About Kindle Publishing

Discussion in 'Electronic Publishing' started by Phillip Booth Faulkner, Mar 25, 2020.

  1. NigeTheHat

    NigeTheHat Contributor Contributor

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    That would basically be my argument for why they shouldn't be gatekeepers. They don't care about your definition of quality, they just care if it sells - and they don't really care about that, because it's not costing them anything to have the listing. As long as they've got the winners, they're not going to care whether or not they've got the losers, so why incur the considerable cost that gatekeeping would involve?
     
  2. Cephus

    Cephus Contributor Contributor

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    Yes, and writing for profit, which is what publishing to Amazon is, requires sales, or at the very least the ability to write competently so that you can reasonably expect sales. Amazon is footing all of the bills here. They are paying to store your book, they are paying to keep the website up, they are paying for bandwidth, etc. These are not large costs on an individual basis, but when you have millions of people throwing garbage up there, it adds up. They have every right to expect that people who are uploading to their platform are doing so for the purpose of making sales. It's the only way they make any money and they are in the business to make money. Ultimately, some form of minimal gatekeeping benefits us all, well, except for the people who are only operating on ego and feelings. It helps the consumer because it gets rid of scams and low-effort books. It helps authors because we are no longer buried under a morass of horrible garbage, making it harder for anyone to find us. And it helps Amazon because they make more profits and without Amazon and similar services, none of us has a thing.
     
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  3. The Dapper Hooligan

    The Dapper Hooligan (V) ( ;,,;) (v) Contributor

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    Amazon's got an imperfect system, but hiring staff to judge the quality of books being published would be ridiculously costly, and I don't believe having an upfront cost to keep people from publishing vanity projects would work. People are probably willing to pay more to alleviate their ego than they would to publish their legitimate work. I don't really self publish, but I'd like to think there has to be some work arounds to getting your book out of the dredge heap. Like I'm sure people trying to make a living from their writing would put a lot more effort into getting their stories out to the public than someone who put a book there so they can offhandedly point it out to their neighbours just so they can recharge their undeserved sense of self superiority.
     
  4. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    as i said earlier the customers are essential the gate keepers - lots of bad reviews will equal no sales, and lots of complaints to amazon about quality will see you get told to sort it out or take the book down
     
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  5. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    yes it is - you can upload a manuscript to kdp with no charge whatsoever. They take 30% of royalty (for ebook) but all the major market places are free at point of use

    (of course someone who's self publishing properly will have editing costs, cover costs, marketing costs etc... but if you want to upload a bunch of uneditted first draft it won't cost you a red cent)
     
  6. NigeTheHat

    NigeTheHat Contributor Contributor

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    I would think their marginal costs per book are basically 0, but regardless:

    I just don't think that's true. Gatekeeping in the way you've described would be extremely expensive - and subjective. If one of those gatekeepers throws out the next 50 Shades, it's even more so. Amazon make more money by letting anything be sold, and it's a hell of a lot easier for them too.
     
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  7. marshipan

    marshipan Contributor Contributor

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    Amazon, with it's Kindle Unlimited program and search algorithms, favors quantity over quality. They want more, not particularly better. It's practically their selling point for their subscription service. So I'm not sure where the argument comes from that Amazon isn't the place for a certain quality and would benefit from controlling quantity. It's pretty much the opposite by design, not accident, and they are doing very well with that design.
     
  8. Cephus

    Cephus Contributor Contributor

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    It's not expensive at all, that's why you charge authors to upload books. That pays for the reading fees. Whether they choose to do it or not is entirely up to them. I just think it would solve a lot of problems.
     
  9. Phillip Booth Faulkner

    Phillip Booth Faulkner New Member

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    I want to thank everyone for their input to my original question. And I think my novel is a really good book, if I thought it was trash I would not publish it. I wrote the book because I could, I had never written a book in my life up to that time, in fact up to the time that wrote the book I had never read a novel in my life. I have given this some thought, why have I not read other novels, and this is what I think: reading some else's novel is not creative. I am an artist, writer, designer, musician, composer, among other things, I live to create. But I find that publishing one's book is difficult, especially for a dummy like me! I know nothing! And find it hard to find anyone to help me. Writing organizations in my area have closed down because of Covid. There is one writers group in a town about thirty miles away, if I could afford the gas to get there. I think they want a $105 to join. I am on my second novel, and I have written two non-fiction books. I find writing rather easy, it is what I am suppose to do after I write the book to be the hard part.
     
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  10. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    If you’ve never read a novel you have no yardstick to say that yours is good or bad

    my advice would be to get an editor before you do anything else
     
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  11. Earp

    Earp Contributor Contributor

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    @big soft moose is being kind. If you've never read a novel in your life, the chances of your writing something worth reading are essentially zero. Have you published anything, fiction or non-?

    ETA: Try posting something you've written in the workshop, after helping out other members with their work. Maybe a chapter of your novel or a snippet of non-fiction. We'll tell you if you can write or not.
     
    Last edited: Mar 18, 2023
  12. w. bogart

    w. bogart Contributor Contributor Blogerator

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    I heard, Don't remember the podcast, that Amazon uses the reviews as a filter. Books that aren't getting four and five etar reviews sink farther and farther down in the searches. Which in my mind is a very free market approach to the issue. It only costs them a minute or so of computer time to convert the file to their format, so no real loss there. The garbage gets buried by bad reviews. While the quality works that sell, cover the costs. It creates a level playing field, where the authors talent at creating a marketable product determines their success.
    While traditional publishers have a great deal more at risk. They gamble on each submission they accept with editor's time, marketing, and printing costs. It is also the reason they take a higher percentage, to cover those costs.
     
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