Newpub Neopatronage

Newpub: Neopatroange

The moment you try searching Amazon for a book you want to read, it becomes clear that something has gone quite wrong. Maybe it's vacant-eyed bugmen obsessed with fixing what's not broken throwing wrenches in the works. Perhaps it's cynical pens-for-hire hijacking the algorithm with payola. Or maybe it's outright…
September 28, 20234 Comments
patrons

Neopatronage Revisited

In light of Amazon's latest shenanigans, this time involving Dragon Award-winning mega best seller Nick Cole, author Benjamin Cheah revisits my concept of neopatronage. During the Renaissance, the wealthy supported up-and-coming artists through a patronage system. The artist was able to earn a living and create masterworks. The wealthy in…
January 19, 20229 Comments
GalaxysEnd

Galaxy’s End?

A bombshell dropped over the weekend that has the potential to shake indie publishing to its core. The troubling development involves mega best selling newpub author, and fellow Dragon Award winner, Nick Cole. This ongoing story broke on Sunday night when readers noticed the popular Galaxy's Edge and Forgotten Ruin…
January 17, 202214 Comments

Why Amazon Failed

The esteemed Fr. Brendon Laroche, @padrebrendon on Twitter, documents the latest shenanigans surrounding books by Conservative authors on Amazon. Consider the case of Patrick Deneen's Why Liberalism Failed, which I've written about here.     Deneen wasn't the only Conservative author affected. Amazon did weigh in on the controversy. Their…
May 20, 2021
How Amazon Cut Your Royalties Under Your Nose

How Amazon Cut Your Royalties Under Your Nose

Since the dawn of KDP, indie authors have been questing for the newpub holy grail: that magic formula for earning a living on Amazon. If we rendered KDP in visual terms, it would look like the Valley of the Kings or the Dakota Badlands, with hopeful authors digging away like…
May 14, 202010 Comments
Amazon: Killing the Golden Goose

Amazon: Killing the Golden Goose

Author David Stewart recently produced an excellent video on recent shenanigans in the eBook market. Based on rumblings he's heard from readers and other authors, David sees an eBook market contraction on the way. As usual, he's done his homework, and I think he's on to something. See for yourself.…
March 2, 202011 Comments
Neo-Patronage

Neo-Patronage

Lately a lot of folks have been asking me where I think the publishing industry is headed next. It's a fair question. After all, our society is undergoing runaway change, and publishing is a subset of the whole. Many of these questions are prompted by the ongoing censorship campaign sweeping…
January 7, 202016 Comments
The Death of the Mid List

The Death of the Mid List

... has not been highly exaggerated. As megabestsellers command more of publishers’ marketing budgets and retailers’ shelf space, breaking out the next crop of hit makers has become a challenge. Book publishing has long been a hits-driven business. The bestsellers, the logic went, paid for the flops. And it was…
November 7, 201912 Comments
End of the Amazon Revolution

End of the Amazon Revolution

If you travel in the circles where this blog is read, you already know that yesterday Amazon nuked preorders for Jon Del Arroz's and Declan Finn's latest books. Amazon shut down Jon Del Arroz’s Glorified novel along with Declan Finn’s Deus Vult novel from publisher Silver Empire. Publisher Russell Newquist…
October 30, 201919 Comments
The Fault in Amazon’s Stars

The Fault in Amazon’s Stars

If, like me, you thought books' star ratings on KDP were pure mathematical averages of review scores, Amazon is here to correct that assumption. You can find this message by going to a book's Amazon page, clicking on the number of reviews, shown next to its star rating, and hovering…
June 5, 20192 Comments