[TheOtherHobbes]

The indie author isn't concerned, because indie authors get much more per Amazon sale than they do from a traditional publishing contract.

The flooding already happened. There was a gold rush a few years ago when anyone who had any interest in writing slapped together an ebook and put it online.

Some of those authors did incredibly well for a year or two, then the market became saturated.

So there was a shake out. Authors who understand business - marketing, leads, keeping a mailing list, and running a blog that provides value - are doing somewhere between "ok, I guess" and "still earning well."

The opportunists and not-so-greats and other amateurs have given up and run away.

Now, the market for indies is stronger than it was - because as the post says, trad pub has strangled its own market share. And this is excellent for indies.

[x0x0]

I remain stunned the authors don't do mailing lists. There are a handful of authors that I will purchase everything they write. Until goodreads, there was no real way for them to notify me to buy something from them. And even now goodreads isn't particularly efficient about it.

I really think they would benefit from asking fans to sign up for an announcements list that is just announcements of new work. Plus it gives them the ability to sell smaller works published via kindle to their fans to pad out the gaps between full books.

[Semaphor]

I agree, I discovered some authors via Reddit and Kindle Unlimited whose books I loved. But keeping up with what they are releasing is a PitA. One only had a presence on twitter so I set up twitter to rss just for him, some others I check their websites once in a while and hope there's new info…

I wish goodreads would let me say "hey, notify me of every new release from this person, okay? No other mails, just release notifications of those I checked here." (maybe it's already possible? If so please tell me how :D)

[exolymph]

A lot of genre authors have mailing lists. Shit, I've self-published a couple of completely insignificant book-type things, and I have a mailing list.

[exolymph]

Also, if you can differentiate in a compelling way, you can charge more.