LSI ending their distribution relationship with Amazon

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The POD manufacturer Lightning Source International (LSI), owned by Ingram Content Group, announced on Friday (yes, a typical release-bad-news-on-Friday-and-hope-nobody-pays-attention move) that LSI will no longer be distributing directly to Amazon, B&N, Baker & Taylor, Espresso Book Machine, and NACSCORP, and to other wholesale distributors in the U.S. Instead, all titles will now be distributed only via Ingram Book Group, who in turn will resell to all retailers and other wholesale distributors. What this means is that Ingram, who previously did not earn a fee on LSI sales to the aforementioned Read More …

B&N’s new Nook Press: a disappointing new platform

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Barnes and Noble’s Nook platform has been struggling since its inception, and the company has revamped PubIt! into a new publishing platform, Nook Press, in the hope of bringing more indie authors on board. The new platform allows authors to write online, share their developing content with a select group of peers, and then publish their book as an allegedly viable ePub. The platform is akin to that of FastPencil’s, which, if I understand correctly, partnered with B&N to develop Nook Press. The new platform even allows authors to download Read More …

UK publisher Pearson invest in Nook

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Barnes & Noble’s Nook have slowly been making inroads into the UK market, selling their ereaders at grocery chain Sainsbury’s and through the bookstore chain Blackwells. Now it seems things are looking up for B&N with today’s announcement that UK publisher Pearson has bought a 5% stake in Nook Media for $89.5M. Previously, Microsoft had invested in Nook Media, which have been aggressively pursuing the academic market in the U.S., with Microsoft now owning a 16.8% share in the company. In the UK I expect to see B&N adopt the Read More …

Will there be professional writers in future?

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In a recent Globe and Mail article, British writer Ewan Morrison makes the bold proclamation that “There will be no more professional writers in the future.” Putting aside the hyperbole of that statement, or what defines “professional,” article writer John Barber does make a few salient points about the trajectory we writers have been on for some time now: From the heights of the literary pantheon to the lowest trenches of hackery, where contributors to digital “content farms” are paid as little as 10 cents for every 1,000 times readers Read More …

Is disintermediation possible for the indie author?

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Following on the heels of my blog regarding Louis CK’s experiment with producing and selling his own video, the question arises as to whether this is possible for the indie author. “Disintermediation” is the new buzz word, and success stories such as CK’s suggest the only thing standing between the author and their audience is a blog and PayPal. But is it really? The allure of indie publishing is that it provides us with a way past the gatekeepers. But all gatekeepers? Or just the obvious ones? The only true Read More …

Indie author pays dearly for misunderstanding Kindle terms and conditions

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UPDATED 3 August 2014 It was reported that Amazon have updated their pricing policy and would now be paying 70% for ebooks priced below $2.99 if the price was the result of price-matching a competitor (this is true). An indie author was blogging (read: bragging) how this new policy could be used to trick Amazon into paying a 70% royalty for an ebook normally priced in the 35% royalty category (i.e., books priced below $2.99 or higher than $9.99): the trick, it was suggested, was to price one’s book at Read More …

ISBNs and the self-publisher Part VI: ISTC and ONIX for books

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(This is abbreviated text from The Global Indie Author.) International Standard Text Code A new identifier is being developed called the International Standard Text Code (ISTC). This number is attached to the work itself and not to the publisher/format. The advantage of this number is that it allows for identical textual works published by different publishers or in different formats to be identified as a group. So if a library, for example, wanted to know who published a specific author’s work and in what formats, they only have to know Read More …

The battle for ebook supremacy: Amazon versus everybody else

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While self-publishing my novel, Baby Jane, to Amazon’s Kindle was relatively easy, publishing to the other devices is proving more challenging. Sony, who own the eReader, Apple, who own the iBookstore, Kobo, which is mostly owned by Indigo Books and Music Inc., and Barnes & Noble, who own the Nook, have all adopted business policies that exclude small publishers and self-publishing authors or, as in the Nook and iBookstore, have installed barriers that make it difficult for non-Americans (or non-Mac users) to sell on the their sites. Sony and Kobo Read More …