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.
