Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Holidays

I am sure everyone and anyone who has any level of access to news media has heard about the new lineup of Kindle devices.  The only one that means anything in my opinion is the Kindle Fire.  The others are just more of the same with shiny new packaging.  I think Tychus Findlay said it best.  Hell, it's about damn time.



The only concerns I have with the Kindle Fire is it's marketing.  First is do not try to become a tablet iPad competitor.  It needs to remain an eReader first and a tablet second.  The last thing Amazon needs to do is piss Apple off and they pull the Kindle for iPod/Pad app and force everyone to go to Apples iBookstore.  With over 250 million iOS devices out there, this would be a serious blow to Amazon.  As far as self publishing goes, most of us won't be too effected because our works are already on the iBookstore.  The exception being that Amazon is king of the eBook and it would take quite a while for sales to migrate.  Amazon should focus on doing what they do best only better, not try and take on Apple who since the invention of the iPod and the iTunes store has single-handedly crushed all attempts at trying to compete.



So what does this mean for us?  My prediction is this holiday season, bad economy and all, Amazon is going to have a mega year.  There will be millions of new Kindles sold.  Some will be replacing older models, but a lot of them will also be new owners.  Nooks and iPads also will be unwrapped come December 25th.  This is something that you will want to leverage for yourself if you can.

My advice is to have something ready to go this holiday season.  If your current book is ready, consider delaying to December.  If you are almost done, put in some extra hours so it's ready to go for December.  Have a series already out?  Create an anthology.  Have a sale, something.  There is going to be about a two to four week window after Christmas that has everyone playing with their new eReader and you will want to take advantage of this.


10 comments:

  1. This makes sense. I wish I could have something ready for December. I have a kindle fire on my wish list. Hopefully, by the time they're available in England I'll have the pennies :-)

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  2. I agree that this holiday season will be huge for Amazon/the Kindle. Some family of mine have already placed their orders, and I'm planning on gifting one too. (Heck, I'm even eyeing up that Fire for myself... I already have a Kindle, but it looks pretty tempting. Maybe eventually.)

    From a publishing viewpoint - I've got some books coming out in late November. I'll probably release something in December, too. ;)

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  3. I've heard great things about the Fire, so I bet it'll do great over the holidays!

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  4. Kindles like crazy and soon everyone will be reading digitally except for me. Well, sometimes it seems that way. I'm sure I'll catch up. In any case, you've provided some smart advice.


    Lee
    Tossing It Out

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  5. @Sarah- Hehe, yeah. I'm sure they are going to be on a lot of wish lists.

    @Ranae- I think there are some other days of the year that work as well. Mothers and Fathers day comes to mind.

    @Megan- Welcome. I bet Amazon is banking on it too.

    @Arlee- My sister is a teacher and loathed eReaders. Till she got a nook. She's converted.

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  6. It'll be fun to watch how the Kindle Fire does over the next few months and early into next year. An exciting time for ebooks and for us writers as well :)

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  7. Makes a lot of sense. I do have something, but currently its in the query stage. Lets see if I can finish something I have started by the holiday season.

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  8. @Aron- Exactly.

    @Rachna- Part of that business end of publishing that a lot of indie authors tend to overlook.

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  10. Hi SBJones...I would love it if you will do a guest post on my blog. There is so much you can teach us about publishing and marketing our books.

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