mixed feelings-- a state in which i often find myself. most of the time i feel this way about indie publishing. today, i feel this way about Amazon's Kindle.
on the one hand, i've been wanting to put Eldala on Kindle ever since Kindle came out, which btw, was almost right after i first published. back then, i didn't have the time or the know-how to do all the conversions, and honestly, i was so SICK of my story that i didn't want to have anything to do with it for a long time.
now, thanks to my indie author friends, the lovely and talented Lisa J. Yarde and Kristie Cook, the book is in the process of being published for Kindle at Amazon.
i'm excited to see this finally happening, albeit 3 years later. a lot of people use Kindle, and some of those people use only Kindle for reading, so maybe Eldala will go to more readers. i think that's cool. my goal here is not to make money (honestly, i've given away so many copies, i'll never recover my costs). i think my story has a good message and i want people to read it (isn't that really why any of us write? if it was about money...). whatever i make on it will help me buy more books to give away. :)
on the other hand, after reading a blog post by Karen G on Analyzing Amazon (who says that the post is about the book producer's POV, and not the book buyer's POV), i wonder if i'm doing the right thing. i know i can't be swayed by one person's opinion, but Karen makes a good point. i hate to think that i've contributed to the downfall of bookstores, or that i'm feeding the Amazon conglomerate, but i buy from Amazon all the time. maybe it's time to rethink that. maybe it's time for me to buy indie books directly from the authors, unless they happen to be on Amazon... and as for other stuff, maybe i'll spend more time at the bookstore. i'll have to think about it.
(just on a weird sidenote... i read Karen's post yesterday, and last night, i had this dream about giving that information on Amazon to someone. one of their "spies" heard us, took us to an inquisition, and all of us who disagreed with them were punished. lovely.)
2 comments:
I had mixed feelings about Kindle originally, but I'm pretty sold on it now. My university is located in a town where there isn't a bookstore (horrific, I know), so I buy on Amazon A LOT. Kindle is even easier because my purchases download instantly. I think there are a lot of people who don't have easy access to bookstores that prefer ordering something electronically.
As far as money is concerned, I typically won't buy my favorite authors' books on Kindle because they don't get as much money for those. My Kindle is reserved for hardbacks that I'm unsure about or an author I've never read (like when I got PARANORMALCY by Kiersten White and THE DUFF by Kody Keplinger). But if it's Cassandra Clare or Julie Kagawa or Simone Elkeles, I WILL be buying the real book. From the bookstore. I want them to get as much money as possible. :)
There's other avenues for eBooks besides Amazon! B&N's Nook, Apple's iBookstore, etc. Look into those. Then you won't feel like you're just feeding the evil empire.
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