I've Added My Indie Catalog to the Amazon Prime Lending Library

If you're an Amazon Prime member and you have a Kindle or Kindle Fire, you can now borrow any of my self-published Kindle books for free under the Amazon Prime Lending Library program!

Just turn on your Kindle or Fire, go to the Kindle Store, and look up Adelaide Einstein (comic fiction, chick lit), Snow Ball (dark, comic mystery), Shorts (collection of shorts and flash fiction) or From Concept to Community (nonfiction, about strategies for maximizing traffic for a new online community on a shoestring budget, using Publetariat.com as an example).

Here's a link to the Prime Lending Library page on Amazon, where you can get more information about the program and instructions for checking out and returning books.

I'll be adding my new book, Overshare, to this program when it's published, too.

The 70 Per Cent Solution

By now you've probably heard all about Amazon's new 70% royalty option for authors and publishers who release Kindle books through the Amazon Digital Text Platform (DTP), and many of you who have Kindle books in release may have already opted in for the higher royalty. But there's a major gotcha here no one seems to be talking about.

No, I'm not talking about the 'delivery price' factor, which dictates the fee Amazon will hold back on your 70% royalty Kindle book based on the book's file size. Despite all the panic-mongering on that point, and all the worry about whether Amazon may choose to increase that fee at some point in the future, I think it's really no big deal. What I'm talking about is this little nugget from the terms of the 70% offer:

"Under this royalty option, books must be offered at or below price parity with competition, including physical book prices."

What this means is that if your book is being offered anywhere else, in any format, at a lower price than the price you've listed for your Kindle book on Amazon, Amazon will reduce your Kindle book's list price on Amazon to match the lowest price at which your book is being sold elsewhere. You'll still get your 70% royalty, but it will be on that lowest price. It's kind of hard to extrapolate all that from this one-liner in their terms, but I've learned it the hard way.

When I opted in for the 70% royalty and raised my Kindle book prices to $2.99 on Amazon to qualify for the program, I didn't remember my ebooks were being offered on Smashwords and Scribd in non-Kindle formats for $.99. I didn't realize my error until I was reviewing a sales report a couple of weeks later. So I immediately changed the prices on my Smashwords and Scribd editions to $2.99, and waited for Amazon to catch up. And waited. And waited some more, as every single day, I lost royalty money on every copy sold.

After a week I contacted DTP support, and it took another week to get their conclusive response: that my ebooks were still listed on Barnes and Noble's website at a price of $.99. See, B&N is among the expanded distribution resellers which carry Smashwords books when the author of the book in question has opted in for expanded distribution on the Smashwords site---which I had. Even though I changed the prices of my books on Smashwords, it can take weeks, many weeks, for those changes to propagate out to all the expanded distribution resellers. This isn't Smashwords' fault or doing, it's just the reality of waiting for outside companies to make database changes according to whatever processes they have in place. And like most things in mainstream publishing and bookselling, it's a very, very slow process.

So it actually would've been wiser for me to stay out of the 70% royalty option until after I'd raised my book prices outside Amazon and waited for those changes to propagate across all distribution channels. Since I didn't, all I can do is either stay with the 70% on a $.99 pricetag while I wait however long it takes for B&N to catch up, or change back to the 35% royalty option so Amazon will only base my royalties on my Amazon prices.

I chose the latter, but it's still going to cost me. You see, every time you change the price on your DTP Kindle book, or your royalty option, or pretty much anything else about it, you are forced to "re-publish" that book before your changes will be applied. Re-publishing makes the book unavailable for purchase for a minimum of two business days, and sometimes when you re-publish, the book gets stuck in a 'pending' status. When that happens you have to contact DTP support to resolve the issue, all of which means more days your book is not available for sale. When I re-published to opt in for the 70% royalty, my books all got stuck in the 'pending' status; one of them was unavailable for purchase on Amazon for seven calendar days.

Today I started that clock all over again, and I am again running the risk of my Kindle books getting stuck in 'pending' status---all just so I can get back to the 35% royalty option.

Now, don't misunderstand me. I am not saying this is all Amazon's fault, nor that any of it is Smashwords' or B&N's fault. All of my lost royalties in this are ultimately the result of my original oversight.

However, I DO think Amazon should be a little clearer about the full implications of their "price parity" policy, and the importance of matching your Kindle book's price across all resellers---including expanded distribution partners---before opting in for the 70% royalty. I also think the DTP should not require re-publication of a Kindle book when the author/publisher wants to make changes only to its price or royalty option. Why is it necessary to take the book off the virtual sales shelf for these things?

Here's hoping I don't get stuck in 'pending' again.

The IndieAuthor Guide - Now Available In Kindle Edition

Bottom Line It For Me, Baby Version (200 words or less):
We interrupt your regularly-scheduled installment in The IndieAuthor Guide series for this important announcement: The IndieAuthor Guide is now available in an edition specially revised and updated for the Kindle.

Don't worry your pretty heads, the installment series will continue as usual within a week.


Go On An' Run Yo Mouth, I Ain't Got Nuthin' But Time Version (can't promise it won't go on forever):

The IndieAuthor Guide: A Comprehensive Reference to Self-Publishing And Managing Your Career In Indie Authorship

At long last, The IndieAuthor Guide is available in an edition specially revised and updated for the Kindle. Where hyperlinks appeared in the trade paperback edition, those links have been embedded (made clickable) in the Kindle edition. Also, the section on dealing with graphics when publishing for the Kindle has been greatly expanded, since it's assumed anyone who buys the Kindle edition of the book is probably planning to publish his or her own work in Kindle format. Finally, all the images from the trade paperback edition remain intact in the Kindle edition.

This was not at all easy to accomplish, and now I understand completely why there are so few illustrated Kindle titles available. Even though I detail the steps necessary to preserve graphics in a Kindle edition in my book, moderate to advanced HTML skills are required. I'm a retired software engineer with many years' experience programming in HTML and it still took me five tedious, frustrating days (and nights!) of editing, tinkering and trial-and-error to get all the images to show up where and how I wanted them.

If you're intending to publish an illustrated manuscript for the Kindle but lack solid HTML skills, I recommend you consider eliminating the images altogether before you publish for the Kindle. If your book simply won't work without the images, you only have two options: either forgo a Kindle edition or hire a consultant to do the conversion for you.

Toward An Indie Author Movement

Bottom Line It For Me, Baby Version (200 Words Or Less):
Big publishers are run like movie studios, only interested in prestige titles, potential blockbusters and genre fare that earns predictably. When quality, affordable DIY tools became available, aspiring musicians and filmmakers jumped at the chance to go indie. Why haven’t aspiring authors likewise turned to ebook and POD technologies? Conventional publishing industry wisdom states ebooks and POD are merely new forms of vanity publishing for inferior manuscripts, but do readers share that opinion? I intend to find out. I'm releasing two of my novels exclusively for POD and Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader using only Amazon technologies, though not in a bid to attract publisher attention, as many others have done before me. I intend to bypass publishers and brick-and-mortar stores entirely, and remain independent. The experiment is thus far succeeding, as my Kindle-edition novels Snow Ball and Adelaide Einstein are selling well and garnering good reviews. Both will be released as Amazon POD trade paperbacks in March. If sales and acceptance continue, mine will be the first totally indie author success story.

Go On An' Run Yo Mouth, I Got Nuthin' But Time Version (can't promise it won't go on forever):
I'm an agented novelist who's been struggling against the 'gatekeeper' system employed by the publishing establishment to locate new talent. Books are a matter of taste. I don't enjoy every bestseller out there, and neither do you. Yet if my agent, the publishing house editor, or the publishing house marketing department rep simply isn't "passionate" enough about a given manuscript, any one of them can put the kibosh on its further progress for the time being.

Big publishers are run like movie studios, only interested in prestige titles, potential blockbusters and genre fare that earns predictably. When quality, affordable DIY tools became available, aspiring musicians and filmmakers jumped at the chance to go indie. Why haven’t aspiring authors likewise turned to ebook and Print On Demand technologies?

Conventional publishing industry wisdom states ebooks and POD are merely new forms of vanity publishing for inferior manuscripts, and that brick-and-mortar bookstore presence (which is denied to virtually all POD books) is a prerequisite to a successful career in authorship. These suppositions are widely accepted as gospel among aspiring writers, largely due to a bizarre sort of Stockholm Syndrome fostered by the publishing industry: aspiring writers have come to not only accept the industry establishment's absolute control over their future careers, they've come to believe there's inherent value in that control and will even defend it.

Not long ago I would've been right there with them, because until recently the publishing establishment had a complete monopoly on publishing. There was simply no way to get your book to market other than via established publishers with established supply chains. Along came vanity presses, but they were quickly discredited and dismissed, and far too expensive for a typical aspiring writer to afford besides. Now, at last, ebook, POD, and online viral marketing technologies have leveled the playing field such that anyone with a modest budget, some basic computer skills, a little time and a lot of passion can duplicate or approximate almost every service offered by a big publishing house. I say almost because the establishment still has a stranglehold on that one, last piece: supply chain and distribution to brick-and-mortar bookstores.

However, with Amazon the #2 bookseller in North America and perhaps the largest international bookseller, I believe we've reached a tipping point. Brick-and-mortar bookstores may have become marginalized to an extent where bookstore presence is no longer a required piece of the writing success puzzle. If I'm right about that, then the publishing establishment truly has nothing to offer me.

They reserve their promotion and marketing budgets for their prestige clients, bestselling author clients, and celebrity clients. Unless you come with a built-in 'angle', you're on your own to publicize your work whether you self-pub or not. They can't compete on the money front; author royalties on self-pub titles tend to run about three times the standard percentages offered by major publishers. And as for the 'prestige' factor, it's irrelevant to readers. No reader gets pulled in by jacket copy or a free excerpt, then rejects the book after a glance at the publisher details, exlaiming in horror, "Why, this book was published by Joe Bob's Falafel Hut, Bait Shop and Press, not a legitimate publisher at all!"

So, I'm putting my authorial money where my mouth is in an attempt to blaze a trail for truly indie authors. I've released two of my novels exclusively for POD and Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader using only Amazon technologies, though not in a bid to attract publisher attention, as many others have done before me. I am bypassing publishers and brick-and-mortar stores entirely, attempting to reach the same level of sales and success as a typical mid-list author through online sales of ebook and POD editions only.

I've rambled on quite long enough for one post, but stay tuned to this bat-station for future posts with details on what I'm doing, how I'm doing it, and how it's going. For now, you can check out my Kindle-edition novels: Adelaide Einstein and Snow Ball. Support the indie author movement!