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Amazon is doing something strange with paperbacks
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However, when I did radio ads, I did sell a lot of paperbacks on the fiction.
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Carole wrote: "On our YA books, we hardly sell any paperbacks. The paperbacks I sell are my cultural series for ages 3-8. That's why POD is so important to me. Otherwise, most of the fiction we sell is Kindle onl..."Almost all of my fiction sales are Kindle.
Does anyone know THE VERY BEST PLACE to advertise children's illustrated storybooks in paperback (K-3).
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I like The Children's Book Review. I'm doing a blog tour with her now for Oh Susannah. I've done a lot of tours with her and the books do well.
See if Bianca will do a story about you.
I like Monster Ink and I get the most from those homeschool sites I've mentioned.
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Carole wrote: "Depends on the genre.I like The Children's Book Review. I'm doing a blog tour with her now for Oh Susannah. I've done a lot of tours with her and the books do well.
See if Bianca will do a story ..."
Thanks!
Erica wrote: "I have been contacting mommy bloggers. However, many of them are overwhelmed with constant offers and requests. Some can't get to my books for at least 6 months. Libraries and daycares have been go..."That's been my experience as well. I good friend in the gym gave his daughter-in-law, a big blogger, some of the children's books two months ago, and nary a peep. Very disappointing.
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Carole wrote: "Depends on the genre.I like The Children's Book Review. I'm doing a blog tour with her now for Oh Susannah. I've done a lot of tours with her and the books do well.
See if Bianca will do a story ..."
What, exactly, is a "blog tour?" People keep mentioning them, but I haven't really paid attention. I have a blog, of sorts, on Goodreads...nothing special...but other than that and the few I read, I'm not really "up" on these things.
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https://www.thechildrensbookreview.co...
This is the Oh Susannah Book Tour- Click on all the different blogs and you see a give away with lose to 1500 entries. There are a variety of articles on each blog. Erica and you should like all of the Facebook pages, twitter and blogs- these are all our people. If you look backwards on her site, you'll see several blog tours- with different books.
Carole wrote: "Depends on the genre.I like The Children's Book Review. I'm doing a blog tour with her now for Oh Susannah. I've done a lot of tours with her and the books do well.
See if Bianca will do a story ..."
Carole, I went to The Children's Book Review site, but I didn't see details on how to submit books to them. I found their policy on reviews, but beyond that, nothing...you know, things like cost of a review, to where they should be sent, etc., etc. What am I missing? Also, I didn't see an e-mail contact for Bianca.
Whoooooops...just found in...in light type at the very, very top of my screen. Sorry!
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Have you done anything with her, Erica- If you have, did you have similar results?
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Erica wrote: "I choose a couple cheaper options but due to the massive amount of requests there is a wait time of a few months. I will let you know how it goes but as a follower, I am impressed with her audience..."Sounds promising. Please keep us up to date. From a read of the site, she does appear to be over-subscribed on reviews. But this is definitely something I want to look into.
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Hey you guys with YA!- she does a lot with that too. She has reviewed many of my son's books as well.
Carole wrote: "You know when an author writes a book- they go on a multi-city tour- A blog tour is a virtual one. I have a few that I like. You pick a date and they get your book out with a bunch of popular blogs..."Thanks, Erica and Carole...I learn something new every day here!
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Carole wrote: "She is a bit more expensive than some of the other sites- but if they are picking her her to do books like Dragons Like Tacos- Bianca's the Creme de la Creme. Her site is interactive and the real d..."Carole, thanks so much for recommending Bianca. I'm in the process of setting up an Author Showcase Premium presentation with her for my illustrated children's storybook, Pepe Builds a Nest. Am really looking forward to completing the interview. If all goes well, will do a similar presentation for my YA novel.
PS She had some nice things to say about you! (;>)
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http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by...-
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Carole wrote: "Me too. And I want to say- I ordered my own books. It took close to three weeks to get them. They were out of date copies , but listed as new. I had pulled it out of production and changed the cove..."I hope you returned it as unsatisfactory. Amazon always stands behind the products it sells. (;>)
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Carole wrote: "I didn't Ted. I have to admit I was livid- but didn't follow through. Busy few weeks, moving all my stuff to Ingram. I did however complain to Createspace."Roger, that! I've found a number of abuses on Amazon by secondary sellers (e.g., related to pricing, and so forth), and have been successful in having their offerings removed from my book pages. But it's a never-ending battle. Amazon, itself, needs to be doing more.
I was wondering about returns. If a customer returns a paperback, does it come out of the author royalties like when ebooks are returned?
Carole wrote: "I love her. She's very sweet. She is doing a blog tour with Oh Susannah this week and it got a few great reviews and two days on the tour the book made it to the top ten."Carole, I want to thank you again for recommending Bianca! She is so easy to work with. In fact, I just engaged her to do a second interview for my YA novel The Hypnotist, which was written under a pen name. Doing that interview as 'Alyssa Devine' should be a real hoot!
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Carole wrote: "She's a great person and has incredible reach."By the way, I contacted four or five home-school sites you recommended last weekend, but so far, none replied. I tried to pitch my illustrated children's storybook on bullying (as well as mentioning the other stories in the series), but again, there apparently is no interest. I know I'm impatient to a fault, but still, that's the story.
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Carole wrote: "You have to be patient. Bullying may not be an issue with homeschoolers- but your book in Spanish may appeal."I did mention that a Spanish edition of the book was available, and that a French edition was in preparation.
As the doctor said to the short man who complained about his height: "You'll just have to be a little patient!"
That would be me.
Carole wrote: "Told you something smelled at Amazonhttps://www.authorsguild.org/industry..."
Of all the comments, I found this the most interesting:
Dr. Roy A. Teel Jr. PhD • 4 days ago
I have read several articles related to these new tactics by Amazon in the book publishing industry. What I don't understand is this strange panic among publishers traditional and self-published authors. A book sale is a book sale, meaning no one can get our books for free and then re-sell them unless, as this article points out these are review copies supplied to individuals or other reviewers and are being sold off after one, they review the titles or two, have an overstock and just get rid of titles for profit which is a violation of federal copyright law and actionable by publishers and authors. I no longer supply hardcover or paperback versions of my books to reviewers only protected files in mobi and epub.
As this article points out it is very, very unlikely that this is a situation of reviewers selling copies.I do know that it happens and is a common practice of most reviewers I have been told this by many people I know in the review industry. Now as I see it the real issue is buying and selling titles. When I sell a book in any form that book is the property of the person who purchased the book.While I retain the copyright, the buyer can do with the titles what they please. Lets look at the cost of a POD titles hardcover and paperback to a re-seller like Amazon or BN.
The industry standard discount to a re-seller or retail store is between 50-55%. I sell my hardcovers and paperback books in POD through Ingram's LSI. Now I retail my hardcover titles for $29.95 US and Paperback books for $14.95 US and I offer a 50% discount. so for a hardcover title the retailer pays $15 then I must offset the POD costs for that title and after POD fees to LSI my royalty averages $3 a book add a dollar for paperback.I do not allow returns of my titles as LSI has made it clear to me that to do so could bankrupt me, and with 24 titles in print current and backlist and another fifteen going to print, making a title returnable is very, very risky. Also the fact that on average there is a 30% return rate on books any royalties earned would be wiped out with that return rate and I would acutely have to write a check to LSI for returns, even if I have those returns mailed back to me for warehousing and resale. So when we look at the REAL costs associated with book sales and how little royalties we earn there is no insensitive by retailers to steal my martial. Amazon doesn't want to whorehouse any books, they want POD and if they can't get them fast enough their are plenty of companies who can, and as pointed out a re-seller of my books can purchase the book for $15 discount it to $0.01 and then charge lets say $6 shipping if you take into account that retailers like Amazon and BN already discount hard and soft cover books many times deeply, there is still a profit to be made even at $6 a book with shipping and other fees that most re-sellers tack on to a product.
These other retailers that Amazon is allowing to fulfill orders for my titles still have to purchase them and I have shown in black and white that their out of pocket costs are minimal and I get my royalty. As an author and publisher I am only entitled to a royalty on the sale of a single copy of each book. That book can be sold a hundred times after the initial sale and I have absolutely no legal claim for any further royalties off my title, it is now in the public domain and is owned by the buyer. Is the behavior of Amazon immoral? Yes, is it illegal, NO, can Amazon allow used copies of my titles to be sold on their site and cut my royalty, yes, can I do anything about it, no. Is Amazon in violation of the Sherman-Anti Trust act? Yes Amazon is a monopoly and is moving farther and farther in their actions to push the limits of the Sherman-Act. However, until people stop complaining about what Amazon is doing and legal action is brought to break up Amazon (which will eventually happen) Talking about it is a waste of time.
The beginning of a solution to Amazon is having the Guild, AWP, PEN, and the big five publishers as well as larger independent publishers and authors bring a lawsuit in federal court against Jeff Bezos and Amazon for violations of the Sherman-Act, Until such action is taken we can complain and try to figure out the next way Amazon is going to rip us all off but talking without action has never gotten anyone anywhere and will not effect change in the way business is conducted, MCI brought an anti trust case against Ma Bell in the 70's and by the early 80's Ma was broken up and allowed for more competition in the phone market place. People do forget or don't know that the two largest players in the telephone markets are really the same companies broken up in the 80's Ma Bell aka, AT&T and Verizon aka GTE (General Telephone Electric Corporation) still have the lions share of the market though their are smaller competitors who have been bought up by these two giants and while they look on the surface to be in competition they are in fact a part of one of these two companies can you say monopoly anyone?
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Okay...this is me, again (Ted)
What I don't understand is that how, within hours (literally) of my new books being available on Amazon, "new" or "used" copies are available from secondary sources. I suspect these are retail booksellers who are purchasing books at a discount under Amazon's Expanded Distribution Program and then, undercutting the retail price on Amazon, B&N, etc. Some even my be masquerading as churches and libraries using fake credentials. Who knows?
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Carole wrote: "All I know is that everyone is being affected now. All the traditional guys are complaining. I spoke to someone at Ingram and they are angry too. No one can say where these retailers are getting th..."I sell few if any paperbacks...almost all of my sales are Kindle editions. The biggest problem I have now is selling my children's illustrated storybooks, which really should be read in paperback. Here, the minimum price CS allows me to charge is $11, which means to make anything at all, I've had to set the price at $11.99. You just can't make a buck (literally!) these days.
Carole wrote: "All I know is that everyone is being affected now. All the traditional guys are complaining. I spoke to someone at Ingram and they are angry too. No one can say where these retailers are getting th..."BTW, if anything, the legacy houses should be bringing suit. They are the ones with the deep pockets. If all they're going to do is whine, belch, and moan, then it can't be that serious (yet).
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https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/18/ama...
Alex wrote: "Carole wrote: "Now they are doing something with the rankings- How do you think it will effect us?https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/18/ama...-..."
In the long run it could hurt Amazon by driving the indies away. Why even bother writing or publishing with them when the deck is so stacked against you by the largest retailer?
I don't see how this will effect most of us...unless you're close to the top 20.And as for driving indies away, why would they do that? Who else can they convince to stock their shelves with free books? #endoffree
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Did it help get your books into stores?"
I don't know yet- They are going out this month. I'll let you know as soon as I see if there is a difference.