I
attended a major writing festival in the UK recently, including writing
workshops as well as a question and answer session posed to literary agents of traditional publishers in the book industry. Some of the viewpoints certainly struck a
chord with me, having been published with Amazon for some years now. And here’s
what I learned.
The
Big Players in the Publishing Industry Versus Amazon
Closure of Book Shops due to the Kindle |
It
seems a general consensus that Amazon is viewed as a monopoly without
democracy. This publishing platform is so efficient, cutting out all middlemen,
postal costs and production that no room can be found for opposition. There is
no healthy competition and things look set to remain that way. Let’s face it
Kindle books and online publishing have basically created a hole in paperback sales. The other
digital book platforms such as Nook and Apple just don’t compete with Amazon.
The
Future of the Paperback Book
This
means many chain books stores are screwed. Amazon is terrifyingly efficient and
cuts all the fat. The large, traditional publishers are forever consolidating.
The big five: Penguin, Random House, Harper Collins, Simon Schuster and Macmillan
are the only big players standing. But one day, the big five might become the
big four, as more is consolidated.
The
result of this is that there are fewer places to sell your book. Author
advances are going down and inflation is up. Gone are the days of huge
advances, but perhaps this is not all bad. A huge advance equals huge books
sales to break even, and expectation of the author to maintain commercial
success is not so high.
And
royalties are also down.
Some
big authors have actually gone self-published, enjoying the big royalty share
of Kindle books (being 70% if priced above $2.99) as opposed to smaller
royalties when selling on paperback. Some big author names have come back to
traditional publishing after defecting to self publishing on Kindle. However, most big authors will remain
with the traditional published route, believing it gives them validation. This
is the one big thing the traditional route offers and being self published on Amazon
does not.
The
Worst Thing about Amazon: Their Rating System Sucks
Amazon's big Problem: its Rating System |
The
worst thing about Amazon is its rubbish rating system. Anyone with an Amazon
account can leave a review whether they have read the book or not. I have received
reviews for the Amazon customer service rather than my book. Amazon is rife
with political reviews left by shotgun sockpuppets who are competing authors (these leave one or two rubbish reviews and then never leave another). They might
leave a five star for a big book to prove they do leave good reviews after all. Meaningless
one or two sentences make it plain they have never read the book.
Big
Author Sponsors Versus the Single Self Published Writer
Even worse, the moment a big name or celebrity gets a
book out, dozens of reviews appear as if by magic, saying what a wonderful book
it is. In fact, the genuine reviewer seldom posts reviews like this. I have
several books that sell like hotcakes, but have only one or two reviews. And
the more reviews a book gets, the more reviews it gets. It is reasons like
these that many readers are so disappointed in a book with rave reviews, saying what
was all the fuss about? Amazon is rife with books that are overrated.
Amazon’s
Big Problem: Its Appalling Book Review System
The
sad thing is, Amazon doesn’t care. It only cares about growth and customers
ordering products from them. They have branched out to a diverse landscape, including
household products, games, films and more. Books are just another limb to its
machine. Since many self published books on Amazon have no isbns, sales are
difficult to track. In fact, no one really knows how many self published books
are selling on Amazon, but is sure to be millions and set to get bigger.
Self
Published Authors on Amazon
Amazon
has offered a great opportunity for self published writers to get their book out there, but
their system possesses many flaws which can actually work against the self pubbed
writer. One is their appalling rating system. On top of this, many authors
still do not sell a single book because there is just so much out there. Amazon
doesn’t care if you publish an epic literary masterpiece or a two-page pamphlet
full of typos. All it cares about is growth and profit. And it seems, the trad
pubbed writers are being hit too (albeit in a different way).
It all goes back to what the traditional
publishers offer: validation – and getting into the supermarket. Yes, Amazon
has been revolutionary for the self pubbed writer, but without validation, the
indie writer is like a small boat out at sea and a stormy one at that. Few avid
readers are going to upload a book by an unknown and untested writer with no validation.
Conclusion
on Self Pubbed Route via Amazon
I
had come away from the literary festival with a balanced view: how Amazon has impacted
upon the self published writer as well as traditional publishing. The self pubbed
writer like me has found a way of getting my book out there, but am up against
impossible odds when it comes to competition, getting reviews and being noticed.
The trad publishers are concerned about the monopoly of Amazon, and how it seems to be contributing to the closure and/or amalgamation of book shops and book publishers. Amazon can only get bigger and there seems to be little anyone can do about it. Their review system will remain rubbish. But only time will tell what the future will hold, but doubt much will change in the foreseeable future: competition for the self pubbed writer will get bigger and the trad publishers will continue to struggle to keep afloat.
The trad publishers are concerned about the monopoly of Amazon, and how it seems to be contributing to the closure and/or amalgamation of book shops and book publishers. Amazon can only get bigger and there seems to be little anyone can do about it. Their review system will remain rubbish. But only time will tell what the future will hold, but doubt much will change in the foreseeable future: competition for the self pubbed writer will get bigger and the trad publishers will continue to struggle to keep afloat.
And of course, the big name authors and celebrities will continue to get hundreds of reviews overnight saying what a wonderful book it is.
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