Wednesday, February 22, 2012

E-Tailers, Part Deux - Amazon

Amazon. The company that is either the Second Coming or the Anti-Christ depending the person talking. Neither version is useful to an indie writer. Always take anything anyone says about anything, including Amazon and the Big Six, with a grain of salt, a shot of tequila and a lime

Here's the original post I did about the pros and cons of Amazon. Since then, Amazon has had issues with their over-enthusiastic 'bots. In December, they added their e-book Lending Library with its 90-day exclusivity clause and it's five days of allowing you to give away your book for free.

The main reason for going with Amazon still remains--the 70% of gross to the author for e-books priced from $2.99 to $9.99.

Uploading has been changed to allow both DOC and MOBI files. If you don't have a Kindle, I highly recommend downloading their Kindle for PC app or Kindle for Mac app to test your MOBI files before uploading for e-book to Amazon.

There's been a great deal of debate over participating the Amazon Lending Library Program ("ALLP"). I haven't tried it yet. I may. Personally, I think you should use it in conjunction with a well-thought-out marketing plan because I don't believe giving ALL your goods away for free is smart business. Just my $0.02.

If I do try ALLP, it WON'T be with one of my current series. I'm starting to get some traction on other retail platforms. In fact, one series is selling best on Barnes & Noble, not Amazon. I'm also starting to get feedback from readers. It's not good business to make a current series book exclusive on only Amazon when it's selling so well in another store. The LAST thing I want to do is piss off readers. Ultimately, these are the people paying me!

If anyone's tried ALLP, I'd love to hear your experience. I KNOW the readers of this blog would as well. Please let us know in comments, or contact me by e-mail: suzan at suzanharden dot com.


2 comments:

  1. I have not PPL'd, but my sales at B&N have taken off since the PPL started...coincidence? Maybe...or lots of people got a nook for Christmas!

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  2. Considering the number of Kindles and iPads I wrapped at Christmas (there's a Target and an Apple store in the mall where I work), I'm sure an enormous number of Nooks were sold in November and December as well.

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