Question re: Smashwords and B&Noble

christwriter · Jan 22, 2013

So free books sell books. I do not think anybody can disagree with that. My initial plan was to write a very very short story, make it free, and have it point to the other books in its series.

This has not worked.

Amazon is the place that sells the most books, followed by Barnes and Noble. These are the two places where you'd want the free books. But you can't set the price as free via KDP or Pubit, and the old favorite trick (set it free on smashwords, let Amazon and Barnes and Noble catch up) puts you in breach of contract with both programs.

So far, the only alternative has been to enroll your books in KDP Select and unenroll them everywhere else. This works to a point, but it gets really unsatisfying if you want to go play with the other kids in the pool. And it doesn't mesh with what I wanted to do from day one, which was to have a permanently free story dangling out there like a lure, and not have the cycle through the books I want to be paid for in the hopes that the freebie-gimmies will continue after the book goes back to paid.

So my question is this: If you upload a book to Smashwords, make it free, and opt in to all the distribution channels, will Barnes and Noble.com accept the free book? If this book is not already published on either Amazon or Barnes and Noble, you won't be in breach of contract having it free on Smashwords, it would be up on Barnes and Noble (in theory) within a couple weeks, and Amazon can just sit there and suck on it (the irony of having a book free everywhere BUT Amazon feels rather nice) I could use the front and back matter to link (discreetly, most likely via the launch pages on my website) to the other books in this hypothetical series and see what goes from there...but all that only works if Barnes and Noble will take free books from Smashwords.

Has anybody tried this before?

Katie Elle · Jan 22, 2013

My understanding is that currently B&N will accept a free book from Smashwords. However, that's based on an old agreement and the new kid in town draft2digital has said it's against B&N's new agreement to accept free books. Kobo also accepts free books if you upload direct.

J. Tanner · Jan 22, 2013

Most of Smashwords vendors (including BN as Katie mentioned) accept free books.

Write one short and post it there for free. That will get you wide coverage.

Write a second short story and make it exclusive to Amazon via KDP Select. Use free promos through that program as available. (some write multiple stories so they can have something free nearly all the time.)

That's the option to remain within everyone's terms.

Lots of writers just ignore the fine details of Amazon's KDP TOS and set the retail price lower than they should elsewhere and wait for price match. But that depends on each individial's willingness to accept the risks of bending the rules.

merrihiatt · Jan 22, 2013

I have listed books free at Smashwords and they show up at B&N and other sites as free (not Amazon). I have been considering writing a trilogy and listing the first book free indefinitely through Smashwords. The thought: get the first book free and people will pay for the other two so they can continue with the story. If more people would purchase from Smashwords rather than Amazon, the playing field could change. Don't see that happening anytime soon, but it could happen.

christwriter · Jan 23, 2013

J. Tanner said:
Most of Smashwords vendors (including BN as Katie mentioned) accept free books.

Write one short and post it there for free. That will get you wide coverage.

Write a second short story and make it exclusive to Amazon via KDP Select. Use free promos through that program as available. (some write multiple stories so they can have something free nearly all the time.)

That's the option to remain within everyone's terms.

Lots of writers just ignore the fine details of Amazon's KDP TOS and set the retail price lower than they should elsewhere and wait for price match. But that depends on each individial's willingness to accept the risks of bending the rules.

The depressing thing is that KDP Select is only effective for the first 30-60 days after a title is released. After that, you get de nada from it. KDP Select is a useful tool, but it's also a hungry voracious beast that must be constantly fed with new stories.

I play things too straight to cheat, sadly. :/

sarahdalton · Jan 23, 2013

You could price-match. I'm not sure if that's bending the rules. It's certainly not breaking them as long as you read their TOS carefully.

The only thing is getting it out of the free price-matching. If you'd like the short story to be permanently free I don't think it would be a problem.

J. Tanner · Jan 23, 2013

sarahdalton said:
You could price-match. I'm not sure if that's bending the rules. It's certainly not breaking them as long as you read their TOS carefully.

It's bending the rules if you apply some "spirit of the rules" justification and it's absolutely breaking the rules with a strict reading of the TOS and confirmed by Amazon customer service.

But it's rarely and weakly enforced with minimal consequences at this moment leading to a culture of apathy in regards to compliance from authors. So it really comes down to your personal boundaries.

J. Tanner · Jan 23, 2013

christwriter said:
The depressing thing is that KDP Select is only effective for the first 30-60 days after a title is released. After that, you get de nada from it.

I found it to be valuable from Dec 2011 to Feb 2012 before the first changes on Amazon's side. A few have continued to have good luck since then, but the glory days are gone by most accounts, mine included.

christwriter · Jan 23, 2013

J. Tanner said:
It's bending the rules if you apply some "spirit of the rules" justification and it's absolutely breaking the rules with a strict reading of the TOS and confirmed by Amazon customer service.

But it's rarely and weakly enforced with minimal consequences at this moment leading to a culture of apathy in regards to compliance from authors. So it really comes down to your personal boundaries.

My emphasis up there. That's why I don't go with rule-breaking. If somebody changes their mind and enforces a stricter interpretation of the rules, and I went along with the rule breaking? I'm screwed. And I don't want to be screwed. It's like the nonsense with fake reviews. I like reviewing books I enjoy, but because Amazon is now frowning on KDP authors reviewing other books, I get to wonder each time I give my opinion on something if it's going to stick around or not.

J. Tanner · Jan 23, 2013

Their current review policy is unfortunate, but authors are primarily responsible for causing the change even though most of us never abused the old policy. We all get to reap what some of us sowed.

Smashwords · Jan 24, 2013

Hi all, Mark from Smashwords here. All Smashwords retailers accept FREE books from us. By my read of the Amazon Terms of Service, if you set your KDP book to the 35% royalty option, then distribute a FREE book through Smashwords to the major retailers, then Amazon says they have the right to price match you to FREE without compensating you, but they *do not* state it's a violation of their ToS (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). Hundreds of Amazon authors have been gaming the Amazon system this way to achieve perma-FREE for so long that Amazon could have stopped this two years ago if they wanted.

Re: free series starters, yes, it's one of the most powerful marketing tools. Make the first book perma-FREE and see what happens. Perma-FREE is much more effective than Amazon's limited KDP-Select 5 days-per-quarter, plus you don't have to succumb to exclusivity. You can get your books at every major retailer. I talk about the power of FREE in my free ebook, The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success.

Re: top retailers, Amazon is the largest, but their market share has dropped over the last few years. When I look at where our 50,000 Smashwords authors are selling the best, it's at the Apple iBookstore, followed by Barnes & Noble, then the Smashwords.com store, then Kobo, then Sony, then Diesel, then Blio. We only distribute about 200 titles to Amazon, whereas we're distributing 100,000+ titles to these others.

Market share numbers from publishing industry pundits are always backward looking and out of date. Apple will be the big retail story of 2013. Most people don't realize it yet, but they're already the #2 retailer for indie authors. Based on Smashwords results, they've been #2 for indie authors for at least 9 months. Barnes & Noble is still doing really well, though from my data Apple grew the fastest in 2012.

You can read my 2013 prediction here: http://blog.smashwords.com/2012/12/mark-cokers-2013-book-publishing.html

J. Tanner · Jan 24, 2013

Smashwords said:
By my read of the Amazon Terms of Service, if you set your KDP book to the 35% royalty option, then distribute a FREE book through Smashwords to the major retailers, then Amazon says they have the right to price match you to FREE without compensating you, but they *do not* state it's a violation of their ToS (someone please correct me if I'm wrong).

Hi Mark. Nice to see you drop in here.

I believe you are mistaken. Here's the language in question, bold mine:

4. Setting Your List Price

You must set your Digital Book's List Price (and change it from time-to-time if necessary) so that it is no higher than the list price in any sales channel for any digital or physical edition of the Digital Book.

But if you choose the 70% Royalty Option, you must further set and adjust your List Price so that it is at least 20% below the list price in any sales channel for any physical edition of the Digital Book.

By "list price in any sales channel," we mean the suggested or recommended retail price or, if you sell your book directly to end users, your own sales price, for an edition of the book available outside of our Program.

So as you can see, the List Price set to 0.99 at Amazon, and the Smashwords price set to 0.00 (by the author) would be a violation of Amazon's terms since the former price may be no higher than the latter and it currently is.

Amazon customer service has confirmed this interpretation. I believe Merri has the exact email exchange in her self-publishing diary thread here.

To remain within the Amazon terms the free promotion would have to be separate from the list price, and presumably initiated by retailer/distributor rather than the author.

For example, if the author still set the list price to their required 0.99 in this example on Smashwords then checked an "allow Smashwords to promote this book for free" (with perhaps an option between X days per month and "forever") then it arguably* could technically fall within Amazon's terms. But as is, you have to read the above very liberally and ignore Amazon's customer service to come to the conclusion you state.

*I am not a lawyer.

stranger · Jan 24, 2013

I thought the same as J. Tanner that setting your book free was against Amazon's TOS, but that it wasn't enforced. However, I just came across this post on Kindleboards where a person was told it wasn't against their TOS to set it free.

post

DRMarvello · Jan 24, 2013

[ETA: I just looked at the post that "stranger" posted and realized that it was going my own post on KindleBoards! Anyway, here's the gist for those of you who don't want to click over...]

I thought the same thing about the wording of the T&C with regard to pricing. The language seems pretty clear to me, but someone told me I was wrong, so I checked into it myself.

Here's what I sent to Amazon:

According to the KDP T&C, authors are supposed to price their books "no higher than the list price in any sales channel for any digital or physical edition of the Digital Book." However, it is a common technique for authors to make one or more of their books "perma-free" by setting the price to free on another site (e.g. Kobo or Smashwords) and then waiting for Amazon to price match.

So, my main question is this: is it a violation of the KDP Terms and Conditions to price your book at free on another site?

We can't set the price at KDP to anything lower than 99 cents, so it seems that putting it free elsewhere would be a violation of the T&C. On the other hand, Amazon has price matching policies that include matching to free, so is that policy implied permission to price free elsewhere?

Thank you for taking the time to consider my questions.

Here's the answer they sent back:

Hello,

No, its not a violation of our Terms and Conditions to offer your book for free on another sales channels.

From time to time, we may match free promotions on other sales channels, but we retain discretion over our retail prices.

Thanks for using Amazon KDP.

merrihiatt · Jan 24, 2013

J. Tanner is correct that I contacted Amazon directly. It took several emails to get a direct statement that anything less than offering the title at the same price (i.e., minimum of $.99 cents since that is the lowest price Amazon offers) is in violation of their ToS.

DRMarvello · Jan 24, 2013

merrihiatt said:
J. Tanner is correct that I contacted Amazon directly. It took several emails to get a direct statement that anything less than offering the title at the same price (i.e., minimum of $.99 cents since that is the lowest price Amazon offers) is in violation of their ToS.

I'm not surprised that Amazon is being inconsistent on the subject.

Even though I was "proven wrong" by Amazon CS, I decided that I'm not going to play the "price match to free" game. I believe Amazon will eventually enforce the "no lower price" rule because they want to reserve going free as a KDP Select benefit. That's my theory, but it may never happen.

J. Tanner · Jan 24, 2013

I probably should have mentioned that Amazon CS is known for inconsistent answers and they have, at times, even explained to authors the entire how-to of price matching to free using Smashwords. (If you emailed a minute later you might have been "proven" right.)

Despite that, the evidence seems weighted toward violation.

Even so, given the inconsistency and lax enforcement I don't think there will be serious repercussions for authors who choose to use the method. (Maybe your book reverts to draft mode and you get a warning to fix the pricing. Some might consider a book not being on sale on Amazon for a few days more serious than I do.)

christwriter · Jan 24, 2013

It makes me curious how Amazon would respond if authors were willing to pull their books from Amazon to have a permanently free title on other channels that isn't a direct violation of Amazon TOS.

My game plan as of right now is to pull the "to be freed" title from Amazon as soon as the KDP Select term is up, and to maintain a different series as a KDP Select freebie (cycling the books over to the other channels as soon as the enrollment terms are up and the freebies are no longer successful). I'd rather have effective marketing, at this point, than maintain DOA titles on Amazon.

Laer Carroll · Jan 24, 2013

My tactic is to drop the price to $.99 rather than free. THAT is allowed by Amazon and it's close enough to free to get a good response from readers. Also, it's completely up to you if you drop the price for a week or a month or whatever.

DRMarvello · Jan 25, 2013

christwriter said:
My game plan as of right now is to pull the "to be freed" title from Amazon as soon as the KDP Select term is up, and to maintain a different series as a KDP Select freebie (cycling the books over to the other channels as soon as the enrollment terms are up and the freebies are no longer successful). I'd rather have effective marketing, at this point, than maintain DOA titles on Amazon.

I reached pretty much the same conclusion. I put the first book of my trilogy into KDP Select for 6 months, and I used the free days to participate in a group promotion and to test metadata changes. The second and third books are going to skip KDP Select, because I can't see how making just the 2nd or 3rd book of a series free would work.

I started the Magic Appreciation Tour because I discovered that group promotions with other authors in your genre give your marketing efforts more leverage than anything you can do alone.

A publisher I know speculated that the reason going free continues to work at all has more to do with the marketing effort the author puts into the promotional campaign than the fact that the book is free. She theorized that authors might be able to get similar (or even better) results by putting that same effort into a non-free campaign. I intend to test that theory!

My tactic is to drop the price to $.99 rather than free. THAT is allowed by Amazon and it's close enough to free to get a good response from readers. Also, it's completely up to you if you drop the price for a week or a month or whatever.

Yep, that's what I decided too. Plus, putting your price at 99 cents means your sales count toward your PAID ranking, which I suspect has way more value than whatever you might achieve in the FREE rankings for the short period you are allowed to be free. That's another theory I intend to test.

Windvein · Jan 25, 2013

I have a free book at Amazon.

I wanted to chime in with my personal experience. I have a perma-free book at Amazon that has been free for maybe 2 years now. Amazon has never contacted me to say I am in violation. They've given me more trouble over my use of the word 'tsk' than the book being free. (I've had to explain to them twice now that yes, tsk is a word.)

Your idea to offer "a very very short story, make it free, and have it point to the other books in its series," may backfire. I don't have much experience with general short fiction, but readers may be disappointed to receive a short story that only exists to sell the full version book. If they think it's a teaser and not a full short story, you may get slammed by 1-stars.

christwriter · Jan 25, 2013

The one I wanted to post is about 13K, and IMHO it stands alone rather well. It didn't have much bearing on the next (30k word) story, though the story I'm working on right now rests heavily on the events both in it and in the preceeding story. It should be less "taste" and more "TV pilot".

Not that I'm the best judge of my own work. What I can judge, though, is that it's my second-best seller, and it got one of my few reviews--a five star.

I just think of 13K as really short.

Windvein · Jan 25, 2013

13k is definitely more than I was thinking. I was thinking you might mean something in the 5k range. It sounds like it could do very well.

Just to warn you in case you're not already aware, it's hard to judge sometimes when Amazon will price match if you go the Smashwords route with the freebie, and Smashwords also has some delay to it (premium catalog approval and whatnot). If you decide to go this route, just be ready to wait a bit for everything to fall into place.

Question re: Smashwords and B&Noble

christwriter

Resistance is Everything

Katie Elle

J. Tanner

merrihiatt

Writing! Writing! Writing!

christwriter

Resistance is Everything

sarahdalton

J. Tanner

J. Tanner

christwriter

Resistance is Everything

J. Tanner

Smashwords

J. Tanner

stranger

practical experience, FTW

DRMarvello

merrihiatt

Writing! Writing! Writing!

DRMarvello

J. Tanner

christwriter

Resistance is Everything

Laer Carroll

Aerospace engineer turned writer

DRMarvello

Windvein

christwriter

Resistance is Everything

Windvein