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Welcome to the Roundtable Roundup, our weekly podcast where we go back to our roots and have brought back the Roundtable aspect. Each Sunday (American time) we’ll invite a guest or two to join us live to discuss the latest news and views from the self-publishing and indie industry.
Author Jim Johnson joined Chrishuan Keller, X and Erica today to discuss the below topics:
Oh B&N you’ve done it again…
B&N recently announced a deal that they made to outsource some of their Nook technology services (including cloud services and development support for the ereader) to Bahwan CyberTech. Because of this they are closing two of their offices: one in San Jose, California and another in Taiwan. They hope it will result in about $8 million in expense reduction savings. It will also cost them $6 million in severance.
See the full story here:
- http://www.marketwatch.com/story/barnes-noble-closing-two-offices-outsourcing-some-nook-services-2016-04-07
- http://www.idigitaltimes.com/barnes-noble-discontinues-nook-tablet-manufacturing-plans-outsource-third-parties-future-359555
New paying platform for internet content publishers
Medium, the online publishing platform, is introducing “Medium for Publishers” a program that offers two revenue schemes: Promoted Stories and Membership. Promoted Stories are simply sponsored posts from brands such as Bose, SoFi, Nest, Intel, and Volpi Foods.
The second, Membership, “offers limited number of publications on Medium who will offer members-only content and other perks to readers, in exchange for a monthly membership fee paid directly to the publication”
They are also offering to migrate blogs to their servers, offer custom domains and reserve timestamps and links.
See the full story here: http://the-digital-reader.com/2016/04/05/medium-introduces-medium-for-publishers-in-an-attempt-to-attract-content-producers/
Is the Facebook ads 20% text rule on the way out?
A lot of us invest in Facebook ads and will know that there is a 20% rule for text on the image and FB can be rather fickle about where that text is. However, users in the UK are reporting that the 20% rule has been tossed away and guidelines on images and text are now provided instead. Facebook has confirmed that it is currently testing these guidelines, however, stress that images with less or no text are better received by the audience being advertised to.
See the full story here: http://www.jonloomer.com/2016/04/07/facebook-20-text-rule-changing
Audible is branching out with podcasts and news
Channels is a free and unlimited service for members of Audible and will provide listeners with half-hour podcasts and news items. The content is curated by Audible and for the most part is news and classic works.
See the full story here: http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/04/audible-long-known-only-for-audiobooks-is-branching-out-into-podcasts-and-news/
Value Added Tax (VAT) on eBooks in Europe may be changing!
eBooks buyers in the EU are charged Value Added Tax (VAT) on their purchases at a much higher rate than print books. This is because eBooks are considered an electronic service and are therefore taxed more. Something that authors, publishers and booksellers across the EU have protested about a lot. The European Commission has created the Value Added action plan that promises: “…Legal constraints often result in the VAT rate on e-publications being higher than the one on the corresponding printed version. Our proposal will attempt to align VAT rates policy for e- publications across the EU.”
See the full story here: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/ec-committs-addressing-e-book-vat-inequality-action-plan-326076
Taming the Amazon sales algorithm
This how-to article has been causing some buzz over the internet this week. It brings together a lot of what is already know about how Amazon’s sales ranks into one neat package. They state that price does not influence sales rank and both 2.99 and 0.99 titles reached similar sales ranks with similar sales. And that enrolment in KDP Select does not influence sales rank. All titles are treated equal, whether they are enrolled in KDP Select or not.
See the full story here:
- http://selfpublishingadvice.org/amazon-sales-rank-taming-the-algorithm/
- http://www.selfpublisherbibel.de/test-how-amazons-algorithms-really-work-myth-and-reality/ <– The German report that the article above is quoting
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See you next week!
