Comments on: Ebooks Are Not A Universal Success

By: Derek Haines

Derek Haines — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 18:31:37 +0000

In reply to Catana. Thank you for noticing Catana! They do slip through my spam traps from time to time. Unfortunately.

By: Catana

Catana — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:32:32 +0000

Derek, that last comment was spam. He just copied what I said. And his link is to a commercial site.

By: Derek Haines

Derek Haines — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:10:39 +0000

In reply to Kaz Augustin.

Very true Kaz. Amazon has conveniently divided the reading world into the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. And at the same time decided that the same goes for authors. 1st class, 2nd class and don’t bother us please.

One of the most cruel aspects of Kindle, is that even though an author chooses their pricing and royalty level at the time of publishing, this is ONLY for the US. There are many countries where Amazon does not offer a 70% royalty on sales. Australia for example. So if I sell an ebook there, my royalty is cut, but not the price. Yes, Amazon keep the difference and take the cream.

By: Kaz Augustin

Kaz Augustin — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 02:15:55 +0000

If you’re not in Europe or a Western country/Japan you can’t download the Kindle reading app. Period. Amazon also blocks access to Kindle books based on your IP. I know this because I can’t even access my own books! (For those I self-pub, it’s not an issue, I can slip sideways via the KDP dashboard, but for other presses I’ve written for, I’m all outta luck.)

I had a recent blog post up, comparing Polish print books to Western print books to the ebook revolution. (Sorry, I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but feel it is relevant.) Imo, there are other considerations at play and I don’t think the ebook sweep is going to be as much a slam-dunk as people (in N America) seem to think.