SITB Up

Amazon has the Search Inside the Book for my two recently submitted titles up already. Quicker than expected, just a bit over a week, so I guess PDF is the way to go.

Also, submitted a revised internal for Gosse's A Year at the Shore to clear up the narrow gutter margin.

More SITB

Uploaded two titles (Historical Bigfoot, Boss Snakes) to Amazon's Search Inside the Book -- haven't really messed with that beyond CZ:S&S. We'll see if this makes any difference before I do any more. Google Books hasn't helped much.

A Suggestion for Lightning Source

Given the recent Amazon attack on POD publishing, specifically LSI clients, I'm wondering if there isn't a (relatively) simple solution. After all, Lightning Source stands to lose some significant earnings (from both present and future clients) if Amazon forces a shift in the primary POD publishing arena. LSI has spent significant money already in expansions and upgrades, and they're looking outside the North American and European markets, so this can't really be seen as anything but a direct challenge.

So, why doesn't LSI set up a direct ordering site (opt-in for client-publishers) that integrates the drop-shipping capabilities they already have in place for Amazon and other retailers. Cut out the middle man. Sure, Amazon's got market share, but if a book-selling site is set up right, and seriously promoted by the many LSI client-publishers, it stands a chance of taking back some of the lost profits to both LSI and the individual publishers.

As it stands, if the Amazon rampage continues, POD publishers that don't migrate to Booksurge will only be offered by third-party sellers, with no discounts, no free shipping option, and probably an increase to the price by the third-party seller. POD publishers that do migrate face lower profits via a higher forced wholesale discount, or through increased retail pricing that decreases the number of books sold.

If LSI set up a direct-buy website for its client-publishers, they wouldn't have to give the wholesale discount to a retailer -- they could keep that as retail-side profit. There'd be no need to discount titles (which is only done by Amazon as a gimmick, anyway), but there'd also not be a tacked-on increase to retail pricing, so it would be a good site for authors to direct potential buyers. I'm sure a viable and economical shipping solution could be arranged.

With as many titles as are in the LSI system, if it were set up correctly it could help even out the POD retail playing field. Amazon's only getting away with this because of the lack of direct competition. Someone else needs to show up to play.

Amazon Sends Mixed Signals

I'm not sure what Amazon's up to right now. First, comes the news that Amazon's Booksurge department is strong-arming several large POD publishers into joining them (at a substantial profit loss) rather than sticking with Lightning Source or other printers. This has a lot of the smaller POD publishers in a frenzy, as it could pretty much ruin our business, forcing much higher retail pricing to accommodate the required wholesale discount. Or we might just need to funnel our book buyers to online stores like Barnes & Noble as our primary distributors.

Now, though, I see that Amazon has most of my titles at a 10% discount to buyers, even with the minimal wholesale discount I offer. That's a bit strange, and seems unnecessary. But, if you've been waiting to buy a POD book, now might be the time to save a few bucks...

4 More for Kindle

Four more ebooks for Amazon's Kindle program. Three I already have in paperback (Blue Tiger, Paley's Natural Theology, and The Rational Creation), but one is a reprint I haven't yet put out in physical book form (though it will be coming out in 2008): Barnum's Humbugs of the World.

Nice to be #1

After putting up a few test ebooks on Amazon's Kindle store, I forgot about it for a few days, as I didn't expect too much from it. No sense putting too much effort into something with a low ROI, particularly when it's too easy for a small publisher to get lost in the crowd. Checked in today, and saw that all four titles have sold at least 1 copy, with Christmas! selling four copies so far. Amazingly, this places that title as the current #1 in the Fiction > Genre Fiction > Anthologies category, and #3 in Fiction > Short Stories category. Overall, it is #689. Kind of sad, really. I'm not sure this bodes well for Kindle as a generalist ebook distributor. I'm sure, that in Long Tail fashion, the most popular books are selling many, many copies, but there seems to be a pretty steep curve there...

What is particularly annoying, though, is that when you search the Kindle Store for "Christmas," this title comes up as #88, while most of the titles that come up first have far larger rankings (fewer copies sold recently). I'm guessing most of my sales are coming from links from this website, rather than Amazon searches, but don't have any way to test that theory.

Trees of Terror

The second anthology uploaded to Amazon's Kindle ebook program. Will retail $2.99. Should be available within 12 hours, according to Amazon.

Contents: The Walk to Lingham (Lord Dunsany), The Orchid Horror (John Blunt), The American's Tale (Arthur Conan Doyle), The Treasure in the Forest (H. G. Wells), The Willows (Algernon Blackwood), The Man-Eating Tree (Phil Robinson), The Purple Terror (Fred M. White), Professor Jonkin's Cannibal Plant (Howard R. Garis), The Flowering of the Strange Orchid (H. G. Wells), The Man Whom the Trees Loved (Algernon Blackwood)

Kindle Test

What with Amazon promoting their new Kindle ebook reader, I'm going to test a few texts with it, even with the lousy 35% they offer publishers. (And, of course, customers expect retail prices lower than hardcopies anyway... if anything stalls Amazon's market here, it's going to be this. Most small publishers just aren't willing to lose that much money on a sale.) But, first will start with a holiday selection of short stories, Christmas! 12 Holiday Classics. Cheap at 99 cents. Next will be a selection of cryptobotany short stories.

Two New Titles

LSI is running efficiently at present, so my recently submitted titles are now available for purchase from Amazon, and soon from other outlets. (Takes a little while for the Ingram data to propagate online.)

The titles are Lincoln's Own Stories, and The Rational Creation. Sample chapters are available with the cover images and pricing details.

Amazon Glitch Fixed

It appears that most cases (a few other publishers still have a raised price here or there) the Amazon pricing glitch is over. One odd side effect: Cryptozoology: Science & Speculation is now selling at a discount, 5 cents off list price. Go figure.

Another plus, I do like the scrolling cover images under "Customers who bought this item also bought..." It allows many more similar products to be viewed at the customer's leisure, not just the most popular or just the "mainstream" books.

Amazon Screw-Up

As noted on all the POD publishing lists, Amazon has some sort of glitch in their pricing system now. What appears to be a random price increase on random books has hit most publishers, including myself. Two of my titles have odd increases: Cryptozoology: Science & Speculation, and the Lesser-Known Mystery Animals compilation. Enough of an increase, it does appear to be affecting sales. All I can say, is Barnes & Noble still has them selling at the correct price, so that might be the best option. Hopefully this issue is corrected soon, or at least some rationale is discovered, so that I can figure out a way around it.

Amazon: Search Suggestions Tags

Amazon has converted search suggestions to search suggestion tags; it was really only a matter of time, given the popularity of tags on social networking sites and blogs. I guess I'll have to go through and retag most of my titles, maybe expand them a bit. It looks like the old Amazon book tags don't carry over to search suggestion tags, which is odd.

Another strange point is the new feature, Books on Related Topics (from the Inside this Book section, which is only available on books with the Search Inside feature). For Cryptozoology: Science & Speculation, it points readers to books on tracking and mammalogy, not cryptozoology. Don't know how useful that will be.

Great Sea-Serpent Available

My edition of Oudemans' Great Sea-Serpent is now available. Overall, I was very pleased with it (haven't yet seen any major problems in layout or whatnot), though several images are still printing a tad too light for my liking. This may be due to the very thin lines involved, but I will probably try to increase the dpi for images for future books. Technically, LSI doesn't want grayscale over 300dpi, but it may become necessary.

As Cosimo is also putting out an edition of this book (again, POD), I had to weigh several options while putting this together. Most important, how do I make certain my edition doesn't get lost in the Amazon jungle? As learned from previous experience, a reprint with the same specified title and author as another will sometimes be placed in a lower hierarchy within Amazon search results. If there are competing editions, only one might show up in results, with the rest being relegated to a small box for alternate editions. (Usually, this is for paperback versus hardcover choices.) That, of course, drastically reduces the chance of other editions being ordered. Out of sight, out of mind. So, I decided to a) list the author by his given initials rather than full name, and b) not add the subtitle to the listing. This should be enough of a difference that the two available editions won't be directly confused within Amazon search results. (Unless, of course, the other publisher does the same thing.)

As of yet, my reprint is not showing up in Amazon search results for title or author, though it does appear by ISBN. This is normal; I don't know why, but a book has to be up on Amazon for a few weeks, before the internal search engine picks it up properly. I've already submitted a "cryptozoology" search suggestion, so that should also help.

And, Barnes & Noble has the book listed for just under $18. They must be aggressively trying to win over Amazon customers.