Amazon and Smashwords Are Battling For Your
Book
Did you ever think you would see the day
that publishers would be wooing authors? Heh. Neither did I, but that is
exactly what is happening. This is just another sign that in some ways, there
has never been a better time to be a writer of books.
E-books and E-readers have turned the
publishing industry on its head. This isn't news to anyone who has been paying
attention the last few years. How it's all going to shake out is anyone's guess
at this point but I'd be willing to bet that the dust will not settle for years
to come.
It is now easier than ever to self publish
in an electronic format. I have a client who writes short stories. Every few
months he sends me a manuscript with a cover image and I format the thing and
publish it for him on Amazon and Smashwords. I've done this so many times that
it now takes me about two hours total to publish in both places. Many, many
authors are doing the same thing every day.
So, what's all this hub-bub about Amazon and
Smashwords? Well it's pretty simple, really. Up until last year, an author such
as myself could be all fat, dumb and happy just publishing at both Smashwords
and Amazon. By publishing at Smashwords, you make your e-book available to
virtually all e-book formats and e-readers. Publishing at Amazon puts tools and
potential viewership in your hands that could propel your book to unimagined
heights. By publishing in both arenas you have the best chance of success.
Last year, Amazon changed the game. In a big
way. They introduced KDP Select and it set off a firestorm. Here is how KDP
Select works:
From the original email received in
December, 2011
“When you make
any of your titles exclusive to the Kindle Store for at least 90 days, those
with US rights will automatically be included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending
Library and can earn a share of a monthly fund. The monthly fund for December
2011 is $500,000 and will total at least $6 million in 2012. If you haven’t
checked it out already, the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is a collection of
books that eligible US Amazon Prime members can borrow for free once a month
with no due dates.”
Seems easy enough,
right? And it would be if not for the very first sentence. See where it says
“exclusive?” That's the rub, friends and
neighbors. That's where the heart of this war resides. In order to take
advantage of KDP select, you have to unpublish at Smashwords (Or anywhere else
you may have your book published.)
As you can imagine,
this was not received well by Smashwords and other e-publishing outfits and I
can't say as I blame them. The fire was again recently kindled (sorry) when
Amazon announced that they were adding another 1.5 million to the fund. I first
got wind of this through a Smashwords posting on Facebook. A quick side note on
the posting – whoever posted it for Smashwords asked authors to “way in” on the
matter. After about a dozen comments were left blasting them out of the water
for the major grammatical faux-paux they deleted the post and reposted in correct
form. Heh-heh.
Smashwords points out
that any author making their work exclusive to a single retailer is cutting
their nose off to spite their face. I think the point is well taken. With that
said, literally hundreds of authors have taken Amazon up on their offer.
In some ways, this
battle over us authors is kind of cool, but it also makes things a bit tough.
See, I love Smashwords. Been with them a long time and have extolled
their virtues on my blog several times. I also
love Amazon. I've reviewed dozens of books there and am in the top 5000
reviewers. I do my Christmas shopping there. And yes, I have books published there. Do I kick Smashwords to the curb and put all my eggs in the Amazon
basket or do I hang tough? I honestly don't know what the right answer is.
How about you? Are you
familiar with KDP Select? Have you jumped off the Amazon cliff or are you
considering the jump? What are your thoughts?
Short bio: George
lives in Palmer, Alaska with his wonderful daughter, Maddy. He loves to read
and he is the owner of tumblemoose.com, a blog he's kept for over four years now. You can follow him on Twitter @GeorgeAngus
Check out George's books on AMAZON.
The way the Select program was initially structured favored the indie author and allowed them to compete even with bestsellers. Now that has changed as it has gotten much harder to climb the ranks with the free promotions and get meaningful sales.
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