Free Write Good or Die by Scott Nicholson
Authors: Scott Nicholson
Tags: eBooks, Authors, Writing, books, publishing, J.A. Konrath, free ebook, Heather Graham, fantasy writing, book promotion, ebook business, editing, free download, free writing guide, freelance writing, getting an agent, horror writing, jonathan maberry, kevin j anderson, mj rose, mystery writing, novel writing, publishing industry, romance writing, science fiction writing, scott nicholson, selfpublishing, thriller writing, writing advice, writing career, writing manual
recently
conducted a poll with 200 people who own e-reading devices. Every
one of them reported they were buying at least two times more books
because of their e-purchases. Some reported a 300 percent
increase.
No matter how bad at math I am, I know
selling 3,000 books at $10 is better than selling 300 books at
$25.
Don’t we want more people reading more
books?
Be Not Afraid
The inescapable truth of doing business in
the 21st century, according to author and CEO of BookTour.com,
Kevin Smokler, is that you have to give the customer what they
want. “There are more of them than there are of you. Should you
choose to make it difficult for your own purposes, said customers
will simply abandon what you are offering them and go
elsewhere.”
Yes, it’s a scary time.
If we lose the one-two punch of hardcover
releases followed a year later by a mass market or trade paperback
release, it might affect our advances but that doesn’t mean we
won’t be able to earn a living as writers.
It could mean we sell some work directly to
readers. Or that our agents become entrepreneurial managers who
help us find other kinds of paying gigs.
It might mean that more of us have to keep
our day jobs longer.
But based on how much authors are doing now
to market their own books, advances need to be re-adjusted and the
royalty structure needs to be restructured anyway.
As Mike Shatzkin points out on his blog,
authors might notice that the digital world offers alternative
sales channels that don’t involve traditional publishing—especially
at a time when traditional publishing isn’t so traditional anymore
and publishers are expecting authors to do more and more
marketing.
What’s not scary is that people haven’t
stopped reading. They’re just embracing more ways to read the
printed word—whether it’s ink or e-ink. And nothing matters more
than that.
We won’t be facing apocalypse as long as we
are forward thinking, embrace change and find a way to work with
it. We will be doomed if we cling desperately the old models simply
because that’s the way it always worked.
I’m a founding member of ITW—International
Thriller Writers. In 2007, one of our board members, the amazing
crime writer David Hewson, suggested we abolish dues and find
another way to support the organization financially. At first the
board balked. No writer’s organization had ever made it without
dues. That’s how it was always done. How could we do something so
crazy?
Hewson’s answer became ITW’s motto: “When we
imitate we fail. When we innovate we succeed.”
ITW is succeeding and publishing can succeed,
too, as long as we don’t try to preserve the past at the
expense of the future.
M.J. Rose—http://www.mjrose.com
###
32. KINDLE SALES: 30K EBOOKS IN 11 MONTHS
By J.A. Konrath
http://www.jakonrath.com
I uploaded my first self-published ebook for
Amazon Kindle back on April 8, 2009.
As of this morning, March 4, 2010, at 9:23
a.m., I've sold 29,224 ebooks.
I'm currently selling $1.99 ebooks at the
rate of 170 per day. That means I'm earning around $120 per day
just sitting on my butt. If this trend continues as-is, I'll earn
$43,800 this year on previously published short stories and novels
that NY print publishing rejected.
But I don't expect this trend to continue
as-is. I expect it to explode.
In July, Amazon is doubling royalty rates for
self-publishers, going from 35% to 70%.
I have no doubt, by the end of the year, I'll
be making $5k per month on Kindle. And that's probably a low
estimate.
So how am I doing this? What's the
secret?
Here are my guesses as to why I keep selling
well.
1. Being known. I already have some name recognition from my print
books. There are half a million books of mine in print worldwide,
and some of those readers go looking for me on Amazon and find my
self-pubbed Kindle titles.
2. My blog. I have a blog called A Newbie's
Guide to Publishing where I often talk
about ebooks. That blog gets over a
conducted a poll with 200 people who own e-reading devices. Every
one of them reported they were buying at least two times more books
because of their e-purchases. Some reported a 300 percent
increase.
No matter how bad at math I am, I know
selling 3,000 books at $10 is better than selling 300 books at
$25.
Don’t we want more people reading more
books?
Be Not Afraid
The inescapable truth of doing business in
the 21st century, according to author and CEO of BookTour.com,
Kevin Smokler, is that you have to give the customer what they
want. “There are more of them than there are of you. Should you
choose to make it difficult for your own purposes, said customers
will simply abandon what you are offering them and go
elsewhere.”
Yes, it’s a scary time.
If we lose the one-two punch of hardcover
releases followed a year later by a mass market or trade paperback
release, it might affect our advances but that doesn’t mean we
won’t be able to earn a living as writers.
It could mean we sell some work directly to
readers. Or that our agents become entrepreneurial managers who
help us find other kinds of paying gigs.
It might mean that more of us have to keep
our day jobs longer.
But based on how much authors are doing now
to market their own books, advances need to be re-adjusted and the
royalty structure needs to be restructured anyway.
As Mike Shatzkin points out on his blog,
authors might notice that the digital world offers alternative
sales channels that don’t involve traditional publishing—especially
at a time when traditional publishing isn’t so traditional anymore
and publishers are expecting authors to do more and more
marketing.
What’s not scary is that people haven’t
stopped reading. They’re just embracing more ways to read the
printed word—whether it’s ink or e-ink. And nothing matters more
than that.
We won’t be facing apocalypse as long as we
are forward thinking, embrace change and find a way to work with
it. We will be doomed if we cling desperately the old models simply
because that’s the way it always worked.
I’m a founding member of ITW—International
Thriller Writers. In 2007, one of our board members, the amazing
crime writer David Hewson, suggested we abolish dues and find
another way to support the organization financially. At first the
board balked. No writer’s organization had ever made it without
dues. That’s how it was always done. How could we do something so
crazy?
Hewson’s answer became ITW’s motto: “When we
imitate we fail. When we innovate we succeed.”
ITW is succeeding and publishing can succeed,
too, as long as we don’t try to preserve the past at the
expense of the future.
M.J. Rose—http://www.mjrose.com
###
32. KINDLE SALES: 30K EBOOKS IN 11 MONTHS
By J.A. Konrath
http://www.jakonrath.com
I uploaded my first self-published ebook for
Amazon Kindle back on April 8, 2009.
As of this morning, March 4, 2010, at 9:23
a.m., I've sold 29,224 ebooks.
I'm currently selling $1.99 ebooks at the
rate of 170 per day. That means I'm earning around $120 per day
just sitting on my butt. If this trend continues as-is, I'll earn
$43,800 this year on previously published short stories and novels
that NY print publishing rejected.
But I don't expect this trend to continue
as-is. I expect it to explode.
In July, Amazon is doubling royalty rates for
self-publishers, going from 35% to 70%.
I have no doubt, by the end of the year, I'll
be making $5k per month on Kindle. And that's probably a low
estimate.
So how am I doing this? What's the
secret?
Here are my guesses as to why I keep selling
well.
1. Being known. I already have some name recognition from my print
books. There are half a million books of mine in print worldwide,
and some of those readers go looking for me on Amazon and find my
self-pubbed Kindle titles.
2. My blog. I have a blog called A Newbie's
Guide to Publishing where I often talk
about ebooks. That blog gets over a