# Amazon E-Books Vs. Nook Books



## Ankari (Jul 25, 2012)

I would like to ask everyone who has either published, or just knows a whole lot, why everyone publishes their books on Amazon but rarely on B&N?  Is it more lucrative to publish on Amazon?  Is it because B&N takes too much of the money?

Please share


PS: I own a Nook.  I do have a smartphone with the Kindle App just a few clicks away, but I rather have all my books in one catalog.


----------



## T.Allen.Smith (Jul 25, 2012)

It's simply because Amazon is the single largest online retailer of books (E-books included).

That, and most authors don't market themselves effectively or aggressively.


----------



## Steerpike (Jul 25, 2012)

I initially had my book available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the other markets Smashwords makes available. I left it that way for a few months, but invariably almost all my sales were through Amazon. I had one or two here and there through the other sellers, but that's about it. So I signed up for Amazon's Select Service.


----------



## Ankari (Jul 25, 2012)

I read somewhere, and I think Steerpike made the post, that the percentage of ebooks sold vs the amount of Nooks on the market is higher compared to the Kindle.  Would this not motivate people to try at Nook?


----------



## T.Allen.Smith (Jul 25, 2012)

I don't know the sales figures but it seems to me the amount of devices & e-book sales would be ordered:

Kindle/Amazon ----> iPad/iBooks ----> Nook/B&N

That's the order of priority I'd shoot for...


----------



## Ankari (Jul 25, 2012)

Wait, you're saying that Ipad/iBooks sell more than Nook Books?  Even though you can download the Nook app on any Android or Apple device?  You can't do that with iBooks.


----------



## T.Allen.Smith (Jul 25, 2012)

Ankari said:
			
		

> Wait, you're saying that Ipad/iBooks sell more than Nook Books?  Even though you can download the Nook app on any Android or Apple device?  You can't do that with iBooks.



Like I said, I don't have any sales data. But I would think, considering the popularity of the iPad & iPhone, iBooks would outsell Nook. Yes you can download the Kindle app & the Nook app onto an iPad/iPhone but for the same reason you stated above they may not be used as much as iBooks.... Keeping the library in one place.

Now, if one of those two other apps (not iBooks) was going to be used over iBooks, it would probably be the Kindle app.

Don't take this as gospel tho Ankari... This is just my opinion. Nothing more.


----------



## Taro (Jul 25, 2012)

i honestly haven't really thought of publishing something as an e-book, but seeing this thread makes me want to try. saying that most books/e-books are sold through amazon might because of a larger base of customers, where i remember hearing B&N were closing....


----------



## Ankari (Jul 25, 2012)

Doing a little research.  I found a link that details market share by platform.  It includes the iPad and Android Tablets.  As of February 2012, the Kindle has an amazing 43% (graphical estimate) of the market share.  The nook as 17%.  The iPad has 10% and the Android Tablets have 16%.  You can find the data here.

From these numbers, its best to go with Amazon first, Nook then iBooks.  Now, if the platform market shares don't translate into ebook market shares, that's a different story.  I'm looking it up now.

Edit: For some reason, it's really hard to find market share numbers for ebook sales.  I did get three numbers.  B&N at 25%, Apple at 22% and Amazon at 60%.  As you can see, the numbers don't add up.  I'll try again tomorrow.


----------



## T.Allen.Smith (Jul 25, 2012)

When you look for Apple data, look at iTunes. That's the platform the book sales actually go through. 

I'm interested to see what you find.


----------



## robertbevan (Jul 25, 2012)

Steerpike said:


> I initially had my book available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the other markets Smashwords makes available. I left it that way for a few months, but invariably almost all my sales were through Amazon. I had one or two here and there through the other sellers, but that's about it. So I signed up for Amazon's Select Service.



how's that been working out for you? are there any advantages with the select service beyond being able to set your price to 'free' once in a while? i mean, do you get any more visibility from it? i don't know much about it. have you found it's improved your amazon sales?

the logic i'm going with for now is to get my ass visible on every possible platform i can. so it's amazon, smashwords, and everywhere that smashwords sends me out to for me.


----------



## JCFarnham (Jul 25, 2012)

The way I see it, if you aren't on all platforms that are free for you to use, why? Even if it doesn't translate to more sales, 1) You aren't losing anything, it's free and 2) You must be more visible, right? (This is of course ignoring the paid for services. I don't understand the advantage yet.)

I know if I came across a ebook I really wanted, but wasn't able to because it wasn't offered for the reader I had... well I'd be pretty pissed. I'd wonder why for a start. Then I'd probably ignore that author's work for the eformat.

So from this I deduce that being on Smashwords is probably a pretty decent method. Though conversely signing up for each service therein individually would work just as well. 

Purely because I'm interested in other points of view Steerpike; Was your decision to quit smashwords solely because of insignificant sales, or was it prompted by something else? I've heard some don't like the stats system, or x number of other things about it. Just curious is all.


----------



## Telcontar (Jul 25, 2012)

I also use Amazon and Smashwords. I have contemplated going directly through Kobo or B&N's self-pub service a couple times, but in the end that would probably take up a lot more time. I've been generally satisfied with Smashwords and they aggressively seek out new markets to distribute to, so I'm happy to stick with them.

If there comes a day when they finally cut a deal to distribute to Amazon, I might even entertain the possibility of pubbing through Smashwords alone - though I'd have to see what the market looks like at that point before I decide.


----------



## TWErvin2 (Jul 25, 2012)

For myself and the other authors with my publisher, Kindle is the venue where the majority of ebook sales are made. Nook, iTunes, Kobo, and Smashwords all added together don't = the Kindle sales.


----------



## Ankari (Jul 25, 2012)

I must be in the minority.  I won't buy an ebook from Amazon.  All of my purchases are through Nook solely.


----------



## Steerpike (Jul 25, 2012)

robertbevan said:


> how's that been working out for you? are there any advantages with the select service beyond being able to set your price to 'free' once in a while? i mean, do you get any more visibility from it? i don't know much about it. have you found it's improved your amazon sales?



Your logic is the same as mine was. In practice, I'm not sure how effective it was. After switching to Amazon Select my sales did go up, as did my royalties. That's a correlation, and I can't say for sure the switch caused it. There has been a slow climb in sales since then. Just last night I received my largest royalty disbursement yet - a whopping $71


----------



## danr62 (Jul 25, 2012)

Remember that the Ipad isn't built specifically for reading e-books, where the Kindle, Nook, and Kobo are. So even though there may be tons of Ipads out there it doesn't mean that people are buying a bunch of e-books on there.


----------



## T.Allen.Smith (Jul 25, 2012)

Ankari said:
			
		

> I must be in the minority.  I won't buy an ebook from Amazon.  All of my purchases are through Nook solely.



Likewise I buy almost everything thru iBooks. However, for titles that iBooks doesn't have I will use kindle. In that regard, we are both in the minority.


----------



## Steerpike (Jul 25, 2012)

JC : my decision was based on lack of sales. I thought about exposure,  but while it sounded good in theory, sales seemed to indicate that I wasn't getting much of it through b&n,  smashwords, &c.


----------



## Ankari (Jul 25, 2012)

Since I didn't know this, I'm sharing it with you guys.  Microsoft has thrown their weight with the Nook.  They've invested over $1.7 billion in the Nook division, also offering patents and such.   You can find the story here


----------



## Benjamin Clayborne (Jul 25, 2012)

JCFarnham said:


> The way I see it, if you aren't on all platforms that are free for you to use, why? Even if it doesn't translate to more sales, 1) You aren't losing anything, it's free and



It's only free if your time has no value. It does take a non-zero amount of time to prepare and publish your ebook for multiple markets. (Unless you go through Smashwords, as I understand it, but even then there's a learning curve, and one might have other reasons for avoiding Smashwords.)

Not that it's not worth it, but the cost of publishing to additional platforms is not _zero_.


----------



## JCFarnham (Jul 26, 2012)

In theory I see what you're saying, but what I'm talking about is spending your _properly_ free time. I obviously don't mean taking time out of chroes or work for publishing. My philosophy on time (bare with me haha) is that there 24 hours in a day. If you can't find some time you'd usually spend doing nothing useful at all then... well... you're a busy, busy person and I hope it's worth it 

I may not have been completely clear before (though the following might confuse you more... woops hope not). The free comments weren't in relation to time/money spent on prep. The "free" was for the platforms alone one is able to upload stuff to without incuring an _extra_ cost. I'm not sure if this is the case as I haven't checked it out yet, but _if_ I'm right then there's no reason _not_ to publish with them (in my opinion). 

I would probably end up ignoring the prep costs of the unit to be sold at the end of the day because you have to pay it anyway so there's not much point in worrying about them (non negotiable). Anything on top would be the "cost" I'm talking about, the marketing costs and others like that (and I am speaking in only monetary terms, after all see my philosophy on free time.) 

Sorry for not being clearer.

So yes, to bend this aside back towards the many topic, I would publish stuff every where I can with out breeching sole rights (if it mattered). That Ankari and others on here would only buy books for their respective devices shows us that we actually _are_ missing out on readers if we don't.

Smashwords seems particularly good to me for publishing across most but not all of these divides.


----------



## BWFoster78 (Jul 26, 2012)

I have a Nook as well.  I did download a Kindle App because a friend published a book only in that format. 

I have no intention of buying a lot of Kindle books, though.


----------



## Steerpike (Jul 26, 2012)

BWFoster78 said:


> I have no intention of buying a lot of Kindle books, though.



Do they not work right? I have been thinking about finding an app that lets me read ePubs on my Kindle Fire. So far, anything I have opened on my Kindle Fire that is not in "Kindle" format reads just fine. If the Nook doesn't play well with other formats you might look a the Google Nexus Tablet. I think that will read all of them well with the proper app.


----------



## Benjamin Clayborne (Jul 26, 2012)

JCFarnham said:


> I may not have been completely clear before (though the following might confuse you more... woops hope not). The free comments weren't in relation to time/money spent on prep. The "free" was for the platforms alone one is able to upload stuff to without incuring an _extra_ cost. I'm not sure if this is the case as I haven't checked it out yet, but _if_ I'm right then there's no reason _not_ to publish with them (in my opinion).



No, I understood what you meant; my point is that the time you spend dealing with other platforms is time you could also be spending doing something else (like writing new material, or marketing your existing pub on Amazon). There's an opportunity cost to taking the time to deal with multiple platforms.


----------



## BWFoster78 (Jul 26, 2012)

Steerpike said:


> Do they not work right? I have been thinking about finding an app that lets me read ePubs on my Kindle Fire. So far, anything I have opened on my Kindle Fire that is not in "Kindle" format reads just fine. If the Nook doesn't play well with other formats you might look a the Google Nexus Tablet. I think that will read all of them well with the proper app.



I downloaded the app onto my PC, not the Nook.  I don't mind reading on my computer, but I'll stick mostly to buying from B&N.  

We have a B&N rewards card.  I've gotten both my wife and my Nooks free and most of my reading material.


----------



## Steerpike (Jul 26, 2012)

BWFoster78 said:


> I downloaded the app onto my PC, not the Nook.  I don't mind reading on my computer, but I'll stick mostly to buying from B&N.
> 
> We have a B&N rewards card.  I've gotten both my wife and my Nooks free and most of my reading material.



Ah...got it. I think you can put the Kindle app on the Nook as well. I'm putting support for as many different formats as I can on the Kindle Fire, so if I want to buy from B&N I'll be able to read it on there.


----------



## BWFoster78 (Jul 26, 2012)

Steerpike,

That makes sense.  I'm not sure a lot of people do that, though.  Until I had a specific reason to buy something from Amazon, I had no intention of downloading an app to access their format.


----------

