Here we are, days before Christmas, and you’re thinking about last-minute stocking stuffers. I’ve got an eclectic selection of things I would want to get or give for December 25th. Some of them will demand rushing online to take advantage of last-minute shipping offers. Others require no shipping at all, like music subscription services. Confession: Some items will require a larger stocking but no wrapping.
I present the list alphabetically, and in no order of preference.
That’s the question on my mind since I started self-publishing ebooks about a year ago. Falling ebook prices and rising number of cheap reads—an increasing number of them serials built around single characters—offer readers bountiful choices. What’s good for consumers may not be best for producers, though. If 99 cents is the value of all books, who can make a living writing them? The answer to that question makes Amazon the savior of publishing or the great Satan destroying it.
I write about this today because overnight Amazon sent long email “Important Kindle request” announcing Readers United. But the letter didn’t come to me as a reader but as an author, from Kindle Direct Publishing. Amazon and publisher Hachette are engaged in a dispute that, long-term, could affect future ebook pricing. Hachette Authors United seeks resolution from Amazon, which calls on readers—and writers—to respond in kind.
I have removed my ebooks from Google Play and all stores but one. Amazon. The decision wasn’t easy, but as an author I believe it is the right one. The retailer just launched Kindle Unlimited, which some social sharers call the “Netflix for books”. Subscribers pay $9.99 per month for whatever written or audio books participate in the program, and Amazon claims 600,000 titles.
To join the Kindle Unlimited program, independent publishers must put their books into KDP Select and give exclusivity for 90-day intervals (or longer). As a writer and reader, I love the “Netflix for books” concept, but as an independent publisher my participation means commitment to Amazon.