They say that even a broken clock is right twice a day.\u00a0 My percentage may not be quite as good as that broken timepiece, but by The Great Green Toad Frog, once in a great while - I'm right too.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A while back, I started blogging about my dissatisfaction with\u00a0Mobipocket<\/a>.\u00a0 As you may know, Mobi is the ebookbase distributor that used to be THE place\u00a0for indie publishers to sell ebooks.\u00a0 The little French company was going gangbusters until 2005 arrived and\u00a0the American giant, Amazon<\/a>, gobbled up little Mobi.\u00a0 Many thought that the purchase meant that Amazon's already immense assets and web presence would\u00a0advance the brand, provide a killer venue to the indie publishers, and make the Mobi format the industry standard for ebooks.\u00a0 But, of course, it didn't work out that way.<\/p>\n It was a strategic takeover for the Giant which was apparently already eyeballing plans for an ebook distribution service of its own.\u00a0 The purchase meant that Amazon could\u00a0cannibalize the company by siphoning off pieces and parts of the Mobi technology. I'm no gadget guru (my hubby wears that hat), but I suspect that computer folk\u00a0would be able to examine the Kindle<\/a>\u00a0app's code\u00a0and see the fingerprints of its Mobi forerunner.\u00a0 Once\u00a0the Giant licked all the red off the Mobi sucker, it could toss the sucker in the garbage.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And that's what its done.\u00a0 Except, Amazon doesn't want to pay for the sucker - so it hasn't.\u00a0 How could the company get all the goodie out and not pay the bill?\u00a0 By not officially killing Mobi.\u00a0 See, Mobi never paid royalties until they added up to $150.00 per indie publisher.\u00a0 Right now, Amazon owes hundreds and hundreds, likely thousands and thousands, of little indie publishers (like yours truly) royalties.\u00a0 In my case, they owe over $100.00.\u00a0 If Amazon did the honest thing and killed off the Mobi\u00a0ebookbase app, it would have to pay for the funeral.\u00a0 So it hasn't officially killed the company - it's just neutered it.\u00a0 Amazon has decreed that no new Mobi publisher accounts can be established.\u00a0\u00a0Won't those pesky writers eventually just give up and go away after they realize that they aren't selling anything at Mobi anymore?\u00a0<\/p>\n The death of Mobi became crystal clear this week when Amazon announced partnerships with Microsoft<\/a> and Apple<\/a>.\u00a0 Next month, PC and Mac users will be able to download\u00a0free Kindle apps.\u00a0 This means that all of those users will be able to buy Kindle books for their PCs and Macs.\u00a0 This announcement follows on the heels of Amazon beginning to market the Kindle in countries outside the US<\/a>.\u00a0 So if\u00a0it wasn't clear earlier, now the whole world knows that Mobi will be no more.\u00a0 And if that's the case, Amazon owes Mobi publishers a duty of good faith.\u00a0\u00a0What does good faith mean?\u00a0 It means it should officially close the ebookbase app AND PAY OUT THE ROYALTIES IT OWES.\u00a0<\/p>\n If Amazon wants to be the voice of indie publishers - and\u00a0it sure looks like that's what it wants - then it also has to\u00a0fix its royalty structure.\u00a0 How broken is the Amazon royalty arrangement?\u00a0 Lets say you want to sell your house.\u00a0 Will you list it with a realtor who promises that you get to keep 35% of the profits?\u00a0 35%?\u00a0 That means that you, who own and have maintained the house, keep less of the money than the realtor who sells it.\u00a0 You own the house and you sell it, so you make 35% of the money and the realtor makes 65%.\u00a0 Would all the sellers run to sign\u00a0up for that arrangement?\u00a0 Not likely, because if you're selling your house, you'll think\u00a0most of the profit should be yours.\u00a0 Yes, the realtor is performing a service and yes the realtor should be paid.\u00a0 But the realtor doesn't get more for your house than you do.\u00a0 Well, it doesn't unless the realtor is Amazon.<\/p>\n Who'll make Amazon be fair with the writers?\u00a0 After all, if you want the market, you'll pay whatever price Amazon sets.\u00a0 Who else on earth could offer indie writers access to so many buyers?\u00a0<\/p>\n Well, sports fans, lets re-wind this week's amazing adventures and examine events.\u00a0 Who could challenge Amazon?\u00a0 GOOGLE is one contender.\u00a0 That company has announced a forray into the ebook market beginning early next year.\u00a0 But, it appears from early announcements that while Google will sell ebooks direct from its store, that it will also allow buyers to purchase through its store via links to Amazon, Barnes and Noble and the like.\u00a0 If that is the case, given Amazon's\u00a0already unfair royalty structure, it looks like sellers would make almost nothing for ebooks sold via Google books.\u00a0 So Google has the online cred, but it doesn't look like the real deal challenger to the Giant.\u00a0 It looks more like Google wants to gather around the virtual campfire with Amazon and sing Kumbaya.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n Another potential rival is Barnes and Noble.\u00a0 The company's new Nook<\/a> and its partnership with Smashwords<\/a> gives it some serious ammunition.\u00a0 At this point, the Smashwords partnership is mostly hypothetical, as\u00a0(to my knowledge) none of the Smashwords books have yet appeared for sale on B&N<\/a> or Fictionwise<\/a>.\u00a0 I know mine haven't appeared on either site\u00a0yet.\u00a0 While B&N may build an online presence that will rival Amazon's someday, its strength in the past has been through\u00a0actual bookstores where customers walked in to buy a print and paper book.\u00a0\u00a0B&N's saavy strategy look to make it a future heavyweight, but it needs some growing time before it could best the Giant. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n So is there out there in the universe any company that could and likely would challenge Amazon in a real,\u00a0Giant-killer fashion? WAL MART<\/a> COULD.\u00a0 And after this week, it looks a lot like Wal Mart will do what it often does.\u00a0 Wal Mart will don the white hat and ride into the ring and offer indie ebook publishers a fair deal.\u00a0 Why not write the ads that way?\u00a0 I would if I were writing the copy for Wal Mart.\u00a0\u00a0This week's hardcover price wars<\/a> look like the first shot in a future ebook war<\/a>.\u00a0 I'm only surprised that it has taken Wal Mart so long to join the battle.\u00a0 I e-mailed the company ages ago, well before the Kindle, to ask the company to consider an online ebookstore.\u00a0 Of course, I\u00a0was a little dog,\u00a0yapping in the wind.\u00a0\u00a0But now it looks like the storm has finally gathered.\u00a0<\/p>\n I hope Wal Mart enters the e-book fray because if it does, it'll do it the Wal Mart Way.\u00a0 I expect the company would demand huge price concessions from sellers, but it might enter the market with the\u00a0first one-price e-book store.\u00a0 Why not have Wal Mart partner with Smashwords and use the price model recently suggested by Smashwords founder, Mark Coker's Huffington Post blog<\/a>?\u00a0 Mark suggested selling e-books for $4.00 each.\u00a0\u00a0I don't think that price would ever work in an Amazon world.\u00a0 Under the Amazon structure, a $4.00 price tag would net the author $1.40 per book and the company $3.60.\u00a0 Ahmmm, I don't think so........<\/p>\n I'd love to see Wal Mart enter the e-book war with a 50\/50 deal with the writers.\u00a0 Let the big dog come in as a partner to the little guy.\u00a0 Wal Mart founder Sam Walton would cheer from\u00a0the lofty perch in\u00a0Heaven where he surely resides.\u00a0 All e-books selling for $4.00 would be a good deal for the buyers and the sellers if the author and Wal Mart each made $2.00 per book.\u00a0 Because at a $4.00 price with Wal Mart's web presence, the store that Sam built could slay the competition.\u00a0 Wal Mart could even partner with Lightning Source<\/a> to set up that company's machines<\/a> in its stores and give buyers in the store access to all e-books from the Wal Mart site.\u00a0\u00a0That way in store buyers could pick up a $4.00 print and paper version of all the e-books.\u00a0 In my head, I hear both the cha-ching of more money trucks driving up to Wal Mart, the coffers of indie writers doing a hell of a lot better, and the cries of the Royals in the Publishing Castle growing louder.<\/p>\n For now,\u00a0it still looks like an Amazon World, but the companies' growing pains are showing.\u00a0 Just yesterday, the Kindle store had some sort of gigantic snafu that erased all sales of Kindle authors.\u00a0 The problem appears to have gotten fixed, but on the Kindle website<\/a>, the authors' comments clearly showed that they didn't trust Amazon.\u00a0 One author published a post that included the phrase in all caps - NO TRUST.\u00a0 Why no trust?\u00a0 Because the company doesn't treat its authors as partners.\u00a0 It treats the authors as peons.\u00a0 Add to that the factor that amongst the Kindle authors are lots of folks who've already been burned by Amazon's\u00a0unethical Mobi methods.\u00a0 If Amazon won't pay the Mobi royalties, and it's keeping more money than writers make for their Kindle books, who knows what the Giant is\u00a0up to with the Kindle accounting? \u00a0<\/p>\n I hope that Amazon fixes its problems.\u00a0 Yes, that would mean the ebook world would remain an Amazon kind of place to be, but that wouldn't be so bad if Amazon would\u00a0clean up its act.\u00a0 The company must come to realize that it\u00a0will reap what it sows.\u00a0 To date, it's sewn bad faith and inequality.\u00a0 That breeds mistrust and disloyalty.\u00a0 If\u00a0Amazon becomes a partner instead of a dictator, it would have a shot\u00a0at defeating all contenders because it would have the advantage of time and\u00a0the devotion of its writers and customers.<\/p>\n If Amazon doesn't clean up its act, then I think it will learn a business lesson the hard way --- the Wal Mart Way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They say that even a broken clock is right twice a day.\u00a0 My percentage may not be quite as good as that broken timepiece, but by The Great Green Toad Frog, once in a great while - I'm right too.\u00a0 A while back, I started blogging about my dissatisfaction with\u00a0Mobipocket.\u00a0 As you may know, Mobi ...continue reading \"It's An Amazon World (After All)\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":788,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions\/788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}