Interesting justification for shitty behavior. Do you not see that you’re stealing money from the author who spent months, if not years, writing that book. Is that okay with you too?

You should be ashamed of yourself.

Most of my 30+ books from *legacy* publishers, no matter how successful, are NOT in bookstores today. I’m lucky if my latest national bestseller is there for a couple months, a handful of copies.

I’m not surprised… most indie bookshops simply can’t carry a wide inventory– they can only carry what their shelving affords, in topselling categories for their community.

My favorite local bookstore devotes half its shelf space to gifts and magazines. Then Remainders. Then Children. I’d say there’s one last big wall of adult nonfiction and fiction. You have to be frickin amazing, sell really well, and be lucky to dwell there. They indulge me bc I’m local. I can’t walk into a store in LA or St. Louis or Dallas and expect the same exposure. But online, I’m in your lap, everywhere.

Early in my career, (80s) I actually expected bookshops to carry all ten years of my anthologies, a wide selection of my favorite nonfiction, blah blah. And I was just a midlist author with the occasional national hit! Now that seems laughable.

If, as a reader, i want an eclectic hand-browsing experience, for any title that came out more than eight weeks ago, I go to the local used bookstore… we blessed to have a few here, in a college town.

Anyway, about these Amazon Publishing bestsellers… if they are hot enough, the so-called “obstinate” bookseller will carry them— c’mon, they’re not crazy. And, these people are real book lovers. They are not going to push away a book or author they think is outstanding. No way.

My local indie booksellers already orders anything anyone asks for, and promises to deliver it ASAP. They don’t care who publishes it. They’re thrilled for the business. They thrive on community loyalty.

I started making and selling ebooks in ~2000– when they didn’t sell, when it was like a sad science experiment. No Kindle, no iPad, e-readers were bizarre. I thought, “Oh well, better luck another day.” And, man, that day has appeared.

And the difference between print copies sold and ebook copies sold will obviously vary depending on the title.

People who say things such as “print is dead” are brain dead or aren’t paying much attention given that 70 percent of sales are still print.

Fact is, certain types of books such as gift books will outsell in print compared to ebooks for many years to come.

Ernie J. Zelinski
International Best-Selling Author, Innovator, and Prosperity Life Coach
Author of the Bestseller “How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free”
(Over 165,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and the International Bestseller “The Joy of Not Working’
(Over 250,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)

“When a book I wanted was only available as an e-book, i didn’t buy the e-book – I downloaded it illegally. I won’t spend money to support a format I hate.”

So by this logic it is ok to walk into a B&N and steal a book someone wants because they only read eBooks and the book is not available in eBook format because the publisher chose not to publish that way?

Anytime Amazon Publishing is mentioned it seems like these self published authors come out of the woodwork and start spouting off about ebooks. This isn’t about self publishing, guys. This is about Amazon Publishing, a new traditional publisher, which has nothing to do with any of you or self publishing. I know you all live for attention, but stop trying to steer an interesting conversation toward a tired, and very minor corner of the book industry.

then you shoulda mentioned that
selling e-books through amazon
instead of using a legacy publisher
gives today’s authors more money,
not to mention _creative_freedom_,
more readers, enhanced exposure,
a better mutual working relationship,
transparent bookkeeping, _and_ an
opportunity to release more material.

oh, and did i mention _more_money_?

heck, even lee goldberg, who whined
like a baby after 1 month of trying that
“e-books don’t work” is now a believer.
and he’s worked both sides of the fence.

yes, the legacy guys do sell print books
in bookstores, a lot of them, _but_ they
keep most of the proceeds themselves!

so we can see why they are paying you
good money to keep reminding us that
they sell a lot of p-books in bookstores.
they wanna keep those registers singing.

but as the ratio gradually changes from
70/30 to 30/70, they will pay you _less_
to do their propaganda work for them…

but don’t worry. you can always start
writing books, to sell through amazon.

-bowerbird