David Hickman: Trumpet Pedagogy

trpt.hick · Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2015 9:39 am Post subject:

I thought about selling a PDF version, of course, but then everyone would be able to email it to their friends and students for free. I'm not into giving it away! I'm looking for a way that only the purchaser can download it. I know that it is possible to do this if I sell a non-downloadable CD, which means that even the buyer cannot download it onto their hard drive. It would be an inconvenience, however, because the viewer would need to load the disc every time it is to be viewed, and not all machines accept CDs these days.

I'll figure it out eventually. I have a few geeky consultants to help.

DH

PS. True, the original terms APPEAR that Amazon Kindle will pay a 70% royalty, but you must read the 29 pages of fine print! They are very clever in the way they screw authors.

dstdenis · Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2015 9:59 am Post subject:

I found something in the kindle direct publishing terms and conditions that looks like that share of pages read thing you mentioned. This has to do with the Kindle Select program, which is entirely optional.

If you wanted to make your book available in Kindle Select, customers who have bought kindle subscriptions or use the lending library would also get to read your book, but without buying it. Since they aren't buying it, your royalty would be based upon a share of subscription revenue calculated by page reads of your book as a ratio of total page reads in the program.

Anyway, Kindle Select is optional. It appeals to authors who want to get readers anyway they can in hopes of favorable reviews and word of mouth marketing.

If you don't participate in Kindle Select, customers just have to buy your book to read it, and you'd be paid royalties on sales as expected.
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jaysonr · Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 1:56 pm Post subject:

Mr. Hickman, dstdenis is correct from what I understand. I know several people who have Kindle books on the market, and it's a 70% royalty rate minus the "delivery cost". The Kindle select part is optional.

I for one would love to have your book in my Kindle library.

I hope this helps, and best of luck with whichever delivery method you choose.
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trpt.hick · Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 2:46 pm Post subject:

Thanks, but if you look at blogs where authors discuss their royalty payments from the 70% deal, you read many horrible stories about the fact that Kindle can change the price of the books listed with them whenever and however they want. There seem to also be lots of hidden charges, too. Most authors who think they will get a 70% deal (minus shipping costs) end up with an average of 10-20% in royalties.

Another problem is that my book is on an 8.5 x 11-inch format, so it will not fit onto most devices in a readable way. The print would need a microscope!! Changing the format so the number of pages double or triple will require redoing the Index altogether.

I am still looking for good alternatives.

Dave

jaysonr · Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 2:56 pm Post subject:

I'm curious how a Kindle or the iPad/Desktop Kindle app would handle your books format. As a Theology student I have many books which are quite large in print and also have them on Kindle. Some even include illustrations, etc. The Kindle has a dynamically adjustable font. I wonder if Amazon has a way for you to "test" your book on Kindle, just to see how it looks. It might be interesting to try and just see how it would format.

The same goes for PDF, I'm sure you'd want some beta testers, because I don't know how flexible the Kindle devices/apps are with PDFs that are imported. I would think you'd have less control over how it "looks" on the end users device if you released in PDF -- just a thought.

As for the royalty info, I'm strictly going off of second hand info. In either scenario, I look forward to hearing what you are able to do for an electronic copy.

All the best!
Jayson
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jaysonr · Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 3:00 pm Post subject:

Oh, and one more thing to consider (since I've never seen your book in print), is that my biggest pet peeve with Kindle books are how footnotes/endnotes are handled. Since your book is more academic, and I'm not sure what style of referencing (if any) is used this is something I just now thought of. I personally loathe endnotes in print books favoring footnotes, but my field generally uses Chicago/Turabian, and I think I'm just more used to footnotes...in either case, once it's in Kindle everything effectively becomes "endnotes" and is generally hyperlinked within the text.
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dstdenis · Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 4:20 pm Post subject:

trpt.hick · Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 11:22 pm Post subject:

Its great for consumers, but a raw deal for authors. Amazon can change the sales price whenever it wants. For instance, a book that is listed for sale at $10 may not sell as well as Amazon feels it should, so it may lower the sales price (without consulting the author) to $1 to boost the number of sales. After fees, the royalty amount may be only 30-40 cents. This sucks for the author.

GrowlerBox · Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2015 1:20 pm Post subject:

I have no idea about their royalties system, but I like Google Books as a consumer -- having the option of displaying scanned original pages as well as "flowing text" (more or less like the Kindle approach) is a bonus for me, and it means you can retain the look of your carefully formatted print version.

MusicFit

Any chance we might be able to get this soon? Im about to cave and buy a used copy from someone, but i'd hate to get it and then see it come out digital!

trpt.hick · Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 9:34 pm Post subject:

I hate to say it, but I'm now thinking that it will be unavailable in any format for another year or two. Then, I will update it to make a Second Edition, which will come back as a hardbound book. I'm not 100% decided, though.

DH

Pops · Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2016 3:28 am Post subject:

The straight 70% rate is only for books under 15 dollars and even then about half of the time they only allow you 35% even on the cheap books.

I know that because I have a few of my less expensive books on Amazon.
However the program that David is talking about is their newest promotion. They really push it and you can get almost nothing for a book on that.

If David did a straight book sale on Kindle then his book would give him a 35% royalty less expenses.

The Apple store is where the book should go. Many of my books are there. (I don't know how to set music for their system.)

The Apple store generates a lot of sales and they treat you fair.
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dstdenis · Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2016 5:27 am Post subject:

k0elw · Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2016 11:22 am Post subject:

It is a little unnerving that Amazon knows how long you spend on each page.
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Joseph.Bowman · New Member Joined: 25 Nov 2014 Posts: 7

hendan10 · Posted: Tue May 17, 2016 1:33 pm Post subject:

Thanks!

trpt.hick · Posted: Tue May 17, 2016 2:00 pm Post subject:

I am currently having my website set up to sell hard copies AND digital downloads of most publications. The pedagogy book will soon be available as a digital file only, and for way less money than the hardbound book used to be. I will keep everyone posted.

DH

maxfinis · Regular Member Joined: 02 Mar 2013 Posts: 45

David, the iBooks (for Apple's App Store and iTunes) that Pops mentioned is a great option to do what you're wanting to do. They make it really easy for non-developers to create all kinds of "books" that can include multi-media options and special formatting in addition to straight text. Most moderately technical users (those comfortable with computers) can create content free of charge. Unlike with Amazon, Apple allows you almost total control over the sales. The only caveat is that only Apple users (iOS – iPhone, iPad, Apple computers) can get it, but there is a big market for that anyway. I would be glad to help, or point you in the right direction if you want.