# Pixel of Ink Closing -- AMZ affiliate changes -- MERGED thread



## nightfire (Mar 22, 2012)

Wow. Just. Wow. Pixel of Ink is no more. 

From their site:


> All Good Things Must Come To An End
> 
> Dear Readers, Authors, Family & Friends,
> 
> ...


http://www.pixelofink.com/


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

EreaderIQ is also no longer able to be an Amazon Affiliate.  not sure they are related, but very odd coincidence. Those two sites have been around long as I can remember. EreaderIQ is going subscription, not closing down yet. Sad to hear about POI.


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## Kate. (Oct 7, 2014)

Whoa! They announced they were planning to re-open advertising slots earlier this month, too. =(



> Many of you have been eager to hear when we will have advertising spots available and we are happy to share that time is almost here! We will send an announcement a few days prior to opening. So, stay tuned for more details on that front!


Something dramatic must have happened to change it so quickly. Elizabeth's theory could be right.


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## AuthorX (Nov 11, 2014)

It's more shocking to me is that a website owner with that much stake would simply put a closure notice on their front page rather than selling the brand to another party for a few hundred thousand or whatever it's worth.

Silly, silly peeps


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## nightfire (Mar 22, 2012)

AuthorX said:


> It's more shocking to me is that a website owner with that much stake would simply put a closure notice on their front page rather than selling the brand to another party for a few hundred thousand or whatever it's worth.


I agree with this to some extent. They may have had offers from companies that they didn't want to have access to the emails lists they built over time. Someone may have bought the list and they are keeping it quiet. The site, the content, the email lists, the traffic, they are all worth money. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds.


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## nightfire (Mar 22, 2012)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> EreaderIQ is also no longer able to be an Amazon Affiliate.  not sure they are related, but very odd coincidence. Those two sites have been around long as I can remember. EreaderIQ is going subscription, not closing down yet. Sad to hear about POI.


I also heard that, along with Fussy Librarian having issues with the affiliate program.

I'm heavy into affiliate marketing and managing but I knew that Amazon is fickle and can change their decisions to enforce their TOS or not in a heartbeat. That is one of the reasons my sites do not only rely on the Amazon affiliate program for revenue, no matter how much authors wish all book promotion sites could.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

How to dominate the world in three steps:

1. Create a really easily-implementable affiliates system.
2. Allow a lot of powerful lists to become dependent on affiliates that funnel a gazillion customers to your site.
3. Wipe out the lists one by one. Customers are all yours.

*curtain falls*

Crap about POI. I was looking forward to buying an ad spot.

ETA: The Sequel: Amazon vs Bookbub.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Amazing is making its latest move for world domination. Won't be long before there will be Bookbub and Goodreads alone

http://the-digital-reader.com/2016/06/15/amazon-brings-the-hammer-down-on-discount-ebook-sites/


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> Amazing is making its latest move for world domination. Won't be long before there will be Bookbub and Goodreads alone
> 
> http://the-digital-reader.com/2016/06/15/amazon-brings-the-hammer-down-on-discount-ebook-sites/


And yet, when you visit that link, all the listed articles in the right-hand column spell "Amazon", "Kindle", "Amazon", "Kindle", "Amazon", "Kindle", ad nauseam. How long before someone wakes up?


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## UnicornEmily (Jul 2, 2011)

Patty Jansen said:


> ETA: The Sequel: Amazon vs Bookbub.


Hee hee. That I would like to see.

I just hope Amazon doesn't buy Bookbub. I'm kind of afraid that will happen. It would definitely not be a good day for wide indies.


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## over and out (Sep 9, 2011)

1


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## Guest (Jun 16, 2016)

Patty Jansen said:


> How to dominate the world in three steps:
> 
> 1. Create a really easily-implementable affiliates system.
> 2. Allow a lot of powerful lists to become dependent on affiliates that funnel a gazillion customers to your site.
> ...


#nailedit


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## UnicornEmily (Jul 2, 2011)

Oh, eep.  I wasn't thinking about Amazon smacking down BookBub.  I was thinking about BookBub being the only site with a chance of taking on Amazon.  I really want to see them be able to start their own standalone wide e-book store, and give Amazon a serious run for their money.

Anyway, yeah, Patty, you really nailed it.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Bookbub and other sites "can" survive without affiliate income, but only by raising prices or adding sponsors/advertising to their emails...

Oh look, Bookbub has ads at the bottom of emails now. I bet they are going to offer authors ad space... oh look, they just did


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> Bookbub and other sites "can" survive without affiliate income, but only by raising prices or adding sponsors/advertising to their emails...
> 
> Oh look, Bookbub has ads at the bottom of emails now. I bet they are going to offer authors ad space... oh look, they just did


We'll see a lot more of this.

In the interview with MD, I was hoping Kate would say that they're looking into a long-ish term project to offer books directly from their site. They're well-placed to do that.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

It's a real shame. Pixel of Ink was a real champion of indie work, always treated authors fairly and decently. Too many sites today are about the quick buck, way overcharging for pretty meager results. Pixel of Ink took a very different approach and will be sorely missed.

Good luck to Sharon & David in whatever they do next.


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## UnicornEmily (Jul 2, 2011)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> Bookbub and other sites "can" survive without affiliate income, but only by raising prices or adding sponsors/advertising to their emails...
> 
> Oh look, Bookbub has ads at the bottom of emails now. I bet they are going to offer authors ad space... oh look, they just did


Oh, good point! You think that might be because of the Amazon affiliate problems? That did happen relatively shortly after Amazon started doing stuff.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

UnicornEmily said:


> Oh, good point! You think that might be because of the Amazon affiliate problems? That did happen relatively shortly after Amazon started doing stuff.


I think so. I clicked a BB book cover the other day and didn't notice an affiliate tag. It wasn't a free book. I might have missed it, but I remember looking for it because of the TOS stuff going around lately.


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

What a shame, I wish Sharon & David luck. From every author I have heard from it seems they had a very personal attention service. 

What really amazes me is how many sites depend on the Amazon affiliate program as their only means of income.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Vinny OHare said:


> What a shame, I wish Sharon & David luck. From every author I have heard from it seems they had a very personal attention service.
> 
> What really amazes me is how many sites depend on the Amazon affiliate program as their only means of income.


I'd be interested then, Vinnie, since you're in that industry, what you see as alternative income stream. I feel that already a lot of sites charge too much for what the results are worth, so I doubt there is much room for them to move.


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

Patty Jansen said:


> I'd be interested then, Vinnie, since you're in that industry, what you see as alternative income stream. I feel that already a lot of sites charge too much for what the results are worth, so I doubt there is much room for them to move.


Im sure BookBub doesn't rely on amazon affiliate at all. It is probably chump change for what they make by charging what they do. They probably only used it for tracking since it is easy to set up. POI could have changed their business model and charged 1/3 or 1/2 of what BB charges and be just fine.


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## Melody Simmons (Jul 8, 2012)

Vinny OHare said:


> Im sure BookBub doesn't rely on amazon affiliate at all. It is probably chump change for what they make by charging what they do. They probably only used it for tracking since it is easy to set up. POI could have changed their business model and charged 1/3 or 1/2 of what BB charges and be just fine.


So sites can link as long as it is not affiliate links? Or no links at all? Will Amazon come down on sites that use just plain links eventually?

If they allow normal links sites can still try to survive by charging for services - either charging the ones who advertise or the ones who get the newsletters. Or did they make such a huge amount of money through the affiliate program that nothing else is now worth considering?

POI was the first free ebook site I signed up for years ago! I'm going to miss them.


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

oakwood said:


> It's too bad. Somewhere along the line they must have been in breach of Amazon affiliate tos. Amazon relies heavily on affiliates to funnel biz so cutting off big players is not something amazon would _want_ to do. There is no competition since none of these sites are taking any biz away from Amazon, the opposite. I've never heard of or met a fellow affiliate who got knocked out for no reason. many times tho, it's a reason they didn't know about or had ignored since every one else was ok with it. There's so much fine print and rules to comply with it's a big part of being an affiliate just to stay compliant.
> 
> Amazon have always ben VERY strict that their TOS (which changes over time) is adhered to. This includes unlicensed use of amazon logo, not identifying links as affiliated, cloaking of links etcetcetcc - none needs be done maliciously, but not in line wit TOS perhaps out of ignorance.. which is easy if you're using third party system service providers to handle stuff, since they don't give a hoot or even know the basic requirements. A good example is the many instances of wordpress plugins that facilitate creating links to amazon, even on automation. Many/most of these plugins actively cloak the link. Some of them actively manipulate the 90 day cookie feature that is essentially a cart cookie not intended for direct linking. On top we have the cloudy mixup of promoting a product you may have reviewed (or your site has, indirectly though users) that you have also published. an almost impossible web to untangle.
> 
> For me the bottom line is as always... if you're promoting as an Amazon affiliate, make 100% sure your operation is squeaky clean and 100% compliant including every little bit of code, privacy policies, cookie management and affiliate identifiers. Same goes for KDP. I see a lot of trying to manipulate KU2 reads through formatting just to increase a % here and there on payouts.  This is active manipulation and is the same as biting the hand that feeds you. One day it'll slap back.


Some time back Amazon changed the Affiliate TOS because so many sites were sending people to amazon promising free books and hope the user bought something expensive so they can make a nice commission. They added stuff like if you send 10000 links to free books a month they can suspend you amazon affiliate earnings and keep it. Needless to say the first wave of sites disappeared overnight.


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

Melody Simmons said:


> So sites can link as long as it is not affiliate links? Or no links at all? Will Amazon come down on sites that use just plain links eventually?
> 
> If they allow normal links sites can still try to survive by charging for services - either charging the ones who advertise or the ones who get the newsletters. Or did they make such a huge amount of money through the affiliate program that nothing else is now worth considering?
> 
> POI was the first free ebook site I signed up for years ago! I'm going to miss them.


You can still link directly to amazon. They can't do anything about that.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Vinny OHare said:


> They added stuff like if you send 10000 links to free books a month they can suspend you amazon affiliate earnings and keep it. Needless to say the first wave of sites disappeared overnight.


Unless there's a separate rule somewhere, this isn't quite right. My understanding of the rule is:

*Kindle eBooks Advertising Fee FAQ*

https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/help/t58



> Starting March 1, 2013, Associates who we determine are promoting primarily free Kindle eBooks and meet both conditions below for a given month will not be eligible for any advertising fees for that month within the Amazon Associates Program. This change will not affect advertising fees earned prior to March 1, 2013.
> 
> --At least 80% of all Kindle eBooks ordered and downloaded during Sessions attributed to your Special Links are free Kindle eBooks
> 
> ...


So you have to have both things happen to forfeit your affiliate fees....and the number is 20K, not 10K.

Again, perhaps something has changed that I'm not up on? I haven't visited my affiliate account lately.

When this was implemented, it resulted in significant changes among many sites which had been promoting free books, including here at KBoards. (Here's the discussion here on KBoards when the new rule was implemented: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,143143.0.html)


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## Decon (Feb 16, 2011)

M M said:


> They don't have to buy BookBub. Amazon has the ability to just shut it down by turning off the affiliate fee tap.


Obviously we are not privvy to the accounts of such as book bub and these other sites and the associated costs, but they all charge the authors. Could they not change their business model, maybe scale down on costs and continue without the affiliate links and simply increase their charges? Or say, increase the number of paid ads that they put in their emails. The demand is obviously there judging by the numbers they turn down. Book bub is used by trad publishers and I don't think they would like the scheme to fold.

One other point is that as Amazon close down sites, customers still have a thirst and will so increase the lists of the others that manage to survive.

I always say that businesses have a natural end when you are a middleman selling something you don't make that is in vogue at a particular period of time, unless you use what you have to build a separate income stream for such as say a maintenence scheme for the goods you sell in a separate business. The emails lists are powerful and could be used for much more than eBooks.

All I know is that it is even more important to build your own mailing list, and to have joint proms with other authors that basically share mailing lists.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Thanks for posting this. A number of the things cited in the article are things asked about and discussed in earlier threads here about being an Amazon affiliate. I've skimmed through and it seems pretty accurate and well sourced.



oakwood said:


> This here is a very good shortlist of common mistakes that will sooner or later kill your amazon account
> https://marketever.com/mistakes-get-banned-amazon-affiliate/


Betsy


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## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)

wow, didn't see this coming. I swear the other week they sent out an email saying they were going to start taking ad submissions again


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

I've had three longer posts because this hits me hard. I am heartbroken for the sites closing down. Here's the tl;dr my lengthy emotional responses have summarized down to:

Just about every single person who uses Amazon Affiliates is not in compliance somewhere with the lengthy TOS and additional links and worksheets called out. This is a red herring that suddenly the way these sites have operated for years is against the rules. It has everything to do with Amazon wielding the TOS to suit their own needs. They enforce rules unevenly and with little notice, and there's no way to even keep up because it's even easy to mistakenly not catch the multiple changes made per year. 

Over the years, first they shut down the little sites. Then they went after freebies. Then, they began throttling traffic from sources and how it affects sales ranking. Now they are shutting down the bigger sites. And all of our Amazon book pages are more clogged than ever with ads. On just my page for To Capture Mr. Darcy there are 40 offerings that are NOT my book. The Sponsored Books "also bought" style slider is now more books than the organic Also Boughts. 

Times they are a'changing and I think it's getting about that time to seriously pursue training my readers to buy directly from me.


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## Athena Grayson (Apr 4, 2011)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> I've had three longer posts because this hits me hard. I am heartbroken for the sites closing down. Here's the tl;dr my lengthy emotional responses have summarized down to:
> 
> Just about every single person who uses Amazon Affiliates is not in compliance somewhere with the lengthy TOS and additional links and worksheets called out. This is a red herring that suddenly the way these sites have operated for years is against the rules. It has everything to do with Amazon wielding the TOS to suit their own needs. They enforce rules unevenly and with little notice, and there's no way to even keep up because it's even easy to mistakenly not catch the multiple changes made per year.
> 
> ...


^^This. I have put 2 and 2 together and determined that Amazon will let other entrepreneurs figure out how to make money off their ecosystem, and then when those systems have been proven out, Amazon will swoop in and take over that proven system and turn the entrepreneurial remora-fish into a part of its own shark. It's no coincidence that Amazon recently started offering advertising services to KDP'ers like putting your book in front of quality reviewers for a fee, or buying advertising on the book pages, or hosting giveaways through Amazon itself.

First you innovate. When you are too big to innovate, you let other people do the innovating and replicate it in-house. How's that saying go? Good inventors borrow, great ones steal?


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## Douglas Milewski (Jul 4, 2014)

KU2 was really the start of this. Amazon wanted to monetize free books. Heavy readers paid them to read for free. 


I suspect that the ebook growth gravy train has slowed, so that the overhead of free books matters more to the bottom line. That doesn't mean that the market is bad, it just means that Amazon now needs to work to increase revenue. They're transitioning to strategies that work better in a slower growing market.


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## The Fussy Librarian (May 3, 2011)

Hi folks. The Fussy Librarian is not closing. Had we been contacted prior to The Digital Reader post, we would have told them that. Sigh.

Jeffrey Bruner / The Fussy Librarian


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## Taking my troll a$$ outta here (Apr 8, 2013)

So bummed. Just got all excited when I heard they were opening up submissions again, now this.


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## Jim Johnson (Jan 4, 2011)

Hugh Howey has an interesting blog post about all this.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Jim Johnson said:


> Hugh Howey has an interesting blog post about all this.


And he completely skips over the part about how much our book pages have changed in the last 5 years to lean, mean, recommend OTHER PRODUCTS machines. 40. There are 40 other offers on my book page. Count up yours. Starting at the top on a laptop screen:

Top banner offering me Beautiful things on the Amazon Store. Then theres' the Kindle Fire that's on sale. I haven't even gotten past the search bar. Then just under my book cover left to right is another call to action for the free kindle app, a summer reading ad, and an ad for a book 250 x 300 under the buy buttons. Then 5 Also Boughts (20 pages actually of 5) then 7 sponsored books looking like Also Boughts but slightly smaller, 3 pages of those. Another 250 x 300 ad above my reviews right side bar. Another 4 Customers Bought after Viewing, then finally 6 recommendations based on my recent visits (9 pages of that), and 14 little book covers of what I've recently viewed.

Plus a bunch of text links to take me to best seller lists, pop lists, and other parts of the site. I'm not saying Amazon is wrong for this, I'm saying the argument about merchandising space is fine, but look at how the book page has changed over time.


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## MissingAlaska (Apr 28, 2014)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> Amazing is making its latest move for world domination. Won't be long before there will be Bookbub and Goodreads alone
> 
> http://the-digital-reader.com/2016/06/15/amazon-brings-the-hammer-down-on-discount-ebook-sites/


Goodreads entrance into advertising discounted books makes me think we'll see Amazon begin enforcing their affiliate policies strictly. This might be the first of many to fall.


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## Not any more (Mar 19, 2012)

Hugh Howey posted about this on his blog this morning.

http://www.hughhowey.com/amazon-affiliate-accounts/


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## MissingAlaska (Apr 28, 2014)

WasAnn said:


> I'm unclear as to why BB is okay to do this, but the smaller sites are not?


Who is to say that Bookbub isn't the next on the list? Amazon might be looking at their affiliate links right now.


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## ThrillerWriter (Aug 19, 2012)

Howey is right. Amazon is one of, if not the, most customer-centric organizations on the planet. This is a good thing. It means that their decisions are always based on what is best for the customer. Even if their decisions sometimes backfire, their intention is clear, and over the long term, this will continue fueling their growth.

It also makes me trust Amazon, both as a customer and as a writer. Bezos recently said that they have much bigger failures than the Fire Phone in their pipeline. He takes risks, big ones, and he only needs a few to strike gold to pay for the rest. While other huge companies have done nothing with their bookstores, Amazon has allowed me to make a liveable income, revolutionized publishing, and made reading easier for the end consumer. They're winning because they serve customers better than anyone else, and like Howey says, I believe this decision was made to do exactly that. Serving customers better will long term mean I sell more books. I don't understand the decision in full, but I've worked with Amazon in my previous life, and their heart rests with the consumer.

Long live the 'Zon.


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## Eskimo (Dec 31, 2013)

michaelsnuckols said:


> Who is to say that Bookbub isn't the next on the list? Amazon might be looking at their affiliate links right now.


Given the amount of business BB sends their way, I'm not sure why Amazon would do that.


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## Rayven T. Hill (Jul 24, 2013)

michaelsnuckols said:


> Who is to say that Bookbub isn't the next on the list? Amazon might be looking at their affiliate links right now.


BookBub is a smart company and has invested millions of dollars. I wouldn't be surprised if they have worked out a special deal with Amazon.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

michaelsnuckols said:


> Who is to say that Bookbub isn't the next on the list? Amazon might be looking at their affiliate links right now.


The last time I clicked a BB link, I noticed there wasn't an affiliate tag on it.


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## Rayven T. Hill (Jul 24, 2013)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> The last time I clicked a BB link, I noticed there wasn't an affiliate tag on it.


The free ebooks have no tags. The others do.


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## HStokes (Feb 12, 2013)

This is a odd situation.  Amazon is quite literally, awashed in books.  How can a reader find the best of them when the best will probably never even get noticed?


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## Douglas Milewski (Jul 4, 2014)

I see it a little differently. The purpose of the affiliate program is to drive paying traffic to Amazon. The affiliate helps them to make a profit. If the affiliate drives lots and lots of free downloads, Amazon doesn't make a profit bit still has to pay the affiliate, so the affiliate winds up losing them money. That's an intolerable situation. 

Free is tolerable from writers as writers only get paid on what they sell. Amazon does bear some data overhead, but that's fairly minimal. The goal of writers is to convert free books into sales. That aligns with Amazon's goals.


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## lyndabelle (Feb 26, 2015)

Wow! I knew something was going on. There has been weird stuff happening to other people's accounts which may be due to promotional sites. Look at this thread.

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,237687.0.html

We were wondering if Amazon was coming down on promotional site clicks, and maybe they are because they are trying to promote Goodreads Deals. They say on the website it's still on beta, and they will be adding an author promotion option soon. So far, sounds like they are working with the big presses first.

But really, BookBub, ENT and the other big promo sites have become Gatekeepers in themselves. They do make or break bestselling books these days. I wouldn't be sad to see their strangle hold on free and discounted promos chipped at by Amazon. Might give them pause. They make a lot of money off of authors. That's why I've been stirring clear of them, not to mention they don't take erotica. Amazon might not push erotica in the spotlight, but it allows it since it makes so much money for them. Maybe they'll allow erotica authors to work more with Goodreads Deals. I mean, talk about the marketing data they have at their fingers. I'd love to be able to promote to erotica readers in my kinks. Just want to get my products to my readers without bankrupting me in ad fees. Will have to see what becomes of all of this. But at least we know what seems to be happening with Amazon lately.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

merged multiple threads on this topic . . . sorry for any confusion.


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## nigel p bird (Feb 4, 2011)

Pixel of Ink were behind the best promotion I even managed. It was great watching the books fly (I imagine akin to having a Bookbub now). My latest email from them said they were about to bounce back - what a difference a few days makes. 
It's another interesting development, to be sure, and I'm not sure that's in a good way.


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## C. Rysalis (Feb 26, 2015)

emilycantore said:


> I think Howey has nailed it. I've seen some books on Bookbub that were fairly bad and they were hitting the heights because of Bookbub.


I see it differently. Bad books (or good books that just don't resonate with readers) might enjoy a brief spike, but they'll sink and be gone from the bestseller ranks FAST. Readers DO choose which books stick. It's just that books that have been promoted get a chance at evaluation instead of obscurity.


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## MissingAlaska (Apr 28, 2014)

LilyBLily said:


> Until Amazon buys Facebook, there's still one big player in the ad sweepstakes, and Twitter is trying hard to become another. We don't know if Google Play will ever break out with a competitive move, but it's got lots of money to do so.


Amazon doesn't need to buy Facebook - they just need to outbid Indie authors for keywords.


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## MissingAlaska (Apr 28, 2014)

lyndabelle said:


> But really, BookBub, ENT and the other big promo sites have become Gatekeepers in themselves. They do make or break bestselling books these days. I wouldn't be sad to see their strangle hold on free and discounted promos chipped at by Amazon. Might give them pause. They make a lot of money off of authors.


I have to agree. As someone who rarely advertises, my hope is that Amazon is trying to negate the somewhat artificial effects of these types of promotional services. My fear is that Amazon wants to sweep up these services all to themselves as another way to increase revenue and further cut into writer's profits.


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## Marie Long (Jan 11, 2014)

I can't believe PoI is no more. I remember when they were the BookBub before BookBub came into existence. It's really a shock to see them gone. One can only wonder if BookBub would ever follow suit if Amazon puts the pressure on them, too.

No one thought that PoI would ever shut down. And no one thinks that BB will ever shut down either. But this sad news only proves that anything is possible in this volatile marketing industry. I really hope BB doesn't shut down, but I'm just saying....


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## nightfire (Mar 22, 2012)

If you are an affiliate and frequent the places that affiliate in general hang out you would know that Amazon has hit other types of sites in the past and isn't just focusing on book promotion sites.  If they think affiliates are making the customer experience bad, they go after the site. Amazon affiliate links are great because people trust Amazon and the conversions when you send traffic to them are high.  The percentage of commission mostly sucks, but you make up for it in volume. I decided early on because of issues with search engines and with the Amazon Affiliate program itself through the years that my book promotion sites would not focus on having affiliate links.  We have sections of our sites with affiliate links, but we do not and never have relied on the affiliate program for our income.  I know that authors would prefer we did.  We have to charge for listings to keep the sites and newsletters afloat.  Everything we do costs money. If we relied on any affiliate program none of our sites would be able to afford newsletter lists or Facebook ads or other kinds of promotions that we pay for to bring traffic to the books advertised on our sites. Let alone pay salaries to folks to post the books and keep the sites running.

Any site needs to have multiple income streams to stay profitable, no matter what kind of site you have. Sites also need to have multiple ways of promoting authors and not just a mailing list, not just social media and not just book posts on their sites.  They need a blend of all three. Especially for long tail growth. Authors get high on the BookBub ads and other quick hits. It's time to go back to writing and promoting good books that get steady sales and not just the fast floods.  Amazon has shown us over and over they are not happy with the fast floods any more. 

And as noted above - every author should be building their own mailing list so that these kinds of changes aren't going to be the end of the world if the sites close. Make sure that when you promote books those books have a strong call to action to get the reader to your own site and email list to find out about your next book.


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## MCwrites (May 26, 2016)

C. Rysalis said:


> I see it differently. Bad books (or good books that just don't resonate with readers) might enjoy a brief spike, but they'll sink and be gone from the bestseller ranks FAST. Readers DO choose which books stick. It's just that books that have been promoted get a chance at evaluation instead of obscurity.


I agree with this. And would add to it that Amazon can't really say they don't manipulate the lists themselves- they promote their own imprints like Montlake, and then there are those mysterious algos. So I don't think for a minute they are looking at it from purely a consumer satisfaction angle. Profit is the bottom line, always is.


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## lilywhite (Sep 25, 2010)

Cwrites said:


> I agree with this. And would add to it that Amazon can't really say they don't manipulate the lists themselves- they promote their own imprints like Montlake, and then there are those mysterious algos. So I don't think for a minute they are looking at it from purely a consumer satisfaction angle. Profit is the bottom line, always is.


Amazon almost never turns much of a profit, except on cloud services. It is, at this time, simply not a profit-driven company.


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## A past poster (Oct 23, 2013)

It's a shame about Pixel of Ink. I was looking forward to promoting with them.


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## tommy gun (May 3, 2015)

I thought that Amazon was already dealing with the spike of a bookbub or whatever other big promotion.  I keep hearing that the algorithim does not like a huge jump and then nothing.  An increased number of sales over several days is much more effective and longer lasting.

I wish I were further along so that submitting fora bookbub or other big promo would be worth it.  Later though.  If they are still around.


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## Mxz (Jan 17, 2015)

It's sad to hear about Pixel of Ink.  I was looking forward to it opening too.  And as far as all of the ads on Amazon pages, before I only had seen video ads on products dealing with electronics.  In the past few days, videos started playing on a few pages of popular authors that I happened to look at.  So I'm also thinking they allowed the email lists until they got their book advertising options for us in place, tested, and tweaked them.  They want the control, so eliminate the competition and offer things like advertising video on top author's pages.  Edited this last sentence because I didn't know about the Goodreads program that is a email list that in the future will allow people to pay.


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## jaehaerys (Feb 18, 2016)

Interesting times we're living in. I enjoyed Hugh's take on it.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

The Fussy Librarian said:


> Hi folks. The Fussy Librarian is not closing. Had we been contacted prior to The Digital Reader post, we would have told them that. Sigh.
> 
> Jeffrey Bruner / The Fussy Librarian


Glad to hear that, Jeffrey


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## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

Thinking back fondly to giving way a quick 18K books in 2012 with the gracious and completely free help of POI and ENT. Sigh. Why things gotta go and change??


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

I don't think Amazon are worried that their best seller lists are skewed by email blast services. If they wanted reader centric lists they would not grant a sales rank equivalent to every borrow on KU, which to many people is an expanded and more convenient Look Inside.


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## B.A. Spangler (Jan 25, 2012)

Huge fan of POI and very sorry to see them go.  

If Amazon's interest is to eliminate all external influences on sales, how long before they crackdown on author's advertising via Facebook? 
Unless a book is in KU, traditionally pubbed, or a zonprint, visibility is just about impossible. The only recourse has been advertising on Facebook. Some authors do well enough to have an external influence. Is that influence great enough to interest Amazon in taking action?


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## Guest (Jun 17, 2016)

HStokes said:


> This is a odd situation. Amazon is quite literally, awashed in books. How can a reader find the best of them when the best will probably never even get noticed?


But Bookbub and others don't actually promote the "best books." They promote books by authors who are willing to spend X number of dollars AND price their books a certain way AND have a specific number of reviews.


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## A past poster (Oct 23, 2013)

B.A. Spangler said:


> Huge fan of POI and very sorry to see them go.
> 
> Unless a book is in KU, traditionally pubbed, or a zonprint, visibility is just about impossible.


It seems to be so.


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## MCwrites (May 26, 2016)

lilywhite said:


> Amazon almost never turns much of a profit, except on cloud services. It is, at this time, simply not a profit-driven company.


Point taken. But whether we're talking profit or revenue/cash flow, the idea is the same.


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## Guest (Jun 17, 2016)

B.A. Spangler said:


> Huge fan of POI and very sorry to see them go.
> 
> If Amazon's interest is to eliminate all external influences on sales, how long before they crackdown on author's advertising via Facebook?


The issue is not advertising.
The issue is artificial manipulation of Amazon's algorithms.

These are two different things.

Normal advertising builds your brand and drives traffic to retailers. If I run an ad on Facebook for MY BOOK, I am promoting MY BOOK. People buy the book because they are genuinely interested in the book.

A lot of promo services used by indies aren't actually brand building tools. They are specifically designed to create artificial spikes on Amazon in an attempt to manipulate Amazon's algorithms to game visibility specifically on Amazon. That is why they all require that a book be in KU, for example, or require a book MUST be set at a specific price. Because these promo sites don't promote specific books. They are by design built to boost your rank at a specific time.

Why does this matter? Because in the case of normal advertising, you are promoting your specific brand. People are making purchasing decisions based on their feelings about your product specifically, and then decide to buy. With promo sites, the customer is already going to buy something, and they are just buying what the service puts in front of them. There is a reason Bookbub and others report fairly consistent results across all books in a specific genre: because the readers are responding to BOOKBUB's brand, not the author. If Bookbub puts the book in front of them, they assume it is worth reading so they click.

This allows Bookbub (and similar sites) to use their specific customer demographics to influence Amazon's entire system.

When you place an ad on FB, or in a magazine or some other media, the consumer's response to the ad is organic. The ad either interests the consumer or it doesn't. Because many promo sites are branded to specific types of readers and promise specific types of books, their own branding colors the consumer's response to the ad itself. Yes, Bookbub is driving traffic to Amazon...but they are specifically driving traffic for a specific type of book at a specific price point AT A SPECIFIC MOMENT IN TIME.

And that specific moment in time is the big problem. A normal ad program generally doesn't result in enormous bulk sales one day and then drop off to nothing. It generally results in a steady rise in sales and then a stead drop off to, hopefully, a profitable norm.

If you are promoting your book to promote your book, Amazon isn't going to do anything to stop you.
If you are promoting to manufacture a one-time huge spike in your sales rank, Amazon IS going to pay attention.


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## Ashlynn_Monroe (May 24, 2012)

AuthorX said:


> It's more shocking to me is that a website owner with that much stake would simply put a closure notice on their front page rather than selling the brand to another party for a few hundred thousand or whatever it's worth.
> 
> Silly, silly peeps


I thought the same thing when I saw this. They were around back when I started. Visibility isn't easy anymore.


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## Ashlynn_Monroe (May 24, 2012)

emilycantore said:


> I think Howey has nailed it. I've seen some books on Bookbub that were fairly bad and they were hitting the heights because of Bookbub.
> 
> Amazon can see a lot we can't - like returns and complaints. For all we know POI blasts had a high return rate or perhaps the books weren't getting great reviews after a blast.
> 
> ...


I'm part of Kindle Scout right now. I think Amazon is trying to put a little quality control out there, but it's too little too late. I've heard they're cracking down on the KU scammers. Some legit authors are caught in the crossfire of that. I download a lot of books from various daily emails to see what's out there and support authors in moving up the ranks, but only one in 50 are good enough to make me a fan. Some of them are really terrible. I'm not being smug. I have some really terrible books on my backlist from my early years, but if I was going to give away a title I'd be sure it's a great book.


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## keikihendrix (Jan 7, 2011)

I was shocked as well. I went to the pixel of ink site and read the notice and hoped they didn't have my site in their scope.

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk


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## Guest (Jun 18, 2016)

I still contend, although I am the only one, that Amazon does not have the right to add advertising to copyrighted ebooks.
Amazon can not add advertising to your printed books because it is impossible to do.


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## KelliWolfe (Oct 14, 2014)

Okey Dokey said:


> I still contend, although I am the only one, that Amazon does not have the right to add advertising to copyrighted ebooks.
> Amazon can not add advertising to your printed books because it is impossible to do.


Unless it's written in their TOS that you allow them to do so, of course. Who knows? They change their TOS every other week without notice. They could stick anything in there and 99.9% of us would never know.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Okey Dokey said:


> I still contend, although I am the only one, that Amazon does not have the right to add advertising to copyrighted ebooks.
> Amazon can not add advertising to your printed books because it is impossible to do.


In the olden days, when I read printed books, I frequently found advertising for other books by the publisher in the paperbacks I bought. Not in the hardbacks, but yeah, in the paperbacks.

EDIT: OkeyDokey--did you mean to post this in the "back matter" thread?

Betsy


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## ImaWriter (Aug 12, 2015)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> In the olden days, when I read printed books, I frequently found advertising for other books by the publisher in the paperbacks I bought. Not in the hardbacks, but yeah, in the paperbacks.
> 
> Betsy


+1

Some publishers would even add extensive excerpts of other books, from other authors in their stable, at the end of your book. I've read trad paperbacks that might have 4 or 5 of these excerpts.


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## Eskimo (Dec 31, 2013)

What I never understood about Pixel of Ink is why they didn't simply charge authors for promotions. This is a site that could easily get $50-$100 per book, and many authors would gladly pay, because they always delivered results. Over the years, POI left an awful lot of money on the table. Along with BB and ENT, they were the most effective promo tool out there.


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## Donna White Glaser (Jan 12, 2011)

David Chill said:


> What I never understood about Pixel of Ink is why they didn't simply charge authors for promotions. This is a site that could easily get $50-$100 per book, and many authors would gladly pay, because they always delivered results. Over the years, POI left an awful lot of money on the table. Along with BB and ENT, they were the most effective promo tool out there.


QFT


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