Q&A: Should I publish my Amazon Kindle eBooks with Mobipocket?

QUESTION: It seems that eBooks published with an account at Mobipocket automatically appear in Amazon's Kindle Store, and are also available to Apple iPhone and iTouch users. What are the advantages and disadvantages of publishing through Mobipocket, instead of directly through Amazon?

ANSWER: In theory, there's no reason not to list a book with Mobipocket. I get a few sales a month through them -- for every 25 Kindle sales, I get one or two Mobipocket sales.

Mobipocket is a Paris-based eBook company that Amazon bought a few years ago. Its eBook format is the underlying language for the eBooks in Amazon's Kindle store. Books listed with Mobipocket automatically show up as Kindle editions, as long as the publisher selects Amazon as one of the authorized retailers.

So, for publishers outside the U.S. without a U.S. bank account, Mobipocket is a convenient backdoor to the Kindle store. By contrast, if you sign up as a Kindle publisher like most individuals, through Amazon's digital text platform, you need to have a U.S. address and bank account.

However, there are a few snags you can run into by going directly through Mobipocket:

• It takes considerably longer for each title to appear on Amazon's site after you've uploaded it. Exactly how much longer, I'm not sure -- perhaps 10 or 20 days additional. This isn't a deal-breaker in itself, but it can be a problem -- what if you spend several days trying to figure out what the "problem" or delay is, when there wasn't a problem in the first place? It's just a hassle. And there is no publisher support at Mobipocket or Amazon's site, dtp.amazon.com. So even if you post an issue or problem at one of these official support boards, it's very, very unlikely that any tech support people will read or answer your message.
  

• Amazon will contact you for additional documentation. If you upload the books through Mobipocket and you are in the U.S., Amazon will contact you via e-mail and ask for you to provide your bank information, even though you have already provided all this information to Mobipocket. Why? So that Amazon can report and pay royalties on sales of Kindle editions in the United States through Amazon, not Mobipocket. So, essentially, they are getting you to set up a Kindle publisher account, even if you don't sign up through DTP. I am guessing that they do this as a method of preventing authors or publishers who might intentionally (or unintentionally) avoid paying income tax on eBook sales. However, no real explanation is given in this e-mail Amazon sends, so it's confusing. Some people don't receive the e-mail, and some people think it's a scam, which is understandable.

One little perk at Mobipocket: you can price your books below Amazon DTP's minimum of 99 cents. This can be handy if you want to get exposure for an excerpt.

Steve Weber is author of ePublish: Self-Publish Fast and Profitably for Kindle, iPhone, CreateSpace and Print on Demand



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