Amazon and Hachette settle their dispute – now what?

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It was announced earlier this month that Hachette and Amazon have reached an agreement. The deal allows Hachette to set ebook prices, which means the deal is an agency deal. In the latest edition of The Global Indie Author, I speculated that Hachette and others would likely return to the distributor discount model. This deal proves me wrong. But what is interesting about the deal is that it hints at an outcome I didn’t see coming: Amazon accepting a lower commission. What came out in the United States vs Apple Read More …

Kindle expand into Canada – is CreateSpace next?

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Previously, Kindle customers in Canada were serviced by the U.S. site but now Amazon have opened a dedicated Kindle store on the Amazon.ca site. Indie authors whose books are available worldwide will automatically see their ebooks listed on the Canadian site at a price converted from your U.S. dollar price; if you want to set a separate Canadian dollar price, you need to visit your dashboard and update your book’s info. Those authors with a Canadian bank account can now elect to be paid for Canadian sales in Canadian dollars, Read More …

Uploading your Kindle book cover separately is the better option

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Update 4/26/12: in just the last 24 hours or so, Amazon have updated the KDP interface: adding the product image as your internal book cover is no longer an option, it is mandatory. KDP help pages have been changed to reflect this. A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post about Kindle’s new option to use your product/cover image as your interior book cover when you upload your book using the Kindle interface, as well as Amazon’s new guidelines for larger images, likely a response to the phenomenal screen Read More …

ISBN “Multiple formats” option misunderstood by many indie authors

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The International ISBN Agency, and their national agencies such as Bowker in the U.S., have repeatedly insisted that the correct use of the ISBN system requires each format of an ebook be identified with its own ISBN, as is the case with print books. Thus a Kindle file should have its own ISBN, the ePub its own too, a PDF yet its own, and so on. However, some indie authors who have purchased their ISBNs from Bowker in the U.S. insist they can assign a single ISBN to cover all Read More …

What have Amazon done to Kindle Apps?

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I noticed after updates to my Kindle for PC app (not the current 1.9.1 fiasco but much earlier) that the Go to Cover menu item was now greyed out when viewing my novel, Baby Jane, and several other books I purchased last year. Baby Jane was made by uploading an HTML file (created from MS Word); the appropriate “cover” bookmark is in the HTML, and when I first published the book last March the Go to Cover menu option worked fine. I have also noticed that the Go to Beginning Read More …

Will Amazon lose indie authors to Apple?

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Following on my recent post about Apple’s EULA, I thought it might be interesting to look at this latest corporate manoeuvre in light of its origins in the Apple–Amazon fight for dominance that has been going on for some time now, and what these new developments might mean down the road for indie authors. Amazon own and use a proprietary format for their ebooks, the azw file. The azw file is a variation of the mobi file, or prc file, first developed by Mobipocket Creator, who licensed their code to 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 …

Consumer desire: vastly more important than DRM

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On December 14 CNN Money published an article on the success of comedian Louis CK’s experiment selling his comedy special DVD from his website direct to consumers. In just three days CK had gross sales of $500,000, a successful venture that should, as the article notes, make media companies nervous. But what starts out as a fact-based story on disintermediation slips into speculation about the role that selling the units DRM-free had in CK’s success: He was worried about piracy, and he’s been pleading with his fans to not put 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 …

Amazon add two new Kindle stores, in Italy and Spain

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Amazon have just announced the opening of Kindle stores in Italy and Spain. The Global Indie Author is now available in print and Kindle on both sites. See Buy Now links for direct access. For indie authors, this is good news as it expands the territories that qualify for 70% royalty to now include Italy, Vatican City, San Marino, Spain, and Andorra.