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Kindle Book/author availability

  • 25-03-2020 11:34pm
    #1
    Heckler
    Registered Users Posts: 3,322 ✭✭✭


    Why do some authors not release their books through Kindle or whatever digital download system ? Surely a very cheap method of getting a book out there ? I'm a big fan of Stephen Hunter but none of his books are available on Amazon ?

    Published by Simon and Schuster who also publish Stephen King who is freely available for download so surely not a publishers issue.

    Anyone ?


Comments

  • #2
    Nigel Fairservice
    Registered Users, Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators Posts: 2,172 Mod ✭✭✭✭Nigel Fairservice


    I've noticed the same with Tobias Wolff books. They don't seem to be available digitally. I'm sure for a publishing house it wouldn't be too costly in terms of cost and effort to make the manuscripts available in various digital formats. I imagine there's different elements to it, licencing decisions, author wishes. By not making books available electronically authors and publishers also closed off from a different revenue stream.


  • #3
    gogo
    Registered Users Posts: 1,452 ✭✭✭gogo


    Heckler wrote: »
    Why do some authors not release their books through Kindle or whatever digital download system ? Surely a very cheap method of getting a book out there ? I'm a big fan of Stephen Hunter but none of his books are available on Amazon ?

    Published by Simon and Schuster who also publish Stephen King who is freely available for download so surely not a publishers issue.

    Anyone ?

    Probably a bit late to this post but anyway, King has long been an advocate for online publishing long before the kindle was even a thing. My first ever downloadable book was Kings The Plant, which he released a chapter every month for a dollar a download,
    Prior to The Plant he has similar success with Riding the Bullet, also downloadable, he experimented with cutting out the middle man, it should also be noted that he has a profit share relationship with Simon and Schuster.. he’s not on royalties, he earns a lot more and calls a lot more of the shots then your average writer regardless how popular, hence if we wants to go digital, he can.

    S&S seen a drop in profits from there digital downloads from 25% to 23%, audio is where it’s at now seemingly and I’d imagine a lot of new authors would be looking at it from this point of view. Also amazon analytics are fairly messed up, Jane doe releases a book and all her friends and family buy it and Amazon’s analytics now target the same buyers for the book, when most of those buyers may never have bought a similar book in that genre before. Thereby feckin up your target market audience. It sounds straight forward enough to just go digital, but there is a lot of science and debate over which is the best route these days, with audio now also being a big consideration..

    Just my two cents, could be way off of course ;)


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