Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The Next Step in the Indie Revolution

That squee you hear today is book bloggers, authors, SOME publishers, and tech geeks, as well as discerning ebook readers, waking to the news that Amazon has really upped the stakes in the indie book game.

That sigh you hear today is a lot of bookstore owners and those who work in publishing-support industries wondering what they will be doing for a job in three years.

Amazon has announced a Kinde for Web program that allows more interactivity for book browsers, but the critical component is the addition of affiliate sales for ebook purchases. What this means is anyone with a blog can run an e-bookstore. Sure, Amazon already has affiliate stores for paper books and all manner of products, but e-books are uniquely appropriate for one-click purchasing because you get the product instantly. Ebooks were made for impulse sales in a way that only Internet sex or gambling could rival...and it's legal in most states (sales tax laws vary). Want to run your own bookstore and make money off all those wonderful Scott Nicholson books? http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?docId=1000579091

Let me know if you want to feature me and I will give you bonus content! This development may seem a small ripple but it contributes to the growing wave by taking away yet another advantage of corporate publishing--the stranglehold on deciding what books are deemed "worthy" of being read. Now, more than ever, readers can easily decide for themselves.

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1 comment:

author Christa Polkinhorn said...

Yeah, that would be great, but I don't see the "embed" buttons next to any of the books yet, where you can copy the code and paste it on your website or blog. Perhaps it's not live yet?
Christa, confused (wouldn't be the first time)