Going to be harder to e-book?

[sr71plt]

One of my publishers informed me today that one of the major e-book distributors, Mobipocket, is closing down on 2 January 2012. This might be the beginning of the biggie e-book distributors (e.g., Amazon, B&N) swallowing up enough of the smaller distributors to start setting stringent requirements on posting/distributing an e-book and maybe even requiring exclusive listings in a battle with each other. Amazon already has a reputation of being leery about erotica. So the market may be on its way to tightening up. Something to keep an eye on.

 

[lovecraft68]

One of my publishers informed me today that one of the major e-book distributors, Mobipocket, is closing down on 2 January 2012. This might be the beginning of the biggie e-book distributors (e.g., Amazon, B&N) swallowing up enough of the smaller distributors to start setting stringent requirements on posting/distributing an e-book and maybe even requiring exclusive listings in a battle with each other. Amazon already has a reputation of being leery about erotica. So the market may be on its way to tightening up. Something to keep an eye on.

I would think that because Amazon is so stringent that it would keep an open market for other e-publishers.

Looking at it from a collectors mentality, if the mainstream "big guy" does not carry your particular taste in any market you seek it out.

Whn I owned my store I was the only one in RI that sold the hardcore adult comics (I had a small room off to the side a bout the size of a walk in closet where I displayed them, and only adults could go in there.)

Because of that I got quite a few customers from the other stores because I had what they could not get elsewear. They would then of course buy ther mainstream stuff as well from me.

Hopefully my theory is right and Amazon does not become the "wal mart" of e-publishing.

 

[PennLady]

Hmmm. Guess I'll stay with my publisher who specializes in erotica if that happens. Although with the type of stuff I write, much like some mainstream romance, I doubt they'd do away with that. It is something to keep an eye on; I wonder if this means Amazon won't read mobipocket format anymore. That'd be a bummer. I often convert my files into mobi format to put on my Kindle to read over and things like that.

 

[D_Lynn]

Hmmm. Guess I'll stay with my publisher who specializes in erotica if that happens. Although with the type of stuff I write, much like some mainstream romance, I doubt they'd do away with that. It is something to keep an eye on; I wonder if this means Amazon won't read mobipocket format anymore. That'd be a bummer. I often convert my files into mobi format to put on my Kindle to read over and things like that.

I'm wondering the same thing, myself. And without MobiPocket, formatting for Amazon is a nightmare, in my opinion. They claim that you can easily import a Word document and it works just fine, but it's still 'buggy'. I don't know, maybe this will make them fix that.

 

[kaledevai]

For me, one disappointment to users so far has been the pricing of ebooks; Amazon currently lists many books where the Kindle version is more expensive than the print version, after it lost a battle with publishers to fix the pricing of its ebooks. Prices should come under pressure as competitors such as Apple and Google assert their own ebook offerings run on their native software.

 

[sr71plt]

This isn't really a question of how to publish it--it's a question on how to get it distributed (publishing means nothing without a distributor)--easily or, in the case of erotica, at all. If the big distributors snarf up all of the small distributors and start making stringent demands on what they'll distribute and how much it will cost--and/or start just chocking off erotica, as Amazon has already started doing with some genres--then there will be no reason to publish it at all.

 

[PennLady]

For me, one disappointment to users so far has been the pricing of ebooks; Amazon currently lists many books where the Kindle version is more expensive than the print version, after it lost a battle with publishers to fix the pricing of its ebooks. Prices should come under pressure as competitors such as Apple and Google assert their own ebook offerings run on their native software.

This has disappointed me as well. I've noticed this on a few books and it made me scratch my head. I'm cheap, I know, although I'm willing I guess to pay for some "value," i.e., if the author is one I like, the series is one I like, etc.

I've read a few things about ebook and print book pricing in the last year or so and it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out. However, my library has just made e-book borrowing available on the Kindle, so I'll take advantage of that.

This is, however, a different topic as SR says. Distribution is what matters, and right now, Amazon is the biggest book distributor, I'd imagine. If they decide not to carry something, it'll be tough to find other outlets. Or you'll find them, but they won't reach as wide an audience.

 

[lovecraft68]

Maybe we could form occupy Amazon

 

[sr71plt]

"I would think that because Amazon is so stringent that it would keep an open market for other e-publishers."

This too misses the point. People don't buy many e-books from publishers; they buy them from distributors. (Some publishers are also distributors--but they tend to be the larger ones who are gobbling the smaller ones up.) It's the large distributors that are closing down the smaller ones. (Which started with B&N buying Fictionwise and not closing it down but not permitting any new publishers to sign up for the last year and a half).

Erotica e-books are selling on a wide-range of speciality distributor sites, some with very good profit shares for the authors. When Amazon and B&N buy those up--or cause their buyers to go elsewhere--the distributors will be reduced in points of sales, and these two giants will be in the cat seat on what can make it to the marketplace and what the publishers/authors have to do to get it there, and how much of a slice the giant distributors are going to take.

For instance, if, even now, Kindle said you could only distribute through Kindle if you wanted Kindle to handle you, you'd probably have to ditch all of your other distributors. Because Kindle is the gorilla in the corner on sales.