UPDATE: A bonus #5: No content on the Amazon Kindle Global Blog!
Update: Making it #6: UK Kindle buyers (and by extension Irish Kindles readers) pay 40% more for ebooks

This is just a short list but here are some reasons I suspect this is a rush release by Amazon:

1) It’s not shipping till 19th October! Did they need the news before Frankfurt and not have the device ready?
2) No country specific sites, you need to order the device from Amazon.com
3) The iphone/itunes app is not yet live in Ireland, I doubt it is live in the UK yet either (Twitpic)
4) No word on the extension of the Digital Text Platform to other countries (that would extend the device to independents and authors outside of the US, currently you need a US Bank Account)

I’m sure there are more, but this feels like something of a rushed and to my mind fluffed launch, despite the massive space given on four site home-pages to the product!

More on Kindle International here too,
Eoin

Amazon announce the international kindle

IT WILL SHIP TO IRELAND (SEE BELOW FOR MORE)

So Amazon announced that they are now allowing pre-orders of the Kindle worldwide. They launched no country specific sites for this, just a letter on the homepage of Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr and Amazon.co.jp. You MUST order from Amazon.com

Kindle Germany

Kindle France

Kindle Japan

The NYT has a story on the release:

International users of the new Kindle will have a slightly smaller collection of around 200,000 English-language books to choose from, and their catalogs will be tailored to the country they purchased the device in. Amazon said it would sell books from a range of publishers including Bloomsbury, Hachette, HarperCollins, Lonely Planet and Simon & Schuster.

Among the apparent holdouts: Random House, which is owned by Bertelsmann, the German media conglomerate. Stuart Applebaum, a Random House spokesman, said the company’s “discussions with Amazon about this opportunity are ongoing, productive and private.”

As does our own Irish Times (though, to be frank, it’s basically a rewrite of the NYT piece).

I’ve checked and Amazon will allow preorders for Ireland, but the full cost is

Items: $279.00 ($20 more than the US version for no apparent reason)
Shipping & Handling: $20.98
Total Before Tax: $299.98
Estimated Tax:* $0.00
Import Fees Deposit $64.50 (Customs will make us pay this anyway so that’s free money for Amazon as far as I can tell)
Order Total: $364.48 (For an ereader, you must be joking!)

But think on this
Amazon devoted the front page of FOUR of their international sites to this product. It must be making them money in large amounts or else why would they do that. Two posts I read yesterday pointed to royalty statemenst reflecting good sales for ebooks, this one by Andrew Savikas (from an author perspective, well an author who is a publisher) and this one from kirstin Nelson (so from an gents perspective). I wonder what the kindle element of that is? Perhaps we really have passed the point of no return.

Interesting times as they say,
Eoin

“I just wanted to say I purchased your book via Amazon UK and its fantastic, it made me rethink some of the things I had done that weren’t quite right!!  Thanks again for your assistance.”

Kate Pilkington Strictly VA.   www.strictlyva.co.uk

Eoin Purcell

Fidra Books posted a query on their blog today designed to help them figure out what books to order for their new store:

We’re resigned to the fact that we will open with a stock that has gaps and biases and it would be hard not to – this can be rectified in the next few months as we discover our customers’ tastes – but in an attempt to be more balanced we’d like you, our lovely blog-readers, to make some suggestions in the comments section below as to say, your top ten books that you’d love to see in a bookshop.

I loved the challenge this presented and so I went to work straight away, this is what came up with!

In an vain attempt to spread my bets and make sure I cover as many bases as possible I think this list may well get a bit rickety but here goes! In no order particularly:

1) AJP Taylor, The Origins of the Second World War (for the thinking general history reader, this will launch them on the path of a thousand questions)

2) Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Civilizations or Millennium (in terms of broad brush history of the epic kind, you’d be hard pressed to find better than these)

3) Mark Kurlansky, The Basque History of the World (a travelogue, a cookbook, a history and all wrapped in the neatest little package, sweet as)

4) Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination (clever science fiction for the fan who hasn’t yet mined the Science fiction cannon)

5) Stephanie Swainston, No Present Like Time (genre bending, adventure and all with an inconstant narrator, boy does Steph write fantasy well)

6) Ernest Hemmingway, The Old Man & The Sea (maybe its a guy thing, but this may well be one of the few fiction books I can stand to re-read)

7) Evelyn Waugh, Sword of Honour Trilogy (yes this cheating slightly because its a trilogy but lordy this is great writing)

Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome And the End of Civilization (this revives the full horror and the depth of the tragedy that was the end of the Roman empire, and moves the debate on from the hole I believe it fell into by trying to pass the collapse of Rome off as merely change rather than regression)

9) Robert Cooper, The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century (a nicely thought through book on the global political lanscape, not as radical as any of the Kagan books [Paradise and Power/The Return of History and the End of Dreams] but better for that)

10) William A. Draves & Julie Coates, Nine Shift (one of the most prescient and forward thinking books, I have ever read. Calmly and plainly explains where the world is going, why and looks at how it will change society utterly. A great book)

Two notes. Children’s books from picture books, to fiction, Food & Drink, Sport, Modern Fiction and quite a few other topics got a raw deal here but that’s the nature of top 10 lists. The last space took some time deciding.

I think it’s a good list!
Eoin

It’s one of those memorable occasions – the book launch for your first ever published book!  …Mine was last night!

This is me at the start of the night:

I was flattered and proud that some people had travelled from as far north as Newcastle and Knaresborough as well as locally from Leeds and want to thank all those who came out to help me celebrate.

I signed a couple of books, it was really fun!  This is me looking a bit shiny at the end of the night:

Now I can truly say the book is officially launched! God bless her and all who read her!!

I’ve been taking a break from organising my clients events to sort out one of my own!  Here is an announcement about my upcoming book launch party:

Nadine Hill, Author with Lean Marketing Press and Owner of The Dream PA is hosting a book launch party in association with Rachel McAlley Marketing and The Living Room in Leeds.

Join us in ‘The Study’ for the launch of The Virtual Assistant Handbook!  This book is the first ‘how to’ book written for Virtual Assistants to cater for the UK market and the themes in the book are useful to anyone who sells their time and expertise by the hour.

Celebrate the books’ launch and subsequent ‘Amazon Best Seller’ status with the author Nadine Hill!

You will enjoy a glass of bubbly on arrival and the opportunity to network with other businesspeople at the Summer’s hottest event!

Venue: The Living room, Greek Street, Leeds, LS1 (this is a really fashionable street with lots of boutique bars and restaurants there – the cream of Leeds congregate there after work!)

http://www.thelivingroom.co.uk/

Date: Thursday 16th July 2009

Time: 6-9pm

Cost: Free but entry is exclusive to people on the Guest List

Details: To be added to the Guest-List, please email rachel@rachelmcalleymarketing.com with Living Room Book Launch in the subject line.

**Please note: Guest List is the ONLY way to gain entry to this event so please pre-register**

STOP PRESS!  STOP PRESS!

My Publisher has just contacted me with an announcement!

For the next 7 days they are giving away free ebooks at Bookshaker

You’ll find most of these books available in print format on Amazon too but if you want to get a great book right now and another one absolutely free I urge you to follow these quick instructions:

1. Visit Bookshaker- find it at http://www.bookshaker.com/index.php

2. Choose my book (The Virtual Assistant Handbook) and click “Add To Cart”

3. Follow the instructions to complete your order

4. Send my Publisher an email using this form http://leanmarketingpress.com/contact

5. Include your Bookshaker order number and the title of the book you’dlike for free and they’ll send it over as soon as they can

Easy as pie! So tell anyone you know who likes knowledge – they can have two doses for the price of one!!

Here is what my book looks like…

Today is The Virtual Assistant Handbook’s BIRTHDAY! Woo!

Actually it is ‘Launch Day’ on Amazon but it’s practically the same thing, and to celebrate the launch, we have put together a package of free bonuses for anyone purchasing the book TODAY ONLY! Check this out!

The book has just had its 6th positive review which is great timing, read below to see what reader Stephanie said:

Excellent and Invaluable!, 11 May 2009

If you have ever wondered what it would be like to turn your talent for organizing and administrative skills into a business, then this book is for you.

For those who are not yet familiar with the term, being a Virtual Assistant (VA), allows administrative and secretarial work, traditionally carried out at set times in an office, to be based remotely from the employer or client, hence the term `Virtual’. A way of working that is becoming increasingly popular in the UK for small to medium enterprises, whilst allowing individuals to have more freedom and flexibility in the way they work.

I found this handbook very easy to read, portable and packed rich with content on a variety of subjects ranging from; marketing to common mistakes to avoid. The chapters are very comprehensive and well organized.
I especially liked the chapters on how to set fees, juggle clients and stay ahead of the game, highlighting the author’s experience and success in this work. I was also pleased to see some interesting case studies of how others made the leap to successful business owners, including their perspective on this emerging industry.

Aimed mainly at the UK market, this book does not claim to be a complete guide, yet I would highly recommend it.
An honest and invaluable reference guide for anyone wishing to consider and make a success of this type of business.

If you are in business and sell your time by the hour, don’t miss this fantastic offer but it ends at midnight tonight!

In West Yorkshire the excitement is building for the launch next week of The Virtual Assistant Handbook!

From hairdressers to business-people, well wishers give their “Good luck” messages!

Here are the lovely girls from my local hairdressers:

…and at 0645 this morning the Wakefield business community came out in support of the book!

and…

The book that is attracting such enthusiasm launches on Wednesday 13th May 2009 – see here for more details!

The Virtual Assistant Handbook launches on Amazon next week but it has already had critical acclaim!

I have blogged about the first 3 reviews, and today another two reviews were posted from ‘fellow authors’!  Thank you to everyone who took the time to review this book, I am so pleased that you found the book helpful in your businesses.

Here are the reviews No 4 and 5!  You can read them on Amazon too – click here!

An Excellent Business Book Applied to Virtual Assistants, 6 May 2009

When I read this book I did so with some trepidation because I didn’t think I was in the target readership for the book. I have used VAs in the past and not quite got the results I wanted and the nature of my work means I come across people wanting to start working for themselves all the time. My goals for reading this book were to get some insight into the world of VAs, how I could use one more effectively and more ideas around a business that is different from my own that I could use for myself and others.

I got all of my objectives and much more from Nadine’s book.

Let me start with the one thing that would have made the book even better for me and that is to add some male angle to the work. I guess Nadine didn’t because her target readership is female but I couldn’t help thinking that there must be a man somewhere that is starting or running a VA business. Anyway this is a mute point against everything that is thoroughly brilliant about this book.

The writing style is conversational with relevant stories, experiences and anecdotes throughout. This made the book an easy and enjoyable read as well as extremely informative.

I think one of the best features of this book is how specific it is, i.e. it is for VAs starting and running a business in the UK. Within this Nadine speaks from personal experience and it is quite clear she is an extremely capable business woman as she gives good business advice that you can apply to any business. Even though I am not in the VA business I found myself taking notes about things I need to do or check about my own business whilst reading this book.

Nadine has a coaching style to her writing and the whole book is laid out to take you through the whole process of starting, marketing and maintaining your VA business. My favourite chapter had to be the one on finding your niche. The advice here applies to any business and Nadine has experience in marketing that really shines out in this chapter.

In conclusion I think this book is essential reading for anyone in the VA world whether working as a VA or uses a VA. But I also think it would be wise to read the book with a wider perspective than just that because the ideas, advice and experiences Nadine writes about can apply to any business.

Not just for VAs, 6 May 2009 By Jo Parfitt “Author of 26 books including Care… (Den Haag, Netherlands) – See all my reviews I found masses in this book that will help me in my own small business of publishing consultancy. It is upbeat, accessible and full of great tips and advice for any budding or current VA. The takeaways here on pricing, finding a niche and marketing were very valuable indeed. I shall be recommending this to all my fellow small biz owners.

“She shoots, she scores!”  I just had to start this blog post with that as I’m so rubbish at football that I never thought I’d ever be able to say it but my first book – The Virtual Assistant handbook has just got a hat-trick!

The 2nd and 3rd reviews of my book have just been posted on Amazon – and I don’t think a further one is too far behind as my Publisher sent me an email today containing a book review from someone else!  Apparently when readers post reviews, Amazon has to then upload them which can take anything from 10 minutes to 6 weeks! But I hope it won’t be too long until I can see them all on screen!

Until then, this is what ‘readers no 2 and 3′ had to say!  Hooray!

You can read all the reviews on Amazon here.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful: Like Having Your Hand Held by a Wise Best-Friend, 5 May 2009 By Ms. V. K. Knight – See all my reviews While this book is a comprehensive guide to starting and running a VA business in its own right – it’s the author’s honest, encouraging and down-to-earth style that makes this particular book special. So, rather than just a solid textbook with everything you need to know, you also get a warm and realistic view into what makes Nadine’s own business tick. This isn’t just a book that says “become a VA it’s easy” either; Nadine makes it clear that the work can be hard and that you have to be disciplined to make a go of it.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful: Solid Advice for Any Virtual Assistant But Essential if You’re UK-based, 3 May 2009 By J. Gregory “Julie Gregory” (UK and Spain) – See all my reviews While I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a VA (I furnish and manage private rental properties) lots of the advice in this book has been really useful in getting me organised and handling clients in a professional way. It’s obvious that the author is very experienced and it’s great that she’s confident and generous enough to be sharing all the ins-and-outs of getting started and staying organised. What’s even better is that Nadine is a UK-based VA and so you’ll find lots of practical stuff in here for UK-based businesses that the US focused books take for granted. If you’re not UK-based though don’t worry – many of tips – on marketing, pricing and setting boundaries are useful wherever you’re based.

This book is a gem!, 1 May 2009

By	Elisa Sibille (UK) – See all my reviews

Drawing from her personal experience as a successful VA in the UK, Nadine takes you step by step from understanding what a VA is and does, to creating your own successful business.
I found the book is written in a clear, easy to understand style, and covers everything you may possibly need: how to figure out if becoming a VA is the right choice for you; how to stand out from the crowd with a specific niche; how to market yourself effectively and have a constant stream of work coming your way; how to decide what services to offer and when and how to work, so that you can have the balanced life you wanted in the first place.
I have learnt lots and will be implementing all the relevant advice in my own business, although I am not a VA myself, as most of Nadine’s sound advice can be applied to any business.
I warmly recommend this book if you wish to start or renew your VA career or any home run business.

Eoin Purcell

Some fascinating data about iPhone app downloads and how they flow.
Story on Techcrunch & Original Source

The Digital Market is worth £80million in the UK according to this piece in the Bookseller.

A pretty interesting build-your-own-textbook offering from Norton is the US. The story is here and the actual etextbook website here.

A really interesting piece by Tim O’Reilly on books and reinventing them for the web.

A great post by Michael Hyatt on building a platform for authors!

Enjoy the bank holiday if you have one!
Eoin

GREAT DEALS ON DVDs:

Please note: These great deals are available from Amazon.co.uk. The purchase price is set in UK pounds. As Join Martin has no connection with Amazon.co.uk or these deals, Join Martin cannot answers questions on the deals, on prices or on postage costs or postage in general. These items can, as far as we are aware, be posted within the UK. It may be possible for them to be posted to other countries but Join Martin is not certain of that so please do check with Amazon.co.uk yourself, should you have any questions. Join Martin remains an independent project under the umbrella of Beyond The Question and is not connected with Amazon.co.uk. Join Martin will receive a small commission from Amazon.co.uk for each DVD purchased via Joinmartin.wordpress.com but this is ONLY because of an affiliate account on Amazon.co.uk set up by the creator of Join Martin, Marty Drury. Join Martin has no idea how long these GREAT DEALS will be on offer for and reminds its readers that Amazon.co.uk may decide to change these prices at any time and without prior warning.

Wallace And Gromit – A Matter Of Loaf And Death [DVD] [2008]

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The Dark Knight (2 Discs) [DVD] [2008]

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The Wire: Complete HBO Season 5 [DVD]
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Quantum of Solace [DVD] [2008]

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Eoin Purcell

Twitter it up
There has been extensive coverage of the New Think For Old Publishers panel at SXSW on 14 March. By most accounts it was a complete and utter disaster for publishers. Here’s a sample of opinion more here, here and here

As per usual Kassia krozer @ Booksquare summed both sides up pretty well in my view:

Let me be clear. Absolutely clear. Not one word spoken in that session, either from the panelists or from the audience, was new or innovative. The panel, well, we’ve all heard job descriptions before. The audience? That was one very long line of people saying the same things we’ve been saying to the publishing industry for ten years. And yet the publishing people treated our comments as if they were items to be added to a list.

It got me thinking?
What do we as publishers actually want to change? Are we, like the frustrated audience members angry at things in the industry that we would see change? In an ideal world where we got to direct digital change what would we like that change to be? Would authors join us in this campaign?

What would publishers do?
I think most publishers would like a simple platform that allowed them to offer their content online and be paid up-front for it. That seems easy doesn’t it. Except our cousins in newspaper land have lost their lunch trying to monetize their content online and almost all of them have surrendered to free service with ads and most of them are failing even with that.

What’s more the book is pretty much the most simple platform there is right now and lots of people like it. So moving away from it seems a little wild for most publishers. On top of that authors don’t seem keen to hang round waiting for the digital world to start rewarding them either. Whenever a book deal presents itself, bloggers and journalists all take them.

Where does that leave us for digital distribution and selling? Well e-commerce is nice, except you get Amazon and its crazy glitches and its harsh terms. On the other hand, ebooks seem to be starting to break through but you still have to deal with Amazon for those too!

Of course you might take the perspective that if we were to drive digital change, we would drive it along a path that gave our books (content) more attention (such tools even exist). If we were to drive change we would use it to sell more books directly to our customers in order to learn about them at the customer level and so tailor our products to their taste and their pocket. If we could drive digital we would build communities about our content and aggregate content from other publishers to help support our own. But then I’m just talking crazy!

Maybe I am talking crazy but
The problem I have with the current penchant for beating publishers up is threefold:

1) Many publishers (not to mention authors) are doing some pretty amazing things. Tor is building a wonderful, engaged and exciting community of readers around SF&F, Osprey have already done so around Military History. Penguin have spent a small fortune on trying new tools for reading and writing fiction. Macmillan and Random and Harper have all embraced blogs and Facebook and twitter and the web in general seeking new audiences, fresh feedback and platforms for their authors.

2) Despite the urge for the new, it doesn’t yet pay for itself and it may never do so. Andrew Keen is right about that if nothing else. Without money, artists will not create and currently the system that rewards both the artistic and the serious (or not serious) non-fiction author is breaking (if not entirely broken) and the chances of fixing it anytime soon are slim. Unless we revert to older methods of financing art and journalism, campaign funding, endowments, patronage and subscription (all being tried in modest enough [and a few large scale] ways) we may lose something pretty valuable.

3) Radicals are not always right. Even if we might accept that in this case it seems like digital is the way forward, that doesn’t mean publishers will survive the shift. Its not unreasonable of them to be reluctant to leap when right now there is a damaged but viable system in place that delivers unspectacular but solid enough revenues and profit figures.

To wrap it up!
Which leads me to my final thought, despite my own leaning towards a digital future, it is still entirely possible that the paper book remains the preeminent (I note not only) form of publication well into the next century and beyond. It currently seems likely to remain the most profitable (not the only profitable form) form of publication too. If you are an exec at a leading paper book publisher, then it’s a big bet right now to put the house on digital. If you get it wrong you’ve cut open the golden egg laying goose to show her insides to the public and have only the guts to show for it, the public were not that impressed and have watched the show for free on youtube. If you get it right you might still loose the golden goose and the people who benefit are your authors.

So to the radicals I say, lay off the publishers, some of them don’t care, but others are actually succeeding in changing the system and many many more are trying to figure out a way to make it happen without going out of business or destroying their companies, a not inconsiderable consideration in the current environment!

Eoin
PS: None of which changes the fact that I want to be able to buy an ebook version of a novel even if it is only just released in the US and I live in Ireland!

Years ago, in the city where I lived then, there was a gay bookshop. This wasn’t usual by any means in most UK cities, but my city had one. And then Waterstones came to the city. And they had the money to stock lots of lesbian and gay books – detective fiction, science-fiction, erotica, teenage fiction, humour – and they did. Instead of heading out of the way to a small bookshop that had a limited kind of stock, LGBT people could stop off at a mainstream bookshop and browse their way round a vast stock.

So when the gay bookshop went out of business, which it did, it didn’t seem to matter so much (well, lots of us were sad and angry, of course …. Waterstones wasn’t the only reason: but it was certainly a strong contributing factor: the main culprit was, as is usual with UK gay bookshops, HM Customs and Excise) …except that as soon as the gay bookshop had gone bust, Waterstones stopped stocking lesbian and gay books, and moved them. Instead of shelves out front for anyone to find, and a vast range of titles and genres – within a year, all the lesbian and gay books that Waterstones stocked were fitted into one shelving unit, in the basement, next to the heterosexual erotica shelving unit. I’m not joking. That’s exactly what happened. I may even have exaggerated how long it took.

Waterstones needed to stock these books when it was competing with a gay bookshop: when it was no longer competing, when we didn’t have a choice about where we shopped, or what books we could buy, Waterstones knew they could serve up crap. And they did. That’s the free market in action to diminish choices.

Amazon is most LGBT people’s gay bookshop of choice. Or rather non-choice: these days, unless you live in London, the odds are there is no where else you can buy gay books. There may be a shelving unit in Waterstones, somewhere at the back out of the way, or there may not.

And now Amazon have decided they want to do the online equivalent of pushing their gay stock to the back of the bookshop.

Mark R. Probst, author of The Filly, noticed something rather odd on April 10th:

On Amazon.com two days ago, mysteriously, the sales rankings disappeared from two newly-released high profile gay romance books: “Transgressions” by Erastes and “False Colors” by Alex Beecroft. Everybody was perplexed. Was it a glitch of some sort? The very next day HUNDREDS of gay and lesbian books simultaneously lost their sales rankings, including my book “The Filly.” There was buzz, What’s going on? Does Amazon have some sort of campaign to suppress the visibility of gay books? Is it just a major glitch in the system? Many of us decided to write to Amazon questioning why our rankings had disappeared. Most received evasive replies from customer service reps not versed in what was happening.

And this is the answer he got, from Ashlyn D, at Member Services for Amazon.com Advantage:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

“Adult” materials, eh? Well: that apparently doesn’t include this:

With the first Centerfold, who just happened to be the radiant Marilyn Monroe, Hugh Hefner masterminded a cultural icon: Playboy’s Playmate of the Month. Now, for the first time ever, Playboy has gathered together every Centerfold from every issue into one luxurious collector’s edition. That’s over 600 beauties. We’ve reproduced these Centerfolds exactly as they appeared in the magazine to create a full-size, deluxe volume. Paging through this colossal, chronological collection provides a breathtaking view of our evolving appreciation of the female form: from the fifties fantasy of voluptuous blondes to the tawny beach girls of the seventies to the groomed and toned women of today.

But perhaps Amazon think people only buy Playboy Centrefolds for the articles.

I’ve never read these novels – so I checked out the Amazon pages for a few I do know. The Fires of Bride, by Ellen Galford, a beautifully funny novel about a lesbian artist who goes to live on a Hebridean island. No graphic sex whatsoever. No pics of naked women. No sales rank on Amazon, either. But it’s out of print, so perhaps that isn’t surprising.

How about Desert of the Heart, by Jane Rule? Even less sex than The Fires of Bride, and it’s in print. But it has no sales rank. How odd. What about Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, by Jeanette Winterson? Well, well: that has a sales rank on Amazon.co.uk, but not on Amazon.com. (Perhaps the .co.uk webmaster went on strike when instructed to consider Winterson, who is quite famous as a literary writer in Britain, a “lesbian writer” all of whose books are “adult” material to be pushed to the back of the shop out of sight?) Of course this is disgusting that Amazon should be doing this to any writer, any novel, simply because the subject matter is LGBT. It wouldn’t surprise me if, next week, Amazon.com reverses its decision over many novels with famous writers or with pro-active publishers: but the less-known novels, the small-scale publishers (and most LGBT books are published by small-scale publishing houses and are less-known novels) will find themselves still relegated to the shelving unit, in the basement, tucked away out of sight where the decent men who buy Playboy Centerfold won’t be disturbed by them.

c_smith_author writes:

Please note that just before this, Erastes’ Transgressions and Alex’s False Colours were topping out the rankings. Also note that The Filly is a YA Books, and therefore I would suggest one of the more important books to have out there for kids questioning their identity, and Transgressions and False Colours are being shelved with the Romance section of Barnes and Noble. Though as Mark points out, that is of no fucking importance because this is homophobic bias pure and simple.

I have no idea what to do about this except spread the message. If anyone has any ideas on what to do, tell me. Because I am not letting this lie. As vashtan said, they are happy to take the money, but not happy to give these books the recognition they rightly deserve.

I don’t know what to do either, beyond publicise Amazon being homophobic gits.

Update: Nicola Griffiths speaks out:

Amazon’s policy is idiocy of the highest order. Some thoughtless manager OK’d the low-hanging-fruit approach. (“Hey, if you want to protect Moral Americans from na-s-s-s-ty sexual content, then deleting all queer books from the rankings—and therefore the bestseller and some search listings—will get lots of ‘em at once! Woo hoo, straight Christians will be safe!”) That manager should be fired.

And then I want a public apology from Jeff Bezos.

This is important. A quick and quiet revocation of the policy is not enough. I want a public acknowledgement and a pledge to never again try to shove queers under the carpet. It’s the only way to counter the perception queer readers and queer writers don’t count.

Being invisible is dangerous. It ruins careers and it puts young readers at risk.

Nicola Griffiths is the award-winning writer of Ammonite and Slow River and other books with many lesbian characters. As far as I can see, all her novels had their sales ranks removed in the Easter wipeout, and though Amazon is restoring some of the high-profile books, they’re evidently not in a hurry to do that for all of the titles blocked from sales ranking.

I agree with Nicola Griffiths, wholeheartedly: the least that should happen is that the “glitch” is fixed, and fast, and then Jeff Bezos should publicly apologize for wiping so many LGBT books off the listings at Amazon.

Below the fold: Screenshots of the page for Playboy Centerfolds on Amazon.com (which is evidently not “adult” material, as it has a sales rank) and the page for Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, on Amazon.com, with sales rank suppressed on account of it being “adult” material. Also compared: Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America, by Nathaniel Frank, with Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk. One’s about DADT, one’s about young straight men beating each other to a pulp; guess which one is considered “adult”?

Update: Amazon Rank Open letter on Booksquare Amazonfail on Twitter.

Another pair of pages, which make fairly transparent this isn’t an “adult” ban but a homophobic ban:

Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America, by Nathaniel Frank, has had its sales rank removed. “Adult” material, you see.

But Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk: that’s apparently not “adult” content – sales rank intact:

Another interesting pair to compare: Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman:

But Joseph Nicolosi’s Parent’s Guide to Being Homophobic is ranked number one in any search on “homosexuality”… and has not lost its sales ranking:

Eoin Purcell

And not so niche
I wrote a post some time ago now on how Blurb was a real threat to publishers of small to medium size. I wrote then:

Using the template it is a very simple task to construct and edit a book. The ease with which this can be done is unsettling for me. I work with a publisher of limited run titles. Few rate over 2000 on an initial print run. To date, the key benefits we could offer to authors of books published through our company were quality of design, access to distribution, access to retail and other sales channels and of course we take on the risk of publishing costs and pay royalties to the author removing the dangers that self published authors have of not receiving payment for the books other sell on their behalf.

Lulu.com took away the fear authors might have that they would be left holding the baby as it were with lots of stock and no buyers, it also resolved the payment problem (As have many other online selling and payments solutions). That left the problem of design, many self published titles suffer from poor design and lack of quality. Blurb resolves that quite easily.

I’ve since moved to Mercier where although we operate mostly in a solid niche (Irish history & Biography being our core market), I’ve not forgotten Blurb.com or Lulu.com> Blurb has expanded its offering and is even hosting a directory of professional designers to help authors layout and design their books; Blurbnation and is running a photography book competition. Lulu.com is offering publishing packages and community functions on its site.

I mention this today because I was guided to a CNN story about Lisa Genova who self published [with iUniverse]her way to a deal with Simon & Schuster and whose now traditionally published novel Still Alice is in The New York Times Bestsellers list for the twelfth week. A rather nice BookVideos clip beneath this graph, it’s worth watching.

Genova is hardly a trend on her own I hear yo say and you are correct, she is not. But she does show that the fracturing of the market is such that even self-publishers have huge potential wins coming their way By dint of the large numbers no engaged in self-publishing books, some of the books will be be decent at least. Some will be far, far better than decent and those books may well evade the traditional publishing route, just as the hard working software coders of 37Signals, yet another of my favourite, self publishing, examples have with their smash hit Getting Real.

Is this really a route to market?
For non-fiction I think there will be an increasing tendency for the market to fracture by niche enabling authors at the micro and more modest level to prosper. I don’t think this will necessarily mean that no project will warrant a publisher’s investment rather that the viable ground for traditional publishing will move increasingly up the chain towards a realm where print runs are of a minimum of 4000-5000 units. Small beer for some of the larger houses but a big deal for most publishers in Ireland and I suspect worldwide.

Perhaps like Mike Shatzkin preaches we can prevent this by aggregating a niche and serving its needs (that would in essence provide other services to compensate the author for the lost revenue from self publishing. Publishers would be spending time and money on audience creation and cultivation alongside their current role of content gathering and curation. In many respects that is what Osprey are doing with Military History.

The top down problem
Of course if bottom is moving upwards, I believe very soon the top rank will move down. Traditional publishers will lose authors to outfits that are prepared to service their careers in every fashion, from events to books, to online exploitation. Andrew Keen made a point at a conference in London that I attended last year. he said that the bulk of his money came from speaking, not writing. When that is the case, why does it make sense for a top level author to stay with a house that is primarily focused on creating and selling books?

Surely it will be in a top ranked author, the kind who can pull a crowd in any city in the world to move to a talent agency that manages everything like Livenation have started to do with musicians.

Leaving publishers either dead, the middle or adapted
I’m not a big fan of dead, so I think for now we can swim towards the middle and try and move a little bit more into the 4-10,000 unit range of publishing*. There are problems in this area and the main problem is that retailers are pushing the front list much more agressively and the midlist is suffering. The bulk of those 4-10,000 unit books are smack bang in the midlist as far as retailers are concerned.

Adapted like Osprey then seems an attractive option but presents challenges for a diverse list without a single focus. Even if one can identify a niche where a publisher has a competitive advantage, is that niche a sustainable market likely to support the company for the future, or like newspapers will there be a period of re-adjustment which see staff loses, restructuring and deep unease within the industry?

I’m not sure anyone has the answers to this questions, and it may well be that the premise they are based on is a flawed one. Perhaps self-publishing will not successfully undermine the smaller publishers. One way or the other, any independent publisher needs to, at the very least, be thinking about what that would mean for them if it did happen! I shudder to think of what will happen to the larger trade publishers when top ranking authors start to move away from publishers in large numbers.

Let’s hope it never gets as bad as we fear it might, let’s hope the centre can hold because by my estimation that us where the market for publishers exists.
Eoin

“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
William Butler Yates

*I remind you that all opinions expressed on this site are my own, see my disclaimers. Also bear in mind that in discussing numbers and trends I am focused on the Irish Market which is not, by any stretch if the imagination, a large one!

Eoin Purcell

There is a boycott going on of Amazon Kindle books that are priced over $9.99. Kassia has a good analysis.
Here

if:book and the Arts Council of England have an interesting but ultimately (in my mind) useless project to publish an illuminated book for the digital age. I wish I could like this but I can’t, I see no value added by making this type of website pretend to be a book. Who benefits, why go to the extra effort, are we using the new medium to its best, I suspect not. All told I think this is like putting book readings on TV, pointless and not very exciting.
Here

Consolidation in the universe of self publishing (a weak gag I’ll admit).
Here

Official notice that Mike Shatzkin of Idea Logical Company has a blog, I’ve yet to not like a post! While you are reading his blog you should also check out his fascinating and I think useful enterprise, FiledbyAuthor.
Here

My first proper full-time job was working in the big bad world of scientific publishing for a family run company based in Oxford called Blackwell Science Limited, or blacksci.co.uk which is now part of wiley.com. Consequently, I’ve a few friends and former colleagues who still work in various parts of the publishing industry. Last week I got an email from one of these friends who works for a small independent book publishing company: I’ve reproduced an interesting email message about Amazon from them below (with permission):

This is very unlike me but I am sending a general email out because I am so outraged by something I feel I must share with you. In case you didn’t already know, I work for a small publisher. Times are hard – we all know that. Amazon.co.uk form a large part of our business. Recently they have changed their terms with all of their publishers. For us, and many other small and independent publishers, these new terms are completely unacceptable. We have no say about it and the way they went about it was frankly nasty (they basically sent an email out giving us a week to decide whether to give them more discount or more credit). For bigger publishers it may have a negligible effect but for smaller publishers, where cashflow can mean everything, the effect will be severe! And they have us over a barrel.

Amazon.co.uk so dominate the online market in books that they are almost a monopoly. The discounts we’ve been supplying Amazon for the last few years are outrageous – but what they have done recently is the last straw, and many small publishers could go out of business (luckily I think we’ll survive!). I am so outraged at how they are treating their suppliers that I am now boycotting Amazon for my own personal books and CDs. I have been using them for years and years. The only way to put a bit of healthy competition back into the system is by having more online book retailers become as successful as Amazon. Today we used The Book Depository bookdepository.co.uk for the first time. The books we wanted were all there, in stock and cheaper than Amazon and it was very easy to use. So we’re trying to help spread the word!

Another online retailer is waterstones.com, which separated from Amazon a few years ago due to their unworkable terms. I haven’t used them myself but I hear they are pretty good, and play.com can fulfil your DVD and CD requirements (and all delivery is free I think).

They may not always be as cheap as Amazon but now you know how Amazon get their low prices you may not be as happy to use them – if small, interesting, independent publishers go out of business it’ll just be the biggies left (which will mean much less choice).

So, is the behaviour of Amazon.co.uk just the all too familiar face of capitalism? Or should we boycott Amazon for being a big bully only interested in monopolising the marketplace and getting rid of some healthy competition?

References

1. Catherine Neilan (2009) Amazon refused to budge on new terms, Bookseller.com 2009-03-30
2. Liz Thomson (2009) Advantage Amazon? Publishers react to proposed new terms Bookbrunch.co.uk 2009-03-26
3. Richard Stalman (2001) (Formerly) Boycott Amazon! – GNU Project – Free Software Foundation (FSF) gnu.org

You have to wonder what goes on in the heads of publishing firms sometimes. A week after closing teh Collins division in the US, HarperCollins announces a new one (It Books) focused:

on pop culture, sports, style and content derived from the Internet, like a planned collection of Twitter posts called “Twitter Wit.”

Here

The wonderful Bookbrunch which has caused the equally wonderful Bookseller to raise its game has decided to start charging for its service, an inevitable move and one I welcome. There is nothing wrong with asking people to pay for your hard work. The rates seem pretty reasonable too:

Individual subscription prices are as follows:

3 months subscription – £30
6 months subscription – £55
12 months subscription – £99

Here

Delia and Gordon go head to head for the top spot. I think you should just buy both as this amazon offer suggests and in these recessionary times, £24 is a damn good price.
Here

by Schandmaul

Vor kurzem habe ich in irgendeiner Computerzeitschrift einen Artikel gelesen, in dem etwas von billigen Computerspielpreisen in Großbritannien auf Grund der Weltwirtschaftskrise die Rede war.
In einer langweiligen Stunde beim Browsen fiel mir auf Amazon.de ein, dass ich diesen Artikel auf www.amazon.co.uk, dem englischen Pendant, überprüfen könnte.

Und siehe da: Aktuelle Topspiele kosten dort teilweise nur 15 Pfund, der billige Pfundkurs von etwa 1,12€ hilft kräftig mit, um richtig Geld zu sparen. Und Semesterferien hab ich auch noch.

Nach längerem hin und her und ein bisschen Recherche, was ich im letzten Jahr denn alles so an Toptiteln verpasst hatte, habe ich mich für insgesamt 4 Spiele entschieden. Warum so viel, dazu später.

GTA 4: ca. 18 Euro
Fallout 3: ca. 17 Euro (kostet jetzt 28 Pfund!!! Da hatte ich ganz schön Glück…)
Race Driver Grid: ca. 14 Euro
Half-Life – The orange Box: ca. 13 Euro
Diese Preise sind ohne Mehrwertsteuer! Dazu später.

Also ab in den Warenkorb damit! Die Seite ist analog zur deutschen aufgebaut, von dem her gibt es dort auch keine Navigationsschwierigkeiten.
Beim Bezahlen kam dann die Aufforderung zum Anmelden. Ich dachte mir, ich könnte ja einfach mal die deutschen Anmeldedaten ausprobieren, mit denen ich mich bei Amazon.de anmelde. Und siehe da: Es funktioniert! Adressen, Daten, etc. sind alle gespeichert und werden auf alle internationalen Amazon-Seiten übernommen. Also kein Mehraufwand und keine weitere Registrierung.

Bei der Bestellung traten dann zwei Probleme auf. Erstens konnte GTA 4 leider nicht versendet werden, weil das aus welchem Gründen auch immer, nur von einem Marketplace-Händler verkloppt wurde. Kein Problem, dann halt ohne GTA 4. Weiter geht’s!
Das zweite Problem war schon gravierender: Auf der englischen Amazon-Seite kann man leider nur mit Kreditkarte bezahlen. Als Student hatte ich bisher noch nie eine Situation, wo ich mit Kreditkarte zahlen hätte müssen und hatte dementsprechend auch keine. Dieses Hindernis schaffte dann meine Schwester aus der Welt, die mir ihre Kreditkarte für die Zahlung zur Verfügung stellte.

Nach der Bestellung läuft alles ab, wie man es von Amazon gewohnt ist. Regelmäßige Email-Benachrichtigungen geben einem detailliert den Status des Pakets an und 3 Tage nach der Bestellung war das Paket auch schon da: Toll für eine Auslandsbestellung!

Beim Auspacken merkt man zu deutschen Spielen außer der englischen Beschriftung eigentlich keine Unterschiede.

Was man noch beachten muss:

• Viele Spiele sind nicht Multilanguage, sondern eine rein englische Version. Mit allen ihren Vor-, aber auch Nachteilen. Vorteile: Man lernt spielerisch englisch und hat eine meist aufwendigere und besser vertonte Originalversion, die nicht geschnitten ist und oft noch besser von Updates oder Mods durch die Community versorgt wird. Nachteil: Wenn man nicht gut englisch kann versteht man halt nichts

• Bei Bestellungen beim englischen Amazon muss man neben Versandkosten auch Kosten für den Auslandsversand und die höhere Mehrwertssteuer zahlen. Für eine Bestellung von drei Videospielartikeln kommen Versandkosten von etwa 8 Euro zu Stande, außerdem muss die in Deutschland höhere VAT (entspricht der Mehrwertssteuer) bezahlt werden, was bei mir für 3 Spiele etwa 9,50 € zu Buche schlug. Deswegen rentiert sich das Bestellen eines einzelnen Spiels nur in Sonderfällen! Besser bestellt man dann gleich 3,4 Spiele, um die Versand/Shippingkosten verhältnismäßig zu reduzieren. Klar: Versandkosten zahlt man nur einmal!

• Nicht alle Artikel sind prinzipiell günstig. So sind Konsolenspiele allgemein etwas teurer und auch einige PC-Spiele (aktuell etwa Empire: Total War oder Fallout 3) sind erst ab 30 Pfund zu haben. Dann rentiert sich eine Bestellung nicht mehr. Mehr als 30 Pfund kostet aber bei PC-Spielen nichts, weswegen im Grunde genommen alle PC-Spiele – auch aktuelle Top-Titel – günstiger zu haben sind als in Deutschland.

• Soweit ich weiß sind alle Artikel aus dem Ausland, die in Deutschland nicht von der USK getestet wurden (darunter fallen zum Beispiel auch englische Versionen von Rennspielen) prinzipiell ab 18 Jahren. Von dem her müssen sich Minderjährige bei einer Bestellung aus dem Ausland wohl vorher mit den Eltern kurzschließen. Wobei vermutlich eh fast kein Jugendlicher unter 18 Jahren eine Kreditkarte hätte

Auch für Trackmaniacs, die ihre Zeit nicht mit anderen Spielen verplempern wollen, kann ein Blick auf Amazon.co.uk lohnend sein. So kostet Trackmania in Großbritannien etwa 8 Pfund (ca. 12 Euro), während hingegen die deutsche Version immer noch 30 Euro kostet. Hier ist auch die Sprachbarriere nicht vorhanden, weil Trackmania eine Multilanguage-Version ist, die alle Sprachen enthält. Hier ist also lediglich die Verpackung und das Handbuch auf englisch. Wer also mal seinem Kumpel zum Geburtstag Trackmania schenken will, oder einen Zweitaccount braucht, kann hier richtig Geld sparen!

Hier noch eine kleine (unvollständige!) Liste von Spielen, die in Großbritannien deutlich günstiger sind: (Die Pfund Preise muss man mit ungefähr 1,2 bis 1,3 multiplizieren um den Europreis zu erhalten (enthält dann Mehrwertsteuer, sowie Shipping-Kosten von 1 Pfund pro Artikel)

Trackmania United Forever: 8 Pfund (Deutschland: 30 Euro)
Far Cry 2: 18 Pfund (Deutschland: 40 Euro)
Battlefield 2 (Complete Collection): 8,50 Pfund (Deutschland: 54 Euro!!)
Fifa 09: 15 Pfund (Deutschland: 50 Euro)
Tomb Raider Underworld: 15 Pfund (Deutschland: 50 Euro)
Mass Effect: 15 Pfund (Deutschland: 50 Euro)
Empire – Total War: 24 Pfund (Deutschland: 45 Euro)
Dawn of War 2: 23 Pfund (Deutschland: 45 Euro)
Guild Wars (Complete): 25 Pfund (Deutschland: 50 Euro)

Wichtig: Auch Konsolenspiele sind dort wesentlich günstiger, teils noch drastischer als bei PC-Spielen. So kostet die PS3-Version von Fifa09 in Großbritannien 25 Pfund, in Deutschland dagegen freche 70 Euro! (70 Euro finde ich für ein Videospiel absolut nicht mehr gerechtfertigt!)

Fazit: Meine Bestellung kostete etwa 60 Euro, für die gleichen Spiele hätte ich in Deutschland auf Amazon trotz Versandkostenerlass 104 Euro gezahlt. Eine Preisersparnis von 42%! Ich hatte allerdings auch etwas Glück weil die Preise von Fallout 3 stark und von der Orange-Box leicht angehoben wurden.

Ich kann Bestellungen über www.amazon.co.uk aber nur empfehlen und werde dort auch in Zukunft öfter mal vorbeischauen!

Und jetzt zock ich weiter Fallout 3