The war on Amazon is Big Publishing's 1% moment. What about other writers?
Barry Eisler: More people are buying more books than ever, and more people are making a living by writing them. Why do millionaire authors want to destroy the one company that’s made this all possible?
In the comments, a lot of people, indies included, worry that Amazon will try and go back to the old days and 50% royalties for indie authors. (Right now we get 35% on ebooks between 99 cents - 1.99 and 70% on ebooks between $2.99 and $9.99). I don’t think it will happen. Why? Because although people complain about Amazon not having any real competition one reason they don’t is because Amazon is nice to authors. I send people there before any other retailer, even though I get 80% royalties at Smashwords. (Amazon offers buyers a better experience, I want people who buy my books to be happy). That said, Google Books is my second favorite retailer right now. If Amazon changed their royalties, that’s where I’d send people first. The Google format works just fine on a Kindle.
Indie authors have a much closer relationship to their readers than traditionally published authors do. If we all said, “Buy here!” it would cause problems for Amazon.
