Kindle Direct Publishing has given writers an amazing gift, a way to reach a worldwide audience. Anyone who meets Amazon's standards can publish a book or story, and anyone can leave a review to haunt you. Every KDP writer will eventually have to endure the Amazon one star review. They are part of the new publishing landscape. Negative reviews range from illiterate, crazy diatribes, revealing more about the reviewer's state of mind than the book itself, to pointed critiques by shrewd and pissed off readers. Why do people leave one star reviews? It's simple, they're experiencing a strong emotional reaction. Maybe the reviewer doesn't like swear words, or they had to read the book for school or book club, or they just saw the movie and the book's not the same, or the book conflicts with their personal philosophy about life, or they don't think this is what a story should be. Whether the one star review is a raw, visceral slap or a deeply cutting dissection that stings, they can be a shock for writers who took a big emotional risk to release their work in the first place. … [Read more...] about Cringeworthy One Star Reviews of Classic Books
Amazon’s Objective: Lower E book Prices
In the ongoing battle of perception between Amazon and Hachette, we've had to speculate on the substance of the conflict. An intriguing post in the Kindle Forums by the Amazon Book Team makes a bold statement to publishing and Indie authors; lower e book prices are on the table. With this update, we're providing specific information about Amazon's objectives. A key objective is lower e-book prices. Many e-books are being released at $14.99 and even $19.99. That is unjustifiably high for an e-book. With an e-book, there's no printing, no over-printing, no need to forecast, no returns, no lost sales due to out-of-stock, no warehousing costs, no transportation costs, and there is no secondary market -- e-books cannot be resold as used books. E-books can be and should be less expensive. It's also important to understand that e-books are highly price-elastic. This means that when the price goes up, customers buy much less. We've quantified the price elasticity of e-books from repeated measurements across many titles. For every copy an e-book would sell at $14.99, it would … [Read more...] about Amazon’s Objective: Lower E book Prices
