Question about Publishing Book on Amazon

Sloth-of-Bangkok

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 23, 2018
Messages
47
Points
48
Guys does Scribblehub have term forbidding the publishing of books on Amazon. Because I am planning to pack my Webnovel there for extra income (the first one is free). And I don’t want to violate TOS

My plan is to just post in the next arc I will do a regular update and upload the book a Amazon and said they can still read for free and can buy a book to support the author.

I basically going to use Drew Hayes method... is that legal
 

CarburetorThompson

Fuel Atomization Enjoyer
Joined
Jan 27, 2022
Messages
1,085
Points
153
Do you mean like Amazon kindle or like self published print on demand. I don’t think it will change the answer which I don’t have, I’m just curious. Print on demand is great because if you do it through a good company you don’t have to do anything after you set it up. My father wrote a guide book about how to use the internet for startup companies in like 2002 (Something that’s by all means useless today) and he still gets several sales a year through the publisher.
 

CupcakeNinja

Pervert Supreme
Joined
Jan 1, 2019
Messages
3,066
Points
183
Guys does Scribblehub have term forbidding the publishing of books on Amazon. Because I am planning to pack my Webnovel there for extra income (the first one is free). And I don’t want to violate TOS

My plan is to just post in the next arc I will do a regular update and upload the book a Amazon and said they can still read for free and can buy a book to support the author.

I basically going to use Drew Hayes method... is that legal
scribblehub, no. There's nothing forbidding you from using Amazon or other sites. But remember, this is a free hosting website. If you use Amazon Select, there is an exclusivity deal that you have to adere to. Other wise, you can publish it to wherever you want...just not for a lower price than at Amazon. Also i think that the free sample has to be like six percent of the story or something like that.

For example i only have a certain number of chapter available for free here, but once i publsh the Vols to Amazon i take down most content and for whatever I leave i put a "To continue the story purchase the full Version at [insert link]"

Or course you can always use patreon too as a paywall. Me, i usually give the full vol for free if i notice readers commenting that they are like, too young to have bank cards or whatever. I keep my prices at like 4 bucks and below and only use Amazon or Google playbooks when a vol is finished.
 
Last edited:

K5Rakitan

Level 34 👪 💍 Pronouns: she/whore ♀
Joined
Apr 15, 2020
Messages
8,168
Points
233
As long as the TOS of the site say "non-exclusive," then you can publish anywhere else.
 

Ai-chan

Queen of Yuri Devourer of Traps
Joined
Dec 23, 2018
Messages
1,413
Points
153
Guys does Scribblehub have term forbidding the publishing of books on Amazon. Because I am planning to pack my Webnovel there for extra income (the first one is free). And I don’t want to violate TOS

My plan is to just post in the next arc I will do a regular update and upload the book a Amazon and said they can still read for free and can buy a book to support the author.

I basically going to use Drew Hayes method... is that legal
Don't know what a Drew Hayes method is. But Scribblehub does not forbid you from publishing your books on Amazon. In the first place, unlike Webnovel, Scribblehub does not claim copyright of your stories.

You should instead be asking if Webnovel will allow you to publish your stories on Amazon or even allow you to pull your stories from them. They put copyright on your stories, even when you don't sign up with them. Yes, their copyright. Sure, technically unless you sign up with them, it's still your story, they won't be very welcoming about the idea of losing your story. People have complained that it's impossible to pull their stories from Webnovel.

And then there's the problem on Amazon's side too. If you just use KDP, you can keep your stories on Webnovel, but the moment your book on Webnovel starts charging money, Amazon will tell you to stop (if they can't figure out how to make you charge less on Webnovel) or outright kick you out of Amazon. Yes, those spirit stones (or whatever they call it now) for people to read chapters on Webnovel will get you in trouble with Amazon.

So really, your problem is Webnovel, not Scribblehub.
 
Joined
Feb 10, 2022
Messages
59
Points
18
I have published on both Amazon and on ScribbleHub / RoyalRoad / Wattpad. One thing to consider is that if you are talking about an ebook specifically, Amazon reserves the rights to not be undercut on price (this is for any ebook sold on the platform, totally separate from any Select exclusivity deal). So if your book remains on free platforms, Amazon can make your ebook free on their site as well.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing -- a lot of authors adopt this as a 'perma-free' approach. If anything, most perma-free authors complain about Amazon periodically bumping their books back up to paid when they want them to be free :-P.
 

Space_Pickle

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Messages
15
Points
18
So if your book remains on free platforms, Amazon can make your ebook free on their site as well.

Mmmmh. First time I hear about this one.
I don't think it's true. Your story on Royal Road is not an ebook. It's not the same 'product'.
 
Joined
Feb 10, 2022
Messages
59
Points
18
Mmmmh. First time I hear about this one.
I don't think it's true. Your story on Royal Road is not an ebook. It's not the same 'product'.
Unhelpfully, Amazon doesn't have a glossary to its terminology :ROFLMAO:. But on the pricing page of Kindle Direct Publishing (here), which explains their forcible price-match policy, it doesn't actually refer to 'ebooks', it refers to 'digital books'. Now, I might be cynical, but that seems deliberate to me, given everywhere else on their site does just say 'ebook'. When big companies use an unexpected word shift, my spider senses tingle.

That said, I could be wrong. I hope I am! It would be much more convenient to be able to publish here in serialisation, then put the story up for a few bucks on Amazon if people wanted to pay it.
 

Ai-chan

Queen of Yuri Devourer of Traps
Joined
Dec 23, 2018
Messages
1,413
Points
153
Mmmmh. First time I hear about this one.
I don't think it's true. Your story on Royal Road is not an ebook. It's not the same 'product'.
It is an ebook, it's just not compiled neatly as you would something you sell on Amazon. For the purpose of commercial use, whether it is neatly compiled or remain as a web novel, nobody in power cares. This argument that webnovel and light novel is not the same thing was used by translators in the past and it's not accepted by the court. By all intents and purposes, including legal, online literature is the same thing, no matter in what form it appears.

Therefore, if your Royal Road book bears the same title, plot, prose and story as the one you're selling on Amazon, it is treated as exactly the same thing. If it bears the same title and plot as the one you're selling on Amazon, it's considered a draft, and falls under the same rule as if it is the same thing. Basically, if it can be argued to tell the same story, it is the same thing, even if the book on RR has no volume specified. For that reason, it is well within Amazon's right by their Term of Use to make your book cheaper.

Regardless, Ai-chan too has never heard of Amazon making your books free if you put it up for free elsewhere. Ai-chan has made Felicia's Second Life webnovel version free for years. The argument here is not that it's a different product, it's that you specify that you allow Amazon to sell it, if they pay you for selling it. Bandwidth is not free and Amazon does not like to give handouts, so unless you specify it to be free, they won't make it free.
 

CarburetorThompson

Fuel Atomization Enjoyer
Joined
Jan 27, 2022
Messages
1,085
Points
153
Amazon has every interest to sell an ebook since they get a cut of every sale. iirc most of the free ebooks Amazon has posted are things like Tom Swayer and other old works that have passed into public domain that you can find free online from other places like the Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg
 

Space_Pickle

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Messages
15
Points
18
So basically, even if it falls under their rule, they have no interests in flagging you and put your ebook for free.
 
Top