Writer Sanctum
Writer's Haven => Quill and Feather Pub [Public] => Topic started by: Matthew on March 16, 2024, 12:24:46 AM
-
Having just published another book, I went back and read through some people's publishing plans and experiences. One thing I've seen from a few people is that they buy copies of their ebook.
I'm curious if anyone does, what the reasoning is. I'm Amazon exclusive, and they provide a few tools for making sure things work well. After they generate the final ebook file (now an epub), I download it and check it in Calibre and Kindle Previewer. Then I send it to my Kindle and check out how it looks there.
The only reasons I can think of for buying your own book are to make sure it really can be bought (and royalty statements reflect a sale) or for easy access in the future to quickly download the book again on any device. It's not like you're paying the full price anyway since you get money back as the royalty. But I've never really felt the need to buy my books.
-
I've done this with various retailers. One reason is to make sure the store you're selling the ebook to is error free and links work properly. Another is to have a copy in their reader. If you're talking paperbacks, you can buy author copies.
-
Nope.
I have book 1 because it was on freeby, but nothing since.
But the advantage is, it's on your book list then, and you can use that to double check if the update buttons appear on the books or not after you do a change.
I get proofs of all paperbacks though.
-
But the advantage is, it's on your book list then, and you can use that to double check if the update buttons appear on the books or not after you do a change.
Oh, that's smart! I'll have to consider that as well.
-
I used to. Now that they're in KU I borrow them. :icon_mrgreen:
-
I used to. Now that they're in KU I borrow them. :icon_mrgreen:
Though I'm in Kindle Select, I've been paranoid about getting caught in the nets when they terminate KU abusers/bots collecting page reads. Is this fear justified? Maybe not. I haven't found anything in the terms of service that says you can't read your own books.
-
About the KU question, I can't be sure, but I don't believe there is anything prohibiting you from reading your own books.
I always buy mine to make sure nothing went wrong in the conversion process. It's a rare problem, but I have heard of it occurring. There were also issues with preorder books in which Amazon didn't incorporate an author's last update, even though it had been submitted in a timely fashion.
The only way to know for sure is to buy.
-
Don't know about KU. The KU reads issue could be a concern regarding Amazon TOS. :icon_think:
-
If Amazon were logical, it ought not be an issue. You can get royalties from buying your own ebook. By the same principle, you should be able to get pages read for the first reading of it. But even if you couldn't, it make more sense for Amazon just not to count those pages than to use the ban hammer. Or they could just prohibit authors from downloading their own books in KU.
-
I followed the advice to buy my own ebooks when I first did this, even though I downloaded the previewer and so on. These days, I buy a copy when I discount the ebook--if I remember. You can always put a book in your cart, if being able to buy it is something you want to check. I hadn't thought about reading it in KU; I guess I could for the books I publish that aren't wide.
I used to buy a proof copy of the print edition, but once they put that defacing banner across the cover--thus making it impossible to be sure that the cover was okay--I stopped. I typically buy a certain number of the printed books. In recent years, I haven't had to return any for poor manufacturing, but six or seven years ago there always were some. Amazon claims the right to be somewhat off register on covers, so I always ask my cover designer not to create a hard color break between front, spine, and back cover. That eliminates the visual issue. I've never had any problems sending back poorly manufactured books and getting replacements. Usually, sending a photo with the claim is enough to get things moving.
-
I do, mostly to check to see if I/retailer went with the correct version of the book, yeah
-
No. I've gotten a couple when they were free and downloaded one in KU by mistake.