This article lends to an interesting debate.
Don't get me wrong: I am no Bezos fan. I'm not an Amazon fan because I think they have full control of a large market, and that discourages competition. Amazon has a MASSIVE monopoly on a lot of things, but especially books. It used to be a little more fair for nobodies like me on the Amazon marketplace, but a while back the Big 5 publishing companies complained about people like me being put on the same platform as people like King, Rowling, Connelly, et al. and demanded changes to the algorithms to favor the heavyweights who put the bulk of coin into the coffers. But what's the alternative? When you look at sales as a nobody like me, people are far more willing to drop $5 on an eBook than $20 on a hard copy. Even more so, Kindle Unlimited has given me readers around the world that I never would have gotten otherwise. The trade-off is that I make less money per book, but get a chance to gain more reviews, and more reviews might hypothetically bring more readers. (Or, if I'm playing for my wildest dreams: a decent agent or traditional publishing contract...but at this point in my career/life, I'm not holding my breath for either. I'm too weird for traditional publishing...) For books like the Survivor Journals, the Kindle Unlimited gamble has paid off immeasurably. For my Abe & Duff books, which are in a grossly oversaturated genre, it's a little less so. But it's better than the alternative, which is trying to rely solely on hard copy sales as a nobody who has to work a day job to survive. Robert Pirsig, who wrote Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, used to have to go to flea markets to peddle copies out of his trunk back in the Before Time, in the Long Long Ago before the Internet. He wrote one of the most popular books of the 1970s, but he still struggled for a long time to sell hard copies. For me, I sell almost no hard copies. I wish I sold more. I just don't. I know some writers like Kathleen Ernst do very well with hard copies. She has entire shelves in bookstores dedicated to her stuff, whereas most of my books gather too much dust. However, in the digital world, I'm doing okay. Most months, I sell at least one copy of one of my books every single day. It's only like $.35 per eBook, but it adds up over weeks and months. And most days, I do better than one copy. I know a lot of nobodies from nowhere who would kill to have my level of "success." If I were relying only on hard copy sales, I would be in the hundreds of copies sold. Instead, with the grace of the digital market and some wonderful luck, I've crossed the hundred-thousand mark, which is pretty impressive for a nobody, but less impressive when you realize that number is spread across more than a dozen books and a dozen years. Still, I'm not complaining. I wouldn't have those sales if not for Amazon's ease of use and monopoly, though. Particularly their Kindle Unlimited offering. I would LOVE for people to be buying physical copies and asking for in-store appearances, but they're not. Amazon's model is the best I can do. I've looked into other markets and Amazon alternatives. I've tried them. In all other non-Amazon markets for ebooks, I've literally only sold THREE copies since I started trying to compete in this game. Amazon has a stranglehold on the market that I don't see being defeated short of Congressional antitrust hearings. I see a lot of writers delivering a lot of hate toward Amazon. I fully understand that hate. I hate what Amazon has done to bookstores, which is why I always try to direct people to buy books through their local indie stores like Mystery to Me, A Room of One's Own, or Arcadia Books (or any of the other dozens of indie bookstores in Wisconsin). Not only does it help the bookstore, but it helps me by letting the bookstore know I exist. Maybe they'll ask me to show up and shill books or something. Who knows? Should Amazon be broken up because of its market cornering? Probably. Would it damage my sales? Definitely. No one else can hold a candle to what Amazon has done for nobodies like me, but I would still be interested in seeing someone try to compete. |
About the AuthorSean Patrick Little is a writer, speaker, editor, educator, and general literary dude from Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. Click the pictures below to purchase books!
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