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As the article indicates, Amazon has the power to make markets: “It can make new markets that no one knew existed. Robot-Zombie erotica? Amazon already knows who would be interested in it and could create a bestseller list and populate it with titles anytime it wanted.”

Breakaway Media’s author J. Carson Black has enjoyed great success with us in indie publishing. Now with Amazon Publishing’s Thomas & Mercer thriller/mystery imprint getting ready to publish Black’s THE SHOP in a new edition on Feb. 6th, it will be exciting and very interesting to see how Amazon’s power will be applied to the marketing of THE SHOP and future books by Black and other authors.

This really is a no-brainer. All you have to do is look at the evolution of Amazon’s core business strategy. From the very beginning, Amazon took a loss in order to dominate the market. How many of you remember industry experts scratching their heads in the late 90′s and early 2000′s as Amazon operated at a loss year after year. Now look at the company.

Follow the money. How does Amazon make the cash register ring. Yes, they’re making tons on selling Kindles. But that is only their “best selling product” (singular). How many thousands of other similarly best selling products do they have? Cumulatively, those sales dollars dwarf Kindle sales.

In the case of their Kindle Digital Publishing platform, it’s the eBook sales that are going through the roof. What are people using to buy those eBooks and read them? The Kindle. It’s like the old marketing strategy of giving away the razor and making your bones on selling the razor blades. Why would their tablet(s) be any different? Who knows what new revenue streams they will develop using their tablets as the user interface and the delivery device?

J. Carson Black attributes much of what she deemed possible in sales from these interactions on Kindle Boards and highly recommends that eBook authors participate on Kindle Boards, and Writer’s Cafe in particular. Many eBook authors start out with only double-digit monthly sales, as she points out (including herself), but quickly leap into the sales stratosphere.

“The reason I post my numbers (other than being a complete notice box) is because the Writer’s Cafe taught me what was possible, Black said. “The first thread I saw when I got here was one where people showed their numbers and how they changed from month to month.”

Many eBook authors start out with only double-digit monthly sales, as she points out (including herself), but quickly leap into the sales stratosphere. Black’s enthusiasm for this thread on Writer’s Cafe is certainly justified.

“I loved that thread! It told me anything was possible”, she said. “Before I got here, I had no idea that you could start in one place and end up in a completely other home altogether. The first 7 months was a wash – I went from 1 book a month to a high of 17 books a month in November. It was discouraging, so I didn’t put much into it. Then someone suggested I come here—I started on this board just about the time I hit the 135-mark. So I’m here to say that there are many factors that go into this, but it’s possible. Seeing what other writers have done made a difference to me. Knowing that it can happen is a good thing. So, thank you.”

Breakaway Media’s research into the growth of the digital publishing industry indicates that the market will continue to grow and expand across demographic lines as more 35+ readers become comfortable with the increasingly reader-friendly and affordable devices available to them. This has already become a multi-billion dollar market evolving out of a publishing revolution largely driven by technological innovation in eDistribution on various platforms and the advances in eReader devices.

Read the sales reports of multiple eBook authors on Declan Conner’s blog post, J Carson Black sells 73,562 thriller eBooks in May. How many eBooks other authors are selling

I was intrigued by a recent TechCrunch article, “Internet Entrepreneurs Are Like Professional Athletes, They Peak Around 25.”

We see authors, some of whom have decades-long careers and who were published by traditional NY publishers, and new indie-published authors doing very well–all penetrating their target markets with channels like Amazon Digital Publishing, B&N PubIt, Apple iBooks, and a multitude of new niche channels.

Savvy entrepreneurs will look at this space and see opportunity, and investors worth their salt will open their minds (and their wallets) to this as well. Like the revolution the music industry recently experienced, the publishing industry is currently undergoing its own revolution. However, the results may be vastly different and the character of that process may require a different sensibility. Only the discerning and yes, the experienced and knowledgable, will profit. Oh, does that sometimes come with age?

It appears that there is considerable downward price point pressure being applied by the reading market. Story after story gets told on Joe’s blog and others, and on the forums, about how sales skyrocket after drastic price reductions. Joe’s experimentation is revealing. Very cool — balancing price point and demand. Is anyone doing formal research on this–acquiring and crunching data?

Will the shakeout be a business model that ultimately is based on free product while driving other revenue streams as a result? Remember the Grateful Dead, they pioneered “freemium” product — essentially giving away the recorded music (even letting fans freely record the live concerts), while making a killing on ticket sales, merchandise sales and other revenue sources. And this was before the Internet.

So…will eBooks pricing be inexorably driven downward, forcing authors to find alternate revenue streams to be competitive and to ring the cash register while meeting the demand for free, or virtually free product?

We may be seeing the evolution of the TV business in reverse — going from a completely paid model to a fully advertiser/sponsor supported model. There may be other revenue models we haven’t even seen yet (placing another author’s book promotion for cash in the back of your own Kindle book, a form of co-promotional sponsorship, is only the beginning). Corporate sponsorship, product placement, promotional tie-ins, consumer sales overlays of other products–I don’t think we have even seen the beginning of what this business will eventually look like. What do you see out there on the horizon or right in front of you?

You may already have taken on the services of someone or offered your own services on any one of the number of sites like elance.com or freelancer.com.

I found out that you can offer your services directly with a little market research and a professional approach. One of my favorite tech blogs is TechCrunch. They ran a recent blog article about a product that dynamically places ads and other forms of content in video.

The CEO of actio.tv, a Russian competitor to this product, commented on the blog in response. I was intrigued by the positioning of his company’s product and visited the website. I noticed immediately that the English text on the website did a good job of describing the product and explaining how it worked, yet needed a lot of help in the areas of grammar and syntax.

To gain credibility and build the brand within the U.S., companies outside the U.S. must deliver a polished and professional presentation on their websites. I am always impressed by the capacity to speak and write English by those for whom English is not their first language (in America, we lag far behind in our education in foreign languages).

I sent off a quick email to the CEO offering my services to review and revise the website’s text and marketing thrust. We reached an agreement and I went to work. After I sent them the file and received an OK on it, I followed up with a request for payment to my PayPal account sent along with a warm thank you and a suggestion that others in his business network may need similar services. Outsourcing in reverse.

So, you don’t need to be an Amazon to make money marketing your products and services globally over the Internet. Research, networking, good communication skills, and a solid Web presence are key. Apply the right tool for the job, constantly upgrade and keep current your skills, and you will be in position to fill a need.

A final note: Breakaway Media is in the business of publishing eBooks that have been previously published by major publishing houses but have since gone out of print. Our major publishing channel? Amazon Kindle. So while you don’t need to be an Amazon, it helps to do business with Amazon. It’s all about the channel.

At Breakaway Media, we have been doing a balancing act of marketing to traditional publishing (we are fortunate to have a top literary agent in New York City), and developing our sales through eBook platforms like Amazon Kindle. Here is my comment on Joe’s blog:

Great analysis of the numbers, it appears that few are looking at these fiscal realities with the same clarity as Joe Konrath. It may be that looking back on this year, we will say, “that was the year that was like the Internet boom of 1998.”

Regarding Joe’s comments on CreateSpace and POD as part of the business analysis (to self pub or not to self pub), I heard an independent bookseller remark, “I order from Ingram and if you can get your book POD on Ingram it would be a heck of a lot easier for me to include your book in my weekly order.”

Turns out that Lightning Source does precisely that–offers POD and distribution through Ingram. Of course, CreateSpace and Amazon have a powerful distribution system. We’re publishing on Kindle. Anybody have experience with Lightning Source or have thoughts on that?.

We have a Kindle-published horror novel, Darkscope, a ghost story set in Bisbee Arizona, first published by Kensington, that was hand sold big-time by this same bookseller in Bisbee. When the book went out of print, the sales dried up necessarily-no product. Now with POD, she can hand sell this book to the tourists again, she’s just looking to have some efficiency in her business instead of dealing with multiple ordering scenarios, including authors self-publishing POD and through other channels like iUniverse. Understandable, yes?

It all comes down to the question: “On what does a consumer place value?” I know a world-class television editor who rents DVDs from his locally-owned video store (yes there are still some of those out there). He doesn’t have “TV”, whether broadcast or cable, at all and does not think he’s depriving himself, his wife, or his kid, and they agree with him.

Now, having said this, the variety and convenience of cable is to me both appealing and beguiling. I can get the Versus coverage of the Tour de France online in a package if I want, but I have that cable channel on the tier. What about History Channel’s American Pickers? Is there an alternate source of that programming? Maybe, maybe not. What choices of programming from other sources am I giving up by opting for cable, keeping my attention on that content conduit and ignoring other possibiltities?

And this is the crux of it, especially for us baby boomers. We’re still the “TV Generation”. Big dollar television production, and I am including the smaller cable networks, still holds sway over our entertainment dollar. Until that convenience, and yes, choice, can be reliably and delivered in an alternate fashion and perceived as great value, those of us who like this menu, will continue to pony up our $65 a month. Here at Breakaway Media, probably like a lot of Americans, we have a mix of cable, online, DVDs, and other sources.

We can count on expanding channels of choice on a number of platforms. Access to that content, and who determines what is worth consuming, will evolve quickly over time.

What do you place value on, in terms of your “TV entertainment dollar”?

Adobe has moved into the multimedia space completely with their suite of applications. They have targeted eBooks as part of the mix. Digital publishing offers multiple opportunities for us with the skills to create new products and services that solve our customers’ problems and provide new and rich experiences.

As a marketer (and publisher), I am looking for ways to deliver these experiences AND make the cash register ring. There is a huge opportunity for publishers to embed advertising, product placement, and enhanced user experiences in eBooks.

The question is what will readers (users) be wanting in the experience? And how do advertisers, sponsors and brands figure into this equation? One thing that I’ve found is that eBook readers are increasingly price sensitive, so will they put up with (targeted) advertising and sponsorship (tastefully and relevantly) presented in context? Will their willingness increase if this helps to bring eBook prices down? Time will tell. And tools like Adobe’s InDesign, Photoshop, Dreamweaver and the new Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5 will factor heavily in production and presentation.

As the heavy hitters like Amazon, Apple, and Google fight it out, content creators will continue to have tremendous opportunities to get innovative content into the hands of consumers. How distribution and the available channels eventually shake out for content creators is a major question.

It’s always been like this. How many of us remember the breakup of AT&T into the Baby Bells? The Internet has radically changed the game and rapidly evolving developer frameworks offer entrepreneurs access to new ways to present and distribute content on multiple platforms. The egalitarian effect of the Internet (blogs, social media, online video, etc) is only an appetizer for things to come. Now the monetization of Internet delivered digital media is here and knocking on our doors. If we’re listening, we will answer. Breakaway Media will be exploring these subjects in the months ahead as we move into this space.