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Audio Quality Warning: our apologies but there was a bit of an echo during some of this episode.
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.
Chrishaun Keller played host today because Blab hated Erica for some strange reason! She was joined by Cate Morgan and D. R. Yurkas to discuss the below topics:
Amazon aims for scammers but smacks innocent authors too!
One ‘trick’ (or scam) currently happening in KU is to make readers click a link at the beginning of the book that takes them to the end of the book. KDP reads that as all the pages read. They either do this by offering a chance to win something or saying there is something important that they must read first.
However, authors who have their table of contents at the back of their books–as a way to offer more actual content in the reading sample–are finding their books are being removed or they are being contacted by KDP and given 5 days to comply.
See the full story: https://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2016/03/11/amazon-takes-aim-at-scammers-but-hits-authors/
ETA: Today (the day after recording) Amazon addressed the TOC at the back of ebooks issue and have basically said it’s okay as long as you aren’t intentionally scamming. See here for the response from Amazon: https://kdp.amazon.com/community/ann.jspa?annID=991
Apple is denied!
Remember that agency model thing that Apple told the big five they had to do and also had to get all other retailers they signed with to do as well? Well Apple fought it in the courts and lost but now it has been reported that they have been denied appeal!
Apple will now pay $400 million to their readers in the form of refunds to their accounts and $50 million in fees and attorney costs.
See the full story: http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-03-07/apple-rejected-by-u-s-high-court-in-450-million-e-book-case
Gdocs / Drive has a neat new trick!
Google docs can now export to epub format complete with word indexes.
See the full story: https://thestack.com/world/2016/03/08/google-docs-exports-epub-format/
Something interesting about Kobo’s reader audience
Kobo CEO Michael Tamblyn has recently said that 72% of their active customers are over 45. in English-speaking countries and the Netherlands more than 50% of their active customers are 55 and over.
See the full story: http://publishingperspectives.com/2016/03/michael-tamblyn-kobo-age-ereading-ebook-sales
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See you next week!
