…is sometimes better than the demon that under-delivers.
In my case, the devil is Amazon. I certainly don’t like a lot of their business practices, nor the way they squeeze authors into exclusivity through their KDP Select program, but for consumers, and especially e-book readers, there’s no denying that Amazon Kindle is about as big as it gets. For every 10 copies I sell of a short story, novella, or novel, I probably sell 1 copy on all the other platforms combined.
The only, and I mean ONLY platform beside Amazon I see a regular paycheck, small as it may be, is from Apple’s iBookstore. I’ve owned each iteration of the iPad. I have a certain affinity for Apple. That love, however, is simply not enough to compete with the draw that is Amazon.
B&N and Kobo, well, they sell sometimes. As in, I think I got an electronic transfer for eleven bucks in January.
So, as of tonight, I’ve withdrawn my ebooks from all other online retailers. I’m *really* sorry about this. I hate exclusivity, abhor closed environments, and believe that information wants to be free.
But I also cannot ignore the reality that is this: if Apple and B&N and Kobo were serious about competing with Amazon, they would give authors a better platform to market and sell their books. They would make the process of uploading smoother. They would give writers the tools to deliver their content AND have it be easily searchable and discoverable.
But they haven’t. iBooks is such a mess from the back end it looks like some prop town from a western. I can hardly believe Apple puts their name on their iTunes Producer interface. And B&N is a ghost town for my sales, a pit. Kobo is actually pretty to look at, but I can count those sales on a hand without fingers.
Now, I’m not saying that Amazon does any of this perfectly, far from it. But it does it better. And it does it in more volume. Those two facts combined are impossible to ignore when it comes to the business end of slinging ink.
So, for the next 90 days I’m giving Amazon exclusives again. If you’re a member of Amazon Prime you can borrow and read Forsaken, A Feast of Infinite Rot, A Hollow Dream of Summer’s End, and A Debt of Bacon for free.
And if you have a Kindle, or a tablet with the Kindle app, you’ll even be able to download them for free when I run a promotion.
Is this a dumb move? I don’t know. I’m involved, so it probably is. But even so, it’s only for 90 days. Worst case scenario: I buy five less Frappuccinos and take one less trip to McDonalds off the money I lose. My belt line could use a little breathing room .
Andrew Van Wey was born in Palo Alto, California, spent part of his childhood in New England, and currently lives abroad where he doubts his sanity on a daily basis. His debut horror novel, FORSAKEN is available on Amazon, B&N, and iBooks.
Hey Andrew,
I couldn’t agree more. I don’t know how many times I’ve been back and forth on this. Sales and borrows slow. You grow weary of doing free runs and so pull your book out of Select only to watch your sales stagnate. It is scary to have all your bags in one basket for a number of reasons I won’t go into. But if those other vendors were serious they’d do something to compete. And I don’t mean offering books for free, because I don’t think that’s a viable long term strategy, but something, anything would be nice.
On the bright side, I did notice that Forsaken is currently burning up the charts. Congrats! If you’re wondering at all about your decision, maybe that’s all the proof you need.
Cheers,
Griffin Hayes