Why Writers Should Embrace Amazon-Kindle

Recently heard around the virtual water cooler someone complaining that Amazon/Kindle cheats its authors. How? They drop your ebook price without telling you; they do it when their bot (function of the hunter robot) finds you have reduced the price and are selling it elsewhere.

Not to quibble...OK, to quibble... LOOK at it this way when thinking that Amazon is out to rob you of YOUR royalties. First off, no one ever in life -- at least not since the advent of the Kindle -- ever, ever offered an author as sweet a deal as 35% on every unit sold PLUS worldwide distribution on a platform you do not have to pay a dime for.

I know some small presses have offered sweet deals of 50-50, 40-60. 30-70 but typically such deals earn you zip and typically the percentage is weighted in the favor of the publisher who is going to send you royalty statement six months down the road to tell you that you have earned out nada, zip because all your heavy hardcover books set at 25 bucks did not actually sell so much as they shipped....and shipped BACK -- returns. Or you were selling a 15 or 16 dollar book and your realized a royalty after six months of $63 -- enough to buy that tuna sandwich you'd been eyeing for those six weeks and splurge on a day at the movies.


With kindle the number of returns is negligible, you do not wait six weeks to a year to see sales figures (in fact, these are not ROYALTIES but sales figures). We have this archaic notion that royalties--something owed us for months--is the proper term here, but NO....this is not an Advance Against Royalties circumstance and never was.

I thank God I can sell a book today at 99c and 1.99 and realize 35% on each sale. I respect Amazon's reasoning that if a book is going to be priced that low, for THEM to make any sort of pennies on it, that the 35-65 split has to kick in. If I do not wish to play that game, I do not lower the price. I have NEVER in 45 titles up on Kindle EVER had Kindle lower a single book price on me. Why is that not happening to me but happening to other now distraught authors?

Think about it. I control the pricing on all those books. I do not have these books on Smashwords or B&N for a lesser price. I understood from the get go that if I place one of my books in any other ebook store for a lower price that Amazon will find me (bot me) and drop my ebook price to the same or lower on Kindle. I never had any problem with that, and in fact decided from the get-go to associate myself so closely with Kindle-Amazon, to be a real partner, that my books are Kindle Exclusive and Kindle App friendly. I also put no restrictions on my books--lending or otherwise.

Earlier I had about 13 or 14 titles with Fictionwise. I got those rights back. There may be a title here or there still up for sale somewhere else but in the main as no other ebook stores are reducing my prices, only one doing so is me, myself, and I. I drop first in a series to 99c or 1.99 and place the other ten or five or four up at a price that will garner the 70% to me.

Now when in life has any author on the planet ever gotten a sweeter deal than 70 percent of each unit sold, a platform/display space/ worldwide distribution/the functionality to create buzz/timely payment/bookkeeping at no extra cost (and even if there are hidden costs, you are still the recipient of the BEST deal a Publisher has ever offered an Author in the history of book-making?

DoEs It MaKe SeNsE?
I feel as though I have my cake and can eat it too.

Just dropped my Vampire Dreams down to 99c....first in a four-book series, and all the other three are above 2.99 -- so I see the 99c as enticement and investment to get all four selling well. I JUST made this drop in price yesterday and I was something like 37,000 in store NOWHERE with the title, but today, WOW...I am now #71 in some category in top 100 and 17,000 something in store paid.

Now my job is to get the word out that for a "limited time ONLY" this book is up for sale at 99c. The terms "limited...only...sale" REALLY seem to have an effect as I have dropped other books to 99c without the fanfare or the TERMS of Sale, and people, it would seem, have a Pavlovian response to those simple words-- Sale, Limited Time Only.

Anyhow, onward and upward. My next duty is to spread the word of its now being #61 on said list. Need to go back to check that list....was it horror or suspense or urban fantasy....I think horror but unsure. I got to excited, I dropped my teeth -- and I do not even have dentures (yet).

Please leave a comment; love to hear from you. What has been your experience in this area? How do you feel about amazon? about ebooks, ePricing?


RoboWriter Rob Walker
http://www.robertwalkerbooks.com/
Vampire Dreams. Brain Stem, Floaters

The Hungry, Hungry Indie Author/Publisher - What Sells Kindle Titles?

Since Feb. 1st of this year, I've been monitoring a thread on KDP which I put up as "What Mioves Kindle Bks. off Shelves" and the staggering numbers of views, comments, and pages has surprised me, but perhaps I shouldn't be surprised at I understand 20,000 new Kindle titles by new authors are being put up daily now.  I didn't verify that number but it would not surprise me either. But my thread numbers blow me away.

Recently, another person on the thread asked, "Rob, what do I make of the growth in this thread?"  And he listed the dates showing huge bumps in numbers.

The thread is a monster now, as big as the White Whale as it is now 24,200 plus views, 760 plus comments, 52 pages. But the question was, what do I make of it?  Aside from being totally and completely FLABERGASTED, Astonished, Amazed, left wanting to shout like the King of Siam, "Is a Wonderment!" -- I dunno!  How should I know what is stoking this? Perhaps it is due the fact the thread became a recommended Amazon.com/Kindle 101 class but frankly, I think it was going up and up and spiraling up long before it was given this great recommendation.  Something else is afoot here, I suspect, Mr. Watson.


I certainly can't explain it except to say that apparently people are starved for authentic, tried and true, proven advice on the subject of "iMoves" - a term that came of my error in the Title of the Thread, misspellx of Moves, which means moving books on the iNet (iMoves).


And we ain't charging anything for admission to the "writers conference" and no one has stolen the mic or gone off the deep end. I keep waiting for the shoe to fall and it still hasn't.

My only fear is that I will run out of rabbits to pull outta me hat, but if I do, I can count on hundreds if not thousands of smart other authors experimenting and learning their way; that  others can, will, and without reservation leap into the breach!

One thing I stress in the thread is to not get hung up on efforts that bear no fruit or such little fruit as to be a waste of time, energy, money, or all of the above. Currently, I am not going to waste a lot of time on the newly opened Germany Kindle Store. Why?  Because I tried and failed there, so 'iMove on' since I have sold NADA, ZIP, NINE in Germany Kindle Store, and I do not mean 9 but NINE as in nothing!!! Ugh and urrrrrrgh! I am going to keep my focus and concentration on Kindle US thank you where I am on at least two top ten Kindle lists if not more.

I just reviewed that first post I put up on this now humongous thread, and it is very simple and straightforward steps to take, tips to put to use. It certain touched a chord in ebook and kindle Indie authors and publishers. Here is where you can find the thread  on Kindle Community Forums:  https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/dashboard

Should you wish to look in on the thread, let me know! And please leave a comment here.

Rob Walker
http://www.robertwalkerbooks.com/

PS - iMove from #20 to #6 in Kindle Store Historical Fiction - Children of Salem!!!! Yah-Rah!! Witchcraft, the geography of it, the land grab, the prejudice that leads neighbor to hang neighbor. It is Gunsmoke in 1692 with Jere Wakely as Matt Dillon. A commercial retelling of the Salem Witchcraft episode. A lifelong project rejected by every publisher and agent I submitted to, yet soon to be #1.

And perhaps it is time YOUse GUYse give out with a few well-chosen sentences here about your books in our comments section. You have a huge audience here! Never miss an opportunity to talk premise and platform.