Monday, May 17, 2010 at 1:13PMMy Publishing Partner Appears on The Dr. Oz Show
My publishing partner, glass shattering vocal coach Jaime Vendera, is set to perform on the Dr. Oz show on Wednesday, May 12, 2010. Jaime is best known as the first documented singer in history to shatter a wineglass by voice alone. He is the author of eight books, including Raise Your Voice, and the creator of The Ultimate Vocal Workout. When not shattering glasses, he trains professional singers and bands such as Dream Theater and Thriving Ivory.
Jaime was asked to appear on Dr. Oz, along with Bill Nye the Science Guy to dispel the myth of whether a singer could shatter a glass by the power of voice alone. Dr. Oz himself is also set to prove that a singer CAN shatter a wineglass with amplification. Did he and Jaime succeed? Tune in to the Dr. Oz show this Wednesday the 12th to find out!
The eBook Wars Rage On; Amazon Loses One Battle
This is why it is important to stay abreast of the shifts in technology, especially as it advances, and especially as it concerns you and your publishing company. Over the weekend, something happened at Amazon, and come Monday morning, the eBook game has changed a bit. Turns out that things got a bit heated between a major European publisher and the world famous online retailer when Macmillan’s CEO decided to take a meeting with Amazon’s head over eBook pricing. Following the talks, Amazon pulled all of Macmillan’s titles from their online storefront, leaving only third-party vendors among those peddling the publisher’s wares on the Amazon.com site. By Sunday morning, however, Amazon had to concede, though with a few heated words that painted their regret and disagreement with publishers who wished to hike up the price on bestselling eBooks.
All this came on the heels of Apple’s official unveiling of the iPad, a said to be revolutionary tablet that will fill the space between smartphones and laptops. While not even on the market as yet, the iPad is already shaking things up in the publishing industry, as four of the five big publishers are already signed on with Apple, who promises to list many of their books no lower than $13.99, unlike Amazon’s bargain basement prices. Small publishers are already feeling the pressure, being caught up in the digital distribution war.
Maximizing Your Amazon Kindle Sales
After reading the two recent blog posts that refer to the ongoing digital eBook wars between Amazon and its emerging enemies, a client recently requested a little more info on the Kindle process, and some of the info I dispensed resulted in the following:
To recap, Amazon currently offers authors and publishers 35% in royalties from sales of digital downloads per book. They keep a whopping 65%. Due to the release of a new Apple tablet (supposedly due in March) Amazon is planning to revise the royalty scheme come June of this year, to compete with what Apple is currently offering in royalties, that being 70% to authors and publishers. But Amazon will match this only if your book qualifies by being priced between $2.99 and $9.99 in June, when the new scheme takes effect. The book must also list at a price that is 20% less than the print version, and the price listed for the digital version must match the list price of the same book while it’s listed on competing eBook retailers’ sites.
My advice to this client was to list the digital version of his book at a greater discount than the 20% threshold proposed by Amazon. The reason for this, based on experiments conducted by big and small publishers alike, is that potential customers are flocking to cheaper priced books in droves. New Kindle book titles listing on Amazon top off at $9.99 on average, while the hardcover versions are still being offloaded at brick-n-mortar stores with retail prices well above $20.00. Sales of hardcover books are dipping as a result. Amazon Kindle book downloads topped sales of print version books this past holiday, and the Kindle itself was their top selling product. There is a major shift coming in the book industry, and self-published authors and publishers would be wise to adapt and adopt now as opposed to later.
Apple Also Throws a Monkey Wrench into Amazon's eBook Plans
Well, directly on the heels of my recent blog post, news comes out that Amazon has in fact planned to unveil a new program that will give authors and publishers the lion’s share of profit from sales of Kindle books beginning June 30, 2010. A whopping 70% will be reaped by qualifying books from publishers. The new program is said to be in addition to the old DTP royalty scheme, and will not likely replace it. In order for a book to qualify for the program, Amazon says that the list price must be between $2.99 and $9.99, in addition to being at least 20% below the list price of the physical book.
A report in The Wall Street Journal says that, in addition to the conditions highlighted above, the book must also “be made available for sale in all geographies in which the author or publisher has rights; the title will be included in a set of Kindle features, such as text-to-speech; and books must be 'offered at or below price parity with competition, including physical book prices.' "
