♫Bettman, na na na na na na na na na na na na, Bettman,....♫

[captainsblog]

Two nights ago, it seemed that the NHL players and a group of owners, meeting without the lightning-rod lawyers of both cabals, had narrowed the gap in their negotiations to manageable term issues. How long would the deal last? And how long could teams sign players for?  The differences were in small single digits. I settle cases weekly over smaller gaps. And yet, when the suits showed back up yesterday, it all went to bloody hell, and now nobody's talking with nobody again, concessions (and I don't mean beers and salty pretzels) have been pulled off the table, and we're suddenly closer than ever to our second all-out canceled season in less than a decade.

A pox on both your houses.

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My LJ friend hooton linked to an even more depressing article relative to my own situation. Yes! TYTBABS! Heeee.....was....my....2012Nano!!!!!!!

Problem is, the things that other friends of mine did to self-publish? And nonetheless gain massive online pub and presence for their self-publications by leveraging Amazon's need to add such books, and e-books, to their catalogs? Jeffy doesn't need so much, now that our Justice Department has beaten back the Big Six  Five However Many Are Left in their efforts to monopolize bookseller pricing through their coordinated "agency model." This effort has now reduced the prices of the Kings/Rices/Rowlings of our world, and the niches for n00bs are now disappearing:



#1 Garnering lots of of Amazon reviews: A great deal of John Locke's success was due to his huge number of positive Amazon reviews. His "how I made millions" book claimed this was due to his expertise in targeting the right reader.

But it turns out his expertise was actually in buying fake reviews.

The paid review and sock-puppet review scandals that rocked Amazon this summer after revelations by Locke--and an embarrassing number of others--have resulted in a draconian crackdown on all Amazon reviews.

The L.A. Times reports that many authors have found their reviews disappearing. Some popular legitimate reviewers have had all their reviews (of indies and trad-pubbed books alike) deleted with no explanation. I've seen lots of reports from authors who have lost dozens of reviews for no apparent reason. And authors who question the arbitrary removals are told they'll be banned from selling on Amazon forever if they dare to question any action by the Great Zon. Even Amazon advocate Joe Konrath thinks they've gone over to the dark side with this.

Amazon now bans authors from reviewing other authors' books in their own genre. They claim this is because their TOS guidelines ban reviewing by a "competitor," and this protects against attacks on rivals by sock puppets. But they delete positive and negative reviews alike. And not only from authors in their own genre. Some people have been told all published authors have been banned from reviewing. (If the New York Times or the New Yorker did this, they'd have to go out of business. Authors have ALWAYS reviewed other authors.)

2) Using free ebooks to raise your Amazon profile. Elisa Lorello had her big Christmas 2009 success because she offered her book free on Amazon that day. That pushed her to the top of the "bestseller" list and raised her book from obscurity to the top of suggested "also boughts" and "top sellers" that appear on every Kindle.

But in late 2011, Amazon introduced KDP Select. Only authors enrolled in the "Select" program are now allowed freebie give-aways. Select requires exclusivity. If you sell ebooks at Barnes and Noble, iTunes, Smashwords, Kobo, etc—or even on your own website—you aren't allowed to list a book as "free" on Amazon.

And the "also boughts" and "top sellers" also heavily favor books in the KDP Select program.

3) Selling mass quantities of 99 cent ebooks to become a bestseller on Amazon. A year ago, D.D. Scott, the force of nature behind the Writers Guide to E-Publishing, preached the gospel of "Snickers-bar marketing" and the 99 cent ebook.

But that has all changed. Here's what she said last week,

"Up until a few months ago, using the 99 Cent Price Point got you a ton of fabulous VISIBILITY ….You could more than make up for a higher royalty per book (using a price point of $2.99 or above) because of the higher quantity of books sold at the lower 99 Cent price.

BUT…not anymore!!!

Due to the agency pricing/cost-fixing schemes and the resulting Department of Justice settlement with a few of The Big Six Publishers – with several more holding out for litigation, many Big Six/TradiPubs are lowering their prices to between 99 Cents and $3.99.

Also…and this is HUGE…Amazon’s algorithms have definitely changed to favor the TradiPub books at these lower prices."