Amazon: The Long Con
Okay. I have finally seen the light. ÌýMostly it's the Amazon-Hachette thing, though really I should have seen it from the similar Amazon-Macmillan thing of a few years ago. Ìý I'm not going to boycott Amazon, but I am going to scale back my involvement with them.
Here's why: Amazon is a long con. ÌýThey have yet to turn any serious profits. ( that goes into this in some detail, if you're interested.) They seem to be focusing on crushing the competition. ÌýWhich, as the article states, they are able to do because they don't care about making money.
Amazon has become a near-monopoly, particularly in the ebook field. ÌýAnd we can't wait for our government to break it. ÌýBecause all those sweet deals that Amazon is offering writers and readers now are going to evaporate as soon as investors decide they want this business to make money.
Amazon currently offers 70% ebook royalties to publishers. ÌýThey have almost no competition. ÌýB & N and Apple sell about a quarter of what Amazon sells. ÌýKobo and others lag far behind. (At least here. I understand Kobo is big in Canada.). Once Amazon is literally the only game in town, or pretty much whenever they decide they need to start making money, they will be able to drive those royalties as low as they want. Which means, for readers, that ebook prices will rise just so writers can get paid.Ìý
Here's what I'm doing. Ìý
As a writer: I had two books on KDP select deals, meaning that I got certain benefits from having them only available on Amazon. I've terminated that--The Mall of Cthuhlu will be available on Nook and Kobo within a couple of weeks, and Enter the Bluebird will be available on Nook and Kobo in August. Ìý
As a reader: I love the ease of purchasing and reading ebooks. My Kindle has fortuitously decreed this as the best time to die. ÌýI'm going to be buying a (cheap!) tablet that will allow me to buy ebooks from a number of retailers, so I won't be locked in to Amazon. Ìý(Also, the sideloading of ebooks I get elsewhere onto the Kindle is a pain in the ass, so I won't miss that.) ÌýI will be making efforts to support DIY authors on Kobo and B&N so that more of them can make money in these places and will therefore place more books there.
I can't stress this enough: eventually Amazon is going to want to make money. Start putting your eggs in different baskets while those baskets still exist. ÌýIf they're willing to screw a giant corporation, what chance do you have?Ìý
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