Why we removed The Tiny MBA from Amazon's Kindle store

Oof, what a horror story. While I wholeheartedly agree that the full blame for this mess lies on KDP's UX and insufficient communication, the root cause is in trying to control Kindle page layout. Amazon needs to communicate this WAY better, but basically Kindle is for text and trying to control its layout just doesn't fit the constraints of the medium. (They really improve their comms though, because claiming that kindle fully supports PDF is disingenous on their part.)

I mention the above just in case anyone else is reading who has 1) a book which can work as mostly pure text while also having 2) a less developed author platform. In those cases, Amazon is a godsend. I'd still be working a day job without it.

As for the rest of the article: yes. Controlling your own customer relationships (and building your own platform) is invaluable. But equally, it's a big task and a big ask. It's something which I never wanted to do. (Although I'm now finally starting, thirteen years later.)

Like any other big platform, Amazon is incredibly powerful if you can work within its constraints and a nightmare if those constraints don't fit. I use direct contact/sales for all my beta readers, pre-orders, etc, because I want to be able to have a direct relationship with them to catch problems, send updates, etc -- as Alex mentions.

But once the book is out and working? Amazon's a dream, at least for the stuff I write. I don't have any upsells, cross-sells, or additional offers. I have no desire to use or profit from those customer relationships in any way. So while Amazon certaintly isn't the only business model for books, it's not all bad either.

Say something nice to alexhillman…

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Oof, what a horror story. While I wholeheartedly agree that the full blame for this mess lies on KDP's UX and insufficient communication, the root cause is in trying to control Kindle page layout. Amazon needs to communicate this WAY better, but basically Kindle is for text and trying to control its layout just doesn't fit the constraints of the medium. (They really improve their comms though, because claiming that kindle fully supports PDF is disingenous on their part.)

I mention the above just in case anyone else is reading who has 1) a book which can work as mostly pure text while also having 2) a less developed author platform. In those cases, Amazon is a godsend. I'd still be working a day job without it.

As for the rest of the article: yes. Controlling your own customer relationships (and building your own platform) is invaluable. But equally, it's a big task and a big ask. It's something which I never wanted to do. (Although I'm now finally starting, thirteen years later.)

Like any other big platform, Amazon is incredibly powerful if you can work within its constraints and a nightmare if those constraints don't fit. I use direct contact/sales for all my beta readers, pre-orders, etc, because I want to be able to have a direct relationship with them to catch problems, send updates, etc -- as Alex mentions.

But once the book is out and working? Amazon's a dream, at least for the stuff I write. I don't have any upsells, cross-sells, or additional offers. I have no desire to use or profit from those customer relationships in any way. So while Amazon certaintly isn't the only business model for books, it's not all bad either.

robfitz

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6 years ago
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  That makes sense to me, thanks for this perspective @robfitz.
  
  Alex Hillman
  
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  6 years ago
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Epic! Good read and the right decision.

ryanGlass

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6 years ago
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This is a great win and pioneering example for a new era for self-publishers.
Read your book in the past week and love it.

SpiritualLimes

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6 years ago
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Sorry to hear about all your troubles. "Own your platform" is probably the best advice ever, but often gets lost because companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, YouTube, Facebook etc. are so good at marketing their platforms.

After all this time, there are only two things a company/author/creator can truly own – a website, and an email list.

stevenkkim

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6 years ago
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Woah, sorry you had to go through that, Alex!

Thanks for saving us weeks of headache

theshteves

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6 years ago
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