Currently reading - Baby, Drive South bu Stephanie Bond (MMPB)
I don't know how many of you saw this New York Times article a couple of weeks ago, but Amazon is allegedly removing private label rights (PLR) e-books from their Kindle store.
What are PLR e-books? Generally, articles that are work for hire are sold to a "writer", who then puts the various articles together into an e-book format and uploads them to Amazon. (These e-books can also be uploaded to other e-book retailers as well.) In most instances, PLR books are non-fiction. The pieces that form the PLR e-books are sold in much the same way that royalty-free photos are sold at places like istockphoto.com.
The problem comes when fifty people put the same three articles together to form what is essentially the same e-book. Say you're a gardener looking for a resource on how to get of tomato horn worms. (By the way, I'm big advocate of smashing the suckers with a rock or brick.) There can be fifty books on Amazon that all have the same information. You're thinking, "Did somebody rip off some biologist's book? I don't want to buy a fake." And then you don't buy anything, which means Amazon or any other retailer doesn't make money.
So if you're an indie writer, whether it be fiction or non-fiction, don't take shortcuts. You might get some short-term sales, but the news will get out and folks won't buy your product if they're questioning your integrity.
Mya Regular Workshops Now Up…
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And You Can Get Them In the Sale! Here is the list of the May regular
workshops. There are the five core classes and then one extra called
Reaching Pulp Sp...
16 hours ago
Thanks for all the info, Suzan!!!
ReplyDeleteHey, I just pass the news on, Tess.
ReplyDelete