Apparently at some point recently, somebody over at Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) gave it some thought and found themselves wondering why so many of their Bestsellers(63/100 as of March 12th) were never actually “sold”, as such. The plan is to eliminate the free book presence from the Kindle Bestseller list. The date on this is still up in the air as far as we know, but the apparent aim is to have two lists: one for sold books and one for free ones.
To publishers, this seems like a no-brainer. It highlights what books people are spending their money on and gives readers a chance to vote with their wallet on whether or not a book does well. Others, on the other hand, may be hit a bit hard by this move. It has become somewhat common for new or self-publishing authors to give away a free book or portion of a book in order to direct attention to their further works.
We’ll have to wait and see how this is handled, but I for one am hoping to be able to access both lists on my Kindle device rather than having to shop the website. I find it interesting to know what new finds people have made lately when I’m looking for something new to pass the time with.
Hi As a small press publisher who has successfully used Kindle free-book promotions to make wads of money for my house (Bell Bridge Books) my authors (including Emmy-winning newsman Mark Nykanen and Amazon (boy howdy, Amazon is making money off this program, I have the proof…) I’d like to correct some misconceptions. The free books program is used by the major publishers, too. Major books, major authors. Are the big pubs mainly annoyed that their free books don’t do as well as the free books from small presses? My authors’ books have kicked butt against all comers; they stay high on the lists for weeks after going off sale. What the list really says is that readers’ tastes are far different than what the big publishers sell. That, shorn of the promotional hype, the books of major publishing houses don’t attract readers as well as those of much smaller presses. I’m disappointed that Amazon has caved on this issue. I don’t understand why they’re penalizing publishers like myself, who have made them beaucoup bucks with the free Kindle books promotions.
What’s to stop the publishers from filling the “sold” list with $0.01 titles? Are they going to set some arbitrary minimum price? Will this really accomplish anything?
I understand the small publishers desire, but overall it would better organize the lists.