All excellent points, Alicia. Thank you — and thank you for being gentle! : ) I love our discussions here.

As for those Amazon imprints, a few of my author friends with agents have titles with them. Because I know they’re agented, and because the imprints operate like traditional publishing companies, having an agent is probably the best way to break in there as long as one of the imprints publishes books in your genre.

Have you noticed how the Amazon Prime First Reads books are all Amazon imprints that haven’t been released to the public yet? What a fantastic way to rack up reviews before the book goes on sale. Genius!

Sandy

I hear you on the price, Amy. It’s easier to accept if you translate it into a potential increase in royalties. (And if it doesn’t help, you’re only out $10, right?) And when you read it, try not be aggravated by the filler (there’s actually a chapter on how he lost, then found, a winter hat — 100% roll-your-eyes-irrelevant).

Sandy

I still don’t like the price tag, though. Too much for so little.

I’ll have to disagree, gently, with you on this – because I think it applies only to mainstream fiction. In general, readers don’t care – but indie books often are specifically disallowed on the kinds of book blogs that cover mainstream contemporary fiction. This has been my experience – there is a divide, with self-published genre fiction on one end, traditionally published mainstream fiction (and book bloggers) on the other, and, in the middle, a section of Amazon imprints one has no way of applying to.

Prices often go with the divide: free to about 4.99 or a bit more in the genre SP, ebooks priced over $10 by the publishers (it is speculated they are protecting paperback and hardcover sales), and the 5.99-9.99 Amazon imprints in the middle.

Readers notice things like that in the genres they read, and have preferences.

I don’t think (again, my opinion) that mainstream readers come to Amazon to search for their reading material. I believe they come to buy, less expensively, and have delivered to their homes or readers, the books they’ve seen advertised elsewhere or discussed on ‘the right kind of book blog.’

It is especially limiting to those without energy to go out and pursue opportunities – local papers, local TV or radio or other shows to compensate for their perceived status.

Do you remember the Data Guy? He had lovely color charts showing some of this – they were often publicized on The Passive Voice blog – and went private and for pay some years ago. The separation was very real, probably still is. Amazon was the green band in the middle, IIRC.

I, of course, may be wrong.

And thanks again for reminding me of this book – I’m going through all the highlighted and marked sections while I still have time to adjust the description for NETHERWORLD. Brian Meeks still writes them, by the way.

Alicia, we are definitely in sync on this book. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

As for this piece:

many readers figure that if you are any good, you’ll go for (and acquire) a traditional publisher

I don’t think most readers understand the publishing world or business. If a self-published book looks and reads like any other book on their shelf, and doesn’t have a publisher name on the inside that shouts I PUBLISHED THIS MYSELF, they don’t know and don’t care how it was published. All they care about is a good story that’s well-written.

Sandy

I write mainstream fiction – ‘big books’ – as an indie, and there isn’t a lot of support for that, because many readers figure that if you are any good, you’ll go for (and acquire) a traditional publisher (regardless of their stingy and limiting contracts), and if you don’t, you must not be any good.

I disagree – many excellent books will not make it into a trad pub’s catalogue (limited space, among other things), but I was pretty sure it wouldn’t work for a trilogy with a disabled main character who neither conveniently dies nor withdraws from the fray to let an able-bodied one win. No inspiration porn possible, either.

And I’m a former physicist, computational physicist, and homeschooling mom – turns out I have to be in control, and you have little of that, I understand, with most publishers.

But there were one or two examples in the book (terrible Table of Contents, agreed, and no index) that triggered some real thinking about book descriptions, and that is definitely worth $10. My copy is well highlighted.

Not much more, and not a recommendation (unless the more common genres written in by indies are one of yours). But isn’t that true of so much in life? You take what works for you, grateful you found it, and use it – your way.

Sonia, I’ll loan my copy to you! Just tell me when you want it and provide your Amazon account email address. : )

Sandy

Thanks, J.M.!

Sandy