Forum: Site Announcements

I don't think I can give a definite answer to this. I depends on how it's done.

My blog entry of 2 November 2019 is how I've been doing the URLs for some time now, so that shows how I do it. Can you please check that and comment on it.

OK, Will redo that way. At the time I did that any blog with a hot link was being blocked so I didn't put any in. Thank you.

edit to add: Blogs on all sister sites updated with Bookapy hot links.

dump them completely...such as banadin..he's no longer even onok bookapy

Not sure exactly what your beef is, but the reason Banadin removed his stories from SoL as Amazon has a special sales option that requires you to remove your books from other sites to be able to get the best royalties from them. He said so in his blog of Jan 18

It's abuse of power. That you require that books are not sold for less on other sites is reasonable but not allowing to sell anywhere else at all is plain wrong in my eyes.

Amazon does allow you to sell elsewhere. They require you to be exclusive ONLY if you enroll in their Select program. You can sell on Amazon without doing that.

Select simply gives authors another alternative. Some prefer to be wide, that is, sell in as many places as possible, such as Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Bookapy, their own site, etc. They believe the wider exposure generates more sales. Amazon allows that. Some authors find the extra income they make in the Select program (Kindle Unlimited) is worth not being in the other markets. It's a choice every author makes for each book. It's not by author account; it's by book. And enrolling in Select is in 90-day periods (that automatically renew if you don't elect to get out of it).

So why is it an abuse of power? I don't believe the rules Lazeez is setting down are an abuse of power.

Don't kid yourself. Amazon Select is a scam. I enrolled 30 books in it and they touted how they were distributing 17 million to those enrolled. I sold 500 books and got a whopping $17.00 of the bucket. Suffice to say I de-enrolled those books. Amazon has a huge footprint, and that's the only reason I publish there at all.

Don't kid yourself. Amazon Select is a scam.

There's an author (Alec Hutson) who visits on wattpad who is doing so well as a Fantasy novelist that he was able to quit his day job after publishing his first novel (Crimson Queen). He says he makes more on KU than sales (and he does very well on sales).

Now someone like him gets paid more from KU than you or me. The top authors (based on pages read) get some sort of bonus from the pot.

I've discussed Select with him many times. He says an author is crazy not to enroll in Select.

If you write long works like epic fantasy or multi-book YA, KU gives you more dollars.

I meant to write that in my last post but it never came out right so I deleted it before posting.

I told Alec that my strategy was not to enroll a new novel in Select when it first comes out and then after it's been out for a while enroll it in KU. My logic is that I get paid more for a sale than if someone reads the entire book in KU.

Alec said he earns the same. But he writes books 150,000 words or more. I write novels between 75,000 to 95,000 (actually, my current work in progress is over 97,000 and growing with my editing).

So the size of your novel plays into how much you earn in KU. If you remember, when KU started, as long as the reader read 10% of your novel you got paid the same as others no matter what the length was. So authors gamed the system and put out short novels. Being short, it was easier to reach the 10%. And if someone read two 50,000 word novels instead of one 100,000 word novel you'd get paid twice as much.

Considering that Bookapy's rates are very competitive with the other sites, it won't put anybody at a disadvantage.

Not quite true. But I understand your position.

New rules are effective immediately:

Very clear, straight forward, and easy to abide by. Thanks for the update.

I've updated the rules for Promotions

Book Sales: Any promotional links or text to sell your complete books are allowed only if they point to our book shop Bookapy.com.

When I asked if that applied to the cover page on my ebooks, you responded with:

It would be weird for readers, but fine for me for now to make it easy for authors to make their books on Bookapy without too much work. Although, it would be foolish for you to direct buyers from Bookapy to Amazon considering the difference in royalties that you get.

Is it still okay? I only maintain one version of the ebook.

I've unchecked the box on Amazon KDP that automatically renews my enrollment in their Select program which requires exclusivity for 90 day intervals. As the novels are freed from that contract terms, I plan to put them on Bookapy. But the cover page has a section for "Books by S.W. Blayde" where the Amazon ASIN is listed (you already undid the actual link when clicking on the title).

Is that still okay?

Switch the terms relate to Stories on Line limiting advertising there to be directing people to Bookapy. As I know I'm a little literal about how things are worded, and while I see the changes as being very clear about no outside advertising on SoL, I see nothing in it to stop you including a reference to your Amazon site or your own site or another site inside the e-book you sell on Bookapy. If I'm wrong Lazeez will soon let me know.