A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Shocking WSJ Discovery: Higher Prices=Lower Volume...

Are you sure you humans know how to add?

Panzer stopped in at Joe  Konrath's A Newbie's Guide to Publishing blog today. Our big bad kitty boy found a post by Barry Eisler about price and demand in economics.

Mr. Eisler's post addresses an article in the Wall Street Journal about the rising cost of ebooks and consequent lower sales. After the new contracts traditional publishers signed with Amazon, they (the publishers) began charging premium prices for ebooks ... and ... sales plummeted. Mr. Eisler explains the "correlation between higher prices and lower demand" in sometimes snarky and sometimes humorous terms.

Panzer says, "The folly of human stupidity never ceases to amuse me."

Note: This is a v-e-r-y l-o-n-g post, but well worth the gallon of tea you'll need to finish reading it and the Comments Section.

To read the post, tootle over to A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Shocking WSJ Discovery: Higher Prices=Lower Volume...:

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Konrath Kindle Unlimited Numbers

I need a snack.

Today Panzer made a trip over to the A Newbie's Guide to Publishing site. It's been a while since our big kitty boy has gone to Joe Konrath's site.

Like a lot of other people right now, Konrath is talking about his Kindle Unlimited sales. He's doing a comparison between the old KU payment system and the new. And ... he's got some pretty impressive dollar amounts from sales to show how the new KU payment system has nearly doubled his income. He's got some interesting loan/borrow/sales figures for his short pieces to compare with his novel length pieces, too. He also briefly gives his take on the KU sales/marketing history with writers and readers.

Panzer says, "It's interesting that he admits he hasn't written anything for a year, but he's making $15,000 - $20,000 a month off his backlist."

Note: As is true with all Konrath's blog posts, this is v-e-r-y l-o-n-g. Bring a h-u-g-e cup of tea and a muffin.

To read the post, tootle over to A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Konrath Kindle Unlimited Numbers:

The Amazon debate: Amazon Critic vs Self-publishing Rock Star

Not a hiss in the bunch.

Panzer was going to stop in at Joe Konrath's blog today, but he didn't make it that far.  He made a detour to the Salon site instead. Joe Konrath and Rob Spillman were having an online debate there about Amazon.

The online debate consists of Konrath and Spillman's back and forth emails about whether Amazon is truly the evil ebook publishing empire. It delves into Jeff Bezos' admitted admiration of Sam Walton's business style and the similarities between Amazon and Walmart.

Panzer says, "These two humans actually agree that they mostly agree. Who would have believed that's possible with these two."

This is a very, very, very long post, so bring a very, very, very large cup of tea.

To read the post, tootle over to The great Amazon debate: A leading Amazon critic and a self-publishing rock star try to find common ground

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Must. Stop. The Stupid.

They're almost as bad as me.

Panzer decided to pay author Joe Konrath a visit today. It's been a long time since he's been over to Joe's blog A Newbie's Guide to Publishing so he wasn't sure what he'd find there. My bad boy was happy to find that Joe hasn't changed a bit. He's still just as much a curmudgeon as ever.

So ...

Panzer found a post with Joe Konrath and Barry Eisler's take on the Authors' Guild's post, Douglas Preston's letter, the indie authors' letter and everything to do with the Amazon-Hachette dispute. Joe and Barry do the post as a conversation discussing and dissecting it all.

Be forewarned, this is a very, very, very long post.

Panzer says, "I just love these guys. They've got the bad boy attitude down perfectly."

To read the full post, tootle over to A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Must. Stop. The Stupid.:

Also More Amazon-Hachette of Interest:
Amazon Poses Possible New Offer To Hachette
Authors' Guild Sends Letter In Amazon-Hachette Dispute
Hachette Turns Down Amazon's Author Offer
Amazon-Hachette Contract Dispute Continues
300 Authors Join Amazon-Hachette Dispute

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

How much money total?

Panzer and I stopped in at Joe Konrath's blog A Newbies Guide to Publishing today and boy are we glad we did!

The post starts off with guest Tom Keller's experiences with indie publishing which are informative. The second half of the post is Joe's sales numbers for all his ebooks. Joe stresses his numbers aren't meant to be a competition. That's good because his sales are phenomenal.  I could never even hope to get numbers any where near his.

Joe has a l-o-t of ebooks, novellas and short stories so the list is long. You might just want to skip to the end and read the totals. Prepare to be surprised.

Tootle on over to A Newbie's Guide to Publishing.

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

"Yay!"

Today Panzer found a post at Joe Konrath's blog about Amazon's change to their Affiliates Program. Joe's take on the situation is different from Ed Robertson's yesterday. Joe doesn't see this new twist as "gloom and doom" for free ebooks. He sees the Kindle Select Program continuing with no interruptions for authors using the program to promote their ebooks to readers.

So, if you want to know why the FREE ebook is not going the way of the dinosaur, read Joe Konrath's opinion at A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Amazon Removes Reviews

Don't do it!

Panzer and I were traveling around the Catosphere and we parked the Panzermobile at Joe Konrath's blog.

Konrath's most recent blog post deals with the fallout from the news a few weeks ago about the Amazon authors who were using fake reviews by paying for good reviews of their ebooks, writing good reviews for their own ebooks and writing bad reviews for their "competitors" ebooks.

As a result of the situation with these few authors, Amazon has instituted new review policies. Because of these new policies a multitude of reviews have been removed from ebooks not even involved in the original situation. This has resulted in some ebooks even getting their rankings lowered because their "stars" have been lowered.

You can read Konrath's take on the situation at  A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Amazon Removes Reviews .

Panzer says, "Don't post fake reviews!"

E-Books and Libraries: What the Big 6 Doesn't Get

Panzer's needs a costume

for Halloween

Panzer hasn't been over to Vincent Zandri's blog for awhile so he stopped in for a visit.

Zandri takes on Joe Konrath about the ebooks in libraries issue. Panzer and I totally agree with Zandri. We've been checking ebooks out of the library for two years. We've seen authors do "book gatherings" for their ebook fans at libraries using Skype.

So ... Panzer and I do think libraries get it.

Tootle over to  E-Books and Libraries: What the Big 6 Doesn't Get and see what you think.

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Konrath's Sales

Panzer can't believe it!

Panzer says you have got to read this post by Joe Konrath about his book sales! Konrath has got some hard numbers here about his sales and how much money he's made.

This post is exactly why you need to get your ebooks uploaded to Smashwords and Amazon. True you may not make as much as Konrath, but you won't make anything if you don't have anything uploaded!

Read all about it at  A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Konrath's Sales