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I've read various things from writers about Amazon's publishing deals. They have AmazonEncore, which republishes and promotes emerging authors and mid-listers w

I've read various things from writers about Amazon's publishing deals. They have AmazonEncore, which republishes and promotes emerging authors and mid-listers with self-published novels, giving them an extremely generous (compared to the Big NY Five) cut of the proceeds for every book sold on Kindle. Of course, for indie publishers in general, if you sell your ebook for over US$2.99 in the Kindle bookstore, you keep 70%. Same with Nook Bookstore. Seth Godin self-publishes by this method. Stephen King publishes short stories and novelas through Kindle Singles, a more curated kindle publishing vehicle that publishes short essays, longer journalistic pieces, and short fiction that gives authors a 70% cut regardless of the author's set price. Being the #1 bookseller and ereader manufacturer is faring very well for Amazon.

jseliger 15y ago
It's not bad for a lot writers, either, so far, at least compared to traditional publishing. I wrote a longish post on the subject: http://jseliger.com/2011/10/17/on-amazon-signs-up-authors-writing-publishers-out-of-deal/ http://jseliger.com/2011/10/17/on-amazon-signs-up-authors-wr... which explains why I might end up as one of those self-published writers: it's not just the economics of publishing right now, but the difficulty of even getting published at all if you're a classic outsider. The desperate will use whatever cheap and quick methods they can to get their work out there. Yeah, 99% of that work will be lousy, but the unrecognized good stuff will be there too.