Yep, Joe Konrath just posted his numbers. He’s made over $100k in 3-weeks with his digital books.
One hundred grand. That’s how much I’ve made on Amazon in the last three weeks.
This is just for my self-pubbed Kindle titles. It doesn’t include Shaken and Stirred, which were published by Amazon’s imprints. It doesn’t include any of my legacy sales, print or ebook. It doesn’t include audiobook sales. It doesn’t include sales from other platforms.
This is from my self-pubbed books. The ones the Big 6 rejected.
He then goes on to offer a view of the changing marketplace. Tell me he’s wrong, go ahead. You can’t.
This is no longer a question of choosing between accepting 17.5% royalties from a legacy publisher or doing it yourself. This has now become the best way in the history of mankind for a writer to earn money. It may be one of the greatest ways to ever make money, period.
We can directly and instantly reach hundreds of millions of consumers in a global marketplace. We can set the list price, and we get to keep the majority of that list price. Readers can buy our work instantly on devices that they love. They don’t have to go to the store, the store is in their hands. Once a book is written and formatted it can sell unlimited copies, forever, without any costs to the writer other than the initial time investment and monetary investment (formatting, editing, cover.)
No other industry allows this. There are always continuing production costs and shipping costs. There are always middlemen who take cuts. There is always a limit to distribution. There are always times when something is sold out or unavailable.
Not anymore.
Imagine having instant access to every person’s checking account in the world, and stealing one dollar.
Now imagine them willingly giving you that dollar.
So, write your book yet? You better get started.
Yeah, but he has an established audience from a successful career in print. Pointing to him as an example that anyone can do it is disingenuous. It just proves that if you have already built an audience, you no longer need the distribution infrastructure the traditional publishing world has built up. It doesn't mean that building that audience is any easier today than it was in the past. In fact, with the barriers to entry in the book market dropping, it's probably harder, because there are that many more titles to compete with for attention and mindshare.
For fledgling authors who are looking to build an audience, the uphill climb to this level of success is **WAY** steeper than Konrath's.
Writing the book is the easiest part of this.
You need to be willing and *able* to hustle that book. You need to find out who to court and who to flatter to get them to recommend you to their audiences, and how to get their attention when so many are clamoring for it. Then you need to have a plan and the skill to develop a relationship with the people who read and like your work (via blog, twitter, facebook, etc.) so you can keep them engaged and interested until the next book comes out. If you're not a good salesman and shmoozer (and many people aren't), selling yourself and your writing is a real uphill battle.
If you do that successfully, over time, you'll build an audience so you can get these kind of numbers.
You're missing the point Greg. The point is that anyone can have the opportunity to do this now with self-publishing. Of course not everyone is going to be as successful as he is. But at least now with digital books we have a chance. Traditional publishing didn't give that.
You are correct, Jim. I know people who have done this already and has been very successful. I'm excited that this whole new world has opened up for both the writer and the reader. ~smiling~
Self Publishing and Book Marketing Dreams Easily (Kindle Edition) I bought this, lfolishoy. It’s nothing but an infomercial for the services of the self publishing company the author runs. When I got ready to publish my fourth and fifth books, I researched this topic decided NOT to do business with the author’s company. If you want to self publish, do it with a company that does not charge you to set your book up. Go with a company, such as the Amazon subsidiary, CreateSpace. They helped me get my two recent publications set up and charged me nothing until I actually ordered copies at very competitive prices. In general, it is my belief that companies offering to publish your book for only $199 to $2000 are exploiters of the gullible. DO YOUR RESEARCH! By the way, I called Amazon Kindle support and asked them to refund my money. The did it without question. I’ve found that Amazon and Amazon subsidiary companies are dependable and honest. I’ll give them the five stars, not the digital babble that I downloaded when I spent my buck on this one.
Jim… how is your "No Publisher Needed" different than Joe's "The Newbie Guide…" book. Do both of you cover the same territory.. or does yours cover newer information, etc.
My book is about crowdfunding mainly. Joe's book is a generic book about self-pubbing. Both are good.
This is an anomaly, not proof. Self-publishing success stories have been around for decades. They helped sell subsidy publishing services like the tale of Lana Turner being discovered at Schwab's sold bus tickets to Hollywood. As the internet emerged as a way to connect with customers, success stories about online marketing campaigns for self-published print books would emerge, but weren't often duplicated.
They turned out to be "right place, right time, right property, right strategy" stories, but didn't prove "anyone can have the opportunity" any more than the success stories that preceeded them.
How has the game of actually getting people to discover and buy your self-published work materially changed? Though it no longer takes $5,000 and a bunch of trips to the UPS store to print and market your book, what else has changed?
Again, you are missing the point Greg. This isn't about how much money he made really, this is about having the opportunity to do it differently than traditional publishing.
Hi Jim, does your book go over steps on how to do crowdfunding to raise money before you write the book? Also does your book 'No Publisher Needed' show how to get the crowd?
-John Rodriguez
That's what the entire book is about John!