Amazon offers indie authors reward for going exclusive

[John F]

Originally Posted by rhadin

...[*]As what the indie author's book earns is based on a percentage of all borrowings, does the indie author have the right to audit the entire program to ensure that the calculation is correct? In other words, other than blindly accepting Amazon's pronouncement that there were x number of total borrowings, how does the indie author verify it?
...

Is this practical?

As far as regular ebook sales, how do Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ... provide proof to authors that sales are what they say they are?

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by John F

Is this practical?

As far as regular ebook sales, how do Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ... provide proof to authors that sales are what they say they are?

If someone is providing a book as a sale to a reader, pocketing the money, and then not paying the author, I would assume that's illegal.

This "borrowing" agreement is basically written so that Amazon can change the payout at any time simply by changing the amount the set aside for that month that works as a base modifier. The agreement -- as it reads to me -- acts like Amazon can change that base modifying money amount whenever it wants.

That's why a flat rate would have been preferable.

[John F]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

If someone is providing a book as a sale to a reader, pocketing the money, and then not paying the author, I would assume that's illegal.

This "borrowing" agreement is basically written so that Amazon can change the payout at any time simply by changing the amount the set aside for that month that works as a base modifier. The agreement -- as it reads to me -- acts like Amazon can change that base modifying money amount whenever it wants.

That's why a flat rate would have been preferable.

I can see that.

But if I was a writer, I think I would sign up for the shortest period possible, and evaluate the results.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by John F

Is this practical?

As far as regular ebook sales, how do Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ... provide proof to authors that sales are what they say they are?

Is it practical for one author to audit the program? Depends on how much is at stake. Even if impractical, if the authors have the right, they could band together. More importantly, contractually having the right to audit gives some credence to the idea that Amazon isn't cheating.

I don't know how it is done for sales. I'm not an author. But if there were no mechanism by which I could verify numbers, I would be mighty worried about being ripped off.

[John F]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Is it practical for one author to audit the program? Depends on how much is at stake. Even if impractical, if the authors have the right, they could band together. More importantly, contractually having the right to audit gives some credence to the idea that Amazon isn't cheating.

I don't know how it is done for sales. I'm not an author. But if there were no mechanism by which I could verify numbers, I would be mighty worried abour being ripped off.

We'll not I'm really curious. What is the industry standard for ensuring that everything is on the up and up.

With paper books, I can picture a "paper" trail; You could probably do a lot of cross referencing with shipments, payments, returns, ... But with ebooks, (especially with Amazon which does it's own DRM activations), It looks pretty hard to verify anything?

[rudolf]

Okay, we have many hopes and even more doubts, but can one really tell me what is the real effect of this program? Anyone who enrolled?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by John F

I can see that.

But if I was a writer, I think I would sign up for the shortest period possible, and evaluate the results.

You do run the risk of losing trust and respect from readers. Do you really want that?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by rudolf

Okay, we have many hopes and even more doubts, but can one really tell me what is the real effect of this program? Anyone who enrolled?

The effect is that you can lose the trust and respect of your readers and if the ones that don't deal with Amazon eBooks find out you've got exclusive with Amazon, you lose them as customers.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by John F

As far as regular ebook sales, how do Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ... provide proof to authors that sales are what they say they are?

Authors put an audit clause in their contract with the publisher, allowing them some access to the publisher's records, and publishers probably put an audit clause in their contract with wholesalers and Amazon. But googling:

book sales audit

I'm getting the idea that such audits are not routinely conducted.

Really massive fraud might be detected in the financial auditing required of publicly held companies.

I'm going to guess that such crimes as you suggest are almost always deterred by fear of prison. At least, that is my hope.

[John F]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You do run the risk of losing trust and respect from readers. Do you really want that?

I'm sure they would understand. Besides, I'd have a much larger audience, so who cares if I lose the respect of a one or two self-centered whiners who have an inflated sense of self importnace.

[Scott Nicholson]

I think the library is just one more avenue that's convenient in the digital age. I don't see it becoming the only model or even the dominant model. I am trying a few titles, and I'll let the readers decide how much they like it. For a writer, it's just another tool in the modern kit.

However, I don't see any money at all in this. With more than 50,000 books already enrolled, that's an average payout of $10 per month per book, and most of the average will be skewed to the popular bestsellers anyway.

As for auditing, good luck. Many authors have long believed publishing is full of little gopher holes where their money disappears between the bookstore cash register and their royalty checks. I don't see why digital would be any better or worse, or how there would ever be the financial effort and will to audit anyone on a massive scale. You just have to fly on faith that most people will do what they say they will do.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by Scott Nicholson

As for auditing, good luck. Many authors have long believed publishing is full of little gopher holes where their money disappears between the bookstore cash register and their royalty checks. I don't see why digital would be any better or worse, or how there would ever be the financial effort and will to audit anyone on a massive scale. You just have to fly on faith that most people will do what they say they will do.

Remember when books used to say "if you bought this book without a cover, that bookstore is running A SCAM!!" *nostalgia*

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You do run the risk of losing trust and respect from readers. Do you really want that?

Some readers' trust and respect is not worth pandering to.

Lost in the whole Amazon-bashing fest going on, I have to wonder if the gripe is about formats or exclusivity. What about authors that sell exclusively off their web sites? What about (and we all know who) publishers that sell exclusively off *their* website?

Life is all about trade-offs and if accessing a particular audience most effectively requires telling others "sorry, no-go", then so be it. Just because a product is available to somebody doesn't mean they *will* buy it. Trying to reach out to *everybody* can just as easily mean reaching out to nobody. Which is why the best marketing campaigns aim for specific demographics instead of trying to carpetbomb the universe.

As some have pointed out above, depending on the writer and the material, going exclusive (whether for a short time or an extended period) may make perfect sense for *them*. They just need to know who they are writing for and where they can be found because no writer is ever going to have universal appeal.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Some readers' trust and respect is not worth pandering to.

Lost in the whole Amazon-bashing fest going on, I have to wonder if the gripe is about formats or exclusivity. What about authors that sell exclusively off their web sites? What about (and we all know who) publishers that sell exclusively off *their* website?

Life is all about trade-offs and if accessing a particular audience most effectively requires telling others "sorry, no-go", then so be it. Just because a product is available to somebody doesn't mean they *will* buy it. Trying to reach out to *everybody* can just as easily mean reaching out to nobody. Which is why the best marketing campaigns aim for specific demographics instead of trying to carpetbomb the universe.

As some have pointed out above, depending on the writer and the material, going exclusive (whether for a short time or an extended period) may make perfect sense for *them*. They just need to know who they are writing for and where they can be found because no writer is ever going to have universal appeal.

I find a great deal to agree with here, but I think there is a real danger for
the consumer, in Amazon's version and intentions for "Exclusivity".

Amazon is a retailer of many author's books, among other things, authors
and publishers are offering individual books for sale to as many outlets as
possible. The authors, and to some extent the publishers, are interested
in the sales of their particular books, Amazon has no real concern for the
sales of a particular book over the others, as long as they can make money
off the sales of the books they sell, in general.

Exclusivity at the manufacturing level is a natural and good thing, no one
should be able to make an exact copy of your product, and sell it as theirs.
Exclusivity at the retail level is bad - very bad in most cases. And the
amount of control over the use of the product, after the sale, that Amazon
places on the product, makes for a very dark potential.

(Utility rates are regulated by the representatives of the people they serve,
just because they are granted a monopoly.)

Luck;
Ken

[starrigger]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Remember when books used to say "if you bought this book without a cover, that bookstore is running A SCAM!!" *nostalgia*

Actually, the publisher's ebook of one of my novels still had that "stripped book" warning at the beginning -- -- until I pointed out to them that perhaps it could be removed.

Audits rarely happen -- and when they do, it's usually when a writers' organization such as SFWA conducts one as a test case to see if a publisher's accounts are generally honest. Sometimes those audits lead to cash payments to writers. But mostly, the system is "Trust, but have the right to verify."

As for results from the Amazon program, I haven't joined, but have heard some other writers' preliminary results. A few of them reported an immediate jump in sales of the book(s) being offered on loan. A few others reported no particular change.

My guess is, it works better for the writers who are already selling well. Sort of like paid advertising.