Posts Tagged ‘Amazon Kindle’

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eBooks at Smashwords.com


02 Jun

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Posted in About Publishing | No Comments »

As a reader, you’ve got a rapidly growing number of choices for eBook formats and devices like the Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook, and Sony Reader, not to mention a hodgepodge of mobile devices like the iPhone and BlackBerry that can run a variety of reader applications. Some of these platforms (hardware or software), notably the Kindle and the Nook, have dedicated on-line stores to support them. There is, however, another retailer that offers a wide range of format choices and a rapidly expanding library of paid and free books: Smashwords.com.

Smashwords is something in between. They distribute to some of the major retailers, including Barnes and Noble, Apple, and – soon – the Kindle Store, but they also sell direct in all the major formats.

So why should you worry about Smashwords, rather than buying through the “big” retailers? For one, it gives you more choice in books. For another, you may find some gems on sale or even for free that you wouldn’t see from the major retailers (although, granted, there are quite a few places where you can get free books, although not necessarily in as wide an array of formats).

There’s also another good reason that I’ll mention from a purely selfish point of view as an author: Smashwords pays higher author/publisher royalties than almost all the other retailers. When you buy from them, even for books at the exact same, and often lower, price than at some of the major retailers, the author and/or publisher will get a larger cut of your moolah, which is a good thing (hey, we need to eat, you know)!

If you’d like, feel free to check out my novels on Smashwords to get an idea of what they have to offer.

Amazon vs. Macmillan: Clash of the Titans


01 Feb

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Posted in About Publishing, My Books | 1 Comment »

If you’ve been scoping out books at Amazon over the last couple of days, you may have noticed that a lot of books have suddenly had their “buy now” buttons disappear. That’s because there’s a big fight going on between Amazon and the publishing house of Macmillan, both giants in their respective fields of retail and publishing.

The cause of the tiff? Macmillan wants Amazon to set higher prices – $12.99 to $14.99 – for ebooks versions of bestsellers and hardcover releases in the Amazon Kindle store. Amazon, to their credit, said not only no, but hell no, and pulled the “buy now” buttons for all of its Macmillan titles in protest. That’s got to be putting a huge squeeze on Macmillan and, unfortunately, its authors.

Amazon noted that, unfortunately, in the end they’ll have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms (which, as of today, they have), because they want to continue to offer their titles, and it will be up to consumers to decide if they want to pay these higher prices (from the Amazon Kindle Team announcement). But I still have to hand it to them for at least popping Macmillan in the nose.

There’s a lot that’s going on behind the scenes on this, and the best summary of the shenanigans – and a lot of other great insights for both readers and authors – I’ve seen thus far is on author J.A. Konrath’s blog. But to me this is really the first clear and unequivocal signal that the times, they are a-changing, even if the big publishers like Macmillan want to remain rooted in the past. Why? Because the changes on the horizon, which I think are inevitable in this age of technology, threaten to completely destroy the business model that’s been sustaining them for – literally – centuries.

As a friend of mine once told me, “In dysfunction, there is opportunity,” and the exposure of the dysfunctional business models of traditional publishers offer some great potential opportunities for readers and authors alike, especially when readers are confronted with higher prices and authors with cuts in their royalties.

For readers, you’re going to see a lot more in the way of choices of what to read. The publishing houses are already starting to lose their power to dictate what is published, which in turn dictates what you have available to read. There’s a growing number of independent and small press publishers out there with great stories to tell, and the vast majority of them offer their work at “value” prices. Why? Because the price doesn’t have to support the huge infrastructure of a major publishing house that specializes in printing and distributing paper. On top of that, even when selling at a much lower price, many of these authors make more on each book sold than they would on sales of books through a publisher. Cheap eBooks can be good for both the reader and the author.

For authors, technology like Amazon’s Digital Text Platform and Smashwords allow you to get your work out to the world for free. You’re still responsible for making sure it’s professional grade (proofing, editing, cover art, etc.), but the profit margins are better and you’re in control. Amazon’s royalties are currently 35% of the price you set (although they can set whatever retail price they want), and at Smashwords it’s a whopping 85%, although that venue isn’t nearly as popular (yet). And Amazon is also introducing in June a 70% royalty for authors whose books meet certain criteria, namely prices in the $2.99 to $9.99 range. To me, the jury’s still out on other distribution channels like the Nook by Barnes & Noble and the recently introduced Apple iPad (and Apple is peripherally involved in the brouhaha between Amazon and Macmillan, as Steve Jobs is apparently content with letting the publishers dictate the prices for iBooks), but they’re still part of the wave of technology that is looming on the horizon.

So, keep an eye on the prices in the eBook stores and exercise your power as a consumer: if something costs more than you think it should, don’t buy it. There are lots of other alternatives waiting for you out there.

Apple’s iPad: High Cool Factor, Lukewarm Functionality


29 Jan

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Posted in Reviews | 1 Comment »

I have to confess being disappointed about the Apple iPad. I love Apple stuff (Jan and I have MacBook Pros and iPhones, and I would LOVE to have an “iNetBook”), but the iPad doesn’t do much for me. To be honest, when I saw the first pictures of it, I had an image of some giant holding this thing up and talking on it like an iPhone.

Not surprisingly, comparisons are being made between the iPad and the Amazon Kindle for reading eBooks. I can see that some folks would prefer the iPad to the Kindle, especially since (presumably) you don’t necessarily have to go the iBooks route, but could just download the Kindle app through iTunes and keep merrily reading Kindle books (or do both). For me personally, however, I find the eInk very easy on my eyes, and I’m not all that wild about reading from a backlit display any more than I have to, which is usually about 12 hrs a day, on average. Apple’s displays are great – and sure, they can show color – but just for reading the latest novel, my eyeballs still prefer my Kindle.

The real problem with the iPad, in my humble opinion, is that Apple only went halfway. While I’m sure they had constraints on both the engineering and cost modeling aspects, here’s what I would’ve liked to see (and if they’d put these features on, I’d already have my pre-order in!):

Voice capability. If you’re going to have wi-fi *and* cellular (depending on the model), it doesn’t make sense to me not to have telephony functionality. If I’m going to carry this thing around, why should I have to carry my iPhone along, too? Set it up with a standard jack and Bluetooth capability to link up with a headset and be done with it.

Memory. The base model has 16 GB. Come on, guys! That would be gross overkill for an ebook-specific device like the Kindle (since the text-based files used by the Kindle are comparatively small), but for a multi-purpose platform the absolute minimum should be 32. Even that’s pretty tight, considering the multimedia applications that the iPad is clearly designed for. 64 GB base, plus a smart card slot for additional memory, would have been nice.

Integrated keyboard. This is my biggest “missing item.” I wish Apple would have done something similar to what Lenovo is doing for their hybrid coming out later this year (see the pic at right). Call me a dinosaur, but a lot of the keyboard activity I do involves looking at split windows or multiple windows/tabs, and it looks to me like the iPad’s screen real estate is going to be really cramped with its touch keyboard active (this is one of the big annoyances I have with the iPhone in landscape mode: you can only see one or two lines of text). Further, having a hinged display/keyboard combination is a lot more ergonomic in many ways than just a flat panel: you can set it down and adjust it to many different positions to suit your situation. If I’m on a plane and want to watch a movie, I don’t want to have to hold the thing the whole time – I’d much rather be able to open it up to a convenient viewing angle and sit back to enjoy the show. Yes, I do like the idea of being able to just have the pad itself for a lot of applications where you don’t need the keyboard, but to me, the keyboard is still a necessity as part of the overall package. I know you can get an accessory keyboard, but it’s not the same as having an integrated unit (again, like Lenovo’s hybrid).

Webcam/microphone. This goes along with the telephony, in a way: if you’re aiming for this level of convergence, just do it!

Support for Flash. I just don’t get this: Flash is one of the most common multimedia technologies on the web, and it boggles my mind that neither the iPhone nor the iPad browsers have support for it. Apple, I love you guys, I really do, but this is an incredibly silly oversight that needs to be fixed.

Anyway, I fully plan to stand in line at the local Apple store to play with an iPad, but it’ll have to really capture my attention. Otherwise I’ll just stick with my Acer Aspire One and hold out for Apple’s next gadget.

In Her Name: First Contact – The First Week


05 Sep

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Posted in My Books | No Comments »

In one way I hate  to toot my horn, but – all shameless self-promotion aside – I wanted to thank my readers, especially with how In Her Name: First Contact has been received after it was released for the Amazon Kindle and Mobipocket Reader last weekend.

I have been awesomely, awesomely pleased at how it’s done this first week, considering that I haven’t really done all that much promotion for it (in between tying up a bunch of other loose ends and starting in on In Her Name: Legend of the Sword). It’s been bouncing around up and down in the top 100 of the science fiction category in the Amazon Kindle store, and moved immediately into the top 100 on Mobipocket.com’s sci-fi category (it’s at #45 right now).

So that really made my week! I just wanted to give a big “thank you!” to all the folks who’ve bought it so far, and I hope you enjoy the story!! And for those who would like a print version, I expect that to be out on the streets in the next three weeks or so (sorry, it takes longer for the stars to line up for print publication!).

If you would be interested in talking about the book in an on-line/virtual book club, there’s a set of discussion threads for it over at KindleBoards.com. Come on over and join us!

Using Kindle’s Text-To-Speech Feature For Revisions


03 Aug

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Posted in About Publishing | 1 Comment »

Some authors use a read-aloud method to help them edit and revise. Sometimes hearing the words and sentences helps you spot problems or areas that need a little touchup that your eyes aren’t as likely to find. The only trick, of course, is that you either have to sit there and read the text yourself, or have someone else read it to you. In either case, it can be pretty daunting and take quite a bit of time.

But I got to thinking: what if I uploaded a copy of the draft of my book (in this case, In Her Name: First Contact) and used the Kindle 2’s text-to-speech feature to read it to me? Then I could take notes or make revisions on the fly and not lose my voice in the process, or drive my wife nuts by droning on.

I also thought this was something useful that I could do while driving to and from work every day: that would give me about an hour of editing time! The only problem with that, of course, is that I can’t type on my laptop while driving. But I could make voice memos with my iPhone and it’s new voice memo app: that’s basically just a click of a button to turn on the recorder, then another click to turn it off.

I gave it a try this morning, and I think it has potential. Unfortunately, this morning’s test wasn’t really fair: I drive a convertible, and I couldn’t get the volume up high enough to hear over the wind noise (I know, I know, but I really like driving with the top open!). So I’ll try it again, maybe tonight or while driving up to Hershey Park tomorrow and let you know how it goes!

Amazon Kindle Books: Is The Pricing Honeymoon Over?


24 Jul

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Posted in About Publishing | 1 Comment »

When the Kindle first came out, one of the great selling points was that even first-release “big name” titles were only $9.99 (you know, the ones you’d probably be paying upwards of $20 for in print), and many were appreciably less. On top of that, Amazon generally had a nice discount – usually 20%.

In the last several weeks, as I mentioned in an earlier post, there have been a lot of changes, particularly for independent publishers and authors.

But the latest change that I noticed (and I don’t claim to be the most observant person in the world!) were the prices listed in an ad that Amazon sent around (Amazon Kindle: Best Books of 2009…So Far). Folks, the times – they are a-changin’.

For example, of the eight novels they listed in the fiction category in the flyer, three were $9.99, while the others ranged from $11.99 to $14.82. The interesting thing is how they’re listing all the prices once you go to the catalog page: the actual sale prices are touted as being major discounts – 40% to at least 60% – off of both the print price and digital list price (which for the titles I spot-checked, were the same).

In the non-fiction category, the flyer listed another eight books: one was $9.99, the others ranged from $11.99 to $17.88 – the sale price.

Taking a look at the Kindle Store home page, Amazon tells us that “New York Times® Best Sellers and New Releases are $9.99, unless marked otherwise.” All the books they list as of today are $9.99, “discounted” from the digital/print list price of $22.99 to $27.99.

Previously, the digital list price was usually the publisher’s MSRP (which typically topped out at $9.99), and Amazon discounted from that down to, say $7.99; and they generally didn’t list the print price (and when it was, it was – as you would probably expect – significantly higher than the digital list or actual sale prices).

Now, the $9.99 – or quite a bit higher – is the discounted price.

So what does all this hocus-pocus mean? It tells me that Amazon feels they have a large enough Kindle user base that they can start pushing up the prices closer to what you’d typically pay for print books. I’m not going to sit here and complain that this is “evil Amazon” at work. Let’s be honest: as a general rule, the books are still cheaper than what you’d pay for print copies. But, on the other hand, you’re going to have to start paying quite a bit more than we’ve become accustomed to.

In Her Name: EmpireThe bright side is that, if you don’t want to pay premium prices, there are still tons of books to read, both in and out of the Kindle Store. My personal recommendation – and yes, this is a bit of a sales pitch (just glance to the left)! – is that you give some of the small press and independent publishers a try. Most of their books are a lot less expensive (despite the current discount and pricing bugaboos), and some of them are every bit as good (and, I daresay, in some cases better) than what the major publishers are putting out.

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Michael R. Hicks

Tales and Musings

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