Summary: In this episode, we talk about Amazon’s brick and mortar bookstores, the future of paper books, and how they affect you as an author.<br> Sponsor:<br> <a href="http://www.mybooktable.com">MyBookTable</a> is a way to quickly and easily build an online bookstore on your WordPress website. Use it to rank #1 on Google for your book and to boost your book sales on sites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Get it free at MyBookTable.com. <br> <a href="https://www.patreon.com/novelmarketing">Novel Marketing Patrons</a> save 25% on <a href="http://www.mybooktable.com">MyBookTable Pro</a>.<br> <br> Background: Apple Store vs Best Buy<br> <br> Best Buy Makes $804 per square foot <br> Apple Store Makes $5,506 per square foot<br> The average Apple Store makes 3x the average Best Buy despite being much smaller.<br> The Amazon Book Store is to B&N what Apple Stores are to Best Buy.<br> For some comparison B&N only makes $180 per square foot. <br> <br> <br> How Amazon bookstores are different:<br> <br> A bit bigger than an airport bookstore. <br> Packed with people. Same number of people in a B&N but with a tiny fraction of the space.<br> 100% focus on book discovery. <br> <br> Books face out.<br> Reviews facing out<br> If you like x you will love y<br> <br> <br> Not a 3rd place. No coffee shop, no chairs. <br> Lots of books based off of popular blogs.<br> The store is primarily for Prime members. (Top 50% of households)<br> Barcode scanners for prices<br> Low Selection… but the right selection.<br> Small enough where we walked through every section.<br> <br> <br> The whole store is built around machine learning <br> The books on the shelves are selected by algorithm. <br> <br> No bargain bin out front. <br> Each store has its own data for its own neighborhood. <br> <br> Amazon knows a lot about you:<br> <br> What books you read and which books you finish on your kindle<br> What movies you watch.<br> What products you buy<br> Where you live.<br> What products your neighbors buy (birds of a feather flock together)<br> What websites you visit. <br> Your GoodReads reviews and books on GoodReads shelves<br> <br> The Amazon store tracks all of your behavior in store. <br> <br> Every time you scan for a price you are giving data to Amazon.<br> Wifi blocking paint?<br> <br> How Machines Learn<br> <br> What this means for authors:<br> <br> Amazon Stores are focused on the short head (for that area)<br> <br> Dungeons and Dragons guidebook facing the door on the way in.<br> <br> <br> Bad news for indies<br> Bad news for midlist authors. Less total selection means mid-list books will get squeezed. <br> Harder to do book signings.<br> How your book performs on Amazon will drive book sales. To get into a specific bookstore, focus on regions. <br> B&N’s days are numbered. <br> Good for indie bookstores. How do you compete with a computer? Be superhuman.<br> <br> Featured Patron<br> <a href="https://amzn.to/2Jy5HnK">Driver Confessional</a> (Affiliate Link) by <a href="http://www.sabbaticalofthemind.net">David L. Winters</a> A Christian ride-share driver lands in hot water with the Russian mob. Antonio and his cop brother must solve a murder before it’s too late. <br>
