THE Group for Authors! discussion

Ok, first off, I live in Canada. Please don't hold that against me :)

So I'm on Goodreads, partially for marketing purposes, but mostly because I think it's a cool site. I've already found I'm missing about 6 books by steinbeck - and this has to be remedied very shortly.

Anyway, I'm rather frustrated that Goodreads doesnt seem to want to link to my amazon.com page - oh yes, I've published with KDP.

Annnyway, any search I do outside Goodreads itself will search Amazon.ca, which doesn't appear to have an e-book section. In other words, there's no working link for someone to purchase my book if they want to, and believe me, they should want.

I had to get somebody else to manually add my book to the catalogue for me. Then my other two I could add myself after I got librarian status.

It seems to me that there's not much point in advertising myself if the person can't use the nearest, most convenient avenue to actually make a purchase. They can preview it, see my pretty cover, but that's it.

Is that what the e-book function is for?

I've also uploaded one of my pieces (so far) to Smashwords, and I see I can likely use Barnes and Noble in the future, but that may be weeks away.

Anybody have any clarification, input, idea, help, addition?

Any clarification, input, idea, help, addition, would be most ... good.

L.S.

The book links are customizable by user so they can have any link they like (except - amazon.com has to be there)

I can see both the Kindle edition books using my links to Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk - so they can be purchased.

The book Ella has an ISBN13 assigned but listed as Kindle edition which is incorrect they only have AISN's. -so I have changed that to ebook. The ISBN13 is not recognized at all doing a google search or on BN and Amazon - which site is this for sale on / published by ?


This may have changed by now but I don't think Amazon.ca sells or at least used to sell Kindle books and that they have to be bought from amazon.com but my memory on that is flakey

Paula wrote: "L.S.

The book links are customizable by user so they can have any link they like (except - amazon.com has to be there)

I can see both the Kindle edition books using my links to Amazon.com and Am..."

Thank you very much, Paula. That was most helpful.

I'm not slouch when it comes to internet savvy, but spending 7-8 hour days of editing, formatting, and connecting various medias is starting to take its toll haha.

The ISBN is for my smashwords book. I was getting frustrated with trying to link it up, tried that, and apparently forgot to delete it.

About the e-book uploads however. Is that a direct download from the good people at Goodreads? I noticed there's an option to put in a credit card, but that's as far as I got. Does Goodreads take their share of the pie on those transactions?

Admittedly, I'm new here; pardon all the questions. Everyone's been great thus far - well, except all those people giving ONE STAR reviews to On The Road. Can't abide that quietly.

"About the e-book uploads however. Is that a direct download from the good people at Goodreads? I noticed there's an option to put in a credit card, but that's as far as I got. Does Goodreads take their share of the pie on those transactions?"

The ebook upload is to upload either a preview (a chapter or two) of your book or the full book to Goodreads.com. If you have a DRM-free epub version of your book, you can upload it there and sell it. You set the price, we take 30%, you take 70%. We pay royalties by check or paypal once you've accrued $50 in royalties.

As for the linking issue, the Amazon link in the dropdown menu ("online stores") does link correctly to your book. If you're wondering why the buy from B&N button is there, it's there because that is on all manually added books. I believe we're changing that soon, though.

Out of curiosity, how long ago did your book appear on Amazon? I ask because we get a feed of all their books, so I'm uncertain as to why your book didn't come through in our most recent update from them (last night).

Hey Patrick. Thanks for the information. I've since taken Paula's advice and customized my purchasing options, which I didn't know I was able to do until then. It was set to a default of Amazon.ca, which didnt seem to work. The .com and .uk links are just dandy however.

My three books have all been uploaded within the past two and a half weeks, so I would have been trying to upload the first to Goodreads about a week ago.

I guess the only thing left on my agenda to figure out is a vendor for people in Canada who don't have kindles, which aren't as popular here as in the U.S.

I've self-published with Smashwords, which offers a wide range of formats, but it might be a while before I can see which vendors will be available.

Can I get into this discussion. I'm also in Canada and have ebooks with Smashwords and Amazon.com (not .ca) I didn't realize I could upload also to Goodreads. Does that mean then that I can upload the same books to Goodreads so they can be available on another platform? What is a DRM-free ePub version of your book?

A DRM free version of your book would be a book without Digital Rights Management, meaning it can be shared and lent without restrictions.

Wouldn't DRM mean then that the book could be copied, sold, passed on without the author being recognized or reimbursed? Is it assumed that most are honorable and would not pirate copies?

Yes, that's exactly what it means.

An ebook is nothing more than packets of information arranged in a particular manner, so if someone wants to lend it after they've purchased it, or post it on a torrent site, that's entirely possible.

Realistically, however, even with Digital Rights Management, if someone really wants to break the locks and upload it, the DRM isn't much of a stumbling block. It'll happen anyway.

In terms of lending ... really ... it's not much different than some paper books I have which I've loaned out multiple times .... But yeah, youre right, it's relying on people to play nice.

For the record, I don't have any DRM on my pieces.

Thanks L.S., that's clarified things for me. Eric W.