Plenty of Good News for Indie Authors and Publishers in the the Winter 2011 Kindle Nation Citizen Survey

by Stephen Windwalker

 

Why would an author or publisher be interested in the Winter 2011 Kindle Nation Citizen Survey?

Well, first, we all know that without other authors we would be nowhere, and one of the best things about other authors is that, with a very few, largely inexplicable exceptions, authors are voracious readers.

So, as a reader, you have every right to click here and participate in the survey. The deadline to participate is midnight Hawaii time Monday, January 31, 2011. There are 15 questions and most people tell me it takes them about 10 minutes from beginning to end.

But equally important is that the survey results are already shaping up to spell good news dramatic significance for indie authors and publishers. You can wait until you've completed the survey and you will be delivered automatically to a survey results link, or, if you're not the waiting kind, feel free to go ahead and click here to see the results now. Here are a few of the takeaways from the first 1,900 respondents:

Respondents continue to have strong positive feelings about bestselling authors (56% positive, 3% negative), but they don't think much of the big agency model publishers (10% positive, 41% negative). Indeed, they have much more positive feelings, for instance, about:

• Independent and emerging authors (52% positive, 1% negative)
• Small independent publishers (35.5% positive, 4% negative)
• Kindle Nation Daily (71% positive, 2% negative)

Influences such as electronic and print media reviews, bestseller lists, Oprah, or big bookstore displays in pointing readers to the books that they actually buy are in decline. Instead, respondents ranked the following, in order, as far more likely to influence them to buy books:

• recommended or listed by Amazon.
• recommended, listed, or excerpted on Kindle Nation.
• reading a free excerpt, author interview, or other material on Kindle Nation or another source.
• recommended by a friend, relative, or colleague.

Indie authors and indie publishers cannot survive without indie readers, and increasingly, readers are acting as if they are in charge when it comes to selecting the books they will read or acting as if they, the readers, are the final price-setting authorities:

• 89% of respondents identified with the statement, "I frequently choose to delay purchasing an ebook that I want to read if I believe that the price is too high."
• 76% of respondents identified with the statement, "If publishers keep charging higher bestseller prices, I'll buy more backlist or indie titles."

Take the Winter 2011 Kindle Nation Citizen Survey 

Here, if you are interested, are links for our previous Kindle Nation Survey Results:

• Spring 2009
• Fall 2009
• Winter 2010  
• Summer 2010