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Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

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Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#51

Post by JunkDNA »

Lots of people in this thread are talking about this being scary for authors. When I was a kid, I got to read a ton of books any time I wanted. I got them at this place called a "library" where they let people come in and take books home with them to read for free.

People have always had the option to read books without buying them. In those days, going to the library was effectively the same effort as going to a book store. In fact, it was more convenient for my family. We happened to live a few blocks from the library and didn't need to drive across town to the mall to get books in dingy little B. Dalton bookstore.

I will grant that the economics in the eBook situation are dramatically different than with physical books, but I really wonder how different they really are. Local libraries already lend ebooks as well. I'm not sure why more people don't take advantage of that.

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#52

Post by jobu »

cliveowen wrote: post #28

A few weeks ago Jon Evans of TechCrunch said this: "Despite my techie contempt for their business practices, I really do want traditional publishers to survive, because their employees — unlike, I suspect, Amazon’s — tend to genuinely love books in the same way that I do, and because good editors are worth their weight in gold. But it’s hard to see how they can thrive fighting like this. In the long run their only re…

That's a great quote from Jon Evans, and it fits well with Steve Yegge's perspective on Jeff Bezos:

"I mean, imagine what it would be like to start off as an incredibly smart person, arguably a first-class genius, and then somehow wind up in a situation where you have a general’s view of the industry battlefield for ten years. Not only do you have more time than anyone else, and access to more information than anyone else, you also have this long-term eagle-eye perspective that only a handful of people in the world enjoy."

Jeff Bezos is playing chess simultaneously with a number of industries and so far he seems to be winning.

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#53

Post by dublinben »

dingaling wrote: post #37
dublinben wrote: post #12

Most of these books are available through your local library for free.

> Most of these books are available through your local library for free. All inter-library loans in my library board cost 1 UKP ( c. $1.40 ) which quickly mounts-up when there's very little on the shelf in the local branch. I could read 'Excel 2003 for Dummies' again, I suppose, but I'm a bit bored of it to be honest...

In the US, many libraries have a system called Overdrive that offers ebooks (and audiobooks) for borrowing. It's essentially a free version of this service, but with better selection.

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#54

Post by e28eta »

dingaling wrote: post #34
gdilla wrote: post #14

This won't have the major publishing houses titles (beyond those who have agreed to work with Oyster). So no Penguin Random House, the market leader in print and audio. It also remains to be seen if the subscription model can work for books - they take longer to consume than movies or music. So you can imaging slower or busy readers being punished with a subscription unless they make it through 1.5 books per month wh…

> So no Penguin Random House, the market leader in print and audio The market leader in print and audio fiction . Fiction is ephemeral - mostly read and then discarded. The awesome potential for this service is in factual and reference books that are used hundreds or thousands of time each in their lifetime. The 1.5 books per month metric is diluted in that case when it's possible to dip into 100 books per month just…

I think Safari Books Online has been doing well

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#55

Post by oh_sigh »

HarrietJones wrote: post #44

First they made music a subscription service. And because I like music but I'm a poor struggling author, I didn't listen to those greedy musicians who said this was unfair. Screw you musicians. This Fantasy novel isn't going to get finished unless I can listen to my power-ballad spotify playlist. Then they made video a subscription service. And because I didn't make videos (video being a lesser form of entertainment)…

Why would you care how much amazon charges for a monthly subscription? Firstly, you don't need to sign up your book to be part of the program. Secondly, it doesn't matter how much amazon charges for the service, it matters how much money you make. Unless you don't care about that, in which case why did you write this post?

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#56

Post by wgeorgecook »

JunkDNA wrote: post #51

Lots of people in this thread are talking about this being scary for authors. When I was a kid, I got to read a ton of books any time I wanted. I got them at this place called a "library" where they let people come in and take books home with them to read for free . People have always had the option to read books without buying them. In those days, going to the library was effectively the same effort as going to a bo…

I was thinking this sounds strangely like a library card you pay $120 a year for.

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#57

Post by Mandelbug »

HarrietJones wrote: post #44

First they made music a subscription service. And because I like music but I'm a poor struggling author, I didn't listen to those greedy musicians who said this was unfair. Screw you musicians. This Fantasy novel isn't going to get finished unless I can listen to my power-ballad spotify playlist. Then they made video a subscription service. And because I didn't make videos (video being a lesser form of entertainment)…

I think it is much more likely that businesses are readjusting for the new reality of customer expectations regarding media: cheap, on demand, and cheap. Customers don't care about how much royalties an artistic creator might get, and if they did they wouldn't have supported the music or book publishing industries, which gave authors tiny royalties for each book sold. Customers only care about price. And if piracy and large abundance of media is any indicator, the sheer volume of work being created along with a greater entitled feeling among customers is the primary downwards force for price.

While your frustration is understandable and disappointing, the customers are far more to blame than any one company.

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#58

Post by munificent »

walterbell wrote: post #46
cliveowen wrote: post #28

A few weeks ago Jon Evans of TechCrunch said this: "Despite my techie contempt for their business practices, I really do want traditional publishers to survive, because their employees — unlike, I suspect, Amazon’s — tend to genuinely love books in the same way that I do, and because good editors are worth their weight in gold. But it’s hard to see how they can thrive fighting like this. In the long run their only re…

Do you see someone other than publishers providing risk capital for authors to live while writing?

Personally, I'm not convinced that risk capital is really that beneficial for writers. The vast majority of aspiring writers either don't finish or don't write something people want to read. (I don't mean that to be harsh, it's just that good writing is very hard and since there's so much of it already out there, competition for the reader's time is fierce.)

At the same time, the capital needed to write is virtually nothing. All it takes is time. Editing, proofreading, and cover design are legitimate, important costs, too, but even those aren't that huge. And they only come into play once the book is written, which means most won't reach that threshold.

I, of course, want great writers to be able to devote all of their time to that and not have to work a day job. But I think having to write your first book or two in your "spare" time is an acceptable way to separating the wheat from the chaff.

In other words, write a book or two in your free time. The money you get from those will be your risk capital for your next work.

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#59

Post by munificent »

cliveowen wrote: post #28

A few weeks ago Jon Evans of TechCrunch said this: "Despite my techie contempt for their business practices, I really do want traditional publishers to survive, because their employees — unlike, I suspect, Amazon’s — tend to genuinely love books in the same way that I do, and because good editors are worth their weight in gold. But it’s hard to see how they can thrive fighting like this. In the long run their only re…

It's only a win to the degree that authors get paid enough for how much they're read. The pricing structure is fine, but the actual constant factors -- how much money authors get -- is critical.

Re: Amazon leaks Kindle Unlimited

#60

Post by gdilla »

dingaling wrote: post #34
gdilla wrote: post #14

This won't have the major publishing houses titles (beyond those who have agreed to work with Oyster). So no Penguin Random House, the market leader in print and audio. It also remains to be seen if the subscription model can work for books - they take longer to consume than movies or music. So you can imaging slower or busy readers being punished with a subscription unless they make it through 1.5 books per month wh…

> So no Penguin Random House, the market leader in print and audio The market leader in print and audio fiction . Fiction is ephemeral - mostly read and then discarded. The awesome potential for this service is in factual and reference books that are used hundreds or thousands of time each in their lifetime. The 1.5 books per month metric is diluted in that case when it's possible to dip into 100 books per month just…

True, O'Reilly books has had a successful, expensive, subscription service for years. All reference titles, and more enterprise customers.
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