Self-published e-book author: 'Most of my months are six-figure months'

CNN Tech ^ | September 7, 2012 | John D. Sutter

[2ndDivisionVet]

It's been called a "cure for rejection-letter fatigue."

Amazon on Thursday released new details about the success of its program for authors who want to self-publish on its Kindle e-reader devices. The company, which unveiled a suite of new e-readers and tablets at a press conference in Southern California on Thursday, says 27 of the top 100 Kindle books were created using a system called Kindle Direct Publishing.

That system allows authors to bypass traditional publishers and instead deal directly with Amazon, which claims to be able to publish their books digitally "in hours."

The authors receive 70% of the royalties from the sale of these books. And some of them are doing quite well.

"Most of my months are six-figure months," said Hugh Howey, a 37-year-old Florida author whose "Wool" series of digital books was highlighted by Amazon. "It's more than I ever hoped to make in a year."

The company says some authors, including Theresa Ragen, who appeared in a promotional video during the Amazon event, have sold hundreds of thousands of books.

During the event Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos displayed a quote from Kathryn Stockett, author of best-selling novel "The Help," in which she lamented being rejected dozens of times before a publisher accepted her.

"What if I had given up at 15? Or 40? Or even 60?" she was quoted as saying......

[what's up]

Thanks for posting the article.

I have 96,000 words written on my first novel. The only thing I've ever had published were a couple of editorials in college.

I'm slowly working toward thinking about publishing now so this thread is appreciated.

[windcliff]

ping

[bray]

What do you think of Tate Publishing. They are going to edit, publish and edit my manuscript.

Thank You

[Veto!]

Commas are not worth fighting about, if it’s only a style issue. And each publishing house has it’s own style sheet. I basically assume that the proofreader knows more than I do. But sometimes meaning changes with comma placement, so you have to watch for those. Peddle/pedal - a funny error. I’m visualizing a peddler pedaling his cart. Sounds like a spellcheck glitch.

Recently, I told a friend of mine that I do NOT need reining in, I need encouragement. A couple of days later, I saw almost the same sentence in an article by an author who writes for Psychology Today, Harvard School of Public Health, Salon, Chicago Trib, etc. Except she said “reigning in.” Guess we know who she thinks she is. LOL

[Starwolf]

I have published successfully previously (journals and books). You are quite right about some of the hoops.

In my book I am taking a different approach to some of the problem solving that I have never seen in print or presentation. Only doing it since I have gotten so many requests after my presentations.

[tbw2]

I have published several dozen titles on Amazon Kindle, from novellas to full length novels. I receive a modest royalty flow, in the $10-100/month range. My personal observations;
* Self-published on Amazon Kindle has a bad reputation because of all the people who don’t proof-read and edit their work.
* Books with professional covers on the website sell far better than something with an amateur cover.
* The royalty rates by the author of “Wool” are not typical, but you can make money at it.
* You still have to market your work to sell.

[AD from SpringBay]

I was in the middle of a chemo treatment when I read and briefly posted on this article. So, yeah, I have four ebooks (three at Barnes & Noble and Amazon, the fourth at Smashwords) and am at the occasional pizza money level of success. An overlooked part of the process is the marketing of the books. It is very rare for someone to just, ‘throw something out there’ and become mega successful. It can happen, but you car can also be crushed by a rockslide. The self-published author has to understand that real success comes with hard work in three major areas: the creative (book & cover), the technical &(editing, formatting), and the branding (advertising, blogging, and a few other things). Then again, without financial success there are less tangible forms of reward. I like to think the people who do buy my books are enjoying them. And it is satisfying to know I’ve only sold a handful to people I know. The rest are strangers out there in the world. And that brings its own level of coolness to the process. I won’t blog-pimp, but if you are interested, see my tagline for where to go.

[tbw2]

There are several benefits of paper books.
1. No DRM - you own it, it is yours.
2. More privacy when distributing literature. When you buy a few print books and physically give them to friends, it is just about the only data transfer the NSA isn’t monitoring.
3. Books will still be readable in 40 years; file format changes, digital restrictions and technology changes may prevent files from working.

[The Duke]

Only doing it since I have gotten so many requests after my presentations.

That's what got me started as well. I got deeply involved in preparedness and started a local group in 2008, and since that time have given several presentations. During those presentations (and during my own preparation for them) I became aware that there was a need for a good, solid reference that wasn't so heavy on the "zombies", but which would provide a deeper level of detail.

Tonight I'm up having to rework the "hunting and foraging" chapter, which was just wasn't strong enough. Once that is complete I've got half a chapter to go. I'm quite anxious to give birth to this baby! :)

[Gene Eric]

Indeed.

[Revolting cat!]

I read a paraphrased quote today somewhere, and as always forgot to note where, until much later when it hit me as being worth remembering, Agatha Christie saying that she got her best story ideas while washing dishes, because, she said, there was no worse activity than that to try to mentally escape. Or something like it.