Opinion: Why eBook Sales Have Flattened – Discover-ability
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Pictured Left :
One Night in the Hill Country – a thriller
Currently available on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited
5 star review :
“Felipe Adan Lerma has written a fast paced book that will keep you engrossed and entertained.
My only issue was that at the end, I wanted more!
Well, I guess it’s a good thing he has more books out there for my reading enjoyment.
I love a book that allows the author to take us on a journey, and Felipe does just that.
I have to admit that I devoured this book in one sitting. I couldn’t put it down. It was unique, different, and thought provoking.
If you want a quick read, here’s a great book for you.
I’m going to keep reading this author, since he has so much to share in his tales.”
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“the intent of this blog is to incrementally build a body of thought that works toward integrating various topics, yoga, fitness, and the arts – it’s a process…”
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Opinion:
Why eBook Sales Have Flattened – Discover-ability
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January 02, 2015
Is the Problem a Glut of eBooks?
My simple opinion is no.
Neither because of subscription services (the current favorite target being Kindle Unlimited) nor because of traditional publishing houses finally putting more and more of the their backlist titles in digital format nor because big publisher have lost control of who can publish and publishing’s become so much easier now.
Below are three links to current articles debating and discussing these points, plus some valuable comments discussing same. In the third below, at The Digital Reader, I posted my own comment addressing some of these concerns in detail.
http://www.idealog.com/blog/end-of-a-year-and-perhaps-the-end-of-a-stage-of-the-ebook-transition/
http://the-digital-reader.com/2014/12/31/kindle-unlimited-content-glut-new-ebook-market/
Bottomline is, I think the flattening of ebook sales, where previously high flying or mid-flying digital authors are suffering the same fate mid-list and lower writers working in print via traditional publishers, ie, a loss of sales, is due to the number one reason I looked forward to the advent of Scribd and Oyster earlier last year:
First Impression re Scribd & Oyster – I Like It! And Why… – 010714
First Impression of My First 15 (of 56) Titles on Scribd – Discoverability – 030314
Ease of discover-ability.
The same I’ve enjoyed via Netflix for nearly a decade.
The ability to enjoy sampling work from previously unknown talent.
And when one can discover quality writing in unassuming places, over and over, equal to or near equal to more expensive or more well known writers, without incurring the huge costs and risks of buying and sampling unknown work, one is – I believe – set free to find work that actually appeals to oneself.
The sense of of discovery can be extremely satisfying.
Examples from my Reading :
The follow are two (of many) examples I’ve enjoyed recently :
Kylie and Her Magical Slippers – by Sherri DeWeese
Thrills and Chills (An Anthology of Poetry Book 5) – by Tom Benson
I list these among, from a list that includes romance and fantasy and non-fiction spiritual books, because these are usually harder for me to find. I hope you give them a look also. And no I don’t get any affiliate fees via the links. 🙂
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My comment on The Digital Reader, “Kindle Unlimited, the Content Glut, and the New eBook Market”
http://the-digital-reader.com/2014/12/31/kindle-unlimited-content-glut-new-ebook-market/
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Readers – Writers : Reviews
As always, if you are a reader and have read a book of mine, honest reviews are an indie author’s best friend. 🙂
And if you’re a writer, let me know if you’d like to trade sorta-equal length reads for honest reviews!
Thanks so much, all the best, always,
Adan
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namaste´- con dios – god be with you
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*** INTEGRATING YOGA FITNESS AND THE ARTS
© Felipe Adan Lerma - All Rights Reserved - Blogging at WordPress Since 2011 :) 
I found lots of the reasons stated already that help explain the flattening of sales for (mostly) previously better selling authors (I just had the best month in years in terms of revenue, 95% of it through KU).
I do think there’s a huge increase in title availability. Merely through market forces, as Mr. O’Neil points out.
But, as eBook also points out, “that glut did not suddenly materialise after five years, just at the moment KU launched. It’s been building slowly and steadily, no question, and will continue to do so, and is having a slow but steady impact across the board.” And he adds that trad pubs are also digitizing huge numbers of back list, adding even more selection.
And as Daniel points, to most readers, not “all books are the same and that there is only one audience.”
I don’t have “the” answer for a general flattening of sales.
But I would add two more, I believe, crucial elements.
One, is libraries. They are digitizing rapidly, with everything possible available. Yes, there can be long waiting times for a title. But there’s a huge other selection ready and waiting, and I know many folk who use libraries exclusively that continually find new work to read while waiting for a favored title.
Which leads to what I think is the main reason there’s a flattening of sales. Discoverability.
Finding new work of similar interest, or new different work to try out, is the number one reason I gave early last year for being glad Scribd and Oyster were coming on line.
Kindle Unlimited, I believe, just accelerated that.
And I don’t think it matters where bots and algorithms take a reader, a person can simply search and sample categories of interest. Discovering new writers, trying them out.
Plus, there’s a HUGE number of groups springing up on FB and other ways that cater to showing readers, and writers, new work by new authors.
There is, after all, no sales happening in KU. There’s a transfer of sales to other writers.
Like what happened when ebooks came into existence via Amazon and took sales away from print. New unheard of writers became known. Some of those, now, are unfortunately experiencing the same thing print mid list writers saw when ebook sales exploded.
I anticipate, when Apple finally works BookLamp into their system, we’ll begin to see an even more advanced discovery of writers by readers previously unknown. Bots or no bots.
And I’ve no doubt Amazon is acutely aware of this, and – maybe – the current KU is an experiment is seeing how they will full respond to that.
Meanwhile
happy new year all. We need it!