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PYOB

The state of self-publishing

What does it look like, and why do we care?

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What's wrong with traditional publishing?

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What's wrong with traditional publishing?

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Is digital self-publishing really an alternative?

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Is digital self-publishing really an alternative?

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E-reader adoption

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What are the stakes?

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Where can I publish?

Amazon Kindle Single: sells from .99 to 4.99, is from 10K to 30K words. Have own place in Kindle Store, priced less than most books. About twice the size of a New Yorker feature article. Easier to read on Kindle Apps for iPhone, iPad, etc. Materials is proposed to Amazon staff and accepted if it fits/good enough. Some curatorship and quality control with this. Authors can engage DRM if they choose. Authors get 70% royalties.�

Kindle Direct Publishing Platform only requires an Amazon account, and doesn't involve any gatekeeping at all. Anyone can publish a book with KDP.

KDP Select is a chunk of money set aside to compensate authors and publishers for their books being borrowed in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.

�AmazonEncore is a new program whereby Amazon uses information such as customer reviews on Amazon websites to identify exceptional, overlooked books and authors that show potential for greater sales. Amazon then partners with the authors to re-introduce their books to readers through marketing support and distribution into multiple channels and formats, such as the Amazon Books Store, Amazon Kindle Store, Audible.com, and national and independent bookstores via third-party wholesalers.

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award: actually published by Penguin, with $15K advance

Amazon Singles

Kindle Direct Publishing Platform

KDP Select / Kindle Owners' Lending Library�AmazonEncore

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

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http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/review-my-amazon-kindle-single-publishing-experiment/43911 �

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Where can I publish?

Amazon Kindle Single: sells from .99 to 4.99, is from 10K to 30K words. Have own place in Kindle Store, priced less than most books. About twice the size of a New Yorker feature article. Easier to read on Kindle Apps for iPhone, iPad, etc. Materials is proposed to Amazon staff and accepted if it fits/good enough. Some curatorship and quality control with this. Authors can engage DRM if they choose. Authors get 70% royalties.�

Kindle Direct Publishing Platform only requires an Amazon account, and doesn't involve any gatekeeping at all. Anyone can publish a book with KDP.

KDP Select is a chunk of money set aside to compensate authors and publishers for their books being borrowed in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.

�AmazonEncore is a new program whereby Amazon uses information such as customer reviews on Amazon websites to identify exceptional, overlooked books and authors that show potential for greater sales. Amazon then partners with the authors to re-introduce their books to readers through marketing support and distribution into multiple channels and formats, such as the Amazon Books Store, Amazon Kindle Store, Audible.com, and national and independent bookstores via third-party wholesalers.

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award: actually published by Penguin, with $15K advance �

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/review-my-amazon-kindle-single-publishing-experiment/43911 �

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Book Lust Rediscoveries

“Helping these wonderful books find new readers is, for me, a joy and a delight. I was blown away by Amazon Publishing’s enthusiasm for the project and the extent to which they really understood what I wanted to do.” Nancy Pearl

"[W]hat is she doing partnering with a predatory company like Amazon?" Paul Oliver, Melville Books

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Amazon's tactics: predatory?

OK, what's he talking about--what's predatory about Amazon?

deep discounts

pressure on publishers

data restrictions (Goodreads)

Kindle Direct Publishing program (free titles)�undermining brick-and-mortar (price comparisons around 2011 Xmas)

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http://mhpbooks.com/45999/amazon-ups-coop-and-discount-pressure-on-publishers-to-astronomical-levels/

�http://www.npr.org/2012/01/23/145468105/publishers-and-booksellers-see-a-predatory-amazon

�http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_goodreads_gave_up_on_amazon.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+readwriteweb+%28ReadWriteWeb%29

�clients cannot, "without our express prior written approval, use any Product Advertising Content on or in connection with any site or application designed or intended for use with a mobile phone or other handheld device."

The other key restriction is that Goodreads couldn't link to competing bookstores while using Amazon's API.

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Amazon's tactics: predatory?

OK, what's he talking about--what's predatory about Amazon? �

http://mhpbooks.com/45999/amazon-ups-coop-and-discount-pressure-on-publishers-to-astronomical-levels/

�http://www.npr.org/2012/01/23/145468105/publishers-and-booksellers-see-a-predatory-amazon

�http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_goodreads_gave_up_on_amazon.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+readwriteweb+%28ReadWriteWeb%29

�clients cannot, "without our express prior written approval, use any Product Advertising Content on or in connection with any site or application designed or intended for use with a mobile phone or other handheld device."

The other key restriction is that Goodreads couldn't link to competing bookstores while using Amazon's API.

deep discounts

pressure on publishers

data restrictions (Goodreads)

Kindle Direct Publishing program (free titles)�

undermining brick-and-mortar (price comparisons around 2011 Xmas)

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What does this do to reader expectations?

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What does it do to access and equity?

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What does it do to libraries?

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What does it do to libraries?

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What does it do to the publishing economy?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/30/self-e-publishing-bubble-ewan-morrison

cheap content and expensive e-readers feed off each other, spiral upward.

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"gold rush" mentality for authors: we can all publish a book and make a million!

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Content glut: hundreds of thousands of free self-published books out there for every one that makes money.

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Mass rush behavior--strategy is to give content away for free, creates glut. Only a few will be able to convert free to paid. Most will get nothing.

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models on which success are based are unrealistic and overblown.

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as self-publishing races to zero price, this forces traditional publishing to cut prices as well, to appear competitive/keep attention/seem relevant.

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intense competition from digital selfpub puts traditional publishers under even more pressure to only back sure-hit authors, causes further contraction.�

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