Indie authors have no idea how to use Twitter to drive sales to their latest book. They post meaningless hashtags, without a single sentence and a link to their title on Amazon. What is their book about? The elevator pitch? What genre is it? Who cares, #buymybook. Seldom are convincing cases made for readers to … [Read more...]
Will VR be the future of reading?
Over the course of the last decade e-readers have been the best way to consume ebooks and other digital content. The batteries last over a month and it is quite easy to purchase content from Amazon, Kobo or Barnes and Noble. Will e-readers continue to be popular in the next decade, or will VR usurp their … [Read more...]
Amazon fails to control the iPhone in my pocket
Amazon has a dominant market share when it comes to ebooks and their Audible unit. They sold over three hundred million Kindle books in 2016 and control 75% of the US market. The Kindle, Echo and Fire tablets are all gateways to the Amazon ecosystem, but they fail to have a meaningful presence on my iPhone. Longtime … [Read more...]
We Live in a Literary World of Terrible Self-Published Authors
There are a copious number of online self-publishing companies that promise aspiring authors the opportunity to distribute their ebook all over the world. Millions of authors publish with Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, Draft2Digital, Kobo Writing Life, Nook Press and Smashwords. Most "authors" who self-publish an … [Read more...]
Amazon Needs to Release the Kindle DX 2
Amazon has been making making e-Readers since 2007 and this year the company is celebrating their ten year anniversary of the Kindle. They have only made one single that is larger than six inches and this was the Kindle DX. This was brought back from the grave on a few different occasions, but it was developed when the … [Read more...]
Have we hit Peak iPad?
Will the Apple iPad continue to be the catalyst of growth or is there a growing commercial apathy towards the tablet? iPads represented less than 10% of total company's 2016 sales and in the last two quarters of 2017 they have been around 7%. The iPad is seven years old and tablets in general seem to be losing … [Read more...]
E-Book Retailers Need to Partner with Carriers and Smartphone Companies
Tech companies and telecom carriers have started to offer free hardware and entertainment benefits in a lure to attain more customers. Samsung is giving away a free six month subscription to Netflix with the purchase of their new Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus. T-Mobile is offering prospective G6 buyers a free LG G Pad X … [Read more...]
Why Don’t Print Books Come With e-Book Download Codes?
Major publishers are notoriously risk averse and rarely do they experiment with alternative distribution models in a meaningful way. Over the course of the past three years they dipped their toes into the unlimited e-book subscription model, but many of the top CEO's were against this business model. The publishers had … [Read more...]
The Real Story – Why the Kindle Cloud Reader was Developed
The Amazon Kindle Cloud Reader is going to become the only e-reading platform for hundreds of thousands of users. It is the only solution to buy and read e-books on your iPHone and iPad. Not to mention Chromebooks, Windows RT, Windows 8 and Windows 10 tablets. Many people are disappointed in the Kindle Cloud Reader … [Read more...]
Indie Authors Should Form a Co-Op
Worker Cooperatives have been around since the dawn of the industrial era and they have continued into the modern era. The premise is to have a company that is owned and self-managed by its workers. All shares are held by the workforce with no outside or consumer owners, and each member has one voting share. Co-Ops are … [Read more...]
E-Books are on the decline and people are switching back to print
Over the past six years when the Kindle, Kobo and Nook became popular many people thought that print was doomed and that the vast majority of us would be reading e-books. It looks like e-books were merely a passing fad and many people have switched back to print. Preliminary figures from the Association of American … [Read more...]
Industry Experts Accuse Kobo of Being Predatory Vultures
Kobo has been selling e-reader and e-books since 2010 and has gradually expanded their business all over the world. They partner with bookstores to sell their hardware where people are buying print and they also offer white label solutions to companies like Waterstone's. Industry experts have accused Kobo of being … [Read more...]