed, see below)."

Edit (June 2, 2012): See the bottom of this article for an update to the situation.

I had never heard of the Hay Festival before, which I feel a bit silly about now since apparently it's quite famous.

The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales for ten days from May to June.... [T]he festival was described by Bill Clinton in 2001 as "The Woodstock of the mind".
- Hay Festival

Ian McEwan once gave a great line about why he previews his novels here [at the Hay Festival]. He joked - 'I don't do research anymore, I ask the audience at Hay'.
- Hay Festivals

Today is June 1, so the Hay Festival should be in full swing. Passive Guy came across a video that looks as though it was shot at Hay-on-Wye, where the festival is taking place. As of this writing, the video can be found in the hayontv YouTube channel.

I've embedded the video and included a transcription, below.



My transcription:

(Woman sitting in a bookstore looking at the camera.)

When you drive into a small American town you often see, by towns side, apart from the number of people that live there, is that it's a nuclear free zone, or something like that, because the local councils have voted on that.

We would like Hay to be a Kindle free zone. We really feel it goes against the ethos of a town to have a machine you can read a story on. The book is the thing in this town. And we would like to really ban them [Kindles] and treat people coming with Kindles quite harshly.

(Woman walks through bookstore and addresses a man. The woman is now off camera.)

 Woman: I heard you actually told somebody off the other day for sitting outside the next door shop reading from a Kindle.

Man: Well, I was gasped in surprise and I did restrain myself from grabbing it and jumping up and down on it and then slashing it to bis with my lightsaber.

(Laughter from off camera.)

Man: So in fact the person holding it was quite lucky they escaped with their Kindle in one piece.

Woman: So no Kindles allowed at this years festival?

Man: No Kindles. Anybody seen with a Kindle will be unceremoniously dumped on the wayside.

I'd like to stress that this story is unconfirmed. It certainly could be someone's idea of joke. I have contacted the Hay Festival in an effort to confirm the story, but I haven't heard back from them.

I should mention that when I looked through the hayontv YouTube channel I found this video of a hiker openly using her Kindle. She was interviewed but appears to have come through the experience no worse for wear.

If I hear anything else about Kindles not being allowed at the Hay Festival, I'll be sure to update this post.

June 2nd Update
I just heard back from the folks at Hay Tourism. Here is the reply:

Thank you for your email.

Please ignore the foolishness on the video.  Mr & Mrs Addyman have a couple of bookshops in Hay so I can see they would rather people purchased books rather than people having Kindles.

I agree in that nothing can replace a good book but for convenience, especially when on holiday when one has to consider baggage weight etc., a Kindle is ideal. 

So please do not let such things prevent you from visiting us here in Hay - I am quite sure it was all done, as you say, tongue in cheek - and bring your Kindle!!

Kind Regards.
Pat

So it seems the video expressed the sentiments of two individuals rather than the town, or the Hay Festival Committee. I am glad. It looks like a terrific festival, one I would love to attend one year.

I can understand the desperation bookstore owners must feel in a town where six bookstores have closed in the past year (this is according to the second video I listed, see above).

Here are two articles about the situation at the Hay Festival:
- The man who would be 'king' of Hay-on-Wye
- Kill the Kindle! In home of the Hay Festival, bookshop boss goes to war on gadget that 'turns readers into robots'

Also, there is a lively discussion going on over at the Passive Voice Blog.

"No Kindles Allowed At The Hay Festival," copyright© 2012 by Karen Woodward.

Joe Konrath's Letter To The Department Of Justice

Joe Writes:

Dear Mr. Read,

I’m writing to you as the author of forty-six books--eight legacy published, two Amazon published (with three more on the way), and thirty-six self-published, all of which inform the views I express in this letter.

As you doubtless recognize from the mail you’re receiving, there is currently underway a letter-writing campaign coordinated by the Association of Authors’ Representatives, the Authors Guild, and other parts of the publishing establishment attempting to persuade you that the DOJ’s suit against five of the Big Six and Apple is without merit, and that the Agency model is, at best, good for everyone, at worst, harmless.

I’m writing to tell you that these organizations did not solicit the views of their members, that they in no way speak on behalf of all or even most of their members, and that (as I imagine is obvious) they are motivated not by what’s best for consumers, but by what they see as best for themselves.

I recognize that the heart of the DOJ’s suit is collusion, not high prices. But it’s clear that the legacy publishing industry’s strategy is to keep the prices of ebooks high so as not to cannibalize high-margin hardback sales. If the prices of legacy published books are kept artificially high it could be argued that my lower-priced self-published books are made more attractive by comparison, but I believe that a regime of higher-priced books is bad for the industry overall because it slows the growth of the global book market, which indeed hurts all sales. I also believe it’s obviously bad for consumers, especially lower-income consumers, who could buy more of the books they loved if those books weren’t priced so high.

When prices of media are high, they’re a barrier to entry. Many are avoiding buying an ereader because the ebooks they most want are $9.99 - $14.99. If prices came down, more Kindles (and Kobo readers and Nooks and Sony readers) would be sold. That widens the market, which leads to more ebook sales. This is good for authors, and for readers who can get more for their money.

Read the rest here: Joe's Letter to the DOJ

Go Joe!

I'd just woken up when I read Joe's post -- last night I stayed up late getting my short story A Night In The Country ready for publishing on Amazon -- but I hope I managed to write something marginally coherent in the comments.

Very well said Joe, but it was strange to see you write in a more subdued tone.

Anyway, I agree. One thing that has always irked me when folks complain about Walmart artificially lowering prices is that ... well, sometimes I think it's easy to lose sight of how cash poor some folks are, especially families. Getting something for 50 cents cheaper can make a difference.

Of course one doesn't need books in the same way one needs food, but -- and I hope this doesn't sound cliche -- books do feed the soul and, as I said, 50 cents (or less!) can make a dig difference.

Even though I think the Big-6 inflating the prices of books makes lower priced indie books more attractive, you're right. It hurts the book business and that hurts everyone. Writers, booksellers and especially readers.

In any case, wonderful letter Joe, thanks for sharing. :)

Of course now I'm looking at my comment about Walmart artificially lowering prices and thinking about all the mom and pop shops which went out of business because they couldn't compete against the big chain.

Is that what is happening with Amazon? Will the act of Amazon selling books for lower prices drive indie, or self-published, writers out of business?

No, I don't believe so. Amazon is the self-published writers' biggest business ally. That's true right now and I don't see why it would change in the foreseeable future. That said, Amazon isn't a friend to publishers who want to sell ebooks at inflated prices.

Some publishers complain that if they don't have the kind of monopoly control they need to do this, that they'll go out of business. Further, they say that if they go out of business that the world of publishing, the world of books, will be a poorer place and, ultimately, readers will suffer.

Personally, I don't buy it.

Yes, I do think that if publishers are prevented from fixing ebook prices artificially high, or if they are forced to give authors better ebook royalties (a topic for another post), that many of them will go out of business.

Let's say that's true. I believe that although some, perhaps many, publishers will fold that there will be many publishers who will survive and thrive. These publishers will be the new Big-X.

Publishing won't be dead, it'll just be different.

Further Reading:
17 More States Join The Class Action Suit Against Apple et al
The Fungibility of Books

"Joe Konrath's Letter To The Department Of Justice," copyright© 2012 by Karen Woodward.

Marigny: The Making Of My First Audiobook

Gerard de Marigny writes:

... I went to ACX and followed their simple directions. Within a few hours I had posted my first two novels to the exchange. Next, I had to be approved - probably just a authenticity check performed by the ACX team, but I was still excited to be accepted. I began receiving auditions from some wonderfully talented actors and production companies.

Yet, I had my heart set on one particular actor - Elijah Alexander. I contacted the production company that Elijah used for previous audiobooks he narrated, but they weren't interested in royalty-share deals. Then, in a MOST BLESSED act of kindness and support for a neo-pro writer like me - Amazon/ACX offered a stipend for the production of my audiobooks! What that means is - on top of my royalty-share deal with the narrator/production company of my choice, Amazon was willing to PAY a stipend to the narrator/producer as an incentive to get the audiobooks made! Amazon/ACX wrote to me that, because they felt my novels would be popular in audiobook form, they were willing to pay for their production.

That act may have only been a business decision on the part of Amazon but from my prospective, it was a great blessing! I'll tell you this - I have n-e-v-e-r seen or dealt with a better (super-mega-enormous-big-successful) company than Amazon, especially when it comes to partnering with small entities, like my little indie publishing house.

The stipend allowed me to contact Elijah and offer him a direct r-s deal. The stipend allowed him to record it outside of the big production house he normally utilized. The end result ... just over a month later, my first audiobook has been published! And the audiobook edition for the 2nd novel in the series (CRIS DE NIRO, Book 2 - SIGNS OF WAR) will be released in a few weeks.

So without further ado - the audiobook edition of (CRIS DE NIRO, Book 1) THE WATCHMAN OF EPHRAIM is available at Amazon here. Narrated by the fantastic actor, Elijah Alexander - it's an awesome 9 hours of action thriller entertainment. Please check it out and spread the word about it.

... And hey, thank you all for being a part of the greatest community of talented artists in the world - the Indie Publishing community. Whether you create or support, I'm humbled to be part of the family.

Read the rest here: Journey to my 1st Audiobook, THE WATCHMAN OF EPHRAIM!

Wow! I'm sure Amazon's act of kindness was motivated by business considerations but, still! Time and again Amazon has made decisions that have helped indies earn a living.

As readers of this blog know, I've flirted with the idea of creating an audiobook. I think it would be amazing to be able to listen to Until Death as a series of audio files but, for me, the hurdle to clear is to find a narrator with a voice that works for my protagonist, getting her to agree to undertake the project (always a plus!) and arranging appropriate payment. After reading what Neil Gaiman had to say about ACX I'm seriously considering going that route.

Neil Gaiman's words of advice to authors:

[I]f you are an author, Get Involved in Your Audiobooks Early. Get your agent involved and interested. Talk about them at contract stage. Find out if you're selling the rights, and if you are selling them then find out what control you have or whether you are going to be consulted or not about who the narrator is and how the audiobook is done.

Also, make sure that your publisher has worked out a way to give you free copies (obvious if it's out on CD, much less so if you're on download-only platform).

If you're an agent, notice that we are not living a decade ago, when audiobooks were expensive bells and whistles that meant very little, that normally wouldn't be done for anything outside of major bestsellers, when abridgments were often the order of the day: we're entering a golden age, in which there is no reason that any book shouldn't be available in professionally produced audio. Unless you know that the audio rights are going to be used and used well, keep them for your author. And if they are being sold with the book, then guard your author, and make sure that she or he gets rights of approval.

I love, am thrilled with, and am getting a huge kick out of the ACX way of doing it, where authors (or rightsholders), producers and voice talent sign up and get together and make audiobooks that Audible put up. It's there for you if you're an author, an agent, a publisher with lots of rights you don't know how to exploit, a director/producer/studio engineer, or an actor, and interested. (Right now, it's US only, but they are working on that.) (Find out more at http://www.acx.com/) (End of plug.)

But this isn't an ad for ACX, either. Honestly, you can do it on your own, if you want: Find a narrator or a studio; you can release it through the web; you can give it away as a promotional item, or because you can. Or you can make sure that if your publisher is putting out an audiobook that you have a say in it, and it's the book you want it to be.

Because otherwise it might be you writing to friends telling them not to listen to the audiobook of your book. And that would be a terrible thing indeed.

Read the rest here: Audiobooks: A Cautionary Tale

I won't quote from it, but here's a great article about Neil Gaiman over at Salon: Neil Gaiman’s audiobook record label.

I think sometimes the best advice is to stop thinking about doing something and just do it. Whatever you decide, best of luck!

Related reading:
How to record an audiobook at home
Milton Bagby talks about recording an audiobook
Auxiliary Rights: To Keep or Not To Keep?

"Marigny: The Making Of My First Audiobook," copyright© 2012 by Karen Woodward.

More on Amazon Select: Is exclusivity worth it?

I know I've written quite a bit about Amazon Select recently, but I've been looking for good information on it for some time, information from other indie authors, and it seems to be coming in a flood.

Today Joe Konrath had this to say about Amazon Select:

I've lost some of my faith in the Kindle Select program since it originated, and as a result I've opted my titles out. Select requires exclusivity, and I found I was making more money via Smashwords, Kobo, B&N, Overdrive, Sony, and Apple than I was through Select lends.

The other advantage of Select--being able to make your ebook free--used to result in a nice bounce from the free list to the paid list. Lately, the bounce isn't nearly as dramatic.

Two weeks ago Ann Voss Peterson made her thriller ebook Pushed Too Far free for a week. She gave away 70,000 copies--which is impressive, even beating many of the giveaways Blake Crouch and I had done (giveaways that got us in the Top 100 paid list and made us lots of money.)

Ann never hit the Top 100 paid. She's currently at #158. This is great, and she's thrilled, but she's only allowed to do this once every 90 days, and I don't believe the benefit corresponds to the loss of income from the other retailers.

If you do decide to make your ebook free, go all in. Use the 5 full days allotted, contact as many websites as you can find who announce freebies, and enlist everyone you know to help you spread the word.

Read the rest of Joe's comments here: Guest Post by Robert Gregory Browne, in the "Joe sez" section. He follows these remarks with fabulous advice for indie authors.

I'm paraphrasing.

- Get as many books as you can up for sale as quickly as you can. Your writing is the best advertising you could have.

- Don't be afraid to experiment. Experiment with pricing, covers, promotions, and share your knowledge with your peers.

- Bundle. For example, sell your short stories as stand-alones, then group them into an anthology and sell that. Do the same with your books, especially books in a series. "This increases shelf space without writing more."

- Forget about advertizing and marketing. It's not worth it.

- Keep your fingers on the pulse of the industry. Joe recommends subscribing to:

Publishers Lunch
PW Daily
Passive Guy
Kris Rusch
Dean Wesley Smith
David Gaughran
Bob Mayer
Mike Stackpole
Mike Shatzkin

- As Neil Gaiman recently said, "Walk toward your mountain." In other words, figure out what you want to do and do it. Of every decision ask yourself: does this take me closer to, or father away from, what I want to do. Then, and this is the tough part, believe in yourself and ignore those who ridicule you.

- As Joe put it, "The world needs heroes. Be one." Pass along what you've learnt and encourage others the way you would have liked to have been encouraged when you were where they are.

That's it! Reading the list over, it seems like I could title it, "Joe's Commandments for the indie writer".

Before I end this article, I want to give you a link to an article on KDP Select by the above mentioned David Gaughran. It explains, among other things, the nuts and bolts of KDP select and why Amazon's bestseller lists are so important to indie authors. Read it here: Amazon & The Importance of Popularity

Related Articles:
Changes in Amazon's Algorithm: An Update
Amazon's Ranking Algorithm Has Changed: what this means for indie authors
Self Publishing on Amazon: Kindle Direct Publishing


"More on Amazon Select: Is exclusivity worth it?," copyright© 2012 by Karen Woodward.

Changes in Amazon's Algorithm: An Update

For a while I've been wondering if Amazon Select is worth enrolling ones books in considering the exclusivity clause. Recently the matter became even more complicated by Amazon changing their ranking algorithm, a change that directly and, in many cases drastically, affected book sales.

Before Amazon changed their algorithm a free download counted the same as a paid download in terms of the effect it had on how ones book was ranked. After the change, it looked as though a free download counted for a fraction of what a paid download did.

Since many indie authors rely on periodic giveaways to boost their book's rank, and therefore hopefully keep the book toward the top of Amazon's bestseller lists, this was a big deal. Edward Robertson has posted an invaluable series of articles on the changes Amazon has made to their algorithm and in my earlier article I promised to keep readers up to date. Well, here's the latest.

Robertson, in an attempt to figure out the full impact of the changes to Amazon's ranking algorithm, made his book, Breakers, free for a few days and his results were startling. Over the period of a few days nearly 26,000 copies of his book were downloaded, 173 were sold and 93 copies were borrowed. Here's the big news, though. At the end of that period his books ranking had dramatically increased. (See Robertson's post -- How Much Juice Is Left In Select? -- for full details.)


He writes:

[W]hat does this mean long-term? I don't know. I'm trying not to know just yet, because I don't want to get my hopes up. But prior to this free run, Breakers was #121 on the Technothrillers popularity list and worse than #500 on Science Fiction > Adventure. On day three of its run, it improved to #10 Technothriller and #27 Sci-Fi > Adventure. Right now, it's #8 and #24. I'm guessing sales will slow down after an initial rush, but hold, driven by the pop lists, at a decent clip, for an unknown length of time. If that happens, I will be a very happy Ed.

I can imagine, I would be ecstatic! If Robertson's experience with Breakers is any indication the news for indie writers isn't bleak, it's quite the opposite. As Robertson writes, though, it's too early to draw sweeping conclusions.

Stay tuned!

Related Articles:
Amazon's Ranking Algorithm Has Changed: what this means for indie authors
An Indie Writer Shares His Experience With KDP Select
Self Publishing on Amazon: Kindle Direct Publishing


"Changes in Amazon's Algorithm: An Update," copyright© 2012 by Karen Woodward.

17 More States Join The Class Action Suit Against Apple et al

Sometimes I get so focused on the Department of Justice suit against Apple and 5 of the Big-6 publishers that I forget a class action suit is still pending against Apple, Macmillan and Penguin. (It used to be against Hachette, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins as well, but those publishers chose to settle.)

The latest news is twofold: 17 more states joined the class action suit and some documents have been released for public perusal, among them an email from the late Steve Jobs. He wrote:

    As I see it, [Conspiring Publisher] has the following choices:

    1. Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream ebooks market at $12.99 and $14.99.

    2. Keep going with Amazon at $9.99. You will make a bit more money in the short term, but in the medium term Amazon will tell you they will be paying you 70% of $9.99. They have shareholders too.

    3. Hold back your books from Amazon. Without a way for customers to buy your ebooks, they will steal them. This will be the start of piracy and once started, there will be no stopping it. Trust me, I’ve seen this happen with my own eyes.

    Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see any other alternatives. Do you?- As 17 more states join class action against book publishers and Apple, new details revealed

Yesterday we learned that Apple et al lost their appeal to throw out the class action lawsuit.

Passive Guy, an attorney practicing contract law, has this to say: 

The basic charge against Apple and five of the six largest publishers is price-fixing. This charge is the antitrust equivalent of first-degree murder – the worst and most despicable act prohibited by this 120-year-old statute, The Sherman Antitrust Act. Its principal author, Senator John Sherman, said the purpose of the law is ”To protect the consumers by preventing arrangements designed, or which tend, to advance the cost of goods to the consumer.”

Based upon the allegations of the Department of Justice complaint, Apple and these big publishers intended to push up the price of ebooks sold through all retail channels and were successful in doing so, increasing the cost of these goods to book buyers.

Antitrust law contains a lot of gray areas, but collusive price-fixing isn’t one of them.
- by Passive Guy, A marketplace defined by collusion is neither a fair nor a free market

I would have never thought, two years ago, that Apple and two of the largest publishers in the US would be facing a suit by the DoJ and as class action lawsuit.

If Apple et al lose both lawsuits, what will be the result? I'm guessing, but it seems likely bestsellers will come down in price and (hopefully!) we will no longer see ebooks priced more expensively than hardcovers.

In the long term I suppose the question is: Will one or more of the Big-6 survive? But, whatever happens to the publishers, there's no question in my mind that Apple will do just fine. (Thank goodness! I want my iPhone 5. ;)

What do you think? If Apple et al lose, what will happen to publishing?

Amazon's Ranking Algorithm Has Changed: what this means for indie authors

Amazon has recently changed the algorithm it uses to rank books in two major ways. First, a free download no longer counts the same as a paid one and, second, all things being equal, higher priced books have a higher rank than lower priced ones.

These changes are important because rank is highly correlated with how well a book is seflling which is, in turn, largely dependent upon where it shows up in Amazon's various bestseller lists. In other words, these changes can make a significant difference in how much money an independent author earns through Amazon.

First change: A free download no longer counts the same as a paid one
Authors often do promotions where they make their book free for three or four days with the result that it skyrockets in rank. Of course the author doesn't make any money from this directly because the book is free, but soon after the book reaches the top ten position the author begins charging for the book. Due to high visibility on various lists the book continues to sell well for a few days and the author makes a few hundred dollars. Not bad.

The change in Amazon's ranking algorithm means that the kind of promotion I've just described won't be as effective. If you're giving your book away for free one download won't equal one sale, as it used to, and so your book won't rank as high as quickly. A free download does still count toward building your book's rank, but now it's more like for every 10 free books downloaded you'll get credit for between 1 to 4 sales. The numbers are estimations, based on observation (for references, see Other Reading, below).

To recap, unlike before, if you make your book free for three or four days, rather than it rocketing to the top of the bestseller lists it will more likely limp toward the top but peter out before it reaches the choice positions in the top 10, or perhaps even the top 50.

Second change: All things being equal, a higher priced book will rank higher than a lower priced book
In the words of Ed Robertson:

... all things being even in terms of sales, not only did a lower price indicate a worse position on the popularity lists, but a higher price indicated a better one.
- Ed Robertson, Amazon's Ever-Changing Algorithms, Part 3

What does this mean for indie authors? 

Pricing. For a long time I've been an advocate of the 99 cent price point for independently published books, but no more. To my mind, the big advantage of publishing ones book for 99 cents was that an author could use it for marketing, to help find an audience for her work. Until I know more about the changes in Amazon's ranking algorithm I won't be making any recommendations, either way.

Overall, these changes certainly haven't helped the independent author, though I agree with Ed Robertson that Amazon isn't targeting independent authors with these changes, it just wants to make more money.

I'm going to keep my eyes open for more information about these changes, and I'll be sure to pass on what I learn.

Stay tuned.


Other Reading:
- Amazon's Ever-Changing Algorithms, Part 3: Why Lower Prices Might Give You Lesser Sales
- April Sales Voyeur + A Hint Of Things To Come

Photo credit: Business 2 Community

The Fungibility of Books

10 minutes ago I had no idea what fungibility was. It's the quality of replaceability that certain commodities have. For instance. money is highly fungible. If were to loan Robyn a $10 bill, one I had drawn a happy face on, I would not be at all upset if the $10 bill she repaid me with lacked a happy face. That is, I was not expecting her to repay me with exactly the same bill. As a matter of fact I would have found it rather odd.

Books, though, are not fungible, at least not in my view. One of my favorite authors is Jim Butcher. If I were to lend Robyn, say, Jim Butcher's latest book, Ghost Story, and she repaid the loan by giving me his novel Stormfront I would have NOT thought the loan repaid. No one book is the equivalent of any other; like snowflakes, they are unique.

You might be wondering, What on earth is Karen on about? Excellent question!

One day, I want to write a post about the Department of Justice's suit against Apple and five of the Big-6 publishers, but this isn't the day. It has been suggested, though, that although there was collusion among Apple and the publishers that the collusion didn't amount to anything because books are -- wait for it -- fungible.

Here's how the argument goes: Sure, we raised prices on a small sub-set of books, the best sellers, but many other books either didn't have their prices affected or they actually went down in price. For instance, many self-published books can be purchased quite reasonably. So it was always possible for a person to buy a book at pre-collusion prices, just not the same book (i.e., not a best seller). So, no harm, no foul, right?

Um. Wrong.

I accept the economic statement, that many people aren't going to buy books at or beyond a certain price point, whether for reasons of poverty or principle, but I reject the idea that books are interchangeable.

White I agree that if the latest book by my favorite author was out of my price range I would not purchase it (I would either wait for the paperback, buy the ebook when it came down in price or take it out of the library), I do view this as a loss. That many other books are in my price range doesn't make it okay that the price of that one book was made high due to collusion.

I mean, I don't want to be contentious, but it reminds me of someone saying, "Well, it doesn't matter if your pet dies, you can always buy another." It's true but so not the point!

Anyway, that's my rant. I don't have them often, so I'm hoping you'll forgive this one. It was sparked by Joe Konrath's latest post, Simon Says. It's quite good, I'd encourage you to read it, especially the first bit.

Cheers!

Kindle owners can now borrow Rowling's Harry Potter books at Amazon.com

Amazon.com is offering Rowling's Harry Potter books in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.

The Kindle Owners' Lending Library now features over 145,000 books to borrow for free, including over 100 current and former New York Times Best Sellers. The Kindle Owners' Lending Library has an unusual and innovative feature that people love - unlimited supply of even the most popular titles. With traditional library lending, the library buys a certain number of e-book copies of a particular title. If all of those are checked out, you have to get on a waiting list. For popular titles like Harry Potter, the wait can sometimes be months. With the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, there are no due dates, you can borrow as frequently as once a month, and there are no limits on how many people can simultaneously borrow the same title - so you never have to wait in line for the book you want.
- Amazon.com

Access to the Kindle Lending Library is through Amazon Prime and costs $79 a year.

Murder One by Robert Dugoni now $1.99 for two weeks

Robert Dugoni

I first met Robert Dugoni at the Surrey International Writers' Conference and decided that if he was half as good as a writer as he was as a speaker I was going to love his books.

He is and I do.

Being poor, though, I must confess I've taken most of his books out of the library so I was exited to hear about a special deal his publisher, Simon & Schuster, is running. For the next two weeks, until May 22, Murder One is going to be on sale for $1.99. At that price even I can afford to buy it!

Here are links to the venues where Murder One is on sale at the promotional price:

- Page of links at Simon & Schuster


- Murder One at Amazon.com
- Murder One at Barnes & Noble
- Murder One at iTunes

I'm not sure if the promotional price has kicked in at all the stores, but when I checked just now Barnes & Noble and iTunes, they did have the book on sale for $1.99.

Apparently this discounted price is part of a promotion for Dugoni's new book, The Conviction, that's coming out June 12, 2012.

By the way, the sale began May 8, 2012 so it should last until May 22, 2012.

Enjoy!

How To Self Publish: An Introduction

This is what I'd like you to get out of this How To Publish series: If the only thing holding you back from self publishing is fear, fear of failure, fear of the unknown, then my goal for you is that by the end of this series, you'll have taken the plunge and published something.

Remember, there's no rule saying you have to publish under your real name, you can use a pen name. The important thing is: If you want to self publish, if this is something that interests you, then do it! It is free and can be infinitely rewarding.

By the way, this post is part of my How To Self Publish series (see Related Reading, below, for links to other articles).

Fear of Technology
It's natural to be hesitant before doing anything new but don't let fear of an unfamiliar process keep you from publishing your work. Self publishing doesn't require any special technical knowledge, anyone can do it.

Later on in this series we'll step through how to publish your work on each of the major platforms: Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. (I've published many of these posts already, links to them are below in the 'Related Articles' section.)

Self Publishing is NOT Vanity Publishing
It used to be that the only kind of self-publishing was vanity publishing but the two, today, are quite different. Vanity publishers were stigmatized, and rightly so, because they preyed on writers. Vanity publishers would charge the moon to publish your book and fail to place it with any reputable retailer so it was impossible for you to make your money back.

The end result of publishing through a vanity press was often a drained bank account and a basement full of books.

On the other hand, when a person self publishes with Amazon.com, for example, they will publish your book for free, but take a pre-agreed upon percentage of the sale, either 30 or 65 percent. This is the sign of a reputable publisher.

The rule of thumb is: Money flows from the publisher to the author, not the other way around.

Note: Companies or people who charge a flat fee for specific services -- editing, formatting, cover art, and so on -- aren't publishers and so the above rule of thumb doesn't apply. Just like any business will need to pay for services (telephone, internet, hydro) so authors sometimes employ people to help them with certain tasks. That said, a writer doesn't need to employ anyone to self publish.

If You Don't Try, You'll Never Succeed
There's one thing all successful people have in common, no matter the area: they're all failures.

No, that's not a contradiction in terms. Everyone who has succeeded has made many mistakes along the way. I believe it's a fundamental truth of human existence that in order to succeed we must first fail. No one succeeds at everything, so if someone isn't failing occasionally, they aren't trying. So don't let fear of failure stop you from trying something new.


I'm writing a book on self-publishing and have decided to pre-publish the draft chapters on my blog so, please, if you have any comments you'd like to make, please do! I would welcome the feedback. There are three was to contact me. You can comment on this post, you can contact me through the contact form on this site (use the 'Contact Me' tab on the upper right), or you can contact me through Twitter (@woodwardkaren).

Cheers, and thanks for reading. :)

Related Reading
Self Publishing on Amazon: Kindle Direct Publishing
How To Self Publish on Barnes & Noble
Self Publishing on Smashwords

Photo Credit: Debbie Weil

Amanda Hocking: An Update

In her latest blog post, Amanda Hocking tells us how she feels about signing with a traditional publisher (St. Martin's Press), how her traditionally published books are selling and what her future plans are.

For me, one of the most interesting comments she makes is this:

Some people have been speculating that I'm not doing so well based on my Amazon rankings - which aren't terrible, but none of my books are in the Top 100 right now. They think this means that I'm not selling and the books must be doing poorly.

But one of the biggest reasons I went with a publisher is because I wanted to expand outside of the pool of Amazon readership. I know ebooks are continuing to grow, and I know that right now Amazon controls the largest share of ebook sales (they account for roughly 60% of my self-published ebook sales, with Barnes & Noble covering the vast majority of the other 40%).

And you cannot discount the fact that I sold nearly a million books copies of the Trylle books before I went with a publisher, and a large portion of those were through Amazon. I thought I'd already mostly tapped out the Amazon audience, so the fact that my books are doing as well as they are (Switched is ranked in the #1,000s of the Kindle store at the time of this writing, and Ascend is ranked #325) is impressive to me.
- Amanda Hocking, How Am I Doing Now?

Statistics on how well books sell on Amazon versus Barnes & Noble are difficult to come by, so I appreciate it when authors choose to share their numbers (Joe Konrath is wonderful this way). Amanda Hocking sold about 60% of her books through amazon and, I'm guessing, about 30% through Barnes & Noble.

Some might say, "Who cares?"

These numbers are relevant to writers trying to decide whether to enroll their books in KDP Select because that program requires authors to sell their ebooks exclusively through Amazon. I'm not suggesting that Amanda Hocking's numbers are representative, but with so little information about this sort of thing, every little bit helps.

Thanks Amanda!

Related Articles:
Amanda Hocking Joins The Amazon Kindle Million Club
The Secret of Amanda Hocking's Success Amanda Hocking's Story Amanda Hocking, Barry Eisler and Mark Coker: Legacy publishing versus indie publishing

Links:
Amanda Hocking's Books on Amazon
Amanda Hocking at Macmillan Books
The World of Amanda Hocking
How Am I Doing Now?
KDP Select

Photo credit: Thinking About Books

"Amanda Hocking: An Update," copyright© 2012 by Karen Woodward.

Self publishing on Smashwords

Of all the publishing platforms, Smashwords is my favorite.

I'm not saying you'll earn the most through it, the jury is still out on that one, though the race seems to be between Smashwords and Amazon.

One of the reasons I like Smashwords is because they give your ebook a great marketing boost by putting it on their front page. Granted, this lasts only for a minute or so, depending on the number of writers publishing their ebooks at the same time, but -- and this is coming from a gal addicted to Google Analytics -- that's enough to give your digital baby a nice introduction to the world. It's difficult to build a platform even if you're willing to spend a lot of money, and Smashwords is offering offers writers a helping hand, and for free.

But that's not the number one reason I like Smashwords, this is: they are, hands down, the best distributor of e-books in the world. They will distribute your intellectual property through literally dozens of channels.

The following is from Smashwords Distribution Information Page.

Once your book is accepted into the Premium Catalog, we automatically distribute it to major online retailers such as Apple (distribution to iBookstores in 32 countries), Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, WH Smith in the UK and FNAC (both powered by Kobo), the Diesel eBook Store,  eBooks Eros (operated by Diesel), Baker & Taylor (Blio and the Axis360 library service), and other distribution outlets coming soon.

and

Atom/OPDS Catalog (Reaches Major Mobile App Platforms): This catalog contains all the books for sale at Smashwords.com. Sample distributors include Stanza on the iPhone and Aldiko on the Android mobile device platform. These two e-reading apps alone reach millions of readers combined. The catalog is also distributed to the Word-Player and FBReader apps, and to the Inkmesh ebook search engine.

Of course there are conditions. You have to get your book into the premium catalog at Smashwords, but that isn't hard to do. Just make sure it's formatted property, has a decent cover, and doesn't violate any of Amazon's content guidelines. I've published a few books through Smashwords under pen-names and haven't had any difficulty getting all of them into the Premium Catalog. If you'd like to read more about how to get your book into the Premium Catalog, I've put some links at the bottom of this article.

Amazon's KDP Select Program
One more thing. KDP Select is a program available to folks who have elected to publish through Amazon. It's the name for Kindle's lending library. In 2012 a fund of about six million dollars will be divided up between the authors of books that were lent out.

The advantages of KDP Select are clear: if one enrolls in KDP select one gets some money, one's book is still for sale in the Kindle store, and your books gets exposure through the lending program that it wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

Now, for me, the idea of having my book in the library, any library, sends me into fits of ecstasy. Okay, maybe that's an overstatement, but only slightly. Like many writers, when I was a kid my local library was my hang-out and the school library was my refuge. Knowing a new generation of readers was borrowing my book from a library would mean the world to me. AND I might get some money from it . What's not to like?

Here's the catch: If you enroll your book in KDP Select you must sell your book exclusively through Amazon. This is from the KDP Select website:

When you choose KDP Select for a book, you're committing to make the digital format of that book available exclusively through KDP. During the period of exclusivity, you cannot distribute your book digitally anywhere else, including on your website, blogs, etc. However, you can continue to distribute your book in physical format, or in any format other than digital.

In other words, you can't publish your books through Smashwords and, by so doing, take advantage of their mammoth book distribution system.

The 60,000 dollar question: How much more money would an author make by publishing their book with Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Amazon, Sony, and so on, than if they only published through Amazon?

I don't have any answers. I haven't been able to find statistics on this, but I am doubtful that the average author would earn enough through the lending library to justify signing the exclusivity clause with Amazon. That said, if anyone reading this has information to the contrary, please let me know. I'm willing and eager to be proven wrong.

Thanks for reading, your comments are always welcome.

Further Reading
How to Self-Publish an Ebook with Smashwords: 32 Authors Share Their Tips and Tricks
Publishing with Smashwords
Self Publishing on Amazon: Kindle Direct Publishing
How to self-publish on Barnes & Noble

Links
Smashwords.com
Smashwords Premium Catalogue
Amazon KDP Select
Smart Self-Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author, by Zoe Winters

Photo credit: Smashwords.com

"Self Publishing on Smashwords" copyright© 2012 by Karen Woodward