'Net Features : kindle

KDP Select Pays Out Big for Top Self-Published Authors

Michael Garrity — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:35:00 GMT

Aspiring self-published authors, it may just be your time to shine.

Earlier today, Amazon released a statement saying that its lending library program for self-published authors, KDP Select, is a big moneymaker, at least for the best selling authors in the program.

KDP Select works by encouraging authors and publishers to put their work in the Kindle Store exclusively for 90 days, and for five of those 90 days their work will be able to be borrowed for free. Participating in this program means the author is eligible to take part in a $6 million annual royalty fund, so they'll be paid dividents based on each author's share of total borrows during the month. However, authors only get money if one of their books is borrowed.

According to the statement, using the program helped to boost sales, as well, and the top 10 authors in the program saw a significant increase in royalties (about 30 percent) received from sales of their books during the period; when factoring in their earnings from the loan fund, the top 10 earned a whopping 449 percent more on average in December than they did in November.

Amazon says that there are currently over 75,000 books in the Kindle Lending Library, and that customers borrowed books at least 295,000 times in December. Authors earned $1.70 (out of $500,000 allotted for the month) for each borrow, and the top 10 averaged $7000 for the month.

Top 10 author Carolyn McCray did pretty well, to say the least, making $8250 from the lending program alone.

"To say the trade-off of exclusivity on Amazon for the Kindle Owners' Lending Library has been a profitable one would be a gross understandment," she says.

So, it looks like all you have to do is crack the top 10 and you're set!

Better Looking Digital Pubs with Amazon KF8 Format

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:55:00 GMT

The digital world of ebooks is about to get a lot more attractive. Amazon just announced that several new features, including HTML5 support, will be arriving in Kindle Format 8 (KF8) – the upcoming file format that will replace Mobi 7. Folks, gone are the days of the black and white ebook.

KF8, which will roll out to Amazon’s latest generation e-readers and reading apps in the next few months, provides publishers the ability to develop digital publications that require rich formatting and design functionality. The file format will be an ideal fit for children’s books, comics and graphic novels, cookbooks and even technical and engineering books.

The KF8 format adds around 150 new formatting capabilities including fixed layouts, nested tables, callouts, sidebars, Scalable Vector Graphics (SCG) and much more. A list of the most important enhancements in KF8 can be found here.

Amazon’s Kindle Publisher Tools (including KindleGen 2 and Kindle previewer 2) do not currently support KF8, but Amazon expects availability soon. Amazon noted that all currently supported content will continue to work – e.g. .mobi files. Information on how to update existing titles to take advantage of KF8 capabilities will be available in the upcoming update of the Kindle Publishing Guidelines.

Local Deals are Coming to Kindle

Allison Howen — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 07:00:00 GMT

Amazon has announced that local deals will soon be coming to Kindles.

Customers of the Kindle and Kindle 3G with Special Offers will start receiving special offers from AmazonLocal on their Kindle’s screensavers. AmazonLocal with Special Offers is launching in New York City and will be expanding to all AmazonLocal cities within the year.

The AmazonLocal deals will be viewable and purchasable directly from the Kindle without re-entering any payment information. After purchasing a deal, a voucher will arrive on the Kindle’s home screen.

Purchases are redeemed by printing out a copy of the voucher or showing the voucher on the Kindle to the local merchant.

The deals will start to arrive on the Kindle as soon as a software update for the latest generation arrives in the next few weeks.

Amazon has more than 144 million active customers, and emails customers in a local business’s area for businesses that promote deals through AmazonLocal.

This could be beneficial for local businesses since according to ComScore, Amazon customers spend 70 percent more money online than the average Internet user. Businesses also don’t pay for promotions through AmazonLocal, instead a business only pays a referral fee for customers that they acquire through the deal.

E-Books Outselling All Print Books on Amazon

Linc Wonham — Thu, 19 May 2011 18:00:00 GMT

Sales of Kindle books on Amazon have overtaken those of both print and hardcover formats combined, according to the online retailer.

Amazon began selling hardcover and paperback books in July 1995. Twelve years later in November 2007, the company introduced the revolutionary Kindle and began selling Kindle books. By July 2010, Kindle book sales had surpassed hardcover book sales and, six months later, Kindle books overtook paperback books to become the most popular format on Amazon.com.

Today, less than four years after introducing Kindle books, Amazon.com customers are now purchasing more Kindle books than all printed book formats combined.

“Customers are now choosing Kindle books more often than print books,” says Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. “We had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined it would happen this quickly – we’ve been selling print books for 15 years and Kindle books for less than four years.”

Recent milestones for the Kindle – and the digital book industry as a whole – include the following:

• Since April 1, for every 100 print books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 105 Kindle books. This includes sales of hardcover and paperback books by Amazon where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.

• So far in 2011, the tremendous growth of Kindle book sales, combined with the continued growth in Amazon’s print book sales, have resulted in the fastest year-over-year growth rate for Amazon’s U.S. books business, in both units and dollars, in over 10 years. This includes books in all formats, print and digital. Free books are excluded in the calculation of growth rates.

• In the five weeks since its introduction, Kindle with Special Offers for only $114 is already the bestselling member of the Kindle family in the U.S.

• Amazon sold more than three times as many Kindle books so far in 2011 as it did during the same period in 2010.

• Less than one year after introducing the UK Kindle Store, Amazon.co.uk is now selling more Kindle books than hardcover books, even as hardcover sales continue to grow. Since April 1, Amazon.co.uk customers are purchasing Kindle books over hardcover books at a rate of more than 2 to 1.

As eBook Sales Grow, So Do Online Opportunities

Linc Wonham — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 21:00:00 GMT

We’ve discussed the potentially big business of eBooks here in the past, and it’s happening even faster than expected.

Not only have eBook sales tripled in the past year, but the total February sales of digitally formatted books were higher than all of their traditionally paper-formatted counterparts, according to the Association of American Publishers. For the month, and for the first time in history, e-book sales outpaced those of hardcover books, trade paperbacks and mass-market paperbacks.

That is no small feat. And for those traditionalists afraid of what the rise of eBooks would do for the publishing industry, there’s another equally extraordinary effect occurring.

“Trade publishing houses cite eBooks as generating fresh consumer interest in – and new revenue streams for – backlist titles,” the AAP reported.

Backlist titles are books that have been in print for more than a year, and many publishers are reporting that eBook enthusiasts often buy an author’s full backlist after digitally consuming a new release.

This is uplifting news for authors, publishers and the book publishing industry as a whole, as well as for opportunistic online entrepreneurs.

For many, the potential within the space has been obvious for several years. But the fact that a once reluctant industry is now widely accepting the medium as a savior rather than a threat greatly enhances the possibilities.

Kindle Gets a Needed Software Upgrade

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 18:39:00 GMT

Amazon announced an early preview of a free software update for its popular Kindle reading device. If you’re publishing content specifically for the reader, the updates will be welcome.

Public Notes will let Kindle users choose to make their book notes and highlights available for others to see. If you’re publishing content on the Kindle, Public Notes are most definitely something to start monitoring.

Book Rating is another new and very important feature which comes with the software upgrade. When users reach the end of the book, they will now be able to rate the book, share a message about the book with their social network, and even receive personalized recommendations on what to read next.

Latest generation Kindle and Kindle 3G customers wanting to try an Early Preview of the new features can manually download the software update here. All latest generation Kindle and Kindle 3G customers will receive the software update automatically via Wi-Fi once it becomes available.

E-books Becoming Big Business

Mike Phillips — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 14:30:00 GMT

Research firm Yankee Group estimates that the U.S. e-book market will reach $2.7 billion in sales in 2013, up from just $313 million in 2009. That's good for a growth rate of 83 percent, above even paid mobile apps, at 72 percent.

Already, Amazon claims that Kindle e-books now outsell paperback books on Amazon.com. This is great news for authors but they are not the only ones who can benefit. One of the advantages of e-books is the efficiency in which they can be published. Websites such as LuLu.com and CreateSpace.com (Amazon) make it quite easy to publish an e-book across multiple retailer sites on any topic. For business owners, this presents an opportunity to offer yet another added value to their customers and even add revenue along the way.

Expertise in any industry can be used to create an e-book in short order, then sell that material or use it as a promotional or cross-sell incentive. Amazon recently announced Kindle Singles - e-books in the range of 5,000-30,000 words. This could mean publishing white papers, how-to's or even re-packaging a series of blog posts around a particular topic as an e-book. Kindle Singles are currently selling anywhere from $0.99-$2.99, in most cases. Amazon typically takes 30 percent of each sale.

One factor attributing to the growth of the e-book market is dropping prices - estimated to fall to an average of $7 in 2013, from an average of $9 in 2009, according to Yankee Group. But e-book pricing is a situation in flux. Other estimates claim that e-book prices will actually increase in the months and years ahead. And, just this week, the U.K. Office of Fair Trading announced that they are investigating pricing arrangements between book publishers and digital retailers - the so-called "agency pricing" model already under scrutiny in the U.S. In short, agency pricing sees the publisher command a set price for each title, regardless of the vendor selling the e-book. So, consumers are theoretically left without the ability to seek competitive prices. This would appear to violate laws regulating competition.

The e-book market is growing, and quickly. The market is also in its infancy, so variations are to be expected. Although pricing is still murky, at best, there is no doubt that opportunities are abundant.

E-readers are Rewriting Retailers’ Bestseller Lists

Administrator — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 02:03:00 GMT

While many in the traditional publishing industry couldn’t wait to close the books on 2010, the makers of the leading e-book readers were trumpeting their record-setting year-end sales of the devices.

Earlier this week, Amazon announced that its third-generation Kindle is now the best-selling item in the company’s history after recently overtaking the "Deathly Hallows" seventh book in the Harry Potter series. Not to be outdone, Barnes and Noble announced on Thursday that its e-reader, the Nook, now qualifies as B&N’s all-time bestseller.

The Nook Color, introduced in October, was Barnes and Noble’s leading holiday seller, the company said. The statement released also included the news that Barnes and Noble now sells more e-books than traditional books through its online bookstore. On Christmas Day, the company reported, customers bought or downloaded close to one million e-books during the 24-hour span.

Meanwhile, Amazon claims that more people turned on their new Kindles, downloaded more Kindle apps and bought more Kindle e-books on Christmas Day than any other day in the history of the device. Simply put, the e-book market is white-hot as we head into the New Year.

Content Belongs on the Kindle

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:23:00 GMT

Website Magazine has been busy putting the finishing touches on its iPad app (request advance notification of the official release here), but don’t think for a moment that we haven’t thought about placing content on other tablet and reading devices as well.

That choice was confirmed as a good one this morning when we discovered that the new generation Kindle is the best selling product on Amazon now, and more of the devices were sold in the first four week after launch than any other Kindle launch.

“Kindle is the best-selling product on Amazon.com for two years running and our new generation Kindles are continuing that momentum,” said Steven Kessel, senior vice president, Amazon Kindle. “Readers are excited about all that the new Kindle has to offer—50 percent better contrast, 20 percent faster page turns, 15 percent lighter, up to one month of battery life—and a new price of only $139.”

If you are a content publisher should you put your content on the Kindle? The many nice features of the Kindle aside (better screen contrast than previous versions, lighter weight, faster page turns, one-month of battery life, double the storage, and built in wi-fi) are overshadowed the accessibility in price. The new Kindle retails at $139 (those with 3G retail at $189) which should make it a medium of note for content publishers.

Amazon Offers 70-percent Royalties on Kindle e-Books

Linc Wonham — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:37:00 GMT

Today Amazon is officially rolling out its 70-percent royalty option for authors and publishers who use the Kindle Digital Text Platform (DTP), a potentially more lucrative avenue for self-publishers that the company first announced back in January. Authors and publishers who choose the new option will receive 70 percent of the list price net delivery costs ($.15 per MB), which means that they would make $6.25 on a Kindle book sold for $8.99 as opposed to making $3.15 with the DTP standard royalty option.

The 70-percent royalty option is in addition to and will not replace the existing DTP standard royalty option. The new option applies to books sold from the Kindle Store for Kindle, Kindle DX, or one of the Kindle apps for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, PC, Mac and Android phones, and books must be sold to U.S. customers and satisfy the following requirements to qualify:

•    Listed between $2.99 and $9.99 (and at least 20 percent below the physical book’s lowest list price)
•    Available in all geographies for which the author or publisher has rights
•    Included in a broad set of features in the Kindle Store, such as text-to-speech (more features to be included)
•    Offered at or below price parity with competition, including physical book prices

In addition to the higher royalty option, Amazon also announced improvements in the Kindle DTP such as a more intuitive Bookshelf feature and a simplified two-step process for publishing. The Kindle Digital Text Platform is a fast and easy self-publishing tool that lets anyone upload and format their books for sale in the Kindle Store.

Amazon Now Offers 70% Royalty on Kindle Content

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:22:00 GMT

Amazon announced this week the details of a new program that will enable authors and publishers using the Kindle Digital Text Platform (DTP) to earn a 70% royalty option, less delivery costs. The program will become available on June 30, 2010.

Delivery costs are based on file size and Amazon indicated that pricing will be $0.15/MB. At today's median DTP file size of 368KB, delivery costs would be less than $0.06 per unit sold. On an $8.99 book an author would make $3.15 with the standard option, and $6.25 with the new 70 percent option. Amazon is keeping the standard option (that's going to be important to remember).

To qualify (yes, you read that right), books sold on the DTP must have a list of between $2.99 and $9.99, must be at least 20 percent below the lowest physical list price for the physical book, and the title must be made available for sale in all geographic regions which the author or publisher has rights. Most interesting though is that under this royalty option, Amazon is requiring that books be offered "at or below price parity with competition" - and that includes physical book prices. Fortunately, Amazon will provide tools to automate that process and the 70 percent royalty will be calculated off the sales price.

"Today, authors often receive royalties in the range of 7 to 15 percent of the list price that publishers set for their physical books, or 25 percent of the net that publishers receive from retailers for their digital books," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content. "We're excited that the new 70 percent royalty option for the Kindle Digital Text Platform will help us pay authors higher royalties when readers choose their books."

One of the reasons that we've hesitated to make Website Magazine available for Kindle is the totally unfair revenue share Amazon was offering. For you Kindle readers, expect Website Magazine very soon.