Authors Electric

FREE. Something-for-nothing. It’s worth what you pay for it. Cheap-and-cheerful. Race to the bottom. There are lots of opinions about free in the context of free books. Or specifically free ebooks, since free paperbacks don’t make any kind of economic sense; I give away free paperbacks only for review purposes (and very occasionally to friends), since they have a specific unit print cost. But free ebooks cost the author nothing. Except lost revenue, I hear you cry. When I have slaved away over a hot keyboard for many years, why would I want to give away my books for free? How can I make a living, a profit – or just break even – if I’m not earning any money from sales? I used to think the same. More than four years into this self-publishing lark and I was a staunch decrier of free . I’d never given my books away, other than for reviews or as competition prizes or occasional giveaway promotions. I was a firm believer that the readers I wanted to attract were the ones who ...

2014 was a defining year for independent publishing. If we can’t see this yet, I’m sure we will be saying it a few years down the line – those people that are still involved that is. I predict that 2015 will be the year that the scales stop tipping, that more indies will try to move back to more traditional methods, or simply give up altogether. Why do I say that? My ear is always to the ground. There are links I find on facebook and elsewhere. I often retweet these (@debjbennett), if I think they will interest others. Amazon Kindle Unlimited Kindle Unlimited is surely the biggest game-changer since KDP Select. Pay a monthly subscription and you can read/borrow as many books as you like. This follows the rest of the media industry; KU is to books what Spotify is to music and Netflix is to film. BUT – and it’s a big but – KU doesn’t treat independent publishers the same way as it treats traditional publishers. For the trads (and a few selected special indies), it’s an...