Methinks the Amazonasaurus Doth Monopolize Too MuchSubmitted by Paul Elard Cooley on Mon, 02/13/2012 - 11:19 |
A while ago, I released an essay about "The Dreaded Amazonasaurus." Since then, KDP Select has not only gone live, but many of my fellow authors have capitalized greatly on its "benefits."
If you've forgotten, KDP Select is the new program that Amazon has instituted for authors. Basically it amounts to this: give Amazon exclusivity on your ebooks, and they help you market your wares by making them available in the vaunted lending library. But, of course, exclusive means you shut out smashwords.com, diesel, BN, iBooks, etc.
I made the decision to keep myself out of this madness, preferring instead of maintain some of my ideals. One of my ideals is fair competition. KDP Select, my friends, is anything but. Regardless, I have noticed an interesting trend. As KDP Select grows in popularity, my sales on Amazon.com have dwindled.
Why? Can't say. As far as I can tell, my books still show up in the same searches and etc. However, they do show up LOWER in the search results than they used to. Is Amazon.com fiddling with their search algorithm to favor books by authors that have enrolled? Yes, it sounds like a conspiracy theory and perhaps it is. I
haven't had much luck on the sales front with BN.com, yet I'm now selling more there than on Amazon. This is both troubling and perplexing since the majority of my writing income (pathetic as it is) was attributable to my Amazon sales. Tomorrow, February 14th, I'm releasing Garaaga's Children: Lovers on all the e-book outlets. If you're an Amazon customer, get it there. If you're a BN customer, get it there. I don't really care, so long as you let me know what you think of the story.
If I get enough sales tomorrow, perhaps we'll see an uptick in my search results for the other books. Maybe not. I'm a pretty tiny fish in a HUGE pond, but I figure if 20 or 30 of you purchase a copy of Lovers, I should be able to see some kind of impact in the metrics. But we'll see. Again, maybe my conspiracy theory is utter bollocks and I'm just paranoid.
I bash Amazon for its recent predatory policies and perhaps that's unfair. But you, the reader, need to know what's going on in the business of books. You'll continue using your Kindle, continue purchasing from the monster, and that's okay. If you like them, continue using them. It's your choice.
But I'd love to hear your thoughts on the recent changes. Do you think they're good for you? For the author? For the industry? What will a world with Amazon as the sole e-book outlet look like?
I shudder to imagine it.
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Amazonasuarus
Well this is an interesting situation. Barnes & Noble is in bed with the publishers and their search algorithms and emails favor traditional publishers in a major way. Apple went so far as to (probably) violate the Sherman anti-trust act in colluding with 5 of the Big 6 on forcing the use of Agency pricing. Kobo is a technical disaaster unable to manage their books from distributors properly. Smashwords I love for their attitude and approach, but practically speaking I get no sales for them, and the limitations of the meatgrinder are getting less and less acceptable.
So my answer is that while an Amazon-only world would be bad, not a single one of the alternatives are appealing. If I felt that I was being true to my ethics by not enrolling in Select so I could continue to support competitors trying to do the right thing, it would be one thing. But that's far, far from the case. And I can't ignore the extra income I will make since I enrolled one of my novels in Select. In ONE DAY, I made more on that one book than I have made on every book on every other outlet combined in all of 2011.
To be honest, until the others start being customer-focused - which means showing customers what your data mining says customers will want to buy, as opposed to overpriced Big 6 books that those others want customers to buy - I actually think what Amazon's doing is good for readers. When competitors react to an act like Amazon's KDP Select by doubling down on what has failed (their refusal to stock Amazon books, while understanable, is yet another example of the poor customer-focus), I can't say the rewarding of that behavior is any better for customers than Amazon's exclusivity.
At it's core, as an author, I have to weigh substantial extra income against the alternatives. And the alternatives don't even come close. Why I don't have all my books already enrolled in KDP Select already, who knows - probably sheer stubborn idiocy on my part.
The Big Six...
Not sure if you've been keeping up with the situation, but the Amazonasaurus has also begun exclusive e-book deals with the Big 6. In other words, you won't be able to get their e-books from any other distributor. As a result, BN is refusing to carry the dead-tree versions of those books.
Now I'm totally with you on the technical problems. BN has lagged behind for a VERY long time. In fact PubIt is a piece of crap when compared to KDP. It just is. You'd have thought that someone that far behind the curve would be pouring in a LOT of extra effort to catchup. So far, I haven't seen it.
Now, the agency model. Amazon operates under the exact same model. They discount books (up to 65% for dead tree) and now they've gone so far as to make it more difficult to get indie books NOT published through CreateSpace (which is their own animal). So books put up through x-libris, lightning source, and etc take longer to get into the hands of willing customers.
If I could, I'd burn the whole damned industry down and start over. Unfortunately, we're left with what is there. Again, I'm not judging you for your choices. Just wanted to get a clear idea of where your head is at. And if it's working for you, great. If you disagree with me, even better.
Thanks for the comments, mate.
It's certainly not a
It's certainly not a clear-cut issue, and neither would I argue with anyone's choice. As I said, I don't have all my books enrolled.
My complaints with B&N are not about Pubit - I can create a properly formatted epub, upload it, set/change the price, upload changes, view real time sales, etc. No complaints at all. But B&N is not interested in helping me sell books like Amazon is. This is of course self-serving for Amazon, but the net result is the net result.
I had heard about Amazon making deals with the Big 6, but I was under the impression that it was mostly a rumor. Because that would essentially be capitulation on their part and would certainly spell the end of B&N in very short order. Any links you have to that would be appreciated.
Regarding Agency pricing, yes they all use Agency pricing, because Apple and the publishers forced it two years ago. They knew that Amazon couldn't afford to lose the Big 6 at the same time the Ipad was coming out, so they exerted the maximum pressure when they could. I honestly don't care much about the pricing models per se, I was simply making the case that they're all engaging in major anti-competitive behavior. There was a boycott of B&N a few years beack when they bought a publisher with the intent to doing something like what AMazon is trying to do.
Anti-competitive...
At this point, Amazon is really the only player here. I own an iPhone and iPad and Kindle. However, I end up using the kindle app on my iOS devices because iBooks hasn't stacked up very well against it. Of course, I haven't tried iBooks 2, so not sure.
Most of my friends who use e-readers do have kindles. And those that have iOS or Android devices are also using kindle readers on those devices. So is Apple even a contender here?
BN's app is a joke and has been. Buggy, poorly designed, and a PITA to use. Obivously the other services don't yet even have apps.
If you consider the actual OS platform to be immaterial, then the distribution channel is king. And that's where I get worried about the behavior of the distributor.
I personally think Kindle's format (AZW, .mobi) is the worst damned ebook format out there, besides PDF and word. But it's the winning format because of the distributor. This means the lock-in is inevitable and the way Amazon has been ratcheting up, I'm not entirely sure there's going to be anything left.
Like you, I have to walk the line between my ideals and my income. Right now, I'm not seeing any benefits in either case except being able to look at myself in the mirror.
As far as BN's fight back against Amazon, articles like this one make it seem less like a rumor and more like the real deal. Of course, I don't believe everything I see on the internet either. But after major news outlets (including Huffington Post) are all carrying the same story, one has to wonder if it isn't true.
It's all those darn free books!
I have also noticed a huge downswing in sales. I don't think it is anything to do wth Amazon's actions as it has to do with authors' actions.
You see, part of Kindle Select is you get to put your book on sale for free for up to five days. Guess what every single author under the sun has done? Yep, put their book on sale for free. This means that readers have a ton of choices without having to spend a dime.
My sales have started to creep back up, but all of January sucked. The titles I have in Select will not be renewed. I'm losing sales on the other sites and there hasn't been enough payoff from Amazon to justify giving them exclusive rights.
Live and learn!
Heartily agreed
I've kept away (though I'm tempted to try it with something later this year, just for kicks). Something about it just smells wrong. I will continue to make my stuff available far and wide, since not everyone is sucking from Amazon's teat.