Has anyone read this? It's about self-publishing.

[24_Stars]

http://www.justpublishingadvice.com/the-self-publishing-train-wreck-is-upon-us/

After reading this I'm thinking about doing paperback books for self-publishing again. I'm just curious at what you guys on here think. Thanks!

[violet]

Eh, I don't agree with him. But KU is a divisive issue. I think KU for new authors is an excellent idea. My book is available in both e-format as well as paperback. When I first released, I sold a lot of paperbacks. But still, my e-book far outsells my pb. And this is true with most SP. 95%+ sales are the electronic version.

 

[farseer]

I'm having a really hard time wading through all the bitterness to find the author's point... not to mention the absolutely fallacious math...

Firstly, a 290 page novel that sells for $4.99 does not earn $1.40 in KU2. You have to know the KENPC (which is a kindle normalised page) which is completely different (and much HIGHER) than the paperback page length. KU1 favoured shorts and saw an influx of short stories and serials as people took advantage of that format. Amazon addresses that with KU2, which favours longer novels. I earn as much for a full read as I do for a sale. The author of the article doesn't actually understand how KU2 works or how a page read is calculated.

Secondly, KU2 favours books that engage readers and make them turn the page. If the author of the article is not getting page reads then *yes* he has an issue. People are borrowing the book and obviously discarding it without finishing it. That speaks volumes. I had a quick browse of that author's Amazon page and the article reeks of sour grapes. His rankings are in the millions, what few reviews he has, are not good. I doubt he's making $100/month. Maybe if he improved his craft, wrote books people wanted to read, and actually produced a professional product (those covers! oy!) he might sell a few more books.

If you want a better view of self publishing, I would suggest you read this interview with Hugh Howey
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2016/dbw-interview-with-hugh-howey-author/

[Tabris]

The article appears to date from last September, before KU2, so he couldn't have known about it yet. But yes, I thought the article felt very sour-grapey to me.

[Sarah Ahiers (Falen)]

I can't read the article on my work PC

But I did read an article recently about people gaming KU2 by putting a link in the front of their book that brings them to the back of the book, which then marks the book as fully read. So if you write a 600 page novel and include that link. Bam. Easy money.

Though I'm sure that's completely unrelated to the article at hand.

[violet]

I can't read the article on my work PC

But I did read an article recently about people gaming KU2 by putting a link in the front of their book that brings them to the back of the book, which then marks the book as fully read. So if you write a 600 page novel and include that link. Bam. Easy money.

Though I'm sure that's completely unrelated to the article at hand.

Yep. People suck. That's exactly what they were doing. I still stand by KU, because being paid for pages read is better than no one buying at all.

[farseer]

But I did read an article recently about people gaming KU2 by putting a link in the front of their book that brings them to the back of the book, which then marks the book as fully read. So if you write a 600 page novel and include that link. Bam. Easy money.

This was a huge problem 

Some of the scam books were 10,000 pages long and were stuffed with random nonsense like foreign language dictionaries. The first chapter and the last was something that "looked" genuine if someone flicked through the front or back. The scam link offering a prize or free gift took the reader straight to the end and triggered a full page read for KU2. These people are literally making hundreds of thousands of dollars from the scam. The scammers were KU All Stars, featured by Amazon and receiving substantial All Star bonus payments every month.

Amazon has cracked down on the links BUT they are still doing it. It is heavily reliant on readers reporting the scammers. They are looking at the All Star bonuses to ensure the books that racked up millions of reads that month are actually genuine books, but their are people doing it and playing the margins. Amazon has also capped KENPC at 3,000 pages and there are rumours they will disallow boxed sets/bundles completely and only single titles will be allowed in KU.

The problem is the scammers are organised and 1 step ahead of Amazon. They flooded KU1 with scamlets (under 10 page pamphlets to trigger a payout) then they adapted for KU2. When KU3 rolls out they'll have something new. These people have FB groups where they trade scam ideas that are working and even a YouTube channel to show you how to do it. They only solution is to reinstate a gate keeper to screen this stuff out.

[Sarah Ahiers (Falen)]

It's just such BS that amazon didn't realize this would be an issue and don't have a way to actually solve it so pages read=pages read and not pages skipped over.

[violet]

There's an article about this...I'll try to find it. Amazon really can't count pages read. All you have to do is form a group and everyone "reads" everyone else's books. And what really sucks is that KU gives bonuses for pages read as well as sales. So on top of the regular money, they're also getting the bonus money.

[24_Stars]

Thank you everyone for the feedback. I wasn't sure whether or not to agree with this article, but I did learn something out of it. It was about the demand for paperback in other countries. At the moment I have a growing amount of people who have been asking for paperback versions of my work to be sold in their country, but in the self-publishing world I learned it's kind of manual.

To clarify that, I'm planning to contact a POD company within their country. Problem is it's on the other side of the planet and I'm not sure if I'd have to travel there.

Once again. Thank you everyone for the feedback.

[violet]

Thank you everyone for the feedback. I wasn't sure whether or not to agree with this article, but I did learn something out of it. It was about the demand for paperback in other countries. At the moment I have a growing amount of people who have been asking for paperback versions of my work to be sold in their country, but in the self-publishing world I learned it's kind of manual.

To clarify that, I'm planning to contact a POD company within their country. Problem is it's on the other side of the planet and I'm not sure if I'd have to travel there.

Once again. Thank you everyone for the feedback.

You do know that if you do KU, Amazon puts any version out to all other countries, right? So Japan, Canada, India, etc...they all have access to my paperback. That might be easier for you.

[farseer]

To clarify that, I'm planning to contact a POD company within their country. Problem is it's on the other side of the planet and I'm not sure if I'd have to travel there.

Like Violet, I am confused. If your paperback is available on Amazon then people anywhere can buy it from their Amazon store. Or the Book Depository because it has free international postage and is much cheaper than Amazon. Or the CreateSpace store is also accessibly from anywhere in the world and will give you a bigger margin.

You certainly don't need to travel to another country to set up a POD run with a publisher there. Or are you talking about trying to get into bookstores in another country? Which is a different matter, as you need to offer a wholesale discount and take returns (for starters).

[24_Stars]

The country I'm aiming for is not within Amazon's official jurisdiction, so it would cost a lot more. I have a growing number of people in the Philippines who are interested in reading my work, but the costs through Amazon is not something they can afford over there.

The daily non-agriculture minimum wage in the area where I am planning to sell my books is P285.00 ($6.17), and if I wanted to sell books through paperback via Amazon's Create Space, the cost would be at least $15.00 with a tax of $4.99. $19.99 over here would be approximately P923.29. This is why I am trying to get into contact with local POD companies over there. Stumbled on a lady's blog a few months back and learned that the printing over there is a more affordable for both the reader and the writer.

Oh. Sorry for not clarifying. I am planning to get into the bookstores over there. Particularly the independent ones as well as the traditional word of mouth.

[AshK]

I can't read the article on my work PC

But I did read an article recently about people gaming KU2 by putting a link in the front of their book that brings them to the back of the book, which then marks the book as fully read. So if you write a 600 page novel and include that link. Bam. Easy money.

Though I'm sure that's completely unrelated to the article at hand.

Ugh, yes, that led to a witch hunt that resulted in many legit books getting flagged.

See, the books that were doing the end of page linky thing were scammy to begin with--and need to be booted. However, a lot of legit authors started putting their TOC at the end of the books to give more actual book in a sample... and they got caught up in the net.

I think it's being sorted, hopefully. But, yeah. Different issue but one that makes me yell all the same.

Thanks for the catharsis!