eBook Distribution News: Monkeybars Takes Books Offline (for Now)

The multi-media platform Monkeybars.net recently sent out a news bulletin to its publishers stating that they were suspending their books market temporarily to focus on their more successful music-selling platform. Though they didn’t give an ETA for when they would start selling books again, they did say it would be no longer than 90 days.

For those who don’t know about this site yet, Monkeybars is a distribution network that allows content providers to sell three types of media: music, videos, and books. Their pricing feature is the real gem, though: they don’t take any cut from your profits. However, you can encourage end-users (your readers) to promote your work for you by giving them a cut of your profits instead. To learn more about this neat feature, check out my review of the site.

So at first, I cursed a little under my breath when I heard Monkeybars was taking down the books platform. However, it’s actually a good thing.

Frankly, their books platform was lacking. In fact, all I got were errors when I tried to republish Lichgates (Grimoire Trilogy #1) on the site after I experimented with KDP Select. Frustrated, I gave up and wrote them off until I had the patience to figure it out.

The good news, then, comes a little later in their statement.

Monkeybars says they’re taking down the books (and film) platforms to focus on improving them offline. They lets them be a little more drastic with the changes and put more effort into truly turning a great idea into a similarly great experience.

All in all, I’m happy with their move. I think it will clean up the experience. And since they’re still a growing site, it doesn’t hurt too many readers or content providers. However, this is a site you’ll want to keep your eye on—I think they’ll go places.

So I recommend you join, add me (I don’t bite…hard), and begin to build your network while they’re improving the site. Here’s what they have to say about network building on their help page:

 

Why should I care about my number in my network?

Well, here at Monkeybars we do things a little differently. Your network represents how many people you are directly or indirectly responsible for bringing onto Monkeybars. Any purchase made by someone in your network rewards you with a network rewards.

 

So, build your network. Once they re-release their books platform, you can dive in head-first with a solid readership network to essentially market your novel for you.

 

Discussion

Have you heard of Monkeybars.net before?
Think you’ll join? Why or why not?