HomeBook ProductionePUB3Kindle book designIs it time to bail on Kindle?

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Is it time to bail on Kindle? — 3 Comments

  1. Depressing news, even for someone who’s long been suspicious of Amazon. Like it or not, they’re our largest path to readers. Whatever hurts our distribution through Amazon, hurts them.

    I’ve thought about sending Amazon a PDF to give students a textbooks that are identical to the printed version. A 6×9 book certainly looks OK on my iPad 3. But I worry how readable it will be on smaller-screen iPads and other tablets. I hate factors I can’t control. And PDF is a print format. Using it for digital strikes me as iffy.

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    Authors who are in direct contact with their readers might educate them on buying from other platforms. One option would be to:

    1. Publish digital versions first through non-Amazon retailers such as Kobo and the iBookstore. Offer a ‘early bird’ discount, making clear to readers that after a certain period of time, say a month, the price will go up, say from $2.95 to $4.95.

    2. When that time is up, add Amazon to your distribution system and, at the same time raise the price all around to $4.95.

    Results: Your readers learn that they can get the book cheaper and quicker from other sources. Amazon can’t complain that you’re undercutting them elsewhere.

    Yes, you’ll have to make a bit less with that discount, but it might encourage enough added sales to make up for the difference. And you’ll become less dependent on Amazon sales.

  2. Pingback:More on Kindle Problems… | The Skilled Workman

  3. I’ve been converting my PDF {after adding color} by using Kindle Textbook Creator. It seems to work quite well for fixed layout, the books have been selling well. Since it’s a new title [I add Textbook to the title] I can use KDP Select and I’m getting quite a few borrows.

    I’ve been quite surprised at how well they have sold.

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