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"Indie Author Rabble" and the Scribd Purge
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Ok...what the heck is Scribd? No, but seriously, it might be a big name for some, but many of us never even heard of them before, or if we did, it was already out of our minds. I'll start worrying when big places like Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, and iTunes start doing the same, because then, it'll go back to how it was before the indies came around. That means I might only read half a dozen books a year if I'm lucky.
I agree with Riley. The industry is evolving. What Scribd is doing isn't.
It appears that this website, goodEreader, has a bit of hate-on for indie writers. Besides calling us 'rabble', he has a whole article devoted to how to avoid accidentally buying a self-published book. Sheesh!
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I've actually sold through Scribd. It's a library whose members pay a monthly fee for free access to any book they list. You get paid for percentage read, and if the reader reads (I believe) 30% or more, you get paid for a full sale. Scribd is purging only popular romances, and that's because romance readers are far more numerous and read more books than any other type of reader. Since Scribd has to pay for every book they read, they have to eliminate the popular ones in order not to have to raise prices or go bankrupt. It appears that the subscription service isn't working too well, at least for them.
Here is Smashwords's comments, which seem to be at odds with GoodEReader: "June 30, 2015 - Scribd cuts romance catalog. Bad news for romance authors at Scribd. Effective immediately, Scribd is cutting their catalog of romance and erotica titles across all publishers and distributors. By end of day today, most romance and erotica titles will disappear at Scribd. I have a full analysis over at the Smashwords blog, along with comments on how our romance authors can take best advantage of the situation at Scribd going forward."
I'm self published, and so far my books are hanging in there on Scribd. https://www.scribd.com/ken2doggett
Here is Smashwords's comments, which seem to be at odds with GoodEReader: "June 30, 2015 - Scribd cuts romance catalog. Bad news for romance authors at Scribd. Effective immediately, Scribd is cutting their catalog of romance and erotica titles across all publishers and distributors. By end of day today, most romance and erotica titles will disappear at Scribd. I have a full analysis over at the Smashwords blog, along with comments on how our romance authors can take best advantage of the situation at Scribd going forward."
I'm self published, and so far my books are hanging in there on Scribd. https://www.scribd.com/ken2doggett
This is the blog referred to by Scribd. It includes the letter to publishers from Scribd, and confirms what Smashwords had said. http://blog.smashwords.com/2015/06/sc...
Honestly, the tone of the article is so bitter that I can't take it seriously. The only comment that I saw backed up the fact that more and more readers prefer indie books to trads because there are no limits. Also, the quoted number, 250000 books combined between Smashwords and D2D seems low to me. Granted, I am one of the many authors that doesn't use them, but still, given how big the market is, that seems like too small a share to be profitable.
Wow, the Smashwords article isn't much better in terms of tone.
Under science fiction alone in the U.S. Kindle store, there are 156,182, though they don't really separate science fiction from fantasy fiction.
Morris
Morris
I see a couple of services I will never consider using.
Christina wrote: "Wow, the Smashwords article isn't much better in terms of tone."
As for tone, I think the Smashwords blog tries to be optimistic. As for content, Smashwords obviously contradicts GoodEReader.
As for tone, I think the Smashwords blog tries to be optimistic. As for content, Smashwords obviously contradicts GoodEReader.
I had never heard of Scribd until now. Didn't another article from this site get posted? Something about how we aren't real auhtors? (My memory is fuzzy, and that site won't load for me.) Maybe that person doesn't like this?
Ken wrote: "Since Scribd has to pay for every book they read, they have to eliminate the popular ones in order not to have to raise prices or go bankrupt..."Let me see if I have this right: a marketing plan based on selling only products that are shown to be unpopular? That sounds just brilliant!
How much do they charge for these "unpopular" books, anyway?
It's a subscription service, and they charge a monthly fee for subscribers, who can read as many books as they want. Scribd pays the author for books read. Maybe they should offer different plan levels: $8.95 for 10 books a month, $12.95 for 20 books, etc.
AHHH, that explains why my book isn't being published. So much is clear now. It's just in limbo on draft 2 digital. lol. That's okay. Plenty of other services took it.
I've had mine out there through Smashwords for more than a year, sold only one on Scribd, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. However, Smashwords says it's their fastest-growing distributor, so it might become something to shoot for later on.
The real problem at Scribd is that they chose a business model that isn't working for them.-They charge a flat subscription fee.
-There is no limit to the number of books a subscriber can read.
-(And here's the kicker): Scribd chose to pay publishers the full royalty for every single read, just as if they had sold the book at full price in a retail store.
Romance readers read A LOT. The books are shorter than a lot of other genres and the readers fly through them. That led to a LOT of full price royalties being paid but not enough subscriptions to cover it.
So...that's a problem with indie authors? Um. No. Dudes, your business model does not jibe with the market. They need to change the model rather than just burning bridges with the authors people are obviously wanting to read.
So I guess really, all the authors that get purged should be happy. Their books are really popular :-SNow they just have to hope all those disappointed readers on Scribd can find them somewhere else and buy them.
http://goodereader.com/blog/e-book-ne...