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I'm not interested in a debate. I have past writing experience, I'm retired and don't need to support myself from writing, but one thing: I don't have a novel yet. I'm taking in all this writing, publishing and marketing information but I decided I don't need to make any more decisions until I have a novel.
All I know for sure is that once I have a novel I'll decide what to do next, how I will market it, and I have faith that Amazon will be there if I find nothing better.
I recently met a self-published novel author who believes Amazon is worth it.
He was selling his book at a local Barnes & Noble store, and I had quite a discussion with him. The book has been out only a few months, but has sold 1,000 copies so far. at around $30, the roughly average price most hardcover books retail at.
That means he's already made about twice what the publishing costs were.
The book itself is extremely well and professionally done. The author commissioned a good commercial artist to do the cover art, and the cover was very well printed and included some extra cost elements that made it quite eye-catching. While I didn't read much of the text, I did a quick scan of the contents, and all the text design and book design was obviously done by a pro who knew their stuff.
I complimented him on the fine appearance, and he said he supervised and paid for it all himself. It was apparent the writer had really done his homework on sales.
Selling a book is a lot like selling a guitar. A guitar can be really good sounding and easy playing, but if it looks rough and cobby, a customer who's browsing is much less likely to pick it up and try it out. Appearance comprises most of the choices guitar players make when they buy a guitar.
A really good-looking guitar makes a statement that the maker really cares about the product's quality. So a good looking guitar is presumed to sound as good as it looks. Finish work makes up 60% of the labor costs in a guitar factory.
So it is with books. Of course, any book lives or dies by the quality of its writing, but if a book can't attract the reader who's idly browsing, the quality in the writing isn't given the chance to ever become known.
If you are going to sell books, it is eventually going to be on Amazon. There are several self publishing websites that link to amazon. Some are better than others. the two I know of that are good options are KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing or something like that) and Booksy (or Booksie).
They do not edit, format, market, promote proofread the book for you. You can wither hire someone for that or do it yourself or through friends. It depends on how serious you are about the book and how many thousands you want to invest into it.
They do offer templates for the book layout and covers. I found covers to be really fun. Formatting and choosing fonts and layout etc I found to be grueling, tedious, time consuming work.
Proofreading is a bear too. My wife proofed the book twice, and she is a librarian. I proof read it. my daughter did. Still there were typos and errors. Want it close to perfect, hire a professional proofreader.
Makrting is the hardest part. You will need to go to every event related to your genre and any local author events in your area etc. and push copies of your book personally. You will need to pay to market on Amazon as well as elsewhere. I really do not care whether I sell 10 copies or 100,000, so I am not bothering much with marketing (I sold 10 already, so I am good).
Strongly disagree, Metlakatla. Vanity presses require you to spend a boatload of money to print your books, then you have to sell them yourself.
Amazon does not. Nothing is printed until there's an order, and you do not pay for that printing -- the customer does. If you are all e-book, even better.
Your return from Amazon sales is anywhere from 35-70% of the sale, depending on in which country it sold. Never gonna see that percentage from a conventional print house or a vanity press.
A vanity press and Amazon are as different as night and day.
Coldjensens, a successful author does not have to attend every event to sell books. Spousal Unit has sold consistently on Amazon since his first book was published, and all the advertising he's done was to email his friends and set up a Facebook author page. He's never spent a dime paying Amazon to market it, either. His books are rated on Good Reads and Book Bub, too.
Further back in this thread (#40) I posted a link to an author who's made millions, and he is strictly self-publishing via Amazon. Suggest you all read it. You just may be surprised.
Then disagree; it doesn't matter to me. I make a good living writing without Amazon or any other pay-to-play venues. Most people who self-publish via Amazon don't seem to make a thing, despite the occasional outlier who "makes millions." It's also my understanding that they need to do a considerable amount of self-marketing — no thanks. Also, hitting up friends and family to purchase self-published books isn't for everyone. Personally, I would be uncomfortable trying to leverage personal relationships that way. YMMV.
The aspect of it that most reminds me of vanity presses is that anyone can publish on Amazon.
Last edited by Metlakatla; 02-05-2019 at 01:48 PM..
Yes, anyone can publish on Amazon. No, not everyone makes a living from it.
So what? That's justification for talking down a valid, inexpensive way to get one's book out there? Sounds kinda elitist to me.
The wonderful thing about independent authors on Amazon is readers have a far greater choice of material to choose from. We lovers of books are no longer limited to what the publishing house thinks will sell and make them money (never mind the author's income). After the fourth formulaic novel in the same vein as the last big name author, one would think they'd reach out for new stuff, but noooo...
No, they aren't all best sellers. Fine with me. A good read is a good read.
and I answered it from a subjective perspective just like everyone else in this thread has. Amazon wouldn't be worth it to me, and you can try to "debate" that until the cows come home and even throw in a few snide little personal jabs, but it won't change the fact that Amazon isn't worth it for some of us.
ETA maybe you don't understand this, but I have no problem with others using the service and am quite aware that it suits a lot of people's purposes (although being hit up to buy this or that self-published book does get a little tedious at times, and I certainly am glad that it's not something I have to do myself).
Last edited by Metlakatla; 02-05-2019 at 02:37 PM..
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