Next week I will be going to SanFran as a guest of Amazon.com. Just saying this sounds a little weird as a year ago just being able to have a email contact with the book giant was super cool! Now I get to go speak with them as well as an amazing author like Bella Andre!
I will be talking about eBooks, marketing, and social media. I am amazed to see the relevance of this conference. From speakers like Mark Coker of Smashwords to the publisher of Publishers Weekly, and Google.
What does all this mean?
It means that the new publishing world is starting with the small presses like StoneHouse Ink and working up. In time the big boyz will be hooked in and time will tell what will come out the other side. But going to other conferences where there was not a single class on eBooks to this is a breath of fresh air.
Oh, I almost forgot, the CEO of Goodreads is even going to be there! how cool is that!
Some things I would like to see or at least talk about with Amazon are as follows:
1. Will we Indies ever get the same benefits as the Big 6? Such as Free sales, not just in Select, pre-order listings for eBooks, cool author pages and book listings with video and all the same things the Big 6 now have.
2. More human interaction. A 24 hour notice on problems without the "I will delete your account" threats. I know, your legal team is the one who writes all that junk, but come on!
3. Better wording on legal contracts and less control in the Select program. i.e. Make it okay to give away free eBooks on a blog or site, be open to blog tours and giveaways so we can market and push them to you etc...
4. Better control on Createspace. Link books faster, better cover color, or use the Kindle image, maybe even a upload front cover area for the product page. More options for covers and things like that.
5. Can we have better reports? A per day option?
6. Better review control. Must read the book, some reviews the person even says that they did not finish. Take off reviews from people that are just there to make trouble, maybe a higher level reviewer has more power so their review makes your stars jump more...not sure, just not so lax.
7. More advertizing options.
This is just a few things that have been on my mind, but I am sure more will come up. If you have anything you might want to say, leave a comment and I will see what I can do.
If you are in the area, come on out to the conference, it would be great to meet you!
Author Aaron Patterson: Blog: The Worst Book Ever.
OMG!! I am soo sad that I can't go! I was SERIOUSLY considering it too! Boo! I'm sure it will be AMAZING! And I agree with all your points listed above.
ReplyDeletedefinitely post and let us know EVERYTHING that is talked about there!
ReplyDeleteSooo jealous!
Have a great trip, Aaron. You have a good shopping list of topics to be discussed. Let us know what you find out.
ReplyDeleteThis is great, and I'm glad you're going to bring up those points, especially 1, 2, and 7.
ReplyDeleteWould you mind bringing up something else as well? The CS hardcover option is pretty cool, but it sucks that:
1. They won't treat it like paperbacks and sell it print-on-demand on Amazon. We have to sell it on our own, and the set up process is a big hassle.
2. Once we have the hardcover option set up, we have to have a $40 a month Amazon account to list it on Amazon. It's insane that a product with an Amazon ISBN would not come up automatically on Amazon when someone punches in that number to sell it! This is more frustrating than the prior point in my opinion. If it's a CS product, then this shouldn't be as big a hassle as it is.
Sounds absolutely amazing. It boggles my mind how much the world of publishing has changed. Unless someone from that conference is willing to come to my house and format my book to Kindle for me, I got nothing to add to your list of topics. Have a terrific time.
ReplyDeleteThanks for finding me on Twitter, Aaron.
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We're having an awesome discussion about blogging on my writer's blog at http://doreenpendgracs.com/. Would love for you to join us.
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