Amazon says only 40 successful self-published authors? I don’t think so
One of the oddest pieces of misreading to come my way arrived earlier with the headline "Only 40 Self-Published Authors are a Success, says Amazon." This was based on a New...
Is Amazon Trying to Kill Interactive E-Books?
My colleague Chris was asking just a few days ago why people are not 'innovating' in e-books these days. Well, here's why: Amazon doesn't want us to. They seem to be...
The Nostalgia Critic asks, ‘Where’s the Fair Use?’ #wtfu
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI]
The notion of “fair use” is a long-enshrined concept in copyright—effectively an “exception” to copyright law, it allows the use of portions of (or in some cases the entirety of)...
Amazon keeps sticking its thumb in the Kindle Unlimited fraud dike
Here comes the Tragedy of the Commons again.
The Observer has a report on an ongoing Kindle Unlimited scam that we’ve touched upon briefly when Amazon started pulling e-books with tables of...
Amazon 1-star review farming on Craigslist: How safe is your book?
Here's a particularly nasty abuse of the Amazon review system that brilliant science fiction and thriller writer and all-round superior human being Nick Mamatas tipped me off to. Some nice person...
Amazon pulls e-books over table of contents placement
One of the problems Amazon has as a major self-publishing market is that, every so often, it’s prone to making odd decisions. Sometimes those decisions are at least understandable in a...
Why e-books should always be cheaper than paper books
A blogger named Max Florschutz ponders "the idea that customers aren’t holding an e-book to be of similar value" and wondering why that was. Chris Meadows ably summarizes a few of Mr. Florshutz's...
David Gaughran Twitter rant fingers Big Publishing-backed book fair scams
Self-publishing savant and scourge of seamy publishing practices David Gaughran has launched a broadside on Twitter against publisher and book fair support of vanity press and promotional scams targeting naive self-publishing...
The Martian: An accidental self-publishing success story
A new science fiction movie by a well-known director is on the horizon. Matt Damon plays an astronaut, stranded alone on a planet inimical to human life. It also features Jessica...
Make it yourself: Amazon and the punk ethos of self publishing
Many years ago, I was part of a science fiction club cum writing circle. Everyone was young, barely out of adolescence, and with the cockiness typical of the age, we all...