Celebrating Independent Authors
Whoooooosshhh!
“What was that?”
“That was 2012, that was.”
“What? And it’s gone – just like that?”
“Afraid so.”
“So what’s next?”
“Well, 2013, of course.”
“Oh, right. Will it go just as quickly as 2012?”
“Yes, so don’t oversleep, or blink, because you might miss it…” Continue reading “Indie News Beat: Christmas Edition”
Did you know you can borrow eBooks from your local library? If you didn’t, you’re not alone. Forbes reported in June that 58 percent of library patrons don’t know they can borrow eBooks, and only two percent have ever done it.
That’s not surprising, considering that traditional publishing houses have kept as tight a rein on their eBook sales to libraries as they have on eBook sales in general. Some of the Big Six reportedly don’t sell eBooks to libraries at all. The publishers that allow such sales insist that libraries purchase only DRM-locked books, and they limit the number of borrows for a single eBook copy. Why all the hoops? The big publishers are afraid that if library patrons find out they can borrow eBooks, it will eat into their sales – and, hence, their profits. That’s despite the fact that a large percentage of eBook borrowers are also eBook buyers. Continue reading “Check This Out – Borrow eBooks from Libraries”
The big publishing story over the last few weeks has undoubtedly been the sock-puppet scandal. First broken by the New York Times, suddenly we were drowning in stories, articles and opinions from it seemed everyone in publishing. But just as suddenly as the elephant in the room was acknowledged, so it disappeared.
The general outrage that a few bad apples in the Indie movement would actually pay for multiple, glowing reviews on Amazon, soon diffused when stories appeared reporting that some mainstream authors were also not averse to puffing their own work, while sticking the knife into their competitors. Likely the mainstream authors will suffer more in the short term, given their higher profile, but all this summer flurry really did was draw more attention to the intense competition on Amazon, and the shortfalls of its rating and review system. Continue reading “Indie News Beat with Chris James”