4 ms·

Authors also need to unhook from Amazon, and here are some reasons why: - They keep at least 30% of the cut, but much more if you dare to include high quality

by dsign 1y ago

Authors also need to unhook from Amazon, and here are some reasons why: - They keep at least 30% of the cut, but much more if you dare to include high quality images in your e-books. That map you spend a week or two creating? It'll be a messy blur in a kindle. - If you are not a best-seller, Amazon brings you nothing in terms of discoverability. In fact: - the moment a potential reader lands on your book's page, Amazon will show them ads for other books. Consider that that potential reader may have come there after you paid for ads in Amazon or in some other platform, or after you spent a day doing in-person marketing at an arts fair. That's just asinine. The discoverability issue affects me the most as a reader, since Amz keeps surfacing ten-a-dime stories that happen somewhere in USA, mention starwars three times per page, and involve werewolves.

asdefghyk 1y ago
RE "...high quality images in your e-books....." Why is this ? Why are they deliberately converted to low res images ?
- dsign 1y ago
  Delivery cost per size: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200634500 https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200634500 Basically, they'll charge you 0.15 USD / Mb if you opt for the 70% royalty. Or nothing, if you opt for the 35% royalty. The deal would sort of make sense if it weren't for because they put so little value on the table.
  - markush_ 1y ago
    70% is wild, how does that hold up in monopoly and anti competition cases
thaumasiotes 1y ago
> That map you spend a week or two creating? It'll be a messy blur in a kindle. There's a funny thing going on with maps in books. Fantasy novels frequently include maps, and some people are pretty vocal about how much they appreciate those maps. But the maps are never relevant to the story at all; you'd lose absolutely nothing by leaving them out of the book. History books also tend to include maps. The maps are much less detailed, and it's rare for people to make appreciative comments. But the maps are in there, even though the authors appear not to really care for them, because they're necessary to understanding most of what's going on. As far as relevance to the text is concerned, history books have a much more severe undersupply of maps than fantasy novels have an oversupply, and the fantasy oversupply is considerable. And yet, somehow, all of the popular demand is for fantasy novels to have more maps and for history books to have fewer.
- protocolture 1y ago
  KJ Parker does this really well, he just doesnt include maps, nor does he hold himself accountable to them. Fans trying to stitch his world together run into issues and he just straight up doesnt give a shit.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 1y ago
    That sounds like the exact opposite of doing it well.
    - protocolture 1y ago
      How do you figure? You get all the required context from the words in the book.
      - yjftsjthsd-h 1y ago
        > he just doesnt include maps, Totally fine. > nor does he hold himself accountable to them. Iffy: consistency matters in worldbuilding. > Fans trying to stitch his world together run into issues and he just straight up doesnt give a shit. Bad: This implies that 1. the constructed world is inconsistent and 2. the author doesn't care. A story set in a fluid world where things just move around breaks immersion and undermines stakes because the reader doesn't know what the rules are and stops caring when it becomes clear that things are just made up on the fly whenever it's convenient.
- dsign 1y ago
  I love maps on books. And illustrations and schematics. But the kindle experience with all of those is so bad, even slowing down the device, that I may prefer to skip them. And because the kindle device drags down all the other platforms (e.g., kindle on ipad), then the experience on other platforms is also bad. Authors may be better served by hosting their digital books on their websites, but that also comes with its own sets of problems :-( . It's a different story on physical media, for example a well-made hard cover.

by dsign 1y ago

asdefghyk 1y ago

RE "...high quality images in your e-books....." Why is this ? Why are they deliberately converted to low res images ?

dsign 1y ago
Delivery cost per size: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200634500 https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200634500 Basically, they'll charge you 0.15 USD / Mb if you opt for the 70% royalty. Or nothing, if you opt for the 35% royalty. The deal would sort of make sense if it weren't for because they put so little value on the table.
- markush_ 1y ago
  70% is wild, how does that hold up in monopoly and anti competition cases

thaumasiotes 1y ago

> That map you spend a week or two creating? It'll be a messy blur in a kindle. There's a funny thing going on with maps in books. Fantasy novels frequently include maps, and some people are pretty vocal about how much they appreciate those maps. But the maps are never relevant to the story at all; you'd lose absolutely nothing by leaving them out of the book. History books also tend to include maps. The maps are much less detailed, and it's rare for people to make appreciative comments. But the maps are in there, even though the authors appear not to really care for them, because they're necessary to understanding most of what's going on. As far as relevance to the text is concerned, history books have a much more severe undersupply of maps than fantasy novels have an oversupply, and the fantasy oversupply is considerable. And yet, somehow, all of the popular demand is for fantasy novels to have more maps and for history books to have fewer.

protocolture 1y ago
KJ Parker does this really well, he just doesnt include maps, nor does he hold himself accountable to them. Fans trying to stitch his world together run into issues and he just straight up doesnt give a shit.
- yjftsjthsd-h 1y ago
  That sounds like the exact opposite of doing it well.
  - protocolture 1y ago
    How do you figure? You get all the required context from the words in the book.
    - yjftsjthsd-h 1y ago
      > he just doesnt include maps, Totally fine. > nor does he hold himself accountable to them. Iffy: consistency matters in worldbuilding. > Fans trying to stitch his world together run into issues and he just straight up doesnt give a shit. Bad: This implies that 1. the constructed world is inconsistent and 2. the author doesn't care. A story set in a fluid world where things just move around breaks immersion and undermines stakes because the reader doesn't know what the rules are and stops caring when it becomes clear that things are just made up on the fly whenever it's convenient.
dsign 1y ago
I love maps on books. And illustrations and schematics. But the kindle experience with all of those is so bad, even slowing down the device, that I may prefer to skip them. And because the kindle device drags down all the other platforms (e.g., kindle on ipad), then the experience on other platforms is also bad. Authors may be better served by hosting their digital books on their websites, but that also comes with its own sets of problems :-( . It's a different story on physical media, for example a well-made hard cover.