Amazon Built It And They Have Come

Build it and they will come, and Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com has done just that. Bezos had a dream, a dream to build the biggest bookstore in the world. Looks like he has achieved that. It is now said that about three quarters of book sales in the United States are at Amazon, and even publishers make about half of their sales through Amazon.

But Jeff Bezos wanted to build more. And he did so with the Amazon Kindle. The current popularity of ebooks now gives authors an excellent opportunity to self-publish. I have been publishing ebooks for a decade but the recent interest in ebooks, mainly due to Jeff Bezos’ Kindle and the nice royalty he pays authors, has nicely increased sales and acceptance of the ebook platform. Bezos’ did not stop at the Kindle reader alone, but has expanded that to include the Kindle in various applications including PCs, Blackberry, and other apps. I use my PC for Kindle reading, and especially for samples of books prior to purchase.

I’ve always personally admired Jeff Bezos. Not only do I enjoy his “weird” sense of humor (he makes me laugh) but how he puts his visionary ideas and business sense into action. Authors and readers alike are benefiting from one man’s dream. Yes, Jeff Bezos built it and look how they have come.

Those authors who are visionary and decide to “build it” and follow their dreams will discover, “they will come.”

It’s exciting. And fun, too.

I have reduced prices on our ebooks at Kindle for the holidays. That includes Don Pendleton’s Ashton Ford Psychic Detective series and his Joe Copp Private Eye Thrillers.

~Linda

Dancing

Thank goodness!





Linda

Kevin Spacey on Being Successful

~Linda

"Average Hardworking Author"

For quite a long time I have heard comments by writers that the midlist author is being pushed aside by the NY Six—that is not a typo of Sex but I refer to the NY corporate publishers which currently number Six, while not too many years ago, the number was at least twice that.

Apparently NY publishers for some time have been pulling away from supporting the midlist author who was once considered a consistent, yet moderate seller. They seem also to have given up a vision (if they ever had one) of taking a chance on a new author or an author who has broken through the midlist category into a possible BIG book.

So where does that put the average hardworking author who is marketing his or her new quality manuscript? When publishers are not acquiring new manuscripts where does that put the average hardworking author? When literary agents are not taking on additional authors because they cannot sell the material they already represent, where does that put the average hardworking author? When publishers offer small advances, much smaller than in previous years, and expect to do a small number press run, where does that put the average hardworking author?

It may have the average hardworking author looking at small independent presses, and considering low advances and low print runs. Expectations may not be as high at a small press—so a successful publication of an average hardworking author’s book may just be that: successful.

But that average hardworking author may look beyond tying their manuscript up with even a small press, and look to other publishing opportunities.

And what might those opportunities be for the average hardworking author?

Ebooks and Print on Demand may be exactly what that average hardworking author is looking for.

One place for the average hardworking author to look to publish the quality book he or she has created, is at Amazon’s Kindle and Createspace, and Smashwords.

And that average hardworking author will reap the benefits of excellent royalty rates and enjoy a sense of freedom, which may make the lack of an advance paid against royalties a good thing.

All stories come to an end, but for this average hardworking author who now has a new book published, can do what he or she does best: write the next book.

~Linda

Kindle Sale Now on Don Pendleton's Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective Series

Meet Ashton Ford...Psychic Detective...

I’ve dropped the Kindle Price on the six Ashton Ford books by Don Pendleton.

Private Investigator Ashton Ford has special powers, powers that some call supernatural. A former naval intelligence officer, highly knowledgeable in cryptology and philosophy, Ford will shatter your ideas of reality and take you into a mystical world of vision, intuition, and psychic truth. A phenomenal psychic, unparalleled lover, and a true Renaissance man, Ashton Ford can see into the future and even into the distant past using his psychic powers to assist special clients who are in crisis.

By the creator of The Executioner Series and the Joe Copp Private Eye Series.

~Linda

Janet Evanovich on ebooks and self-publishing

"If you are a guy and you make a lot of money, you are a success. If you are a woman and you make a lot of money, you are a bitch." ~Janet Evanovich, author

Jeff Rivera interviewed Janet Evanovich for mediabistro.com. Here is his question to Janet in regards to ebooks and self-publishing.:

“With the eBook revolution threatening to overtake print books permanently, what are your thoughts about how this could affect your revenue?”

Janet: “Yeah, I love eBooks. I think they're great, and I'm not sure how they are going to affect my revenue. I'm not sure anybody knows. I think we're going to have to wait and see how it shakes out. What I know is that they are not going to go away. The kids have come up being so comfortable on the screen, and now even all ages are buying into the Kindle and iPad. eBooks are here to stay. I think that anything that expands the market, anything that encourages people to read, anything that enhances the reading experience, makes it easier, makes it cheaper, makes it more interesting -- fabulous, I just love it. I think we haven't even seen the beginning of eBooks. All kinds of great things are going to come out of it.”

“Today's authors stand to make dramatically more income by self-publishing and publishing directly on formats such as Amazon's Kindle. Have you given any thought to doing the same for your future titles?”

Janet: “Actually, I have given it some thought, and then I've said, "What? Are you nuts?" It's not that simple. I think that there are a lot of people out there self-publishing and who have the ability to get their work out now because of the Internet, but it has lots of limitations: distribution, publicity, marketing. There are just many, many components that for me, at least at my level, just don't work for me. I am actually really happy to have help from a publisher. It's enough to keep my ass in the chair and keep writing without taking on that also. And I mean, I have my whole family working for me and they're all doing their own jobs, and I can't imagine one more job added to the list.”
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Read the interview here.