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Amazon News and Tips

Is Kindle Unlimited Killing Self-Publishing?

Kindle Unlimited
Over the weekend there was an explosive post by mega-seller H.M. Ward saying that her book sales have taken a 75% dive since joining Kindle Unlimited.

I had my serials in it for 60 days and lost approx 75% of my income. Thats counting borrows and bonuses.  :o My sales dropped like a stone. The number of borrows was higher than sales. They didn’t compliment each other, as expected.

Taking a huge ass pay cut while I’m still working my butt off, well that’s not ok. And KU effected my whole list, not just KU titles. :( At the time of

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2020-02-21T06:01:48+02:00December 2nd, 2014|Categories: Features|Tags: |
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Amazon Updates VAT Pricing for EU Sales

In a move that’s going to confuse self-publishers worldwide, Amazon revealed how VAT taxes are going to work for European sales of self-published books after January 2015.

On January 1, 2015, European Union (EU) tax laws regarding the taxation of digital products (including eBooks) will change: previously, Value Added Tax (VAT) was applied based on the seller’s country – as of January 1st, VAT will be applied based on the buyer’s country. As a result, starting on January 1st, KDP authors must set list prices to be inclusive of VAT.  We will also make a one-time adjustment for existing books

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2020-02-21T04:32:59+02:00December 2nd, 2014|Categories: News|Tags: |
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Amazon Releases Details on New Crowdsourcing Platform

Amazon logoDetails have been revealed about Amazon’s new crowdsourcing platform. It’s for romance, mystery & thriller, and science fiction & fantasy books. From their email:

Thanks for subscribing to receive updates on Amazon’s new publishing program! We’re excited to announce that we’ll be opening for submissions in a couple weeks. We’ll be welcoming submissions for English-language books in Romance, Mystery & Thriller, and Science Fiction & Fantasy genres.

Any adult with a valid U.S. bank account and U.S. social security number or tax identification number is eligible. It only takes 15 minutes to complete a submission.

Here are the things that

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2020-02-21T07:53:28+02:00October 2nd, 2014|Categories: News|Tags: , |
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Authors United May Have a Point

Amazon vs HachetteI’m a bit sick to death of the Amazon-Hachette dispute. Mainly because it’s a case of one corporate giant against another. Another thing that is troubling is the absolute cheerleading for Amazon that comes from the self-publishing side. While Authors United has made some egregiously overboard claims, Amazon isn’t entirely above reproach.

Today, literary heavyweights have joined the Authors United cause, including Philip Roth, Orhan Pamuk, Salman Rushdie, V. S. Naipaul and Milan Kundera.

Ursula K. Le Guin sounds a bit unhinged when she says,

“We’re talking about censorship: deliberately making a book hard or impossible to get, ‘disappearing’

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2014-09-29T08:10:07+02:00September 29th, 2014|Categories: Features|Tags: |
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Amazon Launches KDP Kids for Self-Published Children’s Books

kdpThis could start another revolution: Amazon announced that it has launched a Kindle Direct Publishing program for children’s books: KDP Kids. From Amazon’s release:

Starting today, you can use Kindle Kids’ Book Creator to create illustrated children’s books for Kindle, taking advantage of features like text pop-ups. Here’s how to get started:

  1. Download the tool, and you can convert individual illustrations into interactive books for both Kindle devices and free reading apps.
  2. Once your book is ready, export the file and upload it to KDP.
  3. Set the book category, age range, and grade range to help customers find
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2020-02-21T04:33:08+02:00September 4th, 2014|Categories: News|Tags: |
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KDP Enables Pre-Orders for Self-Published Titles

Amazon KDPFinally, one of the biggest advantages for trad books on Amazon is now available to self-publishers: pre-ordering. From Amazon’s release:

We’re excited to announce that you can now make your new books available for pre-order in Kindle Stores worldwide. With a few quick and easy steps you can create a pre-order page up to 90 days in advance of your book’s release date–your pre-order product page will be created within 24 hours. When you make your book available for pre-order, customers can order the book anytime leading up to the release date you set. We will deliver it to them

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2020-02-21T04:33:20+02:00August 15th, 2014|Categories: News|Tags: |
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Why I’m leaving Amazon’s KDP Select program

Ugly Little ThingsOn Friday, Amazon launched a new service called “Kindle Unlimited.” It’s a subscription service where, for $9.99 a month, a consumer can have access to over 600k Kindle titles, as well as their audio equivalents. You can get up to 10 books at a time. Authors who have titles enrolled in Amazon’s KDP Select program (which allows for free promotions, inclusion in the lending library, countdown deals, and matchbook prices) had their titles automatically enrolled in the program on Friday.

I am not a publishing guru or pundit by any stretch of the imagination. I only know what works for […]

2020-02-21T03:44:18+02:00July 22nd, 2014|Categories: Features|Tags: |
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Amazon Releases Kindle Unlimited with One Major Problem

Kindle Unlimited There’s been a lot of fanfare about Amazon’s new Kindle Unlimited program – a service where you can read any book for $9.99 a month.

Well, not any book.

Indie authors hoping to be a part of this program face one obstacle: you need to be in the Kindle Select program, meaning it requires exclusivity to Amazon. Mark Coker laments:

Exclusivity is great for Amazon, but it’s not necessarily great for authors and readers.  Exclusivity starves competing retailers of books readers want to read, which motivates readers to move their reading to the Kindle platform. This is why

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2020-02-21T06:01:56+02:00July 21st, 2014|Categories: News|Tags: |
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