Top 25 Ebooks - Does Price Really Matter?

Digital Book World's most recent ebook bestseller list is highly illuminating, especially in light of the Amazon vs Everybody wars. One of the contentions raised by Amazon is that in order to maximize book sales, prices of ebooks must be kept low. Their recommendation is $9.99. Publishing houses disagree.

There are a couple of questions raised by the claim that low prices means more sales, one of which is "whose books?" For unknown authors, a low price will stimulate sales. But for popular authors, buyers are willing to pay a higher price.

Another question is whether authors will get a bigger cut of the profits reaped by ebooks. So far, publishing houses are not willing to share, and while Amazon gives its authors up to 70% of retail, for most self-published authors, royalties are still negligible.

Note that on this top 25 list, all the ebooks represented have been published by major publishers. Also note that these publishers are either undercutting Amazon, or charging more than Amazon's recommended price.

Top 25 Ebook Best-Sellers

Week Ending 8/2/14Sponsored by:

Rank*	Title	Author	Publisher	Price**	Change
1 (10)	If I Stay	Gayle Forman	Penguin Random House	$    4.99	+9
2 (2)	The Fault in Our Stars	John Green	Penguin Random House	$    4.99	–
3 (2)	The Goldfinch: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)	Donna Tartt	Hachette	$    6.99	-1
4 (6)	Gone Girl: A Novel	Gillian Flynn	Penguin Random House	$    8.52	+2
5 (n/a)	Big Little Lies	Liane Moriarty	Penguin Random House	$   10.99	New
6 (n/a)	Not a Drill: A Jack Reacher Short Story (Kindle Single)	Lee Child	Penguin Random House	$    1.99	New
7 (8)	Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption	Laura Hillenbrand	Penguin Random House	$    4.99	+1
8 (7)	Act of War: A Thriller	Brad Thor	Simon & Schuster	$   12.74	-1
9 (20)	Outlander: A Novel	Diana Gabaldon	Penguin Random House	$    4.99	+11
10 (3)	Invisible	James Patterson; David Ellis	Hachette	$    8.99	-7
11 (n/a)	Fifty Shades Freed: Book Three Of The Fifty Shades Trilogy	E L James	Penguin Random House	$    7.99	New
12 (9)	Chill Factor: A Novel	Sandra Brown	Simon & Schuster	$    1.99	-3
13 (11)	Orphan Train: A Novel	Christina Baker Kline	HarperCollins	$    6.99	-2
14 (4)	The Heist: A Novel (Gabriel Allon Book 14)	Daniel Silva	HarperCollins	$   13.99	-10
15 (15)	Divergent	Veronica Roth	HarperCollins	$    4.99	–
16 (13)	Insurgent (Divergent Book 2)	Veronica Roth	HarperCollins	$    6.99	-3
17 (5)	The Book of Life: A Novel (All Souls Trilogy)	Deborah Harkness	Penguin Random House	$   11.99	-12
18 (14)	Allegiant (Divergent Series)	Veronica Roth	HarperCollins	$    6.99	-4
19 (16)	The Husband’s Secret	Liane Moriarty	Penguin Random House	$    9.99	-3
20 (12)	Top Secret Twenty-One: A Stephanie Plum Novel	Janet Evanovich	Penguin Random House	$   10.99	-8
21(n/a)	Where She Went (If I Stay Book 2)	Gayle Forman	Penguin Random House	$    4.99	New
22(n/a)	Fifty Shades Of Grey: Book One Of The Fifty Shades Trilogy	E L James	Penguin Random House	$    4.99	New
23(n/a)	All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel	Anthony Doerr	Simon & Schuster	$   10.99	New
24 (25)	A Perfect Life: A Novel	Danielle Steel	Penguin Random House	$   11.84	+1
25(n/a)	Death by Food Pyramid	Denise Minger	Primal Nutrition Inc.	$    0.99	New

* Previous week’s list rank in parentheses.

Round 8 of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars: Amazon vs Disney

This week Amazon removed the preorder option of nearly every title from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

I am beginning to see a pattern. Amazon changes the terms of its contract with a publisher. The publisher objects to a unilateral change in terms. Amazon punishes the publisher and/or its authors by withdrawing the preorder option, or by removing its titles entirely. Authors, nations, official bodies get involved and the New York Times writes an article about the dispute.

Douglas Preston, one of the authors hurt in the Hachette-Amazon dispute, sums these battles up nicely. "It is," he says, "like talking to a 5-year-old." Preston, a best-selling author, is circulating a letter that, so far, has garnered 909 signatures. The letter asks Jeff Bezos to stop using authors as hostages.

It is unlikely that Amazon will change its tactics. But given the huge loss Amazon recently suffered, it might be a good idea if they played nice for a change.

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Disney Disc Preorders Disappear From Amazon

Home Media Magazine, 7 Aug, 2014 

By: Chris Tribbey

The preorder option for almost every title from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has been removed on Amazon, in an apparent repeat of what Warner Home Video went through earlier this summer.

Preorder options for practically every major disc release from Disney are currently unavailable, including Muppets Most Wanted (Aug. 12), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Sept. 9), Million Dollar Arm (Oct. 7) and Maleficent (Nov. 4). The Blu-ray Disc combo release of Disneynature’s Bears is still available for preorder ahead of the title’s Aug. 12 street date.

Representatives from Disney and Amazon were not immediately available for comment.

From mid-May to late June, preorders for most Warner titles were unavailable on Amazon, with the two sides working out a new distribution deal. It marked the first time Amazon halted preorders as a negotiating tactic. Amazon Instant Video early electronic sellthrough of new-release Warner titles were unaffected.

The same situation appears to be occurring with Disney: those shopping Amazon for Muppets Most Wanted on disc, which streets in just a few days, are told to “Sign up to be notified when this item becomes available.” However, Amazon Instant Video versions of the film ($14.99 for standard-def, $19.99 high-def) are still available for preorder (“plus bonus features,” the listing reads).

Disc options for Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Million Dollar Arm aren’t listed at all, while Amazon Instant Video preorder options remain.

Amazon has been in a months-long contract dispute with book publisher Hachette, and has employed similar tactics, removing preorder availability for books from the publishing house.

2 New Literary Agents Actively Seeking Clients

New agents are a boon to writers. They work hard, and are enthusiastic. (Enthusiasm goes far in this business.) Read their agency websites carefully to see who they have represented, and which publishing companies they have worked with. And don't forget to google both the agent and their agency to see what pops up.

Rachel Brooks's focus is fiction, specifically adult romance and young adult, as well as select women's fiction and cozy mysteries.

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Rachel Brooks of BookEnds

About Rachel: After three years as an agent at the L. Perkins Agency, Rachel Brooks joined BookEnds in June 2017. While at LPA she established a mix of romance, young adult, and cozy mystery clients. Prior to that she was apprentice to agent Louise Fury.

What she is seeking: Rachel's focus is fiction, specifically adult romance and young adult, as well as select women's fiction and cozy mysteries. To break it down further, in adult romance she's looking for high concept stories with sizzling chemistry. Some of her favorite tropes are enemies to lovers, fake relationship, and second chance romance. In young adult she especially wants to read manuscripts by authors of color and LGBTQIA authors (although this applies to adult projects too). In women's fiction she is selectively looking for modern, commercial stories with wit and humor, multicultural stories, and novels that explore the relationships between sisters. For cozy mysteries, she wants a lovable sleuth you can't help but follow for many books, with a strong series hook, humor, and pets serving as an extra brownie point.

How to submit: Use this form on the agency's site.

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Siobhan McBride of Serendipity Literary Agency

CLOSED TO QUERIES

About Siobhan: Siobhan McBride joined Serendipity Literary Agency in 2014. Raised in New York’s Hudson Valley region she studied painting, drawing, and ceramics before receiving her Bachelor of Arts in English and Creative Writing from SUNY New Paltz. She began her career in Publishing as an intern for the literary agency Objective Entertainment, and from there went on to work as a writer in the Editorial departments of various magazines including MovieMaker and Chronogram. Her passion for music and film led her to becoming the Music Editor of CriticalMob, eventually moving on to do freelance work with their parent company, Company Cue. Recently she has been tutoring young adults as a volunteer with 826NYC. Siobhan looks forward to creating lasting relationships with her clients and wants to work closely with them to give life to the vision of their work. Holding positions on both sides of the editorial field gives her a strong grasp of what an audience is looking for and the knack to balance that with a writers’ artistic drive.

What she is seeking: Siobhan is actively seeking voice driven narratives whether Fiction, Memoir, or Non-Fiction. She holds a strong interest in Literary and Gothic Fiction, Horror, Paranormal, Adult Dystopian, Mystery/Crime, Thrillers (bonus points if they’re psychological), Historical, daring Young Adult, and narratives with philosophical undertones. For Memoir and Nonfiction titles, she seeks Investigative, True Crime, and dark/bizarre History. Siobhan enjoys the dark, macabre aspects of life where paranormal fiction and horror are viewed an under appreciated art forms deeply rooted in psychology, and looks for authors unafraid to delve into these inner workings of the human psyche.

How to submit: Visit the submissions page on Serendipity’s website: serendipitylit.com. You can direct your submission directly to Siobhan by requesting her in the body of the submission form. The average response time is 4-6 weeks.

Why I Love Weird Al ... and Other Word Crimes

I love Weird Al. I have always loved Weird Al. (Who could resist that adorable face?)

But now I REALLY love Weird Al.

Not only does he know that "it's" is a contraction, he also knows what a dangling participle is. (Be still my heart!)

Now that I am backed by a celebrity, I feel inspired to add my own Word Crimes. And at the top of this list is:

1) Impact is not a verb. It is a noun. You can have an impact on something, but you can't impact it. It may be true that all your friends, TV announcers, and anybody with an MBA uses impact as a verb, BUT THEY ARE ALL WRONG! (And anyone who says "impactful" is going straight to hell.)

To continue my rant:

2) "Issue" does not mean "problem," it means a topic of debate. You can discuss an issue, but you cannot have one. (This grammar crime was fomented by therapists, who also have convinced susceptible individuals that they are "conflicted" when they have "issues.")

3) "Grow" is what you do with potatoes - not audiences, businesses, or twitter followers. (This is an MBA-speak crime.)

4) "Conflicted" is not an adjective. You can feel conflict, you can even be in conflict, but you can't be conflicted. (See number 2 above.)

5) "Different from" (or "different to" in Great Britain) is correct when you are comparing nouns, not "different than." For example, California is different from ... well, just about anywhere.

6) The object of a preposition is object case, not subject. Let's keep this between you and me, not you and I.

7) "Like" is for comparing nouns. "As if" is for verb phrases. I act like you, but we can't act like nothing matters. We must act as if nothing matters.

8) Plurals do not use apostrophes - ever. You own CDs, not *CD's.

9) A possessive goes with a gerund. "My going to California upset her" is correct, not *Me going to California upset her."

10) Reported speech uses declarative sentence structure. "I asked him what the time was" not *"I asked him what was the time." If you are quoting, you can use interrogative structure. Ex. I asked him, "What is the time?" (Reported speech is comprised of sentences beginning with phrases using verbs such as wonder, consider, ask, etc. Ex. I wondered what the time was. I considered what the alternatives were.)

11) "Lay" is a transitive verb. That means it requires an object. You lay a book on a table, or lay your head upon your pillow. "Lie" is intransitive. It does not take an object. Therefore, *"I'm going to lay down" is incorrect. "I'm going to lie down" is correct. Where this gets confusing is that the past tense of "lie" is "lay." "Last night I lay down at eight" is correct. (Note: "Lay low" is a colloquialism. Grammatically, it couldn't be more incorrect.)

If you are guilty of any of the above grammar indiscretions, you are doomed to suffer the eternal torment of grammarian hell. Also, people will assume you did not pay attention in my English class. (That's right. I'm talking about you, Pete.)

Round 7 of the Amazon vs Everybody Wars: Amazon vs the FTC

I am beginning to wonder how many rounds Amazon can take. So far, Amazon has been punched by France, kicked by Germany, bludgeoned by Stephen Colbert (that's gotta hurt), tastefully critiqued by the Authors Guild, and now it is getting hammered by the Federal Trade Commission.

What is at stake here? Well, Amazon allowed children to download games using their parents' accounts, but without parental consent. And what's more, they knew about it but did nothing. That annoyed the FTC. So, now the FTC is suing Amazon.

The FTC says it is "seeking full refunds for all affected consumers, disgorgement of Amazon's ill-gotten gains, and a court order ensuring that in the future Amazon obtains permission before imposing charges for in-app purchases."

I am delighted to see that the FTC has such literary flair - "ill-gotten gains" indeed.

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Daily Report: F.T.C. Sues Amazon Over Billing for Children’s App Purchases

By THE NEW YORK TIMES, July 11, 2014

The Federal Trade Commission filed a suit in a Federal District Court in Seattle on Thursday, contending that Amazon improperly billed customers for “many millions of dollars” of charges that children made without their parents’ consent. The suit focuses on charges related to games downloaded through Amazon’s app store.

Read the rest of this article here. 

Graphic Novel Sales Hit $870 Million in 2013

Once relegated to gathering dust under the beds of pre-teens, and eventually their parents' garages, comics and graphic novels have expanded their reach by leaps and bounds over the past decade.

Publishers Weekly recently posted this interesting article (see below) about the breakneck speed at which the comics sector is expanding.

If you are a graphic novelist, click below for publishers accepting manuscripts from writers.


7 Graphic Novel Publishers Accepting Manuscripts Directly From Writers

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Comics, Graphic Novels Market Hit $870 Million in 2013

By Calvin Reid | Jul 16, 2014

Led by book format comics with $415 million in sales, the North American comics and graphic novel marketplace generated $870 million in sales in 2013, according to a new estimate by ICV2 and Comichron, two comics industry trade news and data sources. The estimate includes sales of traditional comic book periodicals, digital comics, and book format comics in both the comics shop market, newsstands and the general book trade.

Chart courtesy of Comichron and ICV2.com.

According to new estimates, the $870 million figure for 2013 can be divided into $365 million in sales from comics periodicals—traditional American comic books—sold almost entirely via the direct market or comic shop market, the network of about 2,000 comic shops around the country. Comichron also noted that about $25 million of the $365 million in periodical sales come from newsstands.

Book format comics or graphic novels, have grown into the largest section of the comics market. Graphic novels generated $415 million in sales in 2013, divided between sales in the comics shop market ($170 million) and general bookstores ($245 million).

Digital comics sales, the newest and fastest growing category in the market, are estimated to be about $90 million in 2013.

Read the rest of this article here.

2 Literary Agents Looking for Fiction, MG, YA, New Adult Fiction and Narrative Nonfiction

Updated 1/15/23

These two agents are looking for clients. Pam Pho has a passion for adult genre fiction (no erotica) as well as MG, YA, and New Adult fiction. Mackenzie Brady Watson focuses on narrative non-fiction for all ages and select Young Adult fiction.

As always, go to the agency's website before sending your query. See which publishing houses they have worked with, what type of books they have represented. And don't forget to do a google search on the agency (and agent) to check for other authors' experiences. Remember: Agents may close their lists, and submission requirements can change. 

You can find a full list of agents actively seeking new clients here: Agents Seeking Clients

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Pam Pho at Steven Literary

About Pam: Pam began her career as a literary assistant to an agent in 2012. In her first two years as an agent, Pam brokered 24 deals, with publishers such as Knopf, Scholastic, NAL, ACE, Grand Central, and others. She joined D4EO in June 2014, where she will continue to build her list. In October of 2022 she created Steven Literary, named after her favorite soul-mate dog.

What she is looking for: Pam has a passion for adult genre fiction (no erotica) as well as MG, YA, and New Adult fiction.

How to submit: Pam accepts queries through the Query Manager.

Mackenzie Brady Watson at DeFiore and Company

About Mackenzie: Mackenzie began her publishing career as an intern at Fine Print Literary Management and Farrar, Straus & Giroux. She was an agent with Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency and New Leaf Literary & Media before joining SKLA in 2016.

What she is seeking: She is actively looking for compelling, deeply researched narrative non-fiction that guides readers toward a better understanding of the societal forces and systems that shape their lives, whether it takes the form of "big idea" books, literary journalism, feminist history, science, or cultural criticism.

On the fiction side, she is interested in stories that are deeply rooted in place (especially if that place is Maine), examine the formative relationships (romantic or platonic) of youth or the lives we could’ve led. She’s also hungry for literary mystery, a juicy love triangle, and anything that can make her laugh.

How to submit: Please send your query letter and either your full proposal (for non-fiction) or 20 pages of your manuscript (for fiction/poetry) in the body of an email addressed to mbwquery@skagency.com.