First the internet came for newspapers.
Then for radio stations. Last week, media conglomerate Bell announced it was restructuring and selling off CKNL in Fort Nelson, CKRX in Fort St. John and CJDC in Dawson Creek.
Publishers may be next.
Kenneth Whyte, a veteran Canadian publisher and journalist, writes about the industry on Substack (a digital publishing platform for independent writers used by many journalists). In a recent piece entitled “Rise of the Non-Publishers,” he lists a number of independently published books that became #1 bestsellers on Amazon Canada.
Which means they are bestsellers in Canada since, as Whyte notes, “Amazon sells well over half of all books in Canada.” However, since Amazon doesn’t share its data with the people who compile Canadian bestseller lists, titles surging on Amazon often don’t show up on the league tables.
In effect, when you see a bestseller list in a newspaper, it is probably a “Bestsellers from traditional publishing houses” list.
Which is probably why you’ve never heard of the three #1 Canadian non-fiction bestsellers White mentions: Grave Error by former University of Calgary prof Tom Flanagan and Chris Champion (with a forward by Conrad Black), The 1867 Project edited by Mark Milke of Calgary’s Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy, and Hold the Line by Tamara Lich.
Many News’ readers will disagree with the conservative authors of these books. But the point is that Amazon has now made it possible for niche authors to get past the traditional gatekeepers at big publishing companies.
Consider Michaela Angemeer, who describes themselves as a queer Canadian poet. Angemeer’s You’ll Come Back to Yourself is ranked as a Canadian bestseller in Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program. It has 7,016 ratings with an average score of 4.4 out of five.
Contrast that with Study for Obedience, winner of the prestigious Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2023. On Amazon, it has 591 ratings and an average score of three out of five.
Another example is True Moxie by Silvia Bourgeois of Fanny Bay on Vancouver Island. Bourgeois grew up in remote northern Vancouver Island, where the book is set among small communities and wilderness guiding camps. In addition to earning the Kindle Unlimited Canadian bestseller tag, it scores #175 globally in Survival Stories for Young Adults and #1148 in Women’s Action and Adventure.
Wonder who published it? Coastwerks Press, an outfit so small it seems not to have a website.
Which brings up Kindle Direct. This is the self-publishing arm of Amazon. They have built a digital service where authors can upload their files, publish paper and digital copies and manage sales in dozens of countries.
In addition to poetry, Angemeer sells a guide to self-publishing with Kindle Direct. Bourgeois uses Kindle’s promotion tools.
Do you have a Yukon book idea you’ve been thinking about? But have the publishers of Harry Potter seemed uninterested in your poetry volume entitled Call of the Mountain Sled? Maybe you have a Yukon idea for the Women’s Action and Adventure category? Or maybe you think publishing a book in your northern specialty would help build your professional credibility?
You should check out Kindle Direct.
I have tested Kindle Direct and can attest that the coders at Amazon have put a lot of effort into making it easy to use. It walks you through the process step by step, with how-to guides and videos to help. You upload your text and cover image, review mockups of what it will look like on paper and various digital reading gadgets, create your blurbs for Amazon’s website, and choose your price points. Amazon automatically copies your Canadian content and pricing over to the US, UK, Europe, Japan and elsewhere.
You can also order author copies at a competitive price to supply to local quality bookstores, give to clients or sell out of the back of your truck at Dawson City Music Festival.
The economics are also compelling. There are no upfront fees. You do not have to front any cash for inventory, since when buyers purchase the paperback Amazon prints one on demand and mails it. Based on examples on Kindle Direct’s website, if you price your e-book at $3.99, you should get 65 to 70 per cent as a royalty. For a typical paperback selling at $20, you’ll get between 35 and 40 per cent depending on how long the book is.
While these are much bigger royalty shares than traditional publishers offer, Kindle authors also have to do more work. This includes creating the digital files for Kindle and all the marketing. The top Kindle authors spend a lot of time on social media promoting their books.
Your Yukon book is probably not going to scare the publishers of Harry Potter, nor will the royalties allow you to buy an island in the Okanagan for retirement. But they are much more generous than most influencers get on platforms such as TikTok or Instagram, or most podcasters on Apple Podcasts.
So I suggest you allow yourself to be inspired by Sylvia Bourgeois of Fanny Bay. Her bio describes her as a former dump truck operator, excavation site superintendent, “competitive fisherman” and “skilled knitter.” Now she has a Canadian bestseller with 283 ratings and an average score of 4.5 out of five on Amazon.
(Full disclosure: I used Kindle Direct for my most recent book.)
Keith Halliday is a Yukon economist, author of the Aurore of the Yukon youth adventure novels and co-host of the Klondike Gold Rush History podcast. He won the 2022 Canadian Community Newspaper Award for Outstanding Columnist.