Okay I said I was going into hibernation but I have to
respond to Sandra’s comment on my post of March 1st.
Just so you all understand where I am coming from in
the first place, I publish my paper books using Amazon owned CreateSpace and I
publish them as ebooks on Kindle and on Barnes and Noble’s Nook. Barnes and Noble also carries my paper
books. In my March 1st post I
was not referring to a decision to publish on Kindle but just to use one of the
publishing plans it is offering to its authors.
I already publish and will continue to do so on Kindle.
To me, the whole discussion centers around free
markets and change. When I wanted to
publish my first book I wrote over 100 letters to agents and to traditional publishers
asking them to publish my book. Many
politely refused, some didn’t even reply.
It was a heart wrenching experience but I accepted it as reflective of
what is going on right now in the publishing industry. Traditional publishers are becoming more and
more exclusive in their selections as the sales of paper books gives way to the
use of reading devices. It’s called
progress.
Yes, progress in a free market economy can be
brutal. Yet, just as Amazon in the form
of Kindle is refusing to list some publishers, so independent books stores do
not carry some publishers. And for the
same reason! The publishers will not
give either Amazon or the Indies enough margin to make it worthwhile for
them. Horrors! Amazon and Indies in the same boat.
But it is true.
For an Indie book store to survive these days it must trim its cost of
doing business. In the same way any
merchant operates on the back of its’ margin so does Amazon. In the case of the Kindle books that Amazon
recently rejected it is wholly possible that Amazon did not feel the price
point at which the publisher wanted to place their works was an acceptable
profit point for Amazon. The Indie store
doesn’t always have the same clout as Amazon but this war with the traditionals
might be something that eventually benefits the Indie book store.
As for me as an author. I had no clout with the traditional
publisher. To be fair using the same
logic as above, they felt as if they would not make money on the novel of a untried
author. It is their prerogative. BUT. I
wanted to publish. Amazon said, come in,
make yourself at home. Oh you may only
sell a few copies? Well we’ll let you
give it a try. No agent or traditional
author said that to me and my local Indie bookstore was even less helpful.
It’s about the free market and change. I will go where I can accomplish what I want
to and if someone wants to give me a chance then I will be grateful to
them. I may not accept every offer they
make me (after all we don’t buy every new fangled gadget on the market) but I
will take advantage of things that forward my dream for me. Bring it on Amazon. We all need change, whether we like it or
not.
My problem isn't your going with Kindle; I fully understand the difficulty of getting into "print." It's with going with a Kindle package that *requires* ONLY Kindle publication, and removes all other options. That's good for Amazon, but not good for you. It limits your distribution capabilities, and as you already know, you do indeed have those capabilities. Why cut yourself off from them? Why cut yourself off from customers who don't a Kindle, either because they have a different e-reader, or no e-reader at all?
ReplyDeleteSandra