More Authors Realizing They Can Make A Damn Good Living Self-Releasing Super Cheap eBooks
from the wave-of-the-future? dept
Not too long ago, we wrote about JA Konrath's claim that we had reached the tipping point with ebooks, where a decent self-published ebook author, who priced their books cheaply (generally under $4) could make a really good living, selling thousands of books per month. I still wasn't convinced that there were that many authors who could really do this, but we're starting to see more examples. There's been a ton of recent news coverage about the author Amanda Hockling, who is making a ton of money from her self-published ebooks. She's pricing them quite cheaply, and selling tens of thousands per month. Her latest book is selling an astounding 100,000 copies per month -- and everything is sold for between $0.99 and $2.99. She can do this, since it's all self-released and all ebook, so the only costs are the money that Amazon (and a few other ebook providers) take (usually around 30%).As Konrath noted in that original story, no publisher can offer a deal for authors that is that good. Instead, they'd give her a tiny cut of sales, take much longer to actually get her works out there, and then have to price them many times higher. That's not to say traditional publishers don't or can't add value. A good editor and a good publisher who can help market and promote a book can be quite valuable as well. But, we're seeing more and more that for people who can do that on their own, they can get by just fine. And the real issue may be that many book publishers are still very much in denial about all of this, and don't realize that stories like this are going to become more common.
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Filed Under: amanda hockling, ebooks, ja konrath, self-publishing
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http://wilwheatonbooks.com/
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Like Amanda?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qWOy4p4MvM
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Not in denial
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Amanda Hockling
So it follows that teens are buying her books, to the tune of 100,000 a month. Teens.
And as I doubt that many kids have iPads and Kindles, they're reading them on their iPhones and Androids and Blackberrys.
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Re: Amanda Hockling
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Re: Re: Re: Amanda Hockling
There already is a market, and always has been. Next you are going to tell me that letting my friend borrow a physical copy of my book is piracy too (it isn't.) Most of these books are poorly protected, if protected at all, and yet there is a huge market. I doubt the numbers will go to 7/10,000 over-night, because they haven't done so at any time in the past. Many of the authors I now spend lots of money scooping up their entire collections of written works from, I first read via a friend loaning me a copy of their book. I've spent hundreds of dollars buying books by Koontz, Anthony, Vinge, Asimov, and Bradbury just because someone let me borrow one of their books to read first.
I don't advocate copyright infringement of anyone's works, but the simple truth is, most people out there will happily pay to use an author's work, if they feel the pay is warranted. And many authors are now realizing that this is how marketing truly works...a groundswell of people interested in your work just because someone let them borrow your book. The traditional publishers can continue to crack down on their customers, but all they are doing is slitting their own throats by denying the true source of marketing.
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Re: Re: Re: Amanda Hockling
however, buying books on the kindle? it's a frictionless, awesome system that helps you find and one-click purchase content you want as well as help you find additional content you might like. it just works. and works well.
it's quick, painless easy and absolutely, without a shred of doubt worth at least $0.99.
m3mnoch.
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Re: Amanda Hockling
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That's sginificant.
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Re: Re: Amanda Hockling
so if she's actually managed to get to the point where said teens can and do Buy the e-books, that's a large market that would have been missed out on entirely (or at least large portions of it) otherwise...
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One more thing for publishers to worry about
Once an author is well known they can usually renegotiate a somewhat better package with their current publisher. However, under the old system the author only had the option to jump to another publisher who had roughly the same cost and contract structure as the current publisher. Now a well known author has the option to cut out the publisher entirely. This could be a very bad situation for publishers who will find it harder and harder to develop a stable of popular authors.
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Re: One more thing for publishers to worry about
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One cost you missed
Realistically most of these authors don't bother to purchase the ISBNs however
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Not if you want to own that ISBN they are not. The only way to own them yourself is to buy them from Bowker for about $250 for 10. This is still only $25 each, but of course, you have to spend more up front. Any other way is using some kind of broker, and the underlying assignment of the ISBN shows up as THEM, not you or your company. It can be done, and is done, but not recommended as it creates some confusion as to who is the real "owner" of that ISBN.
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Re: One cost you missed
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Re: One cost you missed
http://www.isbn-us.com/isbnnumbers.htm?gclid=CO6ujNfgsKcCFdtx5QodDzdhCQ
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We all know that middle-men add cost, but if they also don't add value, then they're just in the way. However, simply having monopolies on production and distribution does not add value, and only works when there's no real competition. They'll either have to shift their focus on what actually adds value, or just become irrelevant. With even more writers than ever, there's still value in publicity. A lot of people still prefer print, so there's still value in that too. However, publishers have to learn one that they haven't had to do before--actually compete! They have to be better than the other avenues that writers available to them now.
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The pace of publishing
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They may sell a lot but the product is still amateur
As an aspiring writer, it is exciting to think of the prospect of flat out making a living via self-publishing. However, I struggle with the assumption that nothing is lost by making that choice, especially since these e-books can have a huge impact on how your skills as a craftsman are perceived.
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Re: They may sell a lot but the product is still amateur
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Re: Re: They may sell a lot but the product is still amateur
You're also forgetting that a publisher will assign a potentially quality editor to a first time author's manuscript. To fund a quality editor out of your own self-publishing pocket, you'll need to have released probably a number of successful e-books before you can afford it. Chicken and the egg situation, there.
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Re: They may sell a lot but the product is still amateur
>>When an author self-publishes to Kindle, there's something else missing from the process besides a middle-man publisher: an editor.
This isn't necessarily true for several reasons.
Personally, I consider the lack of publishing house editors to be a feature of ebooks. Sometimes it is fun reading a book in its raw form.
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Re: They may sell a lot but the product is still amateur
The most popular indies on Amazon and the like do indeed have editors and crit partners.
And just because an author goes through a publishing house does not mean its better quality; consider the garbage that is the Twilight series.
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Re: They may sell a lot but the product is still amateur
A lot of employees from publishers are unemployed and some clever ones are offering their services to indie authors. This also includes graphic artists doing some very good covers (although Hocking did her own at first) and agents who are brought on board to negotiate derivative rights.
The author now gets placed in the position of employer as opposed to being treated like an employee by the publisher.
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Re: Re: They may sell a lot but the product is still amateur
That's basically it. The anime/manga Bakuman gives you some insight into workings of the Japanese manga industry, and in such a case authors are technically considered to be payrolled employees of the magazines that serialize/aggregate the works they create. Other types of creators (in general) have a less subordinating official working arrangement, but the general paradigm of the creator working for the publisher de facto is fairly widespread.
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Re: They may sell a lot but the product is still amateur
I know that human ego, being what it is, makes it very hard to accept criticism, but if for example you are an author with an editing "team" of 10 people, and nine of the 10 tell you that this or that doesn't seem right, you can be pretty sure they're correct, unless it's something you've done on purpose. In addition, by being a part of the team, they get to discuss their impressions of the work(s) in question and perhaps form a consensus of their impressions.
Also, it is not uncommon to see, in any book, whether electronic or paper, an acknowledgement from the author for the help provided by others to ensure the accuracy of the book. How is this any different from a "professional" editor?
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Re: They may sell a lot but the product is still amateur
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Both publishing houses and record labels bring a great deal of expertise in "polish" and marketing, but they recoup those costs through their (former) control of manufacture and distribution.
With manufacture and distribution now available at essentially zero cost to all creators, we will have to find some different way to fund "polishing" and marketing for all forms of art.
So what I'm saying is, the record labels and the publishing houses do provide a useful service, but the old way of paying for that service is broken beyond any repair.
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Well, one thing you probably won't have is a bunch of knee-jerk reactions from the publisher's legal department. Authors are likely to be more flattered by the fan work than they are to hire lawyers.
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'sides, fanfiction mostly seems to have an associated attitude of 'getting paid for this is wrong, it's practice and skill building and an entertaining hobby in it's own right. if you want to make money, write your own original stuff'. how much of that is in response to copyright law and the risk of lawsuits, i don't know, but the moral event horizon on the issue where you go from 'the community supports the fanfiction author' to 'the community would gleefully beat them with sticks on the way to court' is when said fanfic author starts taking money. (well, i've not seen that happen, but that seems to be the sort of position taken when the issue comes up)
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Photos
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Cheaper is better
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Re: Cheaper is better
spell checkers etc. reduce the amount of work a proof reader needs to do (but don't eliminate it), but have no effect on an editor.
actually, the book i own with the most typos/printing issues/missing punctuation, that i remember, is published by Vintage, which is a Random House imprint. (next most is the first book published by Yonagu books, which is a small, niche outfit using Amazon's print on demand facilities. the second book has much fewer issues.) I've seen fanfiction with less errors than that Vintage book, which also had no need of an editor at all. (most fanfic definitely needs someone to read it over though... keep your tenses straight, people!)
still, i too will put up with typos, to a point, if they do not detract from my ability to understand the text, provided the text itself is good enough.
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Re: Cheaper is better
Except that many of the new published and printed books that I currently buy have quite a few typos and even many grammatical errors. Some of them even have missing parts of paragraphs. I'll start reading a paragraph and it will end in the middle of a sentence and a new paragraph is started. Just because a book is published and printed by a company is no guarantee that the book is error free.
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Pretty Amazing Numbers
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Pretty Amazing Numbers
The Amanda woman reminds me of Dane Cook in a strange way. He was the first comic to use the internet to promote himself. Seems Amanda and other e-authors are doing the same thing.
While the e-revolution (e-volution?) provides a huge opportunity, it seems it's mostly accessible to authors who promote themselves and have younger audiences.
-DeAngelo
http://www.cheerthis.com -hassle free sharing and voting
http://www.SheenNation.com - hassle free sharing and voting of Sheen!
http://www.braincano.com
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ISBN's et al
I tried Blurb but that lost me 1 year as the software is so weak that it cannot handle text flow or pictures adequately...it introduced so many errors i gave up.
Happy Publishing
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"self-releasing" != "self-publishing"
http://blog.marketingxd.com/post/3578753535/this-is-not-self-publishing
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Business Model
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Re: Business Model
As someone else commented, the author here seems to be successfully selling to a market well steeped in "free downloads". How? Well that's probably complex but for a start the pricepoint certainly has a lot to do with it.
Contrary to various claims here I don't believe there's a "moral imperitive" to not copy based on law - people will simply ignore it - but I think there is a background sense of "fair play" that makes people feel they ought to contribute something. The price of Hockling's books seems to me to nicely hit that "almost micropayment" level where the reaction is "Well it's not onerous so why wouldn't I pay for it?" Most e-books seem to hit more in the "But it costs more than paper and it's imaginary! Why would I pay that for it?" range.
Sure a lot of people will still get it for free, but you'll discourage a lot that way and others by adding value to the purchase (updates from the Author, invitations to "signing" days or whatever). You'll never stop all the freeloaders so I think looking on the positive side of what you do sell rather than dwelling on the "lost" imaginary money will tend to generate less heart attacks.
The "70%" survey only included 20% that thought copyright infringement was always OK. You probably won't get them, but pitch it right and you can probably get the other 80% of potential customers to give you money for something so I don't see that the 2 are really that incompatible.
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Re: Business Model
While there are undoubtedly some that will pirate something that would have bought it without the possibility of piracy, in the average case piracy really isn't worth losing sleep over. You do what you can to reduce piracy (e.g. selling stuff cheaply) and don't worry about the things you can't change - as the old proverb says.
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Re: Re: Business Model
Others that pirate doesn't mean that they won't pay. Like any other non-costumer, you have to figure out what they want. As you pointed out, getting to a price point that they're willing to pay helps. You know, like a $15 CD vs. $1 track on iTunes. Others are drawn by convenience. Again, the CD vs. iTunes comparison comes to mind.
Pirates that are completely uninterested in paying money for infinite goods aren't necessarily unwilling to pay. For those who still value convenience maybe willing to pay with time through ad-sponsored streaming. Hulu and internet radio are quite popular. Some even still use traditional broadcast too.
Even for those geeky enough to consider setting up a BitTorrent client to automatically pull RSS-feeds "convenient", there's always merchandising. Yes, I know you're laughing, but it is a multi-billion dollar industry, and it is one thing that geeks who would never pay for intangibles actually buy. Think about it, who buys all of those geeky action figures, memorabilia, and logo-wear? GEEKS! And even those who won't buy this stuff still wear promo tee-shirts that are given out at events. Sure, those cost money, but the whole point is to get people to be walking billboards advertising the product.
And speaking of PR...even those who won't buy anything aren't completely anti-social--they tell their friends and family about their experiences. Some consider the pirate a "lost" sale, but everyone they get to buy who otherwise wouldn't have is still a sale all the same. I'm not saying it completely balances out, but a sale is a sale, and getting people to pay is the goal, right? Of course, not all PR is good PR, so word of mouth advertising only works for things that people actually like. I guess that's the real reason the movie and recording industry hates piracy--it's harder to con people into paying if they've already heard the products stinks.
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More Authors Realizing
______
eamon
Free Internet Security
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Re: More Authors Realizing
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manual trackback
http://thearrglingtonjump.com/blog/2011/03/03/publishing-evolution-in-the-transmedia-a ge
[She is the living proof, Techdirt reports, that authors can actually make a living by releasing cheap ebooks.]
Thanks,
Great site!
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HarperCollins tells us what ebooks are really worth
HarperCollins tells us what ebooks are really worth
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Clever Pricing
But at the heart of it, Hocking produces a good product. If it were crap, it wouldn't matter how she priced it.
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marketing ebooks
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This is more like self promotion as there is no reason I can think of to not get a book published after the ebook sales drop enough. You hit a second group of people and a lot of the original readers will probably want a copy in print as well.
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Someone else said: "The interesting point that you missed in regard to Amanda Hockling is that she's just 26, and almost all of her books are geared to the teen and youth market. (More vampires, for heaven's sake.)
So it follows that teens are buying her books, to the tune of 100,000 a month. Teens."
I hate to tell you this but most teens don't even read books, it's adults reading Hocking's work. Grown, sad adults.
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Writer's and Publisher's
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Writer's and Publisher's
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Writer's and Publisher's
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Re: Writer's and Publisher's
It is "give me" "give me" until the artists have all starved.
Even the timber industry understood that chopping down all the trees is the worst business model for them.
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