Shortly after my last blog post all four of our websites were the victims of a hacker attack on HostPapa’s web server. Anyone visiting the sites received a blast of anti-Israel propaganda – in Turkish! With hindsight it wasn’t sensible to have all the sites on the same server, but it was the easiest option.
If nothing else, it has had the effect of making us sit back and reconsider what we are trying to achieve. I’ll be announcing some major changes to the Moorhen Publishing operation in the next couple of weeks together with a change of direction for me.
The big publishing news to break while we were under attack is Amazon’s continuing squeeze on free books.
While Amazon was trying to build its Kindle range of ebook readers into a dominant market position it was happy to promote the idea of Kindle owners having access to free books. Initially, the only ebooks available without charge were out-of-copyright classics digitised by programmes like Project Gutenberg.
Amazon then revolutionised publishing when it launched its Kindle Direct Publishing service that enables anyone to publish their work without cost. For the first time any writer could make their work available worldwide to everyone with a Kindle ereader, without having to negotiate the barriers of a conventional publisher. There have always been small independent publishers bringing print copies to the market (I’m one), but now, without the costs of printing and physical distribution to hold them back, there was a huge surge in individual authors publishing their own ebooks.
Other publishing platforms, like Smashwords, have entered the market enabling authors to make their ebooks available in formats that can be read on the other leading ereaders.
This wave of independent author-publishers (generally known as ‘indies’) were all struggling to find ways to make their own books stand out in the vast number of new ebooks appearing on a daily basis. Amazon introduced its Select programme. Authors registering a book in the programme, 90 days at a time, can make it available to readers via Amazon’s lending service and, more significantly, can offer the book free of charge for up to 5 days in every 90. The price authors pay is that during the 90 days the ebook cannot be offered for sale anywhere but via Amazon.
Authors latched on to the free offer as a way of attracting publicity and raising a book’s profile. Websites sprang up to provide an information service to readers, supplying lists of free books. Amazon joined in the fun by creating tables of top ‘selling’ free books.
If you stop and think about that for a moment you may wonder what was in it for the websites – how could they make money plugging free books? The answer lies in yet another Amazon initiative. Any business with a website can sign up to be an Amazon Affiliate, which means that if anyone viewing a website clicks on a link that takes them to Amazon they will be paid a small commission based on any purchases made from Amazon during that visit. It doesn’t have to be the purchase of a particular item that may have been the cause of the link. So, a website providing links to free books can earn a commission on any item bought during that visit.
However, it seems that all is not well. First, Amazon started tinkering with its algorithms to reduce the influence of free books on its download tables. Then it changed the layout on its site to make the top 100 free download table harder to find (so reducing its promotion value). Now, with only a few days notice, and with no consultation, Amazon has changed the terms of its affiliates contracts. With effect from the 1st March any affiliate website which in a month produces more than 20,000 free downloads, and where more than 80% of the total downloads are free, will not receive commission payments.
Amidst all the complaints from the websites concerned have come some very interesting revelations showing the size of the free book market that Amazon has been carrying. The owner of Free Kindle Books & Tips has revealed that his site alone has been responsible for 50,000 free downloads per day. A figure being mentioned on book blogs is that there are 125 free downloads for every sold book.
It’s not only Amazon who has had enough. Authors are thinking that they have had enough of giving away their work. They are getting the impression that there are many Kindle owners who never buy a book. It does no one any good for ereaders to be filled with free books that remain unread.
With a bit of luck this is the beginning of a much healthier marketplace.