Sci-Fi, fantasy and speculative Indie Authors Review discussion
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Owen wrote: "For what it's worth, we've had great luck with KDP Select.I checked out going to Apple directly (before they lost that court case), but I didn't like that I (apparently) had to use their authoring tool and I didn't like their terms when I read them. B&N and Kobo didn't seem to have a big enough market share to bother with..."Like I said earlier, everyone's mileage will differ.
However, if you go exclusive on Kindle, you're effectively cutting yourself off from up to 45% of the eBook market.
Sure, B&N may only have something like 14% of the market (2013 number I just found)...but combined between B&N, iBooks and Kobo, it's a sizable chunk.
Plus, Kobo (from what I hear) is more popular in Europe. So, again, you might be distancing yourself from a fairly large demographic.
Food for thought anyway.
Oh, and from my experience, converting to Smashword's preferred standard (Word, properly formatted) only takes about an evening's work. I did a novella in about half an hour last night. Haven't run it through the meatgrinder yet, though...and it does have the most formatting quirks I've ever done (one graphic and some different formatting in some text). We shall see.
Micah wrote: "However, if you go exclusive on Kindle, you're effectively cutting yourself off from up to 45% of the eBook market...."Quite so -- there are myriad factors, and each author will find where they fit best. And thanks for the info. The numbers I saw when we launched were much different from that: B&N was less than 10% at that time, and Kobo did not really register, but they may have come along since then. iBooks was sizable (about 20-30%, depending on the source), but I choose not to deal with them.
One thing I noticed back then -- based on hearsay, only I'm afraid -- was that different outlets seems to do better in different genres. For example, iBooks seemed to a better market for romance than what we write (military sci-fi). I haven't seen detailed breakdowns of what iBooks, Amazon, Kobo, and B&N sell by genre, which would be very interesting.
Right now, about 25-30% or our income (maybe a little more) derives from KDP Select, so those other markets would have to come in above that to make sense to leave it. Given iBooks is not an option, for us that seems dubious. But again, that's just us.
What I didn't like about Smashwords (other than their lack of responsiveness) was that they have very specific formatting rules for their premium listing (which turn out to be Apple's rules -- or so Lulu told me), that I don't happen to much like. Again, that's just me and I'm strange like that. We don't do anything crazy with our format, by any means, but I was a bit put off by their attitude. Combined with their market share, it just wasn't worth it. It can take my Word document and convert it for KDP in 10-15 minutes or so, and get just I like, so that was a plus for me (though it's hardly a big deal).
Things change in this business at a very fast clip, so it does pay to be agile. What works now may be quite different in 6 months, and is almost certain to be in a year. One just has to keep one's eyes open (and keep writing).
One thing about Smashwords, you can choose the markets you want to distribute to. I market to Amazon directly, so I opt out of that market on Smashwords. Since Kobo seems to be hit or miss through Smashwords (my new novel STILL isn't up on Kobo), I may do the same there. Smashwords does well with apple and ScribD. As for the rest--who cares?
All you say about Smashwords, Ken, is true of Draft2Digital, but without the impossible book converter.
Smashwords is currently into more markets. Here's a comparison: http://www.teleread.com/smashwords/sm...
That's a bit dated, Ken. DtD have added Apple and Scribd, so that covers most of the retailers I've heard of.
Mod
Speaking of markets, I'm rethinking my idea of submitting to Kobo directly. They pay only when you reach $100, or every six months, whichever comes first. At my level of sales on Kobo, I'll just leave it with Smashwords.
Ken wrote: "Speaking of markets, I'm rethinking my idea of submitting to Kobo directly. They pay only when you reach $100, or every six months, whichever comes first. At my level of sales on Kobo, I'll just ..."So...they pay differently if you distributed to them via Smashwords?
The novel I uploaded on Smashwords this Saturday hit Kobo today. So for some reason, other than my first short story, all my works have moved to Kobo rather quickly.
Ken wrote: "Speaking of markets, I'm rethinking my idea of submitting to Kobo directly. They pay only when you reach $100, or every six months, whichever comes first. At my level of sales on Kobo, I'll just ..."Really? That strikes me as very much behind the times. When we signed up with KDP, they had a $10 minimum payment per markets, but they dropped that shortly after.
Considering how many authors they must have that make $5, $10, $15 per month, the idea that they get the use of all that money interest free for 6 months would personally be enough for me to not deal with them at all.
My new novel still isn't there, yet, and sometimes it takes awhile, I think. I sold an older novel on Kobo through Smashwords earlier this month, so I'll find out about payment through SW. My hope is that they consolidate all of the sales through SW into one lump sum and pay it to SW monthly. I have no evidence of this, but I'll soon know.
Mod
Most of the retailers have these kind of thresholds--Amazon just has the smallest. Some do it by currency too (Createspace included), and others pay at different #s depending on whether you want a cheque, PayPal, direct deposit, etc. When you consider the cost of intercountry money transfers/accounting processes/etc, I'd have minimums too if I were them.
Smashwords has a $75 threshold when paying by check, but $10 if you use Paypal. Currently those are the only two markets I submit to.
Mod
:(
Draft2Digital:
we'll hold your royalties until they add up to a minimum threshold ($25 for checks, $10 for digital payments)
Kobo:
Authors are paid 45 days after the end of each monthly period provided you have met a minimum threshold of $100.
- if your content has not generated the minimum threshold listed above, we will provide you with payment every 6 months
Apparently iBooks (direct) threshold is only $5 per currency, with some exceptions, and Nook direct is $10/pounds/euros per currency.
Jamie wrote: "Actually the Createspace one is (yet another) Canada issue. We have to wait for $100/(or pounds or Euros, all tracked separately) to accrue to get paid by cheque (with no cost for the cheque to us)..."Just curious: Does Canada not allow EFT/Direct deposit from Createspace?
In the US Createspace makes electronic deposits monthly.
Ken wrote: "In the US Createspace makes electronic deposits monthly."Yes, and there is no minimum. We get deposits for a ~$1 at times. But banking laws and policies being what they are, I was wondering if Canada disallows that.
Mod
Createspace only offers direct deposit for a list of about 5 or 6 countries. Amazon does it. Hopefully someday they have the same payment policies. Otherwise it's a long time before I'll be paid for selling one copy of Amazon.co.uk
Jamie wrote: "Createspace only offers direct deposit for a list of about 5 or 6 countries. Amazon does it. Hopefully someday they have the same payment policies. Otherwise it's a long time before I'll be paid for selling one copy of Amazon.co.uk..."I guess I'm spoiled then. I gotta say though, when I get one of those $1.13 deposits from Createspace, I think "Whoo Hoo! Now we can retire and quit this life of crime!" ;-)
I think my payment from Createspace last month was 35 cents. It helps minutely with the bottom line, but I decided to raise the price a little on that book.
Wow, your royalties are low. What price do you list your book at? My 6x9 novels are both $14.99, which is the average list price for that size. From US sales I make $4.54 per book.
I priced my two paperback short-story collections very low to stimulate sales, but it didn't work, so I did raise the prices. I make much more on the novels, priced at $13.99--nearly $4.00--but the first never sold very well in paperback, and the newest one doesn't have a track record, yet--although in the less than two weeks since its release it has sold almost as many ebook versions as my first novel sold all of last year. Maybe the paperbacks will follow.
Paperbacks don't sell nearly as well as ebooks anyway.
True, but on that particular short-story collection I've sold more paperbacks than ebooks. It looks very nice in paperback, but sells few copies in any format:
Mod
Sci-Fi, fantasy and speculative Indie Authors...
Books mentioned in this topic
The Villain & The Golden Apple (other topics)The Cut-Up Man: And other Posthuman Cycle stories (other topics)
PleshaCore (other topics)
To Summon The Blackbird (other topics)
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I just had my first KU/KOLL and, I sold a book!
How about you :)"
Excellent! Best wishes for many more sales to come.