Eoin Purcells talks about the addition of 3 new titles to Amazon Encore and has some really good thoughts, including this -
… if every season (twice a year say) they leap 300% by the end of 2012 they would be publishing over 2000 titles …
even at a lesser pace they could easily be publishing 100, 200, 300 titles a season.
Are we ready for that? I don’t think we are.
Do read his previous post on Amazon Encore which is stellar.
What does the Expansion of Amazon Encore mean?
Mostly that Amazon is serious about Amazon Encore.
Here are a few more things it might mean -
- Amazon do see themselves as the platform for all of Publishing.
- Amazon want to participate in every part of the publishing value chain.
- The first book Legacy must have been successful to some extent.
- The six month interval suggests Amazon has a set schedule and it would not be a surprise to see 10-20 books for August 2010.
- Amazon intend to connect authors with readers - think about it a bit and that could be interpreted in a thousand ways.
The way Amazon plan on re-introducing books to readers -
through marketing support and distribution into multiple channels and formats, such as the Amazon.com Books Store, Amazon Kindle Store, Audible.com, and national and independent bookstores via third-party wholesalers.
Is Amazon Encore going to be the first .500 Publisher?
Amazon is picking up authors after they have already vetted their concept.
We’re talking about Authors who have -
- Gotten dozens of good reviews on different blogs.
- Great reviews at Amazon.
- Spent a ton of time polishing their books.
- Done a ton of promotion.
- A finished book that is good enough to make readers very happy.
- (in some cases) Fan bases.
- Have a very compelling, marketable personal story.
It’s very different from taking a manuscript and turning it into a book.
Amazon is taking proven books that haven’t gotten enough exposure and giving them some time in the spotlight. That’s not at all high-risk.
Amazon Encore is a new form of Drafting Authors
That’s a good way to think of it.
- You have all these independent authors rising through the ranks.
- Publishing doesn’t realize they’re marketable because they don’t fit the mold.
- That leaves just Amazon – Amazon is cherry-picking the best.
The question is – Just how much draft research are Amazon doing?
- Are they looking at sales trends – almost certainly.
- Reviews and online reviews – definitely.
- Do they have patterns of what makes a book successful? X Reviews + Y Sales + Z demographic = 90% Success Probability.
- Are they studying past self-published books that were picked up by big publishers and became successes?
- What is the Secret Sauce? Is there a Secret Sauce?
- How big of a role do Kindle sales and user reading behavior play in selecting books for Amazon Encore?
- Do they compile book search history and statistics?
Could Amazon Encore be a way to greatly minimize Risk and change the playing Field?
If Amazon develops a success predicting algorithm they could -
- Predict the exact risk on every book and offers terms accordingly.
- Turn Publishing from ‘one success pays for 9 failures’ into ’5 successes and 5 failures’.
That would change everything.
It really is a complete rethinking of Publishing.
What is the biggest reason Publishers feel their share is justified? They take the risk.
Is Amazon minimizing risk to the point that it’s no longer a top factor?
Filed under: publishing | Tagged: amazon encore
