The Latest Amazon Drama

The drama isn't just Amazon's though. Earlier this month, a series of bills were introduced in Congress that, if passed, could inhibit the power of several tech giants including Google, Apple, and Facebook, not just Amazon. 

Apple's already been in trouble for their conspiracy back in 2011 with five of the ten Big Six publishing companies in the U.S. Do you think they or anyone else backed down? Hell, no. Add in the shady shit Facebook was pulling in the last two presidential elections, plus more crap than I can list from the rest, and they've gotten the attention of the American politicians.

And not in the good way.

The following is my opinion, and just my opinion. So take it with a grain of salt, tequila, and a lime wedge.

A lot of my fellow indies believe Amazon is "too big to fail". They've gone exclusive with the company through the Kindle Unlimited program since Amazon has a rough 70% of the e-book market IN THE UNITED STATES. These indies really don't look at the rest of the world. It simply doesn't count.

If the U.S. government forces Amazon and the rest to split up like they did with Ma Bell in the '80's, we have no fucking clue what the outcome will be.

Other indies are seeing the writing on the wall and diversifying--both their genres and their retailers.

I've been diversifying as well. As much as I love urban fantasy stories, the genre was overrun years ago. Plus, a ton of writers jumped into BDSM romances after the success of Fifty Shades of Grey. It's hard to get any eyeballs when all the lemmings are writing the same shit.

But hey, I was told I didn't understand writing to market. Except what my fellow indies were doing was writing to trend. Then there were those indies who grouped together and decided what the new hot subgenre should be and would write it to death. Hell, recently someone suggested I join in and write Paranormal Women's Fiction, the latest "it" subgenre. I smiled politely and said I'd think about it.

I'm not going to. I like my supers and my sword and sorcery stories for now, though I'm dabbling with what is essentially a paranormal domestic comedy with the Soccer Moms of the Apocalypse series.

But does any of this sound familiar? Yep, we indies are repeating the same damn mistakes what is now the Big Five are doing.

That's not a good thing.

Anyway, if you're a writer, keep an eye on these bills. Whether you are trad, indie, or hybrid, they will affect you if they are passed. So start making some preliminary plans, and start saving your pennies.

Status Report - October 2013

As the Celtic year winds down (yes, folks, Halloween, or Samhain if you will, was the Celtic equivalent of New Year's Eve except with a lot less glitter and champagne), I'm looking at what I've accomplished.

Sales have been down over September and October, just like they have been for the last three years. Why? Because readers are dealing with school, kids, fall activities like football, and holidays. Oh, and October is when trad publishing unleashes a flurry of paper books, especially hardbacks, in preparation for the Christmas rush.

A lot of folks in indie world are panicking, but they've panicked every fall for the last three years.What they need to be looking at is the long-term implications. The initial gold rush in self-publishing is over. Thank Djehuti!

Why do I say that? Because the people who aren't serious about writing as a career are starting to give up. That doesn't mean the rest of us can relax. If anything, we need to up our game. We not only have to be better than other indies, we have to be better than trad published books in our production values.

Fortunately, that's not hard. *grin*

Here's some of the data you're looking for:

After Amazon's August surge, Apple sales are still beating the house that Bezos built as far as my books go in September. Barnes & Noble sales have dropped thanks their schizophrenic board of directors and total lack of direction. Frankly, I can't blame Nook owners for not wanting to invest any more money in their devices. Kobo and Smashwords sales have been non-existent since April. Sony is the retailer that surprises me because I'm starting to see 2-3 actual sales per month for the second half of 2013.

Total sales in August = 215
Total sales in September = 139
Total sales for October as of the 22nd = 74

I place a lot of the blame for October on Congress' shoulders because of the stupid-ass government shutdown. There was a marked increase in sales after 16th, and not just because Alter Ego published a new novella on the 18th.

The rest of the year will be interesting. Blood Sacrifice will be published by Halloween. Sword and Sorceress 28 with my short story "Justice" will be released November 2nd. Alter Ego will put out her first novel in December as well as the last novella of her current BDSM series. That will bring my total releases up to ten for the year.

And I've officially made more money in 2013 than I did in 2012, and I've still got two more months to go.

All-in-all, I think I've done pretty good this year for an average mid-lister.