Is The Amazon Kindle Ruining America? – Http://www.anewdomain.net/ (satire)

 

aNewDomain – Writing is a tough gig These Days.

Amazon has millions of titles, a number so large it is hard to narrow down with exactitude. I’ve seen 1.5 million and 32 million and even larger numbers. When you write and publish a book, how are you to get it in front of potential readers?

The Amazon Kindle and other e-readers have made it possible to traditional bypass publishing and go straight to virtual press. There is the cost and Thus in the real risk to the author. Unless you handsome being buried in obscurity at risk.

Thus, millions of titles.

If you’re lucky enough and good enough to get picked up by a major publishing house, you’ll have to negotiate an advance. You’ve got to choice, now. If you ask for too much, they’ll back out of the deal.

If you ask for too little, though, They Might handsome it a no-risk freebie. Put it out, see how . you do You have to get just enough of an advance que They have a chance of earning it back – or the second book for you – And Also enough que the house feels They have something on the line. That’s what makes Them invest in marketing and promotion.

As a self-publisher, you’re on your own for all that. Most of the marketing legwork was going to be yours anyway, but now all of the is marketing.

And that’s tough.

Most of us do not write because we’ve got it easy. We can not, by and large, afford to invest a couple of thousand bucks into a book That Is going to earn a couple of hundred.

So we do anything at all to get visibility. Often que results in our getting scammed.

The most tragic result, maybe, is our participation in our own devaluation in the e-book market.

There’s a lot of pressure to release your books for free or for 99 cents. Often, writers will issue the first book in a series for price this and the next books for a little more. But really a tiny percentage of Those 32 million books is sold for the real price. Your George Martins and your Stephen Kings can get retail. The rest of us start at deep discount and . move down to free

Here’s the thing:. all this might be totally counter-productive

Let’s say we set-up shop at the bake sale.

Over here, we have cookies for 50 cents.

Over here, we have cookies for $ 2.

Which is the better cookie? When we do Experimentally this, people overwhelmingly Respond que the $ 2 cookie is better -. even though They are the same cookies In other words, you get what you pay for You know it’s true and you make it true.

Even trained wine experts rate wine better if it’s in a pricier bottle.

So by issuing All These books, we devalue Them and us. A 99-cent book is only worth 99 cents .

Worse, we devalue books . Because we get used to reading books for free or for so cheap as to make the difference, we start to think all books are without much value. Just weekend entertainments, throw-aways.

My library is full of books. I treasure Them, some of Them I treasure like Smeagol treasures his magic ring. They have weight, gravity. And value.

With my new book, For Love of Their Children , I have this dilemma: Whether to release the book only between covers, or also as a file readable by Kindles or Nooks. Now I worked a long time, invested a great deal into this book.

And I’m struggling to make it known That It exists Among Those millions of other titles .

But am I struggling enough to offer it for next to nothing?

For aNewDomain, I’m Jason Dias.

Image one: AuthorEarnings.com, All Rights Reserved ; two image of George RR Martin on the set of HBO’s “Game of Thrones”: USAToday.com, All Rights Reserved : image three: SPCollege.libguides.com; All Rights Reserved .

Cover image of a home library: Pinterest.com/explore/home-libraries

.