Are Amazon’s Indie Authors Earning What They Deserve?
By: Craig | Posted on September 30, 2016
Ever lowering payouts, a lack of transparency, and a history of making mistakes are leading many authors to wonder just how much longer they can continue to write for the book giant. Is it time for Amazon to allow external auditors to look into its records? Let’s look at how things got to where they are now, what some of the problems are, and then what, if anything, should be done about it. Kindle Unlimited and Exclusivity The idea of an all you can read subscription service wasn’t invented by Amazon (Oyster and Scribd did it first), but one could argue it perfected the model – at least from a retailer’s perspective. Launched in 2014, Amazon’s $10 a month Kindle Unlimited (KU) subscription service introduced the idea of exclusivity to its authors. Independent authors that wanted to participate had to pay the heavy price of pulling their novels from all… Read More >
What Makes Me Fall in Love with a Hero?
By: Samantha Westlake | Posted on September 1, 2016
Sometimes, when I pick up a romance novel by a new and unknown author, I know right away that I’ll love these characters. I can sense that I’d better clear my schedule, just so I can sit and read. Some heroes mesmerize me, so well-crafted that after just a few pages, I feel like I truly understand them, like they could step off of the page and sweep me into their arms. On the other hand, some romance books make me want to throw my Kindle across the room. If I had a girls’ brunch with the heroine of these tales, I’d just want to grab her by the shoulders, shake her to and fro, and shout, “What is wrong with you? He’s perfect! Why are you struggling with such an easy decision!?” What makes some heroes feel perfectly human, while others just seem uncannily perfect? Why do some characters… Read More >
