Established authors, as well as self-published authors, are now finding that Kindle Direct Publishing offers many advantages over Print-on-Demand, or POD. In fact, many authors are not even trying to get their eBooks onto other platforms, such as Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, or iTunes, nor are they interested in producing paperback editions. At first glance, this would seem to be counterproductive since one would think that sales would increase by also increasing the number of sales outlets for a title.
Kindle Direct Publishing Select offers many advantages, however. First, Amazon's Kindle store outperforms all other online eBook outlets. Also, several authors have found that Amazon does a better job advertising titles on their site when authors promise exclusivity. Sales are definitely generated by Amazon's trademark ads that state, "Customers who bought this title also bought . . . ."
That having been said, it is advisable to follow a few rules of thumb. Kindle Direct Publishing Select offers an author the option of offering a book for free for a limited number of days for promotional purposes. Nothing boosts sales more than giving away something for free. People like to download free books, and this can result in increased reviews on the Amazon site.
In turn, positive reviews result in customers going to the promotional websites of a book or author, sites where the book is also offered for sale by a link back to Amazon. This is when an author may choose to offer the book for .99 cents for a period or time, after which the price may be increased. Sales are usually optimal at $2.99 per title regardless of the length of the book, although many authors move up to $3.99.
The book must be well-written, of course, but if an author has a quality product, Kindle Direct Publishing and Kindle Direct Publishing Select offer a great deal of opportunity in this new age of publishing.
~ William Hammett
Index of Articles
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Monday, June 10, 2013
Fifty Shades of Boring
Fifty Shades of Grey, an erotic thriller by British author E. L. James, was published in 2011 by Vintage Press. It has been a huge financial success for its author and publisher. The public still loves its vicarious sex in an age of "anything goes" combined with "I am so terribly bored with my life."
We have seen this tale before: older man initiates young virgin into the world of forbidden pleasures and sophistication. Vanity, vanity, there is nothing new under the sun. Christian Grey will escort young Anastasia Steele into a sordid world that is devoid of any real meaning, corrupting the innocence of his toy in the process. The world in Fifty Shades of Grey is a depressing place, with no redemption possible on its existential stage. One survives by submitting to pain or manipulating the body of a lover as one would a puppet or a rag doll.
What is troubling is that we not only have another book of BDSM--bondage, dominance, and sadomasochism--that makes sexual love voyeuristic rather than exciting or meaningful, but we also have sex that is codified by document. Grey wishes Steele to sign a contract specifying that she will not reveal any of their physical acts, nor will these acts be construed as love. Contractually, the sexual acts will be sex for the sake of sex, nothing more. Given that is already the case in the age of the hook-up, forcing someone to sign a contract stipulating that sex will be meaningless is redundant, but it is yet another manipulative tool used by Grey on "Ana."
To sign a contract promising sex--sex under strict, limited conditions--is yet another way of degrading one's lover and robbing him or her of the status of "equal" or "other." The grand concept of romantic love as a union of partners sharing their bodies and innermost selves with mutual respect and trust is trivialized in this novel of small-minded titillation and gratification of the ego. Pain and dominance do not achieve worthy goals in any area of life, and we need only look at business and government to see obvious examples. Pain and dominance have, in fact, fueled most of mankind's wars. The subjugation of others through arbitrary law, rules, and violence bears no fruit, and it certainly does not enhance personal relationships. Instead, it creates or reinforces severe dysfunction.
S&M is nothing new, and for some couples it is a lighthearted role-playing game with "silken bonds." So be it. Fifty Shades of Grey, however, portrays BDSM in a more sobering light in which two conflicted souls will sell their integrity to unsuccessfully try to define their humanity and discover the meaning of human relationships.
Walker Percy wrote several novels about the spiritual malaise of the modern age. He was especially interested in how people who are psychologically adrift will try new lovers, more lovers, and endless variations on the sex act in order to fulfill themselves. They are, as he said, "lost in the cosmos." It is obvious that Grey and Steele are among this number, individuals who have such little ego structure that they have no way to live authentically and truthfully.
The book, of course, is not literary fiction, nor does it really qualify as erotica either. It is soft-core porn according to the definitions of most critics. Author Sir Salman Rushdie said, "I've never seen anything so badly written that got published. It made Twilight look like War and Peace." In the New York Times, Maureen Dowd described the book "like Bronte devoid of talent." Jesse Kornbluth of the Huffington Post said, "Fifty Shades of Grey is a sad joke, puny of plot."
It's trite. It's been done before. To paraphrase Dylan, it's "too much of nothing." So what are we to make of such a literary success? The answer is grim. We want to read anything that will make us forget, however briefly, our own existential angst. As Walker Percy said, sometimes the best thing a person can do is adopt a little humility and take up golf course maintenance. Sadly, Ms. James didn't go this route.
~ William Hammett
Index of Articles
We have seen this tale before: older man initiates young virgin into the world of forbidden pleasures and sophistication. Vanity, vanity, there is nothing new under the sun. Christian Grey will escort young Anastasia Steele into a sordid world that is devoid of any real meaning, corrupting the innocence of his toy in the process. The world in Fifty Shades of Grey is a depressing place, with no redemption possible on its existential stage. One survives by submitting to pain or manipulating the body of a lover as one would a puppet or a rag doll.
What is troubling is that we not only have another book of BDSM--bondage, dominance, and sadomasochism--that makes sexual love voyeuristic rather than exciting or meaningful, but we also have sex that is codified by document. Grey wishes Steele to sign a contract specifying that she will not reveal any of their physical acts, nor will these acts be construed as love. Contractually, the sexual acts will be sex for the sake of sex, nothing more. Given that is already the case in the age of the hook-up, forcing someone to sign a contract stipulating that sex will be meaningless is redundant, but it is yet another manipulative tool used by Grey on "Ana."
To sign a contract promising sex--sex under strict, limited conditions--is yet another way of degrading one's lover and robbing him or her of the status of "equal" or "other." The grand concept of romantic love as a union of partners sharing their bodies and innermost selves with mutual respect and trust is trivialized in this novel of small-minded titillation and gratification of the ego. Pain and dominance do not achieve worthy goals in any area of life, and we need only look at business and government to see obvious examples. Pain and dominance have, in fact, fueled most of mankind's wars. The subjugation of others through arbitrary law, rules, and violence bears no fruit, and it certainly does not enhance personal relationships. Instead, it creates or reinforces severe dysfunction.
S&M is nothing new, and for some couples it is a lighthearted role-playing game with "silken bonds." So be it. Fifty Shades of Grey, however, portrays BDSM in a more sobering light in which two conflicted souls will sell their integrity to unsuccessfully try to define their humanity and discover the meaning of human relationships.
Walker Percy wrote several novels about the spiritual malaise of the modern age. He was especially interested in how people who are psychologically adrift will try new lovers, more lovers, and endless variations on the sex act in order to fulfill themselves. They are, as he said, "lost in the cosmos." It is obvious that Grey and Steele are among this number, individuals who have such little ego structure that they have no way to live authentically and truthfully.
The book, of course, is not literary fiction, nor does it really qualify as erotica either. It is soft-core porn according to the definitions of most critics. Author Sir Salman Rushdie said, "I've never seen anything so badly written that got published. It made Twilight look like War and Peace." In the New York Times, Maureen Dowd described the book "like Bronte devoid of talent." Jesse Kornbluth of the Huffington Post said, "Fifty Shades of Grey is a sad joke, puny of plot."
It's trite. It's been done before. To paraphrase Dylan, it's "too much of nothing." So what are we to make of such a literary success? The answer is grim. We want to read anything that will make us forget, however briefly, our own existential angst. As Walker Percy said, sometimes the best thing a person can do is adopt a little humility and take up golf course maintenance. Sadly, Ms. James didn't go this route.
~ William Hammett
Index of Articles
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