Michael Omer, an Israeli writer, was unsuccessful in getting his fantasy books published by traditional publishers in his home market. In the meantime, Amazon entered the market and then, in 2007, launched its e-book strategy with Kindle e-reader, Kindle Store and the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform. With these features it aimed to provide as many books to as many readers as possible, with the e-book price capped at $9.99. This move triggered confrontations with traditional publishers and opened the way to competitors like Apple. Ultimately, Amazon had to give up by accepting the new agency model, designed by Apple, and returning control over prices to publishers. At the same time, Amazon tried to hold leadership in the book and e-book market by decreasing the price of e-readers, issuing free reader applications, improving terms for self-publishers in KDP, introducing a new subscription model for readers, and establishing publishing units. Amazon was blamed for decreasing a book’s value; but it was also praised for destroying the hegemony of publishers. Mike had to learn how to promote his own books in the self-publishing ecosystem and how to approach other genres. In the end, he became one of the best-selling writers at Amazon KDP, with a mystery book that sold more than 100,000 copies. Success in KDP helped Mike establish a good relationship with Thomas & Mercer, one of Amazon’s proprietary publishers, and to achieve even greater success in both written and audiobooks.
