Additional sites to publish on.

[lovecraft68]

With Amazon rapidly becoming a sinking ship for independent authors (and the kindle itself in danger of going the way of the dodo) I (and I am sure, many others) am looking for as many venues as possible to place my e-books.

I'm currently on Smashwords, All Romance, just set up my account to go on B&K (without SW) and a very small site called Erotic Escapes I was invited to join through my website.

Anyone know of any other good venues to try?

 

[JackLuis]

Here's one that has calls for stories and some of the sites PAY, not much, but a bit for shorter works.

 

[lovecraft68]

Thanks Jack, looks like quite a few links there.

 

[sr71plt]

I wouldn't try Books on Board. They haven't been paying their bills of late. Kobo is selling well.

 

[lovecraft68]

I wouldn't try Books on Board. They haven't been paying their bills of late. Kobo is selling well.

Yeah, that could be a problem, thanks for the tip.

I'm on kobo through SW, but maybe I'll do what I'm doing at B&N and unpublish from SW and get on their on my own.

 

[D_Lynn]

Why are you dumping SW and going straight through BN, might I ask?

 

[lovecraft68]

Why are you dumping SW and going straight through BN, might I ask?

If you go directly onto B&N you can get an authors page (like amazon) also you don't have to wait quarterly to get your money with the rest of your SW money. B&N pays like amazon they hold back a month then you get paid monthly

Also SW takes an additional 15% which last year when I was picking up m,aybe 50-60 B&N sales a month was no big deal, but a lot of amazon's decline seems to be swinging the Nooks way.

The last three months where my amazon sales have fallen (since they got rid of the tags) My B&N sales have gone over 300 a month.

Also I am not dumping SW I'm staying there, but just opted out of B&N on the Channel manager.

 

[KlaytonFrost]

Fiction4All are worth looking up. Their process is a bit laborious, but they make a decent number of sales.

 

[KlaytonFrost]

With Amazon rapidly becoming a sinking ship for independent authors (and the kindle itself in danger of going the way of the dodo) I (and I am sure, many others) am looking for as many venues as possible to place my e-books.

I'm currently on Smashwords, All Romance, just set up my account to go on B&K (without SW) and a very small site called Erotic Escapes I was invited to join through my website.

Anyone know of any other good venues to try?

I've just checked out Erotic Escapes and am debating whether or not to join. Is it worth the effort? Have you made any sales there?

 

[lovecraft68]

I've just checked out Erotic Escapes and am debating whether or not to join. Is it worth the effort? Have you made any sales there?

Honestly hardly any. Its a very small site and I only found out about it because she contacted me. I uploaded about half my work there in January and have gotten very few sales.

But its a case of you never know and it costs nothing to be on there.

You have a link for fiction 4all?

 

[bashfullyshameless]

Did I Miss Something?

With Amazon rapidly becoming a sinking ship for independent authors (and the kindle itself in danger of going the way of the dodo) I (and I am sure, many others) am looking for as many venues as possible to place my e-books.

I'm currently on Smashwords, All Romance, just set up my account to go on B&K (without SW) and a very small site called Erotic Escapes I was invited to join through my website.

Anyone know of any other good venues to try?

...how is Amazon becoming a sinking ship for indie authors? It's been amazing for me. I'm not sure what your standards are for "sinking" versus "sailing."

My traffic through Smashwords (meaning all the vendors they work through) has been a joke compared to my Amazon traffic.

Is there some news on the indie publishing front that I missed?

Also, who is B&K?

 

[sr71plt]

I think he means B&N (which has a new publishing system launched for indie books that has one of my publishers interested in--but that I haven't looked at). Amazon indeed is reducing its market share of indie erotica through unsupportive policies, but it was such a big share at one time that it's still a large share now. B&N hasn't been all that bright about the e market either.

I wouldn't suggest diversifying distributors beyond Amazon just because it's losing market share and is decreasingly indie supportive; I would suggest doing so to multiple your point of sales opportunities.

 

[bashfullyshameless]

I think he means B&N (which has a new publishing system launched for indie books that has one of my publishers interested in--but that I haven't looked at). Amazon indeed is reducing its market share of indie erotica through unsupportive policies, but it was such a big share at one time that it's still a large share now. B&N hasn't been all that bright about the e market either.

Unsupportive policies like what? I'm not trying to argue anyone here; I genuinely don't know.

All I know is my non-erotic sci-fi novel has done SUPER well on Amazon, and my erotic urban fantasy novel has picked up a lot of traffic as a result. (Granted, some of those readers get upset at all the sex in the latter because they didn't really read the book description, but still...)

 

[sr71plt]

Unsupportive policies like what? I'm not trying to argue anyone here; I genuinely don't know.

All I know is my non-erotic sci-fi novel has done SUPER well on Amazon, and my erotic urban fantasy novel has picked up a lot of traffic as a result. (Granted, some of those readers get upset at all the sex in the latter because they didn't really read the book description, but still...)

I don't know in detail. I have publishers and just listen to them grouse about the various distribution sites. (One of the publishers is "up" on Smashwords at the moment, though--and has cut off "Books on Board" altogether for nonpayment of royalties).

Amazon has taken away both the "like" and "tag" functions, both of which helped in locating erotica and, my publishers say, discriminate against indies and erotica in other placement functions. They scrutinize reviews and take ones down that they think are authors plugging each other's work (ignoring the obvious point that authors are reading each other as legitimate readers). They also have heavily pressed indies to sign up for restricting offering programs that tie up distributing elsewhere, and haven't become responsive to queries from indie publishers/self-publishers. A real biggie--they pay back 100 percent on returns (other distributors don't). And returns on erotica are very high (on this alone, one of my publishers delays release of my books on Amazon until they've had several days to play on sites that don't permit returns).

As for my own erotica, once three-quarters of the sales were at Amazon. Now Kobo, B&N, and even ARE outsell Amazon monthly.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Unsupportive policies like what? I'm not trying to argue anyone here; I genuinely don't know.

There are two or three threads on here about Amazon's problematic dealings with Indie writers.

Amazon are much more commercial than other sites, the way they set up book lists means that most popular is always top - so 50 Shades always sits up there making more and more money for them. Whereas sites like Smash prioritise New work and this site prioritises New and Reader-judged popular work.

Amazon have been accused of tampering with sales figures for Indie writers so that it looks as if they're not doing as well as they are - hence bumping them even lower on the lists.

They do everything they can to get you to join their Select programme and not publish on any other site in their effort to take over the world. I've seen several authors sighing and groaning while they wait for their Select sign-up to work its way out so they can get out and spread their work more freely on more flexible sites.

 

[lovecraft68]

Unsupportive policies like what? I'm not trying to argue anyone here; I genuinely don't know.

All I know is my non-erotic sci-fi novel has done SUPER well on Amazon, and my erotic urban fantasy novel has picked up a lot of traffic as a result. (Granted, some of those readers get upset at all the sex in the latter because they didn't really read the book description, but still...)

Your book is sci-fi.

Amazon's stripping of "tags" has all but crushed the erotica market (which is where Amazon has had its lions share of issues with indy author's it seems)

Also-and first off, good for you I am glad your book is doing well- Consider yourself more fortunate than you already feel because you're one of the lucky few.

Amazon has done everything they can to hurt Indy's from their review policy(removing 5's because they are suspicious, but allowing people to leave 30 1 bomb reviews in one day and saying they are legit) to removing the "like it" tab, to stripping the tags(again a bigger blow to erotica than any other genre)

But, like you, I am not arguing. I am stating facts. Many authors have seen not just a decline, but an outright crash. Others are aware of this, Pilot can back this if he chooses.


Editing this to say, I posted before I read through all the other posts and I see Pilot did indeed chime in on this.
One other interesting note is SW finally managed to upload some books to Amazon. They took their top 50 SW sellers and published them. Thei first month results were far below average.

B&N is Barnes and Noble and they are doing very well. My B&N sales have risen to where they are matching my declining amazon sales. IN fact Kobo is way up as well as is my all romance sales and Smashwords itself is also well up for me.

Let me give you a word of warning, do not sit on just amazon. In November(and people can choose to believe me or not, I really don't care) My amazon royalties eclipsed 3k on 24 titles.

February? Try $800 with 35 titles and I am by far not alone. I was originally on SW and started ARE end of last year, but (hence my thread) am looking to spread out as much as possible.