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.

Filed Under: amanda hockling, ebooks, ja konrath, self-publishing