tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.comments2019-11-18T07:40:51.253-08:00<b>Smashwords</b>Mark Cokerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05039664167177159146noreply@blogger.comBlogger6116125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-52173148263911201142019-03-01T12:44:59.101-08:002019-03-01T12:44:59.101-08:00I noticed that the interface for the user purchase...I noticed that the interface for the user purchases/library has been upgraded. That&#39;s a great addition!Robert Naglehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09244278749337954786noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-40363662640345837012019-02-27T14:42:14.939-08:002019-02-27T14:42:14.939-08:00Thank you, Robert!Thank you, Robert!Mark Cokerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05039664167177159146noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-56023573630810101452019-02-27T13:16:48.651-08:002019-02-27T13:16:48.651-08:00FYI, I&#39;ll be posting my Robert&#39;s Roundup o...FYI, I&#39;ll be posting my <a href="http://www.imaginaryplanet.net/weblogs/idiotprogrammer/category/ebooks/roberts-roundup/" rel="nofollow">Robert&#39;s Roundup of Smashwords titles </a> on March 5 (two days after the sale starts). <br /><br />During last year&#39;s sale, I found some incredible titles, and this year I expect to find a lot more...Robert Naglehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09244278749337954786noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-2071923881011117932019-01-16T13:24:42.236-08:002019-01-16T13:24:42.236-08:00Ctrl-z and Rhino-hide. (TLDR) And on with the sho...Ctrl-z and Rhino-hide. (TLDR)<br /><br />And on with the show.<br /><br />Times are tough, Amazon is beating everyone as badly as MS did back in the day...<br />(I wonder if they&#39;ll get (steal) bundles of orphan works from EU?)<br /><br />Pay-pal is intrusive and readers picky.<br />PC content is overcoming style-content as usual; ask Hollywood. <br /><br />The market is super-saturated? You haven&#39;t seen anything yet, pookie. <br /><br />I want ebook readers to auto-translate from language to luggage. (LANGUAGE. Sorry!)<br />(Won&#39;t help that much; cultural styles differ too much. Puss-in-boots, ie.)<br /><br />The web will be populated by ravaging monsters; (pirates, censors, lawsuits, trolls.)<br /><br />About the way it is today, really. I only look at sales, myself.<br />Censors, trolls + the PC world? <br /><br />You&#39;re team or target. Develop Rhino-hide, you&#39;ll need it.<br />You would not believe the excuses generated, either.<br /><br />Kevin Williams jan 2019<br /><br />oh, ctrl-z is undo. Pollution, elections, diets..Pat Donovanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13837031188946013218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-65837089555163299062019-01-10T01:23:10.905-08:002019-01-10T01:23:10.905-08:00I was hoping to see how you foresee the EU Copyrig...I was hoping to see how you foresee the EU Copyright Directive which could become law in its 28 member-states, to affect self-publishing. Yes, it will possibly stop piracy, but if that table turned, there&#39;s a lot of hoops to jump for an author to proof he or she wrote an original work. What would you suggest?Lynette Ferreirahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10590764975263473787noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-32763388575552928762019-01-08T20:31:23.528-08:002019-01-08T20:31:23.528-08:00@T.J. Dotson - exactly. You&#39;ve nailed it.@T.J. Dotson - exactly. You&#39;ve nailed it.K.C. Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12365890309717446305noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-9030629150343192822019-01-08T02:23:52.023-08:002019-01-08T02:23:52.023-08:00It&#39;s not about blaming Amazon. And I don&#39;t...It&#39;s not about blaming Amazon. And I don&#39;t think that&#39;s what Mark and others are doing. They are pointing out that one extremely large retailer has successfully become the new gatekeeper of indie publishing. Amazon has effectively stripped indies of their collective power and now is charging a fee for admission. <br /><br />It ain&#39;t doom and gloom, but it&#39;s not what it used to be either. T.J. Dotsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08408403689172395803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-81668521716542321162019-01-07T15:42:03.488-08:002019-01-07T15:42:03.488-08:00Good work, Mark and team! I especially like the wa...Good work, Mark and team! I especially like the way that series have been highlighted now on the author profile page. That&#39;s helped me. Also, was thrilled to see my book as a featured special deal on the home page. Stuff like this means a lot.<br /><br />I also put my first audiobook into production this year, and was happy that the Findaway Voices production fee got waived for going through Smashwords. You should publicize that more...<br /><br />A pet peeve, though: I don&#39;t want to use you guys for a preorder again because what seems to invariably happen every time is my book gets kicked back for a formatting or navigation error. But when I publish the regular way, not preorder, my books go through review every time. Making it MORE difficult to do preorder, which is time-sensitive, doesn&#39;t make much sense. What I mean by navigation error is having to go through and code every chapter by hand to get the table of contents for epub right. I have only ever had problems with a book I submitted for preorder. Not fun!Gabriella Westhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06332053035849562689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-66184175193253886422019-01-06T13:45:07.791-08:002019-01-06T13:45:07.791-08:00If it all comes down to me posting my work on my o...<b>If it all comes down to me posting my work on my own site and nowhere else, then so be it.</b> Amazon is a giant corporation, one that has demonstrated, over and over again, that it doesn&#39;t care for its employees or its &quot;content providers.&quot; It&#39;s only interested in money. That may be legal, but it certainly isn&#39;t moral. If you question that, then you are either soulless, or you have your head in the sand. Or, most likely, both.<br /><br />The cost of attention is going towards infinity, while the <i>value</i> of attention is nosediving towards negative infinity. Getting noticed in this insane environment is becoming more and more difficult. And yes, it <i>is</i> insane.<br /><br />On my blog (shawnmicheldemontaigne.blogspot.com) recently I composed an allegory called &quot;The Tower.&quot; I&#39;ve edited it and posted it below.<br /><br />I call the insanity the Tower. Everybody wants in it. There&#39;s a tremendous, pressing crowd around it: people doing everything they can to get closer and closer to it, no matter how immoral it may be, no matter how injurious or hypocritical it may be, no matter how underhanded it may be, no matter how criminal it may be. Fights are common in the pressing crowd, and always spread: two fighters quickly become two hundred. Everyone&#39;s yelling and screaming, trying to be heard.<br /><br />The Tower is tall and thin, with windows. Those who get into it fight their way to the highest floor they can. On occasion they&#39;ll glance out the windows. When they do the crowd fawns and curses at them.<br /><br />There is a wide space between the crowd and the Tower, one that&#39;s impossible to breach. Guards man it. On occasion they&#39;ll let someone through, and that person, shrieking with joy, runs into the Tower and begins fighting their way up the stairs to the highest floor they can get to.<br /><br />This is the chase for fame and fortune.<br /><br />You folks go ahead and knock yourself out trying to get into the Tower. Me? I&#39;ve got a lot of writing to do.<br /><br />Screw Amazon.<br /><br />~~*~~Shawnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00617713016933175728noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-16792422239998271142019-01-05T09:59:25.428-08:002019-01-05T09:59:25.428-08:00Authors publishing their works in several places -...Authors publishing their works in several places -- arguably a wise position, as otherwise you are unhappy if your sole publisher goes under -- should remember that when they advertise, they get to choose where to point their links. Here, for example.George Phillieshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15430038472888222992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-69567831631350162402019-01-05T07:46:06.977-08:002019-01-05T07:46:06.977-08:00@Bruce Arrington Yes, Amazon puts their customers ...@Bruce Arrington Yes, Amazon puts their customers first; however, aren’t authors and merchants potential customers, too? Isn’t it better to treat those authors and merchants who are bringing money to your business with respect, instead of them having fear of losing income if they don’t follow your rules, there’s a computer glitch, or a competitor/spammer manipulates the system? I and other authors/merchants stopped purchasing from Amazon because of their rules and treatment of us. Pamela Cumminshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02105901384292644277noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-66033735266331625662019-01-05T07:23:27.884-08:002019-01-05T07:23:27.884-08:00Cathryn Cade: Give us some tips, please!Cathryn Cade: Give us some tips, please!henrytobiashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14402350994278097448noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-34579676188330497362019-01-04T13:32:25.980-08:002019-01-04T13:32:25.980-08:00Completely disagree with the doom and gloom inhere...Completely disagree with the doom and gloom inherent in this prediction. I believe this is the best time there has ever been for writers to get our work out to readers. We can control every aspect of the prospect that we desire, or contract out some or all tasks.<br /><br />Also, I&#39;m making more money going into 2019 than I&#39;ve ever made, either with a publisher or as a full-fledged indie author. <br /><br />Instead of blaming the sales platforms who are most successful, lets figure out how to use them for our and our readers&#39; gain. <br /><br />Keep writing and keep learning, everyone!Cathryn Cadehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10714037225684245673noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-41748686857229701082019-01-04T07:04:37.323-08:002019-01-04T07:04:37.323-08:00@K.C. Taylor I agree. It is Pay to Play now. I ho...@K.C. Taylor I agree. It is Pay to Play now. I hope the other retailers don&#39;t follow Amazon&#39;s example. Right now, that is my key worry in all of this. Ruth Ann Nordinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15277679843442868070noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-19667052565394647752019-01-04T03:40:33.335-08:002019-01-04T03:40:33.335-08:00Select isn&#39;t the current problem, Mark. It&#39...Select isn&#39;t the current problem, Mark. It&#39;s moved beyond that at Amazon. It&#39;s *advertising*. Amazon is making more money from AMS ads than they are book sales. <br /><br />The modern problem in the book world is it is now Pay to Play. <br /><br />Trad. pubs had to pour SO much money into the holiday season that indies had to pause their AMS and FB ads because they were being grossly out-priced beyond their budgets. There was zero sense in most indies advertising in Nov. and Dec. because of this.<br /><br />99% of authors have no chance at making a modest living writing books unless they have disposable money for daily ads. They will sink otherwise no matter what they do since hoping you&#39;ll be that once in a blue moon breakout star from word of mouth if a pointless fantasy. My authors were making 5 figures in 2012. They now make a small fraction of that year&#39;s royalties despite publishing more books every year.K.C. Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12365890309717446305noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-6261512177534168362019-01-03T17:27:36.421-08:002019-01-03T17:27:36.421-08:00For a while, I uploaded directly on B&amp;N and Ko...For a while, I uploaded directly on B&amp;N and Kobo because other authors swore it was best to upload directly whenever possible. That was a horrible decision. I can&#39;t count how many times I forgot to update a cover, a new formatted version with Table of Contents, a book description, etc on B&amp;N or Kobo. I have over 70 books now. It is HARD to keep up with all of the retailers. <br /><br />I have to upload directly to Amazon and Google Play, and that is all I can handle. Smashwords saves me a lot of hours that is way better spent working on the next book. The more books you publish, the more valuable a place like Smashwords becomes. Ruth Ann Nordinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15277679843442868070noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-61560250781146647762019-01-03T15:44:31.164-08:002019-01-03T15:44:31.164-08:00In terms of anti trust, wouldn&#39;t requiring exc...In terms of anti trust, wouldn&#39;t requiring exclusivity on Amazon in order to be in KDP Select be the definition of that? They are in way attempting to drive the competition our of business, at least that&#39;s what it seems.IanNShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01646552466241923835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-10560968010420024252019-01-03T10:02:24.749-08:002019-01-03T10:02:24.749-08:00&quot;Amazon acts like a twisted modern day Robin ...&quot;Amazon acts like a twisted modern day Robin Hood who steals from the poor and gives to its customers.&quot;<br /><br />With respect, I could not disagree more. Amazon is a business and is also a competitor of Smashwords. It is not Amazon&#39;s job to pay the bills of authors, and this &quot;take care of me&quot; mindset is what has gotten authors in trouble in the past with the large publishing houses. It is the author&#39;s job to understand that their book selling is their business and they are responsible for making all choices as how they are going to sell their books. You cannot just sit back and expect another company to sell your books for you.<br /><br />Pointing a finger at Amazon changes nothing except to cause Smashwords supporters to circle the wagon and tell each other how that Evil Empire destroys everything. Frankly I find it petty and belittling for the head of this company to make remarks like this. It does nothing to help authors.<br /><br />Amazon, in order to survive as a business, puts customers first. That&#39;s why it has done so well over the years. Again, it&#39;s core philosophy is not authors first, and it never should be.Bruce Arringtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01288679569185759845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-73172394712135529442019-01-03T09:24:16.903-08:002019-01-03T09:24:16.903-08:00I refuse to buy Amazon ads. That is a short-term s...I refuse to buy Amazon ads. That is a short-term strategy. I don&#39;t like short-term strategy mindsets because you have to constantly be looking for the next big thing. <br /><br />My income dropped significantly this year on Amazon when they started pushing their ads, but thanks to Smashwords and its distribution partners, I managed just fine. Staying wide and writing more books are the two best long-term strategies in this business. Those will help buffer against the rollercoaster effect that is Amazon. It&#39;s nice when you don&#39;t have to worry about what Amazon might or might not do. You sleep well at night. :) <br /><br />I know a lot of authors are in awe of KU authors who make $10-$40K a month on Amazon, but the truth is, you don&#39;t need that much money to be happy. My income dropped by 40% this year, but I am happier than I&#39;ve ever been because I finally learned that the key is to be content with what you have. (And I speak as someone who did almost quit writing this year.) For anyone struggling with the happiness issue, I highly recommend the book The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything by Neil Pasricha. If you follow what he recommends, it&#39;s a game changer.Ruth Ann Nordinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15277679843442868070noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-74480143430428048322019-01-03T01:14:08.852-08:002019-01-03T01:14:08.852-08:00I agree. But the trick is to make a better system....I agree. But the trick is to make a better system. I don&#39;t use KDP select for most of the books I have and yet no other place allows my books to be seen. btw, Ernie, well done. nlohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00189011723484040397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-22032280177056865382019-01-02T21:38:45.959-08:002019-01-02T21:38:45.959-08:00Nice one! I definitely agree with everything you w...Nice one! I definitely agree with everything you wrote about the dangers of KDP select. And one of the things you&#39;ve said in previous years is, &quot;Every book that&#39;s available exclusively at Amazon is another nail on the coffin of every other e-book retailer.&quot;<br /><br />KDP Select is putting people (not just authors) out of business, and putting employees and their families on the streets. End of story.<br /><br />Sony e-books, Diesel, txtr, Flipkart... the list of casualties that can be directly related to Amazon&#39;s bullying goes on. :(<br /><br />By the way, you might want to fix the typo in your &quot;Predictions&quot; heading - it says 2018 at the time of this writing. ;-)Graham Downshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05058937158808902451noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-58140175214350579742019-01-02T05:36:49.611-08:002019-01-02T05:36:49.611-08:00Interesting! Persistency is the key.Interesting! Persistency is the key.henrytobiashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14402350994278097448noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-18349964610312681552019-01-02T02:59:28.054-08:002019-01-02T02:59:28.054-08:00Mark, your predictions are always interesting and ...Mark, your predictions are always interesting and based on facts and great critical thinking skills. I commend you for this. Speaking of critical thinking skills, I have noticed that the majority of authors are not up to par in this regard and that will add to their lack of success. There are also the other two elements of the three important elements of &quot;3C Vision&quot; which are &quot;creative thinking skills&quot; and &quot;common sense.&quot;<br /><br />As I have done before, I will caution anyone in believing that &quot;hard work&quot; will lead to success. On John Kremer&#39;s Book Marketing Bestsellers Facebook Page, I posted a scan of an article written about me in &quot;Alberta Venture Magazine&quot; in May 1997 (over 21 years ago). At that time the article mentioned that my books had sold a total of 75,000 copies and my &quot;The Joy of Not Working&quot; had been published in 4 other languages. Well, as of September 2018 my books had sold over 1,000,000 copies and &quot;The Joy of Not Working&quot; had been published in 16 other languages.<br /><br />What&#39;s the secret to my success? It&#39;s certainly not &quot;hard work.&quot; I have never been a fan of hard work. (I believe in outsmarting my competition instead of outworking my competition.) Note that the second paragraph of the &quot;Alberta Venture Magazine&quot; article quotes me as saying, &quot;I may only work four or five hours a day but I&#39;m persistent. I never get side-tracked. I spend those four hours either writing my books, promoting my books and distributing my books.&quot; SURPRISE: That is exactly what I still do 21 years later. <br /><br />I have just released my new book &quot;The Joy of Being Retired: 365 Reasons Why Retirement Rocks — and Work Sucks.&quot; Don&#39;t be surprised if it becomes a true <br />bestseller (over 100,000 copies sold in print) in a few years just like 3 of my other books have become. I will certainly spend quite a bit of time over the next two or three years using my creative techniques for marketing this book. I have already gotten two financial advisors to each purchase 200 copies of the offset print edition of &quot;The Joy of Being Retired&quot; to give to their clients. That&#39;s a total 400 copies which is more than most books sell in their lifetimes. I know that I can create a lot more financial advisors purchasing thousands of copies of this book. <br /><br />As I have emphasized before and will continue to emphasize, &quot;Content May Be King but Promotion Is the Supreme Emperor.&quot;<br />Ernie J. Zelinskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01271565900719821395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-61974629115565951772019-01-01T19:51:38.436-08:002019-01-01T19:51:38.436-08:002018 was the year of the ebook deal newsletters. P...2018 was the year of the ebook deal newsletters. Publishers are discounting valuable ebooks in the 2-4 dollar range, making it hard for indies to underprice them anymore. Heck, Amazon is even selling new editions to their own imprints at 99 cents for a sustained period of time (usually 1 month). Amazon doesn&#39;t mind. If the price is under $3, the publisher&#39;s share of the royalties shift from 70 to 30. I buy lots of low-cost titles, but I cringe whenever I think that the author is making only 30 percent on Amazon. More people should know that SW is not only cheaper, but it compensates the authors significantly better in the lower price tier.<br /><br /><br /><br /> Robert Naglehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09244278749337954786noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436915084701775452.post-53668925812964758172019-01-01T19:12:50.920-08:002019-01-01T19:12:50.920-08:00My satisfaction with SW has increased over the yea...My satisfaction with SW has increased over the year, and I have spent way more money at SW this year too.....<br /><br />Indeed, I have started to write monthly columns about Smashwords finds (<a href="http://www.imaginaryplanet.net/weblogs/idiotprogrammer/2018/12/roberts-roundup-of-smashwords-ebook-deals-post-christmas-edition/" rel="nofollow">here&#39;s the latest ebook deal roundup </a>). <br /><br />My biggest complaint is on the publishing side: if you allow authors and publishers to upload epubs directly, why not allow them to upload MOBI files as well? This allows consumers to have access to both formats and lets publishers handle quality control issues. I manage ebooks both on the Kindle app and Google Play Books, but because GPB doesn&#39;t support collections, I end up preferring to read things on Kindle.<br /><br />I use Google Play Books mainly for reading epubs on my android tablet. Even though that app looks really nice, they still haven&#39;t built collections into Google Play Books?! Geez, how hard can that be!? <br /><br />Alternatively, why not partner with a company which builds a cloud-based reading system. You might even work out a way for SW epubs to be dumped directly into this reading system after purchasing. <br /><br />ALSO; some kind of price alert system would be helpful. (&quot;Click here to be notified when the price goes below a certain point&quot;).Robert Naglehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09244278749337954786noreply@blogger.com
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