Authors, Writers, Publishers, and Book Readers

A good reason to sell to the Kindle audiences

This article from BusinessInsider is an eye-opener!

This 26-Year-Old Is Making Millions Cutting Out Traditional Publishers With Amazon Kindle

Welcome to disruption. 26-year old Amanda Hocking is the best-selling "indie" writer on the Kindle store, meaning she doesn't have a publishing deal, Novelr says. And she shouldn't. She gets to keep 70% of her book sales -- and she sells around 100,000 copies per month. By comparison, it's usually thought that it takes a few tens of thousands of copies sold in the first week to be a New York Times bestselling writer.

The comparison isn't entirely fair, because Hocking sells her books for $3, and some $.99. But that's the point: by lowering the prices, she can make more on volume, especially impulse buys. Meanwhile e-books cost nothing to print, you don't have to worry about print volumes, shelf space, inventory, etc. And did we mention the writer keeps 70%?

http://www.businessinsider.com/amanda-hocking-2011-2

So does that tempt you guys to go down that route?

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Permalink Reply by Kay Elizabeth on March 24, 2011 at 2:30am

Ebooks are soon going to outpace print copies in popularity, and sooner than we think.

Indeed, ebook sales shot up nearly 165 percent in 2010 to $441 million (8 percent of the total trade book market, versus 3 percent the previous year), up from $167 million in 2009, and $61.3 million in 2008, according to the Association of American Publishers. During the first month of this year, net ebook sales rose almost 116 percent from January of 2010, the Association announced last week.

They are being taken more seriously now than I feel there were before. There was almost a snobbery about having a printed book vs. an ebook but more and more--consumers as well as writers and publishing companies--are embracing the ebook phenomenon. They are recognizing how much money there is to be made and the exposure ebooks can offer. When prestigious names like the New York Times give ebooks their blessing (they started including ebooks in their Bestsellers listings in Feb this year - see this week's here http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/overview.html ), it's time to come onboard and explore this option.

The above statistics quoted are from this article.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thecutline/20110323/ts_yblog_thecutli...

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Permalink Reply by scribbler on March 27, 2011 at 8:47pm

In an interesting twist, Amanda Hocking has now landed a traditional publishing deal with Macmillan in excess of $2 million. You go girl! Many congratulations to her.

Amanda Hocking, the 26-year-old author who shot to fame by selling more than a million copies of her self-published books, has signed up with a traditional publisher for her next series.

St. Martin’s Press, part of Macmillan, will publish Ms. Hocking’s “Watersong” series, four books in the young-adult paranormal genre.

A heated auction for the rights to publish her books began early last week, and several major publishers, including Random House, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins, dropped out as the price climbed into the seven figures.
The bidding eventually rose beyond $2 million for world English rights, said one publishing executive familiar with the negotiations. (St. Martin’s declined to comment on how much it agreed to pay.) Ms. Hocking was represented by the literary agent Steven Axelrod.

She talks more about it here and why she wanted this on her blog. http://amandahocking.blogspot.com/2011/03/blog.html

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Permalink Reply by Babs Queen on March 30, 2011 at 12:42am

There are thousands of ebooks on Kindle, and while it is great that she did so well, not everyone will do the same. But no matter whether you publish on Kindle or Sony or Diesel, etc., etc., you have to publicize the book and get the word out. She will sell even more books because everyone is tooting her horn. We should all have such a great amount of coverage!

I have a friend with four ebooks in the Kindle store and while she is succeeding... she is not making this kind of money. It is slow and steady.

Ebooks are here to stay... that is a good bandwagon to jump on, especially since you can self publish like my friend did. Then if the ebook is a success, the publishers will come knocking on your door.

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Permalink Reply by scribbler on April 4, 2011 at 11:52pm

Very true, Babs. And I honestly think ebooks will be the format of choice by 2020 if not sooner. Even JK Rowling who said previously she'd not do them is now considering releasing all her books in that format. As mediabistro pointed out, she's been shooting herself in the foot all that time anyway because pirated versions appeared almost immediately online once the books came out.

http://www.mediabistro.com/ebooknewser/harry-potter-to-finally-go-d...

Babs Queen said:

There are thousands of ebooks on Kindle, and while it is great that she did so well, not everyone will do the same. But no matter whether you publish on Kindle or Sony or Diesel, etc., etc., you have to publicize the book and get the word out. She will sell even more books because everyone is tooting her horn. We should all have such a great amount of coverage!

I have a friend with four ebooks in the Kindle store and while she is succeeding... she is not making this kind of money. It is slow and steady.

Ebooks are here to stay... that is a good bandwagon to jump on, especially since you can self publish like my friend did. Then if the ebook is a success, the publishers will come knocking on your door.

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Permalink Reply by Garry Edward Lewis on April 8, 2011 at 10:19am

"You've convinced me to put my books on Kindle, that's for sure." Garry

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Permalink Reply by Garry Edward Lewis on April 8, 2011 at 10:22am

It sure seems in our fast paced world, e-books are very popular, I still like the feel of a physical book in your hands though. But in our high tech world today I think Kindle books, and the like are going to be most popular. I'm ready to climb on board I know that!

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Permalink Reply by Babs Queen on April 8, 2011 at 6:38pm

Gary if you need any pointers or help on getting pointed in the right direction, or on what to do first let me know. I have placed 5 books online - 4 in Kindle plus set up the same for clients.

Garry Edward Lewis said:

It sure seems in our fast paced world, e-books are very popular, I still like the feel of a physical book in your hands though. But in our high tech world today I think Kindle books, and the like are going to be most popular. I'm ready to climb on board I know that!