USA Today article on successful self/e-publishers

[Ineti]

Interesting little article about some epub/self-pub success stories. I think some of the numbers quoted for Amanda Hocking are off, but I'd have to check her blog to be sure. Anyway, nice to see the success stories getting mentioned somewhere nationally other than online blogs and message boards.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2011-02-09-ebooks09_ST_N.htm

[lvcabbie]

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2011-02-09-ebooks09_ST_N.htm

Authors catch fire with self-published e-books
By Carol Memmott, USA TODAY

You may not know her name, but Amanda Hocking and others like her are riding the comet of digital publishing.

Amanda Hocking sold more than 450,000 copies of her nine young-adult paranormal books last month. Virtually all were e-books.

Fed up with attempts to find a traditional publisher for her young-adult paranormal novels, Hocking self-published last March and began selling her novels on online bookstores like Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com.

By May she was selling hundreds; by June, thousands. She sold 164,000 books in 2010. Most were low-priced (99 cents to $2.99) digital downloads.

More astounding: This January she sold more than 450,000 copies of her nine titles. More than 99% were e-books.

<remainder of article snipped>

[K. Taylor]

What's even more amazing with Amanda Hocking is that her books are still full of errors, yet selling that well. Think if they were polished?

[izanobu]

Goes to show that a few typos and errors don't actually ruin a reading experience :) Story is king.

Though she has updated some of the books with cleaner copy and now, I believe, has a hired editor.

[Ineti]

Goes to show that a few typos and errors don't actually ruin a reading experience :) Story is king.

Indeed. Unrelated to ebooks, but I bought WOTC's print reprints of Troy Denning's DARK SUN novels, and my gods were there typos. Every tenth page or so had some sort of gaffe or weirdness to it. Didn't stop me from reading them, though.

Ebooks in general may be a little more suspect to typos, but print books certainly are not immune.

[bmathison]

Whatever her numbers are, I think Amanda Hocking is inspiring.

Should be interesting how many other success stories appear in the next few years. I believe that e-publishing is revolutionizing the industry.

[BenPanced]

Changing? Definitely. Revolutionizing? Well, considering the revolution has been happening for 20 years or more...

[lvcabbie]

I think the biggest revolution has been the technology with iphones, ipads, kindles and so on. More and more people are finding ways to read during otherwise "lost" time. In addition, e-publications cost a lot less and people are looking for ways to save money.

An example - I have a book for sale as POD that costs $11 for paperback. At the same time, I sell the same book as an e pub for $4. I make a decent royalty on both but, with proper publication, I should do a lot better.

People have better things to do with their time than stop to look for something. Buying online is becoming more and more popular. That's not saying the bookstore and mall are out - they'll be around for a very long time.

[cameron_chapman]

I just read her Trylle Trilogy this past weekend (first purchases on my new Nook Color) and I understand why she's popular. Sure, she could use a good copyeditor, but the errors weren't enough to prevent me from enjoying the books.

I considered it market research, since I've just started publishing my own books via Kindle and Nook. I wanted to see what the most popular self-pubbed author on those platforms was doing, to see if it was something that could be emulated. I think it could be. Part of it is that she releases so many books (10 last year, and she's already got a handful out this year). She keeps her fans involved by constantly giving them something new to read.

[Noah Body]

Interesting read. But I would presume that these success stories are, of course, exceptions to the rule.

[Selah March]

Interesting read. But I would presume that these success stories are, of course, exceptions to the rule.

Konrath and Hocking-type numbers are exceptions to the rule, but I can name four romance authors of my acquaintance who've been self-pubbing to Kindle and making a living at it. And by "making a living," I mean a few to several thousand dollars a month (total) on titles priced at 99 cents to no more than 5 dollars, earning 70% on every sale.

No, I won't name these authors. That would be tacky.

Now perhaps that's a statistical fluke, and I happen to know the only four authors who are doing this well, but I doubt it. I'm a lurker. I don't know that many people.

[Noah Body]

Cool, thanks for the info.

[Selah March]

Cool, thanks for the info.

Which isn't to say that anyone/everyone can make even those sorts of numbers, but only to observe that things in the industry are changing at the speed of light, and what we believed six months ago is no longer necessarily true. :)

[HisBoyElroy]

Interesting read. But I would presume that these success stories are, of course, exceptions to the rule.

Every success story is the exception to the rule, whatever the field.

[lvcabbie]

I think the main thing about publishing on Kindle and Nook is publicizing them in as many ways and places as possible.

[It also helps to have a good story!]

[Neil Larkins]

Every success story is the exception to the rule, whatever the field.
I would agree that Amanda's steller sales are the exception...but there seem to be many who are doing OK to quite well.
My surface perusal of her work and what has been said about it - the reviews and comments on Amazon mostly - has led me to several conclusions about her success and how to perhaps duplicate it.
1. Ms. Hocking seems to be more adept at social networking than writing, though I've not looked at her facebook, etc. She has gotten a huge loyal following. Also, to my thinking her age may be an asset in that she and her readers are pretty much in the same age group. She understands what she likes and since that coincides with what they like, there is a connection and she capitalizes on on it.
2. As to her prowess, next to the errors - mostly typos, it seems - the biggest complaint about her work is that it is derivative. This word came up quite often in reviews but in Amanda's case it works for her. She is steeped in the paranormal filled with forbidden love of and by vampires, werewolves, etc. and has tapped into others who are as well. Others have done this before and so she's copying success and that seems perfectly fine with her fans.
3. Despite her work being "derivative" and filled with errors, the most praise she received was for her ability at telling a story in a compelling way that made the reader want to find out what happened next. Many reviewers said that the writing was so awful that had the story not been so well told that they wouldn't have finished it.
This last is, to me, an anomaly, that the writing can be bad and good at the same time. But Amanda seems to have pulled it off. And if you're good enough at story telling that your readers will forgive your many shortcomings, that's all that's necessary...right? Sounds horribly cynical, yet true for Amanda. Perhaps it's like has been said about e-books, for a buck or two or three, you can't expect much. If it turns out that you get entertained, despite shortcomings, then you're ahead of the game. If not, you haven't lost much.
Perhaps a word to the wise? Or a cautionary tale?

[Henri Bauholz]

Her e-book success seems a bit contagious in that over the last few months there seems to be a growing number of webinars, e-books and magazine articles about how to put together and market an e-book. I would expect this trend to continue in the near future.

My Blog (http://bluefoxcafe.wordpress.com)

[lvcabbie]

I don't think Hocking's "short-comings" are that rare.
I became hooked on Tom Clancy and usually buy anything with his name on it. But, like Clive Cussler, more and more books are being published in their names when they, in truth, are not the authors.
And, a lot of the "spin-offs" aren't all that great!


My blog: http://lvcabbie@blogspot.com

[Neil Larkins]

Every success story is the exception to the rule, whatever the field.

Her e-book success seems a bit contagious in that over the last few months there seems to be a growing number of webinars, e-books and magazine articles about how to put together and market an e-book. I would expect this trend to continue in the near future.

My Blog (http://bluefoxcafe.wordpress.com)
Or did the USA Today article, as well as others, create that contagion? Possibly a combination. Nothing creates copycats more than success but it has to be made known. What the upshot of this will be, is unknown. Will it draw more and more marginal authors or more accomplished ones? Hopefully, all. One thing sure, this has established a whole lot more level, even democratic playing field than ever existed before.