Apparently, I’m desperate. It seems I only think about blogging when I have absolutely nothing else to do or when something is weighing heavily on my mind and I feel the need to get it out of my system. Today’s reason is that my Internet connection has been down for 12 hours and I’m running out of disconnected things to do.
I took my mother out to breakfast this morning, then took her to Walmart. I put a new battery in the garage door remote (it still doesn’t work.) I’ve cleaned out 15 years’ worth of clutter from my billfold. I even flipped through the stack of magazines I never have time to read. I wonder if these are the kinds of things normal people do to fill their days.
As for things weighing heavily on my mind, there is one thing that has been bothering me lately. I’ve put off discussing it because I don’t have an answer. I don’t really even know the question yet, but here it is in its present incomplete form.
Today, anybody can publish anything to Amazon’s Kindle. Some writers are even turning their backs on contracts with traditional publishers so they can enjoy the freedom and high royalties available to self-publishers via Kindle. The question that’s been churning around in my head is, “Why do people assume that either of these scenarios is going to last?”
Amazon has already started a program to eliminate a large portion of the duplicate content available on Kindle. The hundreds (thousands?) of folks dumping public domain and PLR articles onto Kindle are seeing their titles disabled as quickly as Amazon can identify them. I’ve heard that Amazon has also been removing titles that get an above average number of returns or negative reviews. As the Kindle brand grows and Amazon signs more talented writers into their stable, how long will it be before they start some kind of screening process to weed out competition with their own titles? Is it in their long-term interest to have 100,000 good titles available rather than a million mediocre titles? Will Kindle’s reputation take a heavy blow from disgruntled readers who feel they have to waste time and money wading through a slushpile to find the rare bits of writing they enjoy?
And lastly, why in the world (I can’t even express how flabbergasted I am about this point)…why in the world are authors so eager to bet their future on Amazon’s high royalty rate? In what universe does a company dominate a market and then not take advantage of their monopoly? I would bet my soul that at some point, maybe not until Amazon has driven a few publishers out of business, Amazon is going to slash royalty rates. When you’re the only viable game in town, you can do whatever you want. And Amazon wants to make money.
And herein lies the reason my question is incomplete. I have spent the last few years floundering in the world of Internet Marketing. I’m no good at it, but the one hard rule I’ve learned is to not put all my eggs into one basket. I have built entire websites around a single product, spending thousands of hours developing and promoting it, only to see the company fold or drop their affiliate program. Suppose you quit your day job, turned down a publishing deal, produced a successful series of books, sold a few thousand Kindle editions at $2.99 (to get the 70% royalty), then woke up one day to find Amazon had changed the royalty rate to 15%? What will you do about it? What can you do about it?
There are alternatives to Kindle, but, come on, we all know there aren’t any good alternatives. The only partial solution I have running around in my head is you must figure out a way to make your book sales a “component” of your income strategy. Make them a lead-in to other products or services you offer for sale on your website? Convert them to screenplays? Convert them to TV/movie scripts? Create cellphone apps that tie into your book? Videos? Audio books? Board games or online games? Motivational speaking? Seminars? Music? I wish I knew.
See? I have no answers. I joined a Facebook group called Gonzo Book Marketing for Authors, hoping to find some answers, but, judging by the lack of ideas there, either everyone is satisfied with their 35% or 70% royalty and think it will last forever or they are as clueless as I am about how to make their book a “component” of their long-range plan. The creator of the group converted one of his books into a script for a play, then mailed postcards to 200 high school drama departments telling them about his play. I don’t know if he got any response, but it showed me at least one person is thinking in the right direction.
Or, I’m completely wrong and Amazon loves authors and will continue publishing anything and everything for everybody and only wants to keep a few pennies from each sale because, well, that’s how they roll.
So, what do you think? At what point(s) will Amazon begin reducing royalties? Do authors have any options or are they congenitally joined at the pocketbook to Amazon? Is there such a thing as a marketing plan for an author that goes beyond “sell books?”