World, Writing, Wealth discussion
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Shame on you Amazon
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Well-researched article. Thanks, Eldon!However, the scope is somewhat limited. what is missing is the actual monetary scope of the problem. I bring this up because unless a problem hits the bottom line of a company or their public image, which could impact customer retention (like social issues), then they at company won't change.
If you go to kboards.com (listed in our author resources spreadsheet ^_^) and search for "payout", you'll find more discussions on this topic.
Of course to go wide or Amazon exclusive can only be made by the individual author, but Amazon does hold market share and KU can only be used if a book is Amazon exclusive. If you're considering going wide, then I'd recommend reading this article published in January 2017.
https://janefriedman.com/amazon-exclu...
Click farms aren't limited to KU and KU is in fact probably a smaller market for clickfarms (just for perspective and not to belittle the KU issue). I found this really interesting article from 2015 about the broader use of clickfarms:
https://newrepublic.com/article/12155...
In general, scamming like all unfair competitive practices is pretty maddening.
An interesting article Eldon.I suspect Amazon could tighten their practices if they wanted to.
Perhaps the issue is not a priority for their leadership.
For July 2017 KENP is 0.00403472. (See https://www.kboards.com/index.php/top...)This is the record of payouts (per page read):
Note: I haven't independently vetted the data, but the source seems reputable.
June 2017 - $0.0042229
May 2017 - $0.004338
April 2017 - $0.004576
March 2017 - $0.004608
February 2017 - $0.00497
January 2017 - $0.004754
December 2016 - $0.005240
November 2016 - $0.00537
October 2016 - $0.005189
September 2016 - $0.004973
August 2016 - $0.004575
July 2016 - $0.004810
June 2016 - $0.004925
May 2016 - $0.004687
April 2016 - $0.004956
March 2016 - $0.004780
February 2016 - $0.004788
January 2016 - $0.004114
December 2015 - $0.004607
November 2015 - $0.004919
October 2015 - $0.004814
September 2015 - $0.005072
August 2015 - $0.005140
July 2015 - $0.005781
https://www.kboards.com/index.php/top...
So, if your net revenue per book per month since the beginning of the year breaks down as follows:* 50% from KU
* 50% from individual book purchases (and those purchases have remained steady)
then your net revenue per book per month decreased by roughly 7.5%.
That's excellent analysis right there. Well done Alex.
It looks about right, Alex. What I think is baloney is the fact that trad books like Harry Potter and Hunger Games can be on KU while also having wide distribution.
Hi Marie, I didn't know that.So there are different rules for the successful books which help to keep them successful...
ha ha. i'd forgotten that i'd heard about that.it's easier to make even more money if you already have a lot of it. it's getting the initial cash cow that's the hardest.
Lest we forget that Amazon doesn't only sell books:$5.25 billion: Amazon's current annual revenue from book sales, according to one of Packer's sources. That means books account for 7% of the company's $75 billion in total yearly revenue.
19.5%: The proportion of all books sold in the U.S. that are Kindle titles. E-books now make up around 30% of all book sales, and Amazon has a 65% share within that category, with Apple AAPL +0.14% and Barnes & Noble NE +1.25% accounting for most of the balance.*
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffberc... (although somewhat dated, 10 February, 2014, the % of books sold on Amazon is probably even a lower % of its revenue now.)
It's not just revenue, it's profitability within that segment of the business that matters.For example, AWS (Amazon Web Services, aka Cloud services) is (I believe) a cash cow.
It's profitability and growth prospects that will draw interest.
Graeme wrote: "It's not just revenue, it's profitability within that segment of the business that matters.For example, AWS (Amazon Web Services, aka Cloud services) is (I believe) a cash cow.
It's profitabilit..."
AWS is huge. It underlies Netflix, Adobe, NASDAQ and plenty more - even NASA is a huge client. When it crashes, huge chunks of the internet disappear - but it rarely crashes.
Way back in 2011, when it actually crashed on Skynet day, I remember it taking out enough sites that Amazon staffers actually posted a denial it had become self-aware :) And it's become a lot bigger since then.
Books are, unfortunately, only a tiny piece of Amazon's pie.
There are a lot of rumours going around that the new KENP 3.0 is meant to fix a lot of these scammer issues in KU. Not sure how true that is, but we can hope.
Aislinn wrote: "There are a lot of rumours going around that the new KENP 3.0 is meant to fix a lot of these scammer issues in KU. Not sure how true that is, but we can hope."Yeah... hope springs eternal ;)
hence my post to get a perspective on the scope of the issue in the larger scheme and especially the reference to Jane Friedman's pragmatic article on going wide or Amazon exclusive. perhaps, as Amazon's focus has shifted away from book publishing, new opportunities will arise. publishing books is a hi-tech enterprise and in hi-tech, rapid change is the mantra and if you can't adapt, you die.
I'd really encourage people to read the kboards forum thread that I linked to. A lot of people, including the author of the OP's referenced article, talk about their particular circumstances and their decision-making process.
I just read that Prime members will get discounts at Whole Foods now that Amazon has acquired it :D. They've got a lot going on besides books, but are still the biggest book retailer for the time being.
I would have thought it irrelevant that Amazon sells a lot of other things. If its book sales amount to $5 billion, that must be worth defending. The real problem with internet scammers is it is essentially a free run - nobody cares about it enough to do something to the scammers. Fraud is probably the safest crime in the world in that nowhere do police seem to do anything much about it.
Ian wrote: "I would have thought it irrelevant that Amazon sells a lot of other things. If its book sales amount to $5 billion, that must be worth defending. The real problem with internet scammers is it is es..."Well said Ian!
Thought this may be of interest, about a book that came out of nowhere but was somehow #1 on NYT best seller list:"Buying your way onto the bestseller list is not technically illegal, nor is it that hard if you know how. Many conservative publishers have found success through bulk-buying books then giving them away as, say, subscriber gifts if you sign up to Newsmax or the like. "
http://www.pajiba.com/book_reviews/di...
Marie Silk wrote: "Thought this may be of interest, about a book that came out of nowhere but was somehow #1 on NYT best seller list:"Buying your way onto the bestseller list is not technically illegal, nor is it t..."
Will the fraud never end!?
Great article Marie :)
Alex wrote: "But in this case the NYT delisted it. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b..."
Well hallejuiah :)
I think that some of the major reasons why this scam was effectively squashed are because the NYT is removed from the means of production, the number of writers represented by publishers is much smaller than the number of self-published writers, hence they are much easier to organize in addition to the fact that they could count on the clout of their publishers.If some of these conditions could be built into the self-publishing writer community, then they could have a chance at defending their own collective interests.
The problem is it is so hard for the self-published author to make headway it is obvious that some will try some sort of scam, and the sheer numbers make it hard for anyone but perhaps the likes of Amazon to find them. Marie's example, if you think of it, is actually valid - they did sell. Buying your own book cannot be illegal. The problem here lies in the credibility conveyed by "best seller" as a label.
Ian wrote: "Buying your own book cannot be illegal. The problem here lies in the credibility conveyed by "best seller" as a label. ."While I do agree with you, ordering it knowing the orders will be counted immediately during the current reporting period, while also knowing it's a) out of stock and b) the orders will be cancelled (but not until after the reporting period is done), is not "buying your own book" however.
It's also why a POD self-published author probably couldn't pull off this stunt. Not that this author pulled it off in the end.
However, it's not a new trick either. I grew up enmeshed in the music industry in NZ, a tiny enough industry in the 70's and 80's and saw this exact same thing pulled numerous times to get a single onto the charts (or in fact, to get a single on Ready to Roll, the back then NZ equiv of Top of the Pops, back when we only had 2 channels to pick from, hitting prime time TV on a Saturday night meant you effectively had 50% of the country watching. But a chart placement didn't hurt either :)
Krazykiwi - I agree - ordering is not the same as buying. Buying requires that cash was handed over. If Amazon, or anyone else, does not discount such orders, they are effectively accomplices to the scam.
Not sure if it's true, but it's my understanding that Amazon sales don't count for best seller lists like USA today.
Ian wrote: "Krazykiwi - I agree - ordering is not the same as buying. Buying requires that cash was handed over. If Amazon, or anyone else, does not discount such orders, they are effectively accomplices to th..."That's the trick, Ian. In this specific case, it was a apparently a representative of the publisher placing the orders, knowing it was out of stock and fully intending not to fulfill them. B&N have confirmed the orders would have been cancelled.
It would have been smart, if it wasn't so dumb. If you know what I mean. If they'd done a better job building up some kind of buzz ahead of time, for instance, it wouldn't have been so obvious as having a completely unheard of book pop up at the top of the list.
FYI."Amazon has filed arbitration demands against several book authors, publishers and marketers, alleging that they abused the Kindle Direct Publishing system to artificially inflate their profits and sales rankings."
https://www.geekwire.com/2017/amazon-...
Alex wrote: "FYI."Amazon has filed arbitration demands against several book authors, publishers and marketers, alleging that they abused the Kindle Direct Publishing system to artificially inflate their profi..."
If that is a response to some who are gaming their system at the expense of authors who are following the rules, I approve.
On a side note, one of the "scam" books linked in the article has Mehreen's latest book in the "Also bought" section...https://www.amazon.com/BROKEN-PEOPLE-...
Ian wrote: "If that is a response to some who are gaming their system at the expense of authors who are following the rules, I approve. "Agreed!
https://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2...
Who else finds this upsetting?