on Kindle lending, devils, and a scribbler in Brooklyn

i won't assume that you're getting tired of reading my posts about Kindle and Amazon; if you are, i understand if you stop reading right here... (also, this is a long post and i hope your eyes don't glaze over.)

to be honest, i'm getting a little tired of them myself, but i do have one last thing to say, prompted by an email i received from Amazon yesterday, and the friendly email debate that followed.

Amazon notified me that my Kindle edition of Eldala is now part of their Kindle Lending program. to see a comprehensive overview of this little development, read Lisa's blog post: "Amazon's New Kindle Lending Policy." She also gives her well-thought out opinion.

when i read Amazon's email, my first reaction was: i don't want my book lent out. i want people to buy it, not get it for free.

wanting to know what my two indie author friends thought, i immediately sent an email to Lisa and Kristie. i have to say that i'm blessed with two ladies who can show me both sides of an issue and they did just that.

Kristie's opinion in short was that "The more people who read your first book, despite how they get it, the more who will buy your second. And the more people who will be talking about it to others, who will buy it. That’s my thought, anyway.  Also, this availability attracts more people to buy a Kindle in the first place. More Kindle owners means more Kindle-book buyers, not just borrowers. Nook already allows lending and the other ereaders surely will follow. I don’t see it as a bad thing at all. Just another way to grab a reader."

my response to Kristie was that i was never trying to sell a lot of books and i end up giving a lot of them away anyway. i also realized that i like the idea of my book being in a library, but i'm not sure i wanted it to be Amazon's library.

Lisa shares her opinion in her blog post.

here's what i said to Lisa: "if i were growing a career, it would annoy me. do i sound like i'm talking out of both sides of my mouth? i like it and don't like it. but then, after reading more and more about amazon, (see Karen Gowan's two blog posts -- "Analyzing Amazon" , "There is a Santa Claus and His Name is Amazon" , and an article Karen pointed me to the Boston Review's article "Books after Amazon" )
 i'm not very happy with them in general right now....on some days, i feel like i've sold my soul to the devil to put it on kindle, to even sell the paperback on amazon, and on other days, i know it's just another way to sell it. a necessary evil, as it were."

that led to back and forth emails between me and Lisa about selling our souls and how i felt that whether we publish independently or get our books to a traditional publisher, "it's all part of the game of getting our stories distributed so people can actually read them."

and then Kristie pointed out that Amazon is a business like any other business. they have a bottom line and other businesses need to find ways to fill a niche that Amazon can't fill, just as they need to do to compete against big box stores like Barnes and Noble and Walmart.

now, if i really thought Amazon was the devil, i wouldn't have anything to do with them. instead, i use them all the time and i bought almost all my Christmas presents from them because i hate shopping. along that same line, if i were to think of them as the devil, i'd have to think of Walmart the same way.

my conclusion is that authors do what they can to get their books out there for the public to read. i may not like that i have to use Amazon to sell books. i certainly don't like their strongarm tactics and the miniscule royalties indie authors get from selling there. i'll use them anyway. they're a tool to get my book to whoever.

next thing you know, i'll be selling my soul to Twitter, all in the name of getting more people to read my book.

with mixed feelings

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.)