new Kindle preview download feature
New cool thing I just noticed on Amazon -- which may have been lurking there unobserved by me for who knows how long --
They will send a sample of the book you are contemplating for you to read directly on your Kindle. I would presume this is much the same as the "Read Inside" feature, but instead of reading off your computer screen, you can decamp with your device to somewhere more comfortable.
Very clever. I approve of anything that helps books sell on content instead of (or at least, in addition to) packaging.
It's in a box over on the right-hand side, just below the buy-with-a-click box, ferex:
http://www.amazon.com/Shards-Honor-Vo...
Ta, L.
They will send a sample of the book you are contemplating for you to read directly on your Kindle. I would presume this is much the same as the "Read Inside" feature, but instead of reading off your computer screen, you can decamp with your device to somewhere more comfortable.
Very clever. I approve of anything that helps books sell on content instead of (or at least, in addition to) packaging.
It's in a box over on the right-hand side, just below the buy-with-a-click box, ferex:
http://www.amazon.com/Shards-Honor-Vo...
Ta, L.
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Hi Lois,Amazon did not "invent" this feature but they've had it for a long, long time. Actually, I believe you could download a sample even back BEFORE you could "look inside" which is, in fact, an Amazon-exclusive term though not an Amazon-exclusive feature either.
Other places (Smashwords distribution points like Apple, Nook, Kobo) have always done the download a free sample. It's the #1 selling tool for us Indie Authors after the cover art and blurbage (so #3 overall). As both Joe Konrath (Amazon's poster boy for Indie Authors even though he's a hybrid and bestseller list author) and Mark Coker (founder of Smashwords) like to point out, getting that free sample "just right" is easy to do with digital publishing and something that traditional publishers haven't really caught onto exploiting--it's the concept Jim Baen knew in his bones back in the 1990s!!! Jim was soooooo far ahead of his time, wasn't he?
Amazon is, unfortunately, not as flexible or predictable as other places in how much (percentage wise or word count wise) will be included in the sample, as Amazon does definitely include the JPG file that is your cover art in the "sample" size since they have to send it. Hence, the reason why for Amazon Kindle uploads it is best to work directly with the HTML and not use a Word doc to upload your books to the KDP Bookshelf.
There're a few super-duper tutorials on how to clean up a Word file, how to setup the CSS and HTML and how to format your file "package" correctly to deliver the optimal book "package" to KDP for Kindle readers to download the best looking samples and files. I have several linked and discussed on my Webbiegrrl Blog, which I've reference to you before. Feel free to browse.
I'm not reopening the blog on Blogger (Google) until I start migrating over to my own domain in Wordpress and that won't happen until after the new novel (Man Made Man) in The Phoenician Series comes out - currently slated for premiere on the exclusive KDP Select thing for the restricted 90 days and then in November distribution EVERYWHERE. I'm 90% done with the content and gonna start the editing in July. Then I get back to blogging "how to" tips for Indie Authors.
Using the exclusivity restriction of KDP Select to advantage by launching new work rather than trying to "extract" existing titles from the internet is turning out to be Amazon's only allure to Indie Authors on the Select Program since they do not allow more than 5 days of promotion during the entire 90 and they require a 90-day commitment of exclusivity or they refuse to pay any royalties at all, holding the seller in violation of TOS by having a copy of the book elsewhere. Given piracy and how often eBook sites link to, excerpt and redistribute books, it is impossible to publish an existing title on KDP Select, only new (never-before-on the net) titles work because it takes the (illegal) "redistributors" about 90 days to find, copy and redistribute a book.
Or so has been the record "on the street" in the Indie Publishing community. Not sure what traditional or hybrid authors are experiencing as traditional publishers claim everyone is pirating books everywhere, which fanaticism doesn't help anyone anywhere track reality. We could all only wish people were so hungry to read that they were stealing books "everywhere"! ^_^
-sry
@webbiegrrl
Thanks Sarah, it was very interesting !(I particulary loved your conclusion :3)
Milabette, wouldn't it be a better world if more people were such voracious readers? Terry, if you read the Terms of Service (TOS) pertaining to the KDP Select enrollment, the publisher (in most cases, it's the Indie Author acting as Indie Publisher) asserts absolutely that there are no copies of the book or portions thereof anywhere else where readers may access the book's contents--for free or for pay. Yes, it's ridiculous and impossible to "guarantee" but it is written in the TOS Amazon plainly makes available (and makes a publisher agree to during the upload process and enrollment sequence into KDP Select).
If a publisher agrees to these TOS, then they are agreeing to waive all rights to any payment whatsoever should they violate the TOS or any portion thereof--knowingly or unknowingly. That last bit was in there the last time I read the TOS word for word and it really seems outrageous to me. To be clear, though, I still plan to use KDP Select for a new, never-before-published release of a new novel prior to distributing it WIDELY after the 90-day period is done. If I see any money from Amazon, I'll blog it on Webbiegrrl, that's for sure! I don't plan on ever seeing a penny from Amazon for the KDPS book though. Setting my hopes low means I'll be pleasantly surprised if they pay me. They still have not paid me for the first month's sky high sales of my first release (only about $250 in royalties but to me, that's a huge amount of money to just write off--and yes, I wrote their customer service, repeatedly, to no avail). KDP Select has its uses. I want to explore those first-hand.
I know "of" Cheryl K. Tardiff and she is not what I'd call a great example of success with KDP Select (I think Konrath's $500,000 a year plus and even Michael R. Hicks' $500,000 a year plus are both better examples of success working the Amazon system). Cheryl has gotten some fairly bad press for really BAD business practices and claiming inflated numbers one minute and then retracting the claims when they cannot be backed up. The utter transparence of Konrath, Hicks, someone like Dean Wesley Smith (who ran a small traditional press for years and is now Indie Publishing) these are the great examples to follow. Anyone who attracts controversy over their promotional tactics or sales reporting either shouldn't be reporting sales or shouldn't be listened to for sales advice. In either case, not a great example to look to IMO but YMMV. And again, I know "of" her; but I don't "know" her directly. I've only read her arguing in public (on Amazon) with people who've written book reviews for her books on Amazon and I've read her comments on Goodreads where she's getting very defensive very quickly.
I am totally aware of how easy that is given the bully gangs and how they bait us Indies and I sure do get defensive myself but I know the behavior doesn't instill confidence in me in her opinions (just as others believe I have nothing good to say if I respond to someone baiting me even once). Authors apparently are required these days to have the patience of a saint. Happily for me, my current day job is in customer service where my customers repeatedly tell me (and my manager) that I do indeed have the patience of a saint. I dunno...I think I have the SNARK of a saint ;-) They just think I'm being nice.
-sry
@webbiegrrl
Terry wrote: "Thanks, I did not know that about CKT. Hadn't heard of Hicks either, will check out his blog if he has one."Mike has a fantastic SF series "In Her Name" and gives away the first book free (Empire) but I really like his GMO technothriller series in which I believe he also gives away the first book free (Season Of The Harvest) His blog is not all that busy as he spends more time writing fiction but he posts deeper substance infrequently and is VERY active on Twitter. Ask him questions at @KreelanWarrior and he's likely to reply same day. He's also on Facebook. He has his books on Goodreads but does not really participte here. He participates on FB/Twitter instead. He wrote a "how to" book (haven't we all?) and basically said he was going to tell you how he did it but he never quite explains the nuts and bolts so I was displeased with his how to book. John Locke's, however (who made a million on Amazon in one month or some such) was an amazing "how to" book....if you're looking for "how to" books on Indie Publishing.
Terry wrote: "Re: Sarah's second last para: I think Cheryl Kaye Tardif has had some success with using KDP Select for existing eBooks. I'm very surprised Amazon would stir up a fuss for illegal copies of your eB..."Yeah, every time I do an ego-sweep on Google, I find about half the hits are assorted pirate sites offering my titles. And it doesn't take them 90 days to get my new stuff up; more like 90 minutes. Not wishing to spend the rest of my life playing whack-a-mole on the internet, I just sigh and pass on.
As a reader, DRM does not fuss me, since I mostly plan to buy ephemeral books for e-reading anyway. And I don't have time for very many. We'll see how those thoughts evolve as I get more experience with the medium as a reader.
I was very pleased to discover my local library's participation in Overdrive; I have e-borrowed a couple of books to read on my Kindle so far, generally at odd hours of the night when the physical library is closed. Free but not pirated, and at least the original author gets something.
Ta, L.
Lois wrote: "Terry wrote: "Re: Sarah's second last para: I think Cheryl Kaye Tardif has had some success with using KDP Select for existing eBooks. I'm very surprised Amazon would stir up a fuss for illegal cop..."Rendered curious, I went to check my own books at my local library. (Hennepin County.) It looks as if most of the HarperCollins fantasies are available as e-downloads, and most of the Blackstone editions as audio downloads. Most of the Baen titles are not, or not yet, participating in the Overdrive system.
Interesting...
Ta, L.
Milabette wrote: "And ten per cent is really a good extract, you can really make your mind with that."It depends on the thing -- for a short story, 10% is pretty short! I do prefer Smashwords for setting sample-size; I have my short story samples around 30%, and my novels at 50%. I figure if someone likes the thing by the time they get to the middle of the book, they'll *have* to get the rest of the story! *evil grin*
It is true that Smashwords does *not* allow things like the Table of Contents (or "List of Chapters," or whatever) to be at the back, which was disappointing in one case -- but one can compensate for that in setting sample-size there.
James wrote: "Lois wrote: " Free but not pirated, and at least the original author gets something."Actually I came across a couple of articles the other day (one in the Guardian and the other I can't remember)..."
James, just to be clear, the manner in which one's books arrive in a library system (assuming AMERICAN library system of which there are many) is largely influential on whether or not the author is ever paid for the books being lent out.
I, personally, use Smashwords and because Mark has been such a huge fan of librarians across America, we are involved in about a half dozen different library systems (including the major one in Cali and the ALA of course). We Indie Publishers are given the option to set the "price" to a library separatey and apart from the price we set for our books to be sent off (distributed by Smashwords) to eTailers like Apple and Nook. My personal choice was to make my books available to libraries at a price of FREE for my short and my romance but 99 cents for my very long SF novel (mostly so I can track it).
The library systems with which Smashwords has arranged to distribute Indie eBooks do have the option of using Overdrive but after they have "paid" through Smashwords for the lending rights for however many copies they wish to make available, they do not continue to pay royalties to the distributor/publisher/author. It is a one-time purchase (through Smashwords).
Through Harper Collins, I'm fairly certain the Overdrive purchase is a limited license and the libraries must purchase "lots" of 25 or some similar number of copies where each time they lend the book out it counts as one copy. In that arrangement, the author receives a royalty under the terms of their contract with HC. I'm basing this information on what HC published to their Authonomy forum for us content providers to know about it. Lois may have entirely different information as she has a contract with HC and I do not (I simply occasionally drop by their forum for news of what they are doing since they are one of the six largest publishers in the world).
HC has posted quite a bit about library lending and there has been much discussion in the UK audience about it as well. The American market seems oblivious to the idea that books in a library lending system should pay out royalties. It is, perhaps (though not necessarily) due to the practice of Amazon's FREE lending library which users gain access to through the subscription of a PRIME membership.
That practice kind of acclimates Americans to the idea that books are free. Period. Sadly, it adds to the building resentment readers have of the ever-increasing prices. I say sadly because authors get lower and lower royalties with those price hikes.
I am STILL thrilled and delighted to send my books--FREE of charge--to whatever library systems care to purchase them from Smashwords and I love that Mark even bothered to investigate the access let alone that he so rigorously pursues it on our behalf. He's constantly expanding the library distributions actually. Libraries are one of the best ways IMO to get new readers. Anyone who reads a book in a library lending situation and loves it is likely to buy a copy.
-sry
@webbiegrrl
@ Sarah : Of course, a world with plenty of voracious readers would be incredible! Nearly weird in fact, dystopic maybe! ^_^@ Elizabeth : I agree that ten per cent can be too short to make your mind about a story. Actually, after I’ve chose a book, I push myself to read it till the third at least : if I'm still definitely bored at that point, I give the book up as a lost cause (or me, I don't know which :3).
I use the extract (and when the book is a fat one, I never read all the extract, just the very beginning) just to be sure that the style, in a general way, agrees with me. Sometimes a kind of writing sound at my ears (well my eyes) like nails on a black board: in this case I don’t even try to read more of the book, I know I wouldn't like it.
And sometimes, I just try the extract "like that", because it's easy and free, and I’m curious, and bingo, I love the first sentences, I fall in the story and it's a love at the first sight !!
I read and loved "Among others" of Jo Walton using this method, for instance.
But… I realize that I don’t know any of your books, I’m going to look at them “séance tenante”, I’m not afraid of any evil grin, ha, ha :)
I am a 'sample chapter' junkie. Easy for me to figure out in a few chapters if I will like or want to finish the book. Saves me time and money that way. Usually, I request them from the library though.
may a strange stranger jump in? My public library offers sample first chapters too, right in their catalog pages! It's on more and more book listings now, and it's a lovely thing, even though they DO tend to cut off right in the midst of something verrry interesting... (grin). Usually it's on the "details" page for a listing, next to or near to the reviews IF your library allows such things. I've only really noticed it since winter, when my library has been trying out several sorts of catalogs and the newest attempt has them all over the place, whoohoo!!! The earlier catalog is from Bibliocommons and they have it available for some books; the newer catalog BPL uses is from Polaris and they seem to have even more. Good Idea! I have love, love, loved the Kindle samples right from the get-go when I purchased my gen1 unit - don't know how long they've been offering them, but suspect it's been quiiite a while - I've gone through simply tons of 'em over the last few years.
What Terry tell us surprise me a little bit, I thought that it was automatic ; well, it's compulsery for self-publishing books and quite right that it is for the reader !
And ten per cent is really a good extract, you can really make your mind with that.