Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Should I sell my soul to Amazon for book sales?

After months of research, pondering, more research and more pondering, I've decided it is time to make all of the books I publish available on the Kindle.

Why does that decision make me feel icky?

Amazon.com sells the most books of any other book retailer anywhere, and that includes other on-line retailers. Part of the reason they sell so many books is because of their Kindle, which they've spent millions of dollars on developing and marketing. It paid off. According to Amazon, they sell over a million Kindles a week. That's a lot of readers hungry for new books they can read on their new toy. Stories of writers selling thousands of copies of Kindle versions of their book are all over the net, the most famous being Darcie Chan who sold 400,000 copies of her e-book via Amazon before she was picked up by a "traditional" publisher.

It makes logical sense to publish via the Amazon Kindle. E-books are the future, and the Kindle is the current leading device. Two-thirds of people in the US who buy e-books buy them from Amazon. Plus, I would save money on print costs. The books are already formatted to be turned into e-books because my book designer uses InDesign and the files are then sent to a digital printer. So all I have to do is contact Amazon, finish the submission process and upload the files.

I feel like I'm selling my soul to the devil in exchange for book sales.

Medusa's Muse is struggling to survive. I am determined that she will. We have a new book in development and our previous titles are selling well. The overall book sales aren't great, but the numbers are steady, with a few copies of each book being sold every month. However, the overhead costs of running a book publishing company have increased, so to help my press create quality books and then be able to market those books, I need to increase sales. E-books are potentially the best way to do that.

Okay, okay... I'll just have to get over the nausea I feel every time I start to submit a book to Kindle. I  wish Amazon wasn't such a backstabbing, money-grubbing, bastard of a company. If you want to stay in business, you have to deal with Amazon.

Don't tell them I said they are a bastard of a company; I shouldn't piss off the devil before I bargain for my soul.

1 comment:

sumukh bansal said...

best of luck with Amazon ...
liked your style with muse..