The publishing industry was just thrown another curve ball, and no, it’s not a hoax. (Click here to read the original article.)
What’s interesting is how this article only lists “Stephen King” as an example author read on Kindle. 95% of eBooks read on Kindle are fiction. This type of store will be great for showcasing Amazon’s best-selling fiction, and as the article states, bringing offline readers into the online world by showing off Kindles the way Apple lets customers play with multiple Apple products. It will basically be an Amazon toy store – and you can bet it will be hot.
So what about non-fiction books? Non-fiction print sales are rising, much due to frustrated Kindle readers. Have you ever tried to remember where you saw specific non-bookmarked information and “flip” through Kindle pages to find it? It can be frustrating and take forever, especially if the Kindle version is plain text with no land-marking graphics to give you a clue as to where you saw that bit of information (most of us remember things by visual “landmarks”). For books used as reference, Kindle has a long way to go.
In my very humble (and rather expert) opinion, if people think by publishing through Amazon’s publishing house they’ll get in the store, they have another thing coming. Most CreateSpace authors are DIY – meaning they try everything themselves, often using poorly designed templates and zero editing. Quality matters more in a brick and mortar store setting than anywhere else. If a book isn’t properly edited and designed, it won’t sell, and Amazon knows that based on their own sales data. The average vanity “self”-published book sells 100 copies. The fact is people do judge a book by its cover… and its typos.
So my guess is Amazon won’t stock many print books, and probably only their top best sellers (real best sellers, not “Amazon best sellers”). What has me concerned is how many authors will jump on the cheap “easy button” CreateSpace bandwagon with false hope of getting into a brick and mortar store. If a book is published properly, there are many ways to get into brick and mortar stores.
But, by what the article says, it seems Amazon wants to shut down all other brick and mortar stores by giving authors a choice. It’s no longer Amazon.com and other retailers you can get stocked at. Now it’s Amazon or other retailers. And until Amazon takes over the book world, I’ll keep my books with other retailers – and Amazon.com’s online store.
I guess time will tell. We have a few years before Amazon opens stores nationwide, but all book sales statistics as far back as you go show quality sells off the shelf, not cheap-looking, obviously DIY books. To nab a spot on the Amazon shelf authors will still need to invest in proper editing and custom professional design, and Amazon’s sure to throw a few hoops in the mix for authors to jump through as well.
