Kindle books on Amazon

Have any authors here much experience of getting a kindle edition of a paperback book? I can see an obvious benefit in that, compared to a publish america title, a kindle edition retails on Amazon a few dollars cheaper.

Is it worth a go?

Ahad, I have no experience in the area, but have a feeling that Kindle or other ebook venues are the wave of the future. More mass transit commuters will want something easy to carry with which to amuse themselves.

I doubt that traditional books will ever vanish, but ebooks are a convenient way to obtain and carry literature.

When my GUNSHOT ECHOES was first released by Champagne Books, it was in e-book, and showed up on Amazon as a Kindle selection. When the paper-print edition was released three months later, it was on Amazon as well, but was flagged as available also as a a Kindle book. My second Champagne book is due for release in August, in e-format initially, and I expect it to be an Amazon Kindle selection too.

Jim Woods
www.ultrasw.com/jwoods

Ahad,

I have my PA book on Amazon as a Kindle edition. I friend kindly converted the file so that it could be read on the Mobipocket reader and Amazon Kindle. But you need to have your rights back from PA to do this.

I'd say the whole Kindle concept is a rip-off.

A reader that costs twice as much as it should because it's hooked up wireless to amazon... otherwise known as a monopoly that the buyer pays for.

Charging TEN BUCKS to download something that is created for free.

Almost any form of eBook makes more sense to me.

I mean, you can just export a word processor file as a pdf and voila...an eBook.

lin wrote:

I'd say the whole Kindle concept is a rip-off.

A reader that costs twice as much as it should because it's hooked up wireless to amazon... otherwise known as a monopoly that the buyer pays for.

Charging TEN BUCKS to download something that is created for free.

Almost any form of eBook makes more sense to me.

I mean, you can just export a word processor file as a pdf and voila...an eBook.

$10 for an e-book sounds expensive!!! Ten dollars is a good deal for a paperback, but seems kind of high for an e-book, unless of course it's a really, really long e-book.

lin, how about promotion? Any ideas pro and con?

You mean for promoting a self-produced eBook? Same as any other book, I guess.

Sell the download off your site.

It's not like having it on amazon draws a lot of walk-by traffic. You'd have to drive that anyway. And probably make about 3 bucks.

You can sell your own for $4 and make a buck more. With the advantage of great sales because...let's face it... ten bucks for a computer file you need a 400 dollar machine to read is a total rip.

A $10 computer file and a $400 machine to read it, that's such a rip off that it's almost criminal! Personally, when I read a book, I prefer to have an actual printed and bound paper book, not just a computer screen to stare at. I guess in that regard I'm old fashioned, I like paper.

If you load your book onto Mobipocket you can set your own price for your e-book, just as you do on Lulu. Mobipocket make the book available to Amazon Kindle at the same price. Most ebooks by unknown authors retail for under $5.00, which is less than your average paperback book.

P. Gordon, I feel as you do. I like paperprint, and it sure doesn't hurt if the pages are sandwiched between stiff leather. But I also like to sell books so if e-format is the wave of the market, I'll allow mine to go electronic. It's bad enough, though, that the book manuscripts I edit for the company that pays me to do so have to be read on-screen.

Jim Woods
www.ultrasw.com/jwoods

This whole mobile/cell phone thing is really interesting to me and I think it's the infancy of the future of entertainment.

I have a lot easier time seeing people on a bus or lunch break reading a story of their pocket phone than that Kindle snafu.

This is a little, or a lot off-subject, but I'm curious. Jenny, if I understand correctly, you mentioned that you sell your former PA book as a Kindle edition on Amazon. I assume it's PA's cover. Does PA still own the cover design? I'm not aware of the legalities so I've just let my book sit, but I'd like to offer it as an ebook from my site.

I, too, asked for and received my rights to Ten Times Guilty a couple of years ago.

Anyone interested in Kindle should be sure to read the story about it on today's Publishers Weekly morning report.

Thanks Dick! I followed this link from the morning report that says Kindle sales amount to 6% of all amazon book sales:

http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-d6-jeff-bezos

Thanks everyone. Such diverse views, so I will give it some thought.

Jenny, you mention I would have to take my e-book rights back from publishamerica, before I can do a kindle or other e-book edition of my book.
I was always under the impression that I only sold my rights to PA in so far as the publication and distribution of my books went in *paper format*. All other rights, like CD/audio book, e-book, theatrical performances, motion picture rights, etc shall remain with me.

Assuming I missed the fine print, how easy did you find it to acquire your rights back from PA? Same question also to Brenda and Shelagh, please...

Continuing on to one of the links, http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-first-look-amazon-kindle/ there is an interesting article on the Kindle, it's functionality and looks. Also speculations on it's future development.

Thanks for posting this Dick, I had not received my
e-copy yet. (I just woke up and still have sleep in my eyes!)

Kindle sales amount to 6% of all amazon book sales

I don't have sales figures, and they don't give them. But I would tend to classify that statement as a flat-out, self-serving lie.


It wouldn't be the first from that jerk.

Ahad,

I signed with PA in December 05. Paragraph 9 of my contract states, among other things that, ...."the publisher may, at the publishers election and discretion, cause to promote the said literary work, as designated, in any electronic format, and that the publisher shall have the exclusive rights to cuase to distribute, and to sell, or cause to sell, at the publishers election and discretion, copies of the said literary work in any electronic format."

I'm no expert in contract law, but having undertaken some legal training my interpretation of this is that PA do have the right to publish our work in e-book format. So, if you want to publish your book electronically on Lulu, Kindle or Mobipocket reader, you should first ask PA to give you your electronic rights back. If they agree they will send you a form to sign which should be attached to your contract.

lin wrote:

Kindle sales amount to 6% of all amazon book sales

I don't have sales figures, and they don't give them. But I would tend to classify that statement as a flat-out, self-serving lie.


It wouldn't be the first from that jerk.

Sounds like a lie to me or mayby, it's just a major distortion of the truth.

Ahad, I asked for my rights back shortly after they banned me from the
message board. At first they said no, but I kept asking. Was always
polite but kept asking. It took about two months, but they finally did
so.

I've heard from others that after the Amazon problem, PA granted rights to anyone who asked.

Here's another way of looking at Kindle. They spiel their wireless connection to a jillion books.

Okay, one of the things you learn in marketing is that there is a difference between a FEATURE and a BENEFIT. Is it really a benefit to have wi fi book browlsing? Were people crying out for this boon? Are there really a lot of people out there who are so hot to get books they can't download them to a computer and transfer them?

But it IS a benefit for amazon, isn't it. They are (alledgedly) getting people to PAY FOR giving them a monopoly because the wifi only connects to them.

Jenny and Brenda,
Thanks for clarifying.


These things sort of plant ideas in my mind...though not all of them are necessarily free from mischief - lol.

Suppose I skip asking for my rights back that weren't, in my view, theirs to take in the first place. Wouldn't it be rather amusing to see the red headlines appear: "Publisher sues UK author over e-book rights in a lawsuit worth in excess of $5 million". Then the reader skims further down the length of the article, and finds : "The value of the self-published e-book grosses a mere $50 per year."

The more adventurous author (which I might not be a good example of) would just go ahead and re-publish his book in whatever format that takes his fancy and worry about the priceless free publicity that would stem from any potential lawsuit...after.

Ahad, I think you have the right idea--free publicity! However, I would want to make sure that it generated enough revenue to pay the legal fees.

Amusing, Ahad, but don't do it. The big trade publishers wouldn't exactly lay out the welcome mat for you after that.

One thing I have learned from listening to stories over the years is that publishers, editors and agents tend to believe there is more wrong with the writer who complains than there is with the one he is complaining about. Agents are particularly notorious for this, perhaps because they think the next one complained about may be themselves.