Discovery, proceeds and greed-reflex

I got a... mite upset, this morning, when I found some books. I had followed some writer's site out of Passive's comments, found several books she recommended, and I was seeing if I could buy them.

Turns out I can't-won't. I could technically manage to, but I'm not going to fight Amazon's disaster of a download interface (or format; why can't they use epub perplexes me), nor am I going to be charged some 25% extra for books I was curious about. And that doesn't even account for those prices too high even originally.

I don't need those books; I didn't even know they existed when I woke up this morning. But the writers managed, by tying themselves to certain marketing ideas, to turn a curious reader into a pissed one. To turn whatever they might (or not) lose from exchange rates and taxes into a total loss of a sale they won't ever make (plus lost mouth-to-ear advertising), now. Those who had other venues... well, the only one with a decent price had DRM. Let's just say I'll break your book's spine before I let it install DRM in any computer of mine.

Half a dozen writ... authors lost a sale, a penetration point into several circles of readers, because they ticked boxes and followed along. They didn't think.

By comparison, this month I've so far spent some 30+ EUR in indie / small pub ebooks. Will likely reach 40 before the weekend's over. Several of those were through bundles. Either cheap-o-matic 0.99 bundles or things through Story Bundle. In the worst case, those 0.99 books had writers pocket their stamped-sized share of the price of books I'm interested in, part of a series, and something I'll likely follow. Not much, but something and a foothold in my mindspace.

Kobo just suggested a book (crappy algorithms they have). A 20+ EUR Penguin ebook. Their chances? Nil. But if I had bought that book and a 12 EUR book somewhere else a writer might have pocketed around 5.67 EUR. Those writers I've bought these days got 17.65 EUR (minus banking expenses).

That's the power of indie. check the last chart here and realize that she's got 50% more books in traditional than in indie. That's about what transpires from AR reports. Indie really works better for writers.

But don't be a jerk and alienate readers you didn't have. And now won't.

Take care.