Ebooks Announcement Discussion

[Dan Hocker]

Are there going to be new Cemetery Dance eBooks anytime soon? Been a while since I have seen a new one pop up

Should be.

[RJK1981]

Are there going to be new Cemetery Dance eBooks anytime soon? Been a while since I have seen a new one pop up

[TJCams]

Very interesting numbers - thanks Dan and Brian. Hopefully Kobo, and others, can increase their customer base - competition is good right?

[Dan Hocker]

I'd say Amazon is the larger share in both the US and the UK just based off of our sales numbers. Canada is hard to tell though as they don't differentiate those sales from the US sales. Just to give an example, at this point in Novembers sales, just comparing Amazon sales and Kobo sales. Our Kobo sales are just 3% of our Amazon sales. I do wish we could get similar sales numbers from our other ebook retailers.

[Brian James Freeman]

I was surprised when I read that Dan - 95% is shocking. Even Kealan Patrick Burke mentioned to me on here that he really had no success on selling his titles on Kobo. I guess the American public is pretty much Kindle only then???? Obviously that is where most of the sales would be from too I would assume.

That does seem to be true. Personally speaking, my bestselling title might sell 100 on the Kindle for every 4 or 5 copies sold on Kobo. That always bums me out!

Brian

[TJCams]

Amazon will actually often run sales on books for cheaper without publisher approval. That said books selling for 99 cents vs 8.99 is pretty much always a publisher decision.

That said, I can sympathize with the publishers that only offer their books through Amazon. We offer through a variety of different stores, but 95% of all our sales are through Amazon, it makes you question if publishing on the other stores is even worth the time and effort. In some cases it isn't, as we learned from our experiences with Sony eBooks.

I have heard that Amazon will sell e-books "at a loss" just to get the sale though too. Not sure how true this is, but.....

I was surprised when I read that Dan - 95% is shocking. Even Kealan Patrick Burke mentioned to me on here that he really had no success on selling his titles on Kobo. I guess the American public is pretty much Kindle only then???? Obviously that is where most of the sales would be from too I would assume.

For me - I will never buy a Kindle - Kobo makes a superior product (from reviews I have heard and read) and it seems their "next big thing" gets released first and Amazon comes out with theirs after in a lot of cases. I recently read here in Canada, Kobo has the largest share of the e-reader market.... call me stubborn maybe.

RJK: I agree on your last point - I have seen e-books priced at $8.99 for a lot of titles I want, and even higher (up to $16+). I could easily go to my local Chapters, or even a place that sells used books and get the paper copy for the same or cheaper.....

[bookworm 1]

Thanks for the information guys.

[pennynutter]

So who is John R. Little? Are these unannounced book that CD is publishing?

John R. Little's stories are just awesome. They hook you fast and reel you in until the next thing you know, the story is finished and you're scrounging around for his next book! I can't really pick a favorite . . . Dreams in Black and White is great, as is Miranda and The Gray Zone, but you'll find yourself reading Placeholders over and over. And then, there's more where they came from

[Dan Hocker]

You can get kindle apps for the phone and computer though, so you don't need an actual Kindle to read Kindle books. As for Kindle exclusive titles, that is determined by others, not Amazon, and that can be for multiple reasons (They don't sell enough outside of Amazon or maybe they are just too lazy, lol). The prices are often not set by Amazon either, but instead by the authors or publishers. That obviously isn't the case with their own specials though. As for prices on Amazon being lower a lot of the time, that is where the bulk on eBook sales are, so makes more sense for the sales to be there in order to generate more future business.

That all sucks, of course, would just be easier if they all had the same (lower) prices, but I don't expect that will happen.

And I don't know if I would ever pay $9 for a digital book, seems a lot for something I can't physically hold, turn the real pages, or smell. What really confuses me when some publishers have their eBook releases priced higher than the paperback edition (And that is before any kind of Amazon discount!)!

Amazon will actually often run sales on books for cheaper without publisher approval. That said books selling for 99 cents vs 8.99 is pretty much always a publisher decision.

That said, I can sympathize with the publishers that only offer their books through Amazon. We offer through a variety of different stores, but 95% of all our sales are through Amazon, it makes you question if publishing on the other stores is even worth the time and effort. In some cases it isn't, as we learned from our experiences with Sony eBooks.

[RJK1981]

The problems for us Kobo users (at least my beef) is that Amazon will offer certain e-book titles for like $.99 or real cheap - same title on Kobo will be $8.99 for example - it's like they are undercutting the competition - and in many cases the titles are Amazon exclusives - I am NOT buying a Kindle regardless.

You can get kindle apps for the phone and computer though, so you don't need an actual Kindle to read Kindle books. As for Kindle exclusive titles, that is determined by others, not Amazon, and that can be for multiple reasons (They don't sell enough outside of Amazon or maybe they are just too lazy, lol). The prices are often not set by Amazon either, but instead by the authors or publishers. That obviously isn't the case with their own specials though. As for prices on Amazon being lower a lot of the time, that is where the bulk on eBook sales are, so makes more sense for the sales to be there in order to generate more future business.

That all sucks, of course, would just be easier if they all had the same (lower) prices, but I don't expect that will happen.

And I don't know if I would ever pay $9 for a digital book, seems a lot for something I can't physically hold, turn the real pages, or smell. What really confuses me when some publishers have their eBook releases priced higher than the paperback edition (And that is before any kind of Amazon discount!)!

[TJCams]

One day when Brian has stopped the torture I would love to know what the actual differences are and why. I have a kindle and it seems pretty easy to download......After I figured it out.

The problems for us Kobo users (at least my beef) is that Amazon will offer certain e-book titles for like $.99 or real cheap - same title on Kobo will be $8.99 for example - it's like they are undercutting the competition - and in many cases the titles are Amazon exclusives - I am NOT buying a Kindle regardless.

[Dan Hocker]

One day when Brian has stopped the torture I would love to know what the actual differences are and why. I have a kindle and it seems pretty easy to download......After I figured it out.

They're just two different file formats. Epub is just easier to design for and what everyone except Amazon uses as their format. Which I think is why Amazon finally started excepting epub uploads, but the files still get converted to a Kindle format. I think the reason they stick with their own format is more of a proprietary thing so that if people want to buy ebooks from them they have to use their devices. I mostly just wish Kindle devices could actually read the epub format, they we wouldn't have to provide the ".zip" files with both version in them anymore, which would make selling the ebooks a lot easier and less confusing for our non tech savvy customers.

[bookworm 1]

One day when Brian has stopped the torture I would love to know what the actual differences are and why. I have a kindle and it seems pretty easy to download......After I figured it out.

[TJCams]

We always provide a epub format, and trust me I wish Amazon used epub format it would make my life much easier.

That is part of the reason why you guys are top notch!

[Dan Hocker]

As long as they are in a format I can read on my Kobo - I feel so alienated with Amazon's monopoly (at least stateside) kindle format only stuff.

We always provide a epub format, and trust me I wish Amazon used epub format it would make my life much easier.