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Are Amazon just a vanity press of the worst kind - or are they being paid off?

9/20/2011

24 Comments

 
When Amazon launched the kindle, they offered a great new publishing opportunity to independent authors and publishers. Individual authors and small presses alike could publish their books to kindle and reach the growing audience of ebook readers.

Previously, only the biggest publishers with a high financial turnover were able to market their books to more than a handful of the book-buying public. It is no secret that they controlled the market by buying display space in shops and reviews in the national press, pushing a small selection of books under the noses of readers and tempting them with cheap deals. Small presses, by contrast, could only afford more costly short print runs, only to have their books consigned to the shadowy back shelves of bookshops – if they were stocked at all.

So the opportunity offered by Amazon levelled the playing field for small and individual publishers, allowing them to compete at a price equal to or lower than most mainstream books, along with online forums where authors or their representatives could, within reason, tell readers about their books. This was made available, first in US, then extended to authors and publishers in other countries, and, as each market developed, Amazon tempted small publishers with a larger share of the revenue.

By Easter of this year, many authors and small publishers – especially of the more mass market books - were enjoying a generous and regular income from ebooks. Almost all made their books available in a variety of formats, distributed by different retailers, but, due to the success of the kindle, combined with the opportunity to interact with readers on the Amazon forum, most found that this provided by far the biggest portion of their income. Many authors were giving up their day jobs to write full time, in order to satisfy the demand from their fans for more books. And new small presses – essential for nurturing new talent and launching new authors into the mainstream – were beginning to flourish.

Then, suddenly, without warning, Amazon called time. Forum posters were forbidden to post links to their books or to promote them on amazon.com’s site apart from in a newly-created jumbled author area. Where previously they had been on virtual shelves in a bookshop, sorted according to subject and genre, they were all thrown in a heap into one bargain bin out the back.

And now the same thing seems to be happening in the UK store, although Amazon have not actually announced it.

Due to these changes, during the past 2 – 3 months, the revenue of many independent authors and small presses has dropped by 90%. Of course, Amazon is a business, not a charity, and if new publishers go bankrupt because of their actions, it is neither their concern, nor their responsibility. But for all the revenue lost by publishers and authors, Amazon is losing it too. And this makes their action difficult to understand.

As an independent author and publisher, I might be taking a blinkered view. So I’ve asked the opinion of Amazon customers who have nothing to lose financially by the developments. And their answer is always the same: a look of disbelief followed by a protestation that a business taking action which loses them money, simply doesn’t make sense.

So I’m trying to understand what Amazon are playing at. Did they set out as a vanity press, making false promises to would-be authors, playing on their delusions that they could write? Did they use new authors and small presses, encouraging them to publish so that kindle could acquire and boast a large number of cheap books and so take the trade that may have gone to other manufacturers of ereaders? Did they do this to persuade a large number of authors, small publishers and their friends to buy kindles? Did they do all this knowing they would ruin businesses and lives?

Well maybe they did. But that doesn’t explain why they stopped doing it at a point in time when those authors and publishers were earning them a lot of money.

Maybe forum members complained that they didn’t like all the advertising.

Certainly some did, but judging by the sales and the favourable reviews on independently published books, they are far outnumbered by customers who like not only the availability of those books but the opportunity to interact with the authors. In any case, an astute business wouldn’t pay heed to complaints from a minority of customers whose business doesn’t add up to much revenue when far more money will be lost by responding to it.

Two more points which suggest customer pressure is not the reason for Amazon’s action. Customers in the UK store contacted Amazon and asked them to provide one author/publisher promotion thread in each genre area. An excellent suggestion, which would have kept everyone happy and would be cheap and easy to implement. But Amazon weren’t prepared to listen. Secondly, the sales which arise from an author’s forum promotion are not the bulk but the catalyst for many more sales via Amazon’s automated recommendations. Most customers do not read or post on the forums but the books they buy often come from forum generated sales. So the financial consequences of Amazon’s action reach much further than a few sales from a forum.

So what other explanation could there be?

Very simply, that if Amazon are losing a considerable amount of revenue, they must be being compensated with significantly more. Where might this be coming from and why does it require their dispensing with the smaller publishers?

Here’s one possibility. As mentioned earlier, by purchasing display space in shops, the big publishers are able to control the print book side of the publishing industry. They are able to ensure that, irrespective of quality, the books they produce sell in larger quantities than those from smaller presses.  Amazon’s ban on author advertising in US coincided with the kindle release of many cheap backlists from large publishers. Could it be that they don’t want the competition and they are prepared to pay to have it removed? Or might it be that Amazon is preparing to sell advertising space, for a price, to the big publishers, and that free promotion must therefore go? Or simply that Amazon don’t want competition with their own publishing imprint?

I don’t know the answers to these questions. I do know that most US independents have not been hit as hard as those in UK – perhaps because they’ve had longer to get established. But this makes me even more concerned. Here we are in Britain. We have no British retailer of ebooks or manufacturer of ereaders (certainly none that will make any difference), the books available to us are being increasingly chosen by a US company and our hope for nurturing new talent, both for authors and publishers is seriously under threat.

What is going on and what are we going to do about it?

As usual, sensible responses are welcome. As per my blog policy - no sales figures please.

24 Comments
Sj link
9/20/2011 07:46:07 pm

Without insider knowledge, all the evidence points to Amazon using the independents and self publishers to leverage control of the majors. The independents may well have now served their purpose and Amazon is engaged in a monopoly war. Having drenched the market in Kindle and Kindle related items, it seems likely that the independents will indeed be dumped in the virtual remainder bin.

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Ali Cooper link
9/20/2011 09:30:36 pm

I think a lot of authors and publishers are hoping that if they look the other way they won't be affected. This has huge implications for small presses as well as individuals. Without grants to keep them afloat they're reliant on the more actively promoting indies to bring in revenue and finance books going into print. You can tweet as much as you like but it reaches a fraction of the readership of just a few forum promotions.

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Sandy Burnfield link
9/20/2011 10:49:39 pm

Would it be possible for a Cooperative to be established to promote and market independently published books?

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Ali Cooper link
9/20/2011 11:24:16 pm

A good point, Sandy. So it probably won't surprise you to learn that most of us have been doing this since we published. But the fact is, most readers don't look further than their kindle screens. However much advertising, recommending, reviewing etc we do elsewhere, it only amounts to around 10% of the sales we gain directly and indirectly from promoting our books on the Amazon site.

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Pam Howes link
9/21/2011 01:02:57 am

Thank you, Ali, that's very interesting. Amazon banned me along with a few other authors from promoting on the UK site a few weeks ago without any warning or explanations. They are not prepared to discuss it with me either. This has had a huge effect on my sales which are about fifty per cent down on what they were. I try and promote elsewhere but can't reach the genre buyers like I could on the forums. I didn't advertise any more than other authors, but I still got banned and they won't agree to re-instate me. The only consolation I get is that they're making less money from me now!

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Ali Cooper link
9/21/2011 01:14:04 am

I'm not banned, Pam. But the fact I'm no longer allowed to promote my book or put links to it mean that I have gone from earning a living to earning a bar of chocolate each day if I'm lucky. Many of the new authors who have gained a substantial readership over the past year or two will now simply disappear.

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Janice Campbell / NAIWE link
9/21/2011 03:58:04 am

Great post, Ali. I hadn't heard about this, but it doesn't sound good. I am going to try to find out more about it, as we have quite a few members who profit from being on Amazon.

Do you think the promotion so heavy that it hijacked other topics of discussion? Is it possible to market subtly by putting your book title and unlinked URL (no http://) in the signature of your forum posts? It may take extra creativity, but there must be ways to promote within the current rules. I can't imagine that Amazon totally wants to shut down the indies. However, if I discover anything, I'll try to remember to let you know.

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Dan Holloway link
9/21/2011 04:25:45 am

I think to a certain extent it was inevitable that the Kindle bestsellers would, as the format became more mainstream, imitate the paperback bestsellers. But yes, Amazon's actions for a while have been very indie unfriendly - back in June I wrote a piece called "has Amazon declared war on the indies?" http://agnieszkasshoes.blogspot.com/2011/06/has-amazon-declared-war-on-indies.html - the start of it (anecdotally) felt like the spring, then summer, sales. Then publishers started using low prices upon publication to feed into the algorithms. And using short books padded out with marketing at low prices - the beginning of that felt like the Karin Slaughter number one. This background makes it very hard to see the latest thread-banning as a reaction to customer pressure. It's hard to tell whether publishers are behind this, reacting strong-arm style to indies (it will be interesting to see their figures for this period to see if they're loss-leading), or whether Amazon are behind it, clearing the way for their own publishing arm.

In the long run, I don't know whether Amazon are losing out this way. Do we really know what sales indies brought, and what sales are being lost versus the sales being gained from this new way of doing it? My guess is that Amazon sees indies as their long tail rather than their bestsellers - whether they are right or wrong only time will tell. Whether we want to *be* their long tail or not is something we have to think about.

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Ali Cooper link
9/21/2011 04:30:21 am

Hi Janice, I don't for one minute believe that Amazon are concerned whether a few adverts for books get in the way of constant threads about kindle backlighting (no, it isn't backlit) and forum bullies. I'm sure a few disgruntled forum members complained, but the amount this small number of people spent on goods was nothing compared to the revenue Amazon was collecting as a result of independently published books being promoted. In any case, a middle path which benefitted all parties could easily have been found.

As to your suggestion of putting a website address in forum posts, whilst this may be a concession, to me it feels like playing silly games. What customers who buy independent books say they want is an internal link. What is more, they prefer that link - with a book description - to be in a dedicated thread in the appropriate genre forum. Even if authors do as you suggest, they will be investing a great deal of time for much less financial return than before, in addition to the very real risk of being banned from posting anything on Amazon forums indefinitely. If you're doing this for a hobby then perhaps you feel this is better than nothing. But better than nothing - for those authors and publishers who were doing it as a profession - does not run a business.

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Ali Cooper link
9/21/2011 04:40:56 am

Hi Dan, yes, obviously some books will appeal to a wider audience - whomever publishes them. However, Amazon's actions will make it almost impossible for almost any books, other than those with big mainstream backing, to find their potential audience. This isn't just about the individual author, it's about new small presses which nurture new talent and act as a feeder or alternative to the mainstream. Both you and I found a readership for our books, albeit perhaps a temporary one. This possibility is no longer such a viable option for new authors just starting out and I feel it's a great loss.

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Scath link
9/21/2011 04:11:07 pm

To be honest, I hadn't realized there was a huge number of traditionally published back lists being 'Kindle-ized' at the time Amazon decided to listen to those in the forums who were sick of the constant promotional activities of authors.

In fact, customers who frequent the forums there have been complaining for a few years now about the self-promotion.

I've seen threads where authors just drop in, blast links, blurbs, reviews, and then they're out. One does it, then a dozen or more follow, and the thread, whatever it was about, dies.

So I really think Amazon was listening to more than a small number of customers, as there are a large number who frequent the forums.

I'm certain there are many more who don't, but the vocal ones are going to be heard.

A couple of years of constant complaining is going to be acted on.

Many of those authors weren't interacting with readers. They were dive bombing them.

Their actions were why I never bothered to participate in the Amazon forums much. Mention you're an author, and you'll get lynched for the actions of others.

I did participate in the Meet the Author forum for a little while, but frankly, the atmosphere there sucks. Authors complaining and putting down readers, readers coming over to pick fights.

How anyone can manage to sell books in that kind of situation is beyond me.

My sales grew without promoting in the forums constantly. They began dropping when Amazon did that Sunshine Deal or whatever it was.

I'm not certain the Kindle Indie store is having a negative effect yet, as my sales have begun to return to normal.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I really don't think it's some sort of conspiracy or whatever. I think a lot of authors behaved badly, ticked off a lot of vocal customers, Amazon finally listened, and made changes they felt were appropriate to the situation.

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Ali Cooper link
9/21/2011 08:15:15 pm

You're making a huge assumption that Amazon has sidelined author promotion because of customer complaints. You're also overlooking all the abusive attacks on customers who are new to kindle and don't understand how their ereader works. Also, I note you conveniently fail to mention the great number of satisfied customers who state, on forums and in reviews, that they discovered a book because it was advertised on a forum. And that's without all the appreciative readers who don't realise the only reason a book was suggested to them was because it was first advertised in this way.

Sadly, any unmoderated online forum attracts cowardly bullies. The only difference with Amazon was that, for a while, those bullies targeted authors rather than other customers.

Of course, all authors' and publishers' circumstances will vary. Some genres have more established groups elsewhere online and non-fiction books tend to be automatically recommended because of subject searches.

But overall, the opportunity offered to new authors and publishers has been very suddenly revoked and this will impact greatly on the choice of books offered to readers over the coming years.

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Carol Arnall link
9/21/2011 09:02:46 pm

If Amazon do not give the Indie authors a chance to promote their work not only will they lose sales, the proof readers and editors will also lose out in a big way. Authors will not be sending them so much work knowing they will not be able to recoup it through sales.
Readers will not be able to go to the boards (and they do) to find out what is in the market place, sales will be few and far between. Hence it's hardly worth authors' spending a couple of years, or even longer writing their book if they do not have a good outlet to promote it.
I feel Amazon were very good to allow us to promote our books for so long. On the other hand they should have at least have had the courtesy to explain why they have stopped us promoting. To remove all the promotion threads without a word seems very strange indeed.
Perhaps they are working behind the scenes on a MOA Forum. I hope they offer us somewhere to promote our work, as Amazon without doubt, IMO are the biggest and best online showcase for books in the world.
Of course we can still promote in the US, but we definitely need somewhere in the UK.

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Ali Cooper link
9/21/2011 10:37:19 pm

Hi Carol, you make some very good points, however, I feel you're not viewing it in business terms because in one sense you are a hobby or at least a part time writer. That is not to say that what you produce is amateur - on the contrary, I've read some of it and rate it very highly - but, unlike some, you have another source of household income and your revenue from writing is an extra.



Firstly, as I stated in the blog, Amazon are a business, not a charity. Their sole purpose is to make money and it isn't their concern if their actions put others out of work, nor if they adversely affects literature as a whole.

Secondly, they have not been very good to you, allowing you to publish and promote. They haven't done this for your well-being or anyone else's. They've done it as part of a bigger plan to make money for themselves.

And thirdly, sorry, but a Meet Our Authors forum is not the answer. This is evidenced by the one in the US which is a badly organised mess, rarely visited by authors or readers. As a part time writer, you might consider that 3 sales a day instead of 30 is better than nothing. But if you were running a business, publishing others, you'd be bankrupt by now.

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Mitchell Willie link
9/22/2011 01:48:56 am

Having not utilized Amazon's publishing services yet (but planning on it), and not being a frequent visitor of her forums, I'm curious: Is this advertising ban solely for the Amazon.com forums? Or will it affect other areas of the site itself?

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Ali Cooper link
9/22/2011 03:45:24 am

Hi Mitchell,
I'm not quite sure what you mean here - whether you're referring to the policy being rolled out to forums in other markets (which it is - UK) or do you know areas of the dot com site which I'm unaware of?

The point is this: however good your product description, your cover, your reviews etc, customers will only see this if they are directed to the product page. And although a few specific genres have sites other than Amazon, where fans of that niche will go to look, for most authors and publishers, internal links from the Amazon forums have generated most of their sales. Although some new presses and individuals do not frequent the forums and say they do OK, I'm quite sure that, had they promoted their books in this way, their readership would be far wider.

The other problem with most other forms of promotion is that many authors are simply selling to other authors. Amazon's forums reach readers who do not write themselves - in other words, a mainstream readership.

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Scath
9/23/2011 01:16:40 am

Ali said: "You're making a huge assumption that Amazon has sidelined author promotion because of customer complaints. You're also overlooking all the abusive attacks on customers who are new to kindle and don't understand how their ereader works. Also, I note you conveniently fail to mention the great number of satisfied customers who state, on forums and in reviews, that they discovered a book because it was advertised on a forum."

***

No, I'm not making a huge assumption. I was stating what I've witnessed.

I've been watching what went on in the Amazon forums for the past three years.

The only customers I've seen mention finding a book on the forums posted on the forums.

Anyone is open to being attacked on the forums there now, because the situation's gone on for so long, every new member is suspected of being an indie author/spam artist.

Frankly, there are indies who somehow manage to sell large numbers of ebooks at Amazon, without once promoting in any of the Amazon forums. Most of the indie authors I know wouldn't willingly enter the Amazon forums for any reason, much less to promote their books.

However, based on your response to my first comment, I've gotten the impression you're not looking for an actual debate on the matter, so will bow out in order to work on my latest story. :)

Good luck to you.

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Ali Cooper link
9/23/2011 03:48:13 am

If you read to the bottom of the blog, you will notice that I'm writing this from a British perspective, very much concerned with the implications it has for new publishers and authors in this country. I also acknowledge that established US authors (which I'm guessing you are) and specific genres (particularly the fantasy genres which dominate the independent kindle boards site - which again, I'm guessing you and/or many of your friends are) are not so hard hit because there already so many indie authors established together online.

But there are many UK readers who do not want to limit their reading to US fantasy and paranormal. They want a variety of genres and they want at least a good proportion to be by UK writers to whom they can more easily relate. Just because Amazon is an American company and just because kindle was first launched in US and that certain indie authors and genres got an advance foothold doesn't mean they are appropriate for the market in other countries.

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James Everington link
9/24/2011 12:01:42 am

I guess we'll find out soon enough... unfortunately I doubt we can change the outcome. I think lots of us were uneasy about getting into bed with Amazon and it seeming so cosy initially.

But on the plus side, up until a year ago I'd barely read any indie books. Not I read lots, and I'm still going to seek them out. If it ends up not being on Amazon, that's their loss not mine.

Good luck to us all...

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Ali Cooper link
9/24/2011 12:18:49 am

Hi James, as an author, I've been unhappy from the start about the stranglehold Amazon now has on UK publishing. It's worsened by their discounting/price matching policy and this works against UK authors rather than US. For readers who don't understand this, there is an agreement with other US retailers that they won't discount ebooks. But the agreement does not extend to their UK counterparts. This means that, if an author distributes to other stores, there will always be one that discounts and amazon will discount to match it. The only solution is not to distribute. Whatever we do, Amazon always offer the lowest price, often lower than we request. So our sales are almost all via them, however much we may prefer it otherwise.

I'm glad you're planning to continue to seek out new authors. Sadly, in US very few readers do. Despite how enthusiastic they were, and how supportive of indie authors previously, I guess there are so many other books presented to them by Amazon and one click is easier than searching elsewhere.

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Jackie Luben link
10/5/2011 05:37:47 am

Very interesting blog, Ali. I have only been posting on the Amazon site for about six weeks. I didn't check the rules and got thrown off, though after much pleading was reinstated. I'm now being very careful, but I am only a hobby writer.

One of the things not mentioned is that if you achieve sufficient sales by promoting on the forums, you can get into one of the top 100 lists. Presumably Amazon customers who do not visit the forums do look at these lists, particularly if they are interested in a specific genre. This then can create a virtuous circle of sales.

Another thread was closed today. I received an email with a post, which was part of an interesting discussion, but when I went to reply, the thread had disappeared. This is the one with books under £2.99. There was no reason given.

Best of luck with your books.

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Ali Cooper link
10/5/2011 07:23:31 am

Hi Jackie, thank you for contributing. I'll comment on two points which you raise.

Firstly, you say that Amazon agreed to reinstate you. I have to say that you are incredibly lucky. Most authors I know in a similar situation, not even knowing why they are banned have simply been told that Amazon are not prepared to discuss it. End of.

Secondly, you mention top 100s. Yes, I have mentioned this but in different terminology. When you sell a reasonable number of books within a short space of time and within specific categories, this is enough for you to be recommended by Amazon to other customers. You don't need to be in a top 100 and I'm not sure that customers particularly look at these lists. But they probably do look at recommendations which Amazon send to them by email or which appear when they log on. But these rankings and recommendations are updated every hour and their effect is ephemeral. To illustrate this point, a few weeks ago, my two books, Cave and The Girl on the Swing, were at #1 and #2 respectively in UK movers and shakers. That means that both had gained rank more than any other books in the UK store. Yet today, just a few weeks on, they have pretty much disappeared from sight.

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Nora link
5/10/2019 08:48:30 pm

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    I'm Ali. I'm an author and musician, living in Devon, and I teach guitar.

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