Through Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon has provided the means for anyone to publish their writing free of charge. With Amazon’s wide range of Kindle readers, plus the facility to upload a Kindle app to other devices, that published work can now be read by very large numbers of people.
Every month thousands of writers are publishing their own work, all hoping to catch the eye of those thousands of potential readers. When we throw into the pot all of the books being made available in ebook format by mainstream publishers, the choice for readers becomes overwhelming.
I don’t know who is the more bewildered, the writers/publishers trying to work out how to market their ebooks or the readers trying to work out which to buy. I say ‘buy’, but that may well be the wrong word as there are huge numbers of ebooks available as free downloads. The freebies include out-of-copyright old classics, but also modern books where the free offer is being used as a marketing tool.
Although self-publishers (usually referred to as indies) often feel that their only chance of getting their book noticed is to make it free for a while, mainstream publishers are increasingly making books from an author’s backlist free in order to introduce new readers to that author’s work.
Whether this tactic works from the author’s point of view is debatable. Today I saw a posting on a forum from someone seeking help in organising her book collection on her Kindle Fire HD, a device that was only launched in the UK very recently. She has 900 books in her Kindle collection, most of them free. Surely her rate of downloading freebies exceeds the rate at which she could be reading them. Who knows what proportion of those freebies will eventually be read? It’s very nice for the reader, of course, but will authors really benefit?
So, among the flood of ebooks onto the market, how does one find a book worth reading?
I suppose that price may be a starting point. Book forums are full of people complaining about mainstream publishers charging as much for ebooks as for the print edition, but one doesn’t have to plunge into the tidal wave of freebies to find a bargain.
Amazon insists that for any ebook published under its agency agreement, if it isn’t free, then the minimum charge must be 77p, but where Amazon sets the price it maintains a list of books issued by mainstream publishers for which it charges only 20p. It’s well worth checking out this list. ‘Ash’, the latest novel by James Herbert was on the list for several weeks. ‘The Lewis Man’ by Peter May, ‘Winter in Madrid’ by C. J. Sansom and ‘Expats’ by Chris Lavone are all on the current list.
After that I rely heavily on recommendations and reviews on various forums. What can’t be trusted is the flurry of reviews that greets the publication of many indie ebooks, all awarding 5*, raving about the book and clearly from friends/well-wishers. The UK Kindle Users Forum keeps me supplied specifically with Kindle recommendations. Goodreads has thousands of members who chat enthusiastically about books available in all formats, and I enjoy visiting sites like BookBrunch to keep me up to date with the book scene.
Through the Kindle Users Forum I’ve been introduced to some excellent work by authors that I wouldn’t otherwise have found:
Stuart Ayris – I recommend you take a look at his thought-provoking, literary fiction;
Shayne Parkinson writes family sagas set in New Zealand;
Roger Knowles – six books in Kindle format, all worth a look;
A E Richards’ first novel, ‘Blackened Cottage’ is an excellent gothic horror;
Steve Robinson writes crime stories with a genealogical theme;
Ken Magee’s two books tell an interesting tale – and tell it with a lot of humour;
and finally, in the last few days I’ve read ‘Moongolly’ by Jennifer Hanning – one of the most original books I’ve ever found.
I’ve posted reviews on Amazon, so I won’t repeat myself here, I’ll just say that among the torrent of self-published books there are gems to be found.
Happy reading!
