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MiaLeeFirstPaper 14 - 22 Dec 2011 - Main.MiaLee
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Ready for second review | | | Penguin also launched its own self-publishing platform last month, BookCountry? , which quickly garnered scathing reviews from Konrath and other authors. BookCountry imposes steep fees and meager revenue shares on literary hopefuls: joining requires a $99 to $549 outlay for formatting/design services, and rev shares drop 30% in comparison to Amazon's program because Penguin has re-inserted itself as an intermediary. Furthermore, Penguin restricts authors' DRM choices; whereas all Amazon self-publishers can choose to post their works DRM-free, BookCountry? prohibits DRM-free publishing for all works over $2.99 (which, incidentally, are the works that qualify for higher rev share). | |
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< | These "frenemy" maneuvers by Amazon and the Big Six prompt consideration of how authors would fare if they chose instead to manage their own e-publishing cycles. In theory, authors could learn Photoshop or tag an artistic friend for design help, host their own websites through Weebly, and encode their own e-books with open source software such as Calibre. But in practice, I think few overstretched authors, especially those with limited tech backgrounds, would devote resources to creating their own book distribution networks when the alternative is paying a 20-30% convenience fee to access existing channels. Such channels have achieved a network effect that no emerging artist can replicate alone. No matter how well SEO-ed an author's Website might be, it won't bubble up to the first page of search results when would-be customers run a generic search for "books." The indie seller would miss out on Amazon shoppers "primed" to make 1-click purchases of cheap reads alongside their other goods. And if the seller tried to juggle both Amazon- and self-run distribution, she would be disciplined into not offering promos on her site that differ from her Kindle prices; one author learned the hard way that Amazon's algorithm searches other sites for free versions of one's works -- even excerpts -- and drops the Kindle price to match. | >
> | These "frenemy" maneuvers by Amazon and the Big Six prompt consideration of how authors would fare if they chose instead to manage their own e-publishing cycles. In theory, authors could learn Photoshop or tag an artistic friend for design help, host their own websites through Weebly, and encode their own e-books with open source software such as Calibre. But in practice, I think few overstretched authors, especially those with limited tech backgrounds, would devote resources to creating their own book distribution networks when the alternative is paying a 20-30% convenience fee to access existing channels. Such channels have achieved a network effect that an emerging artist would struggle to replicate alone. No matter how well SEO-ed an author's Website might be, it won't bubble up to the first page of search results when would-be customers run a generic search for "books." The indie seller would miss out on Amazon shoppers "primed" to make 1-click purchases of cheap reads alongside their other goods. And if the seller tried to juggle both Amazon- and self-run distribution, she would be disciplined into not offering promos on her site that differ from her Kindle prices; one author learned the hard way that Amazon's algorithm searches other sites for free versions of one's works -- even excerpts -- and drops the Kindle price to match. | | | Commoditized Consumers |
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| Revision 14 | r14 - 22 Dec 2011 - 09:54:13 - MiaLee |
| Revision 13 | r13 - 09 Dec 2011 - 05:14:01 - MiaLee |
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All material marked as authored by Eben Moglen is available under the license terms CC-BY-SA version 4.
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