As near as I can see, the successful E-book authors have ten or more books on their sites. They have gotten around the idea of only producing one book a year. Some have three or four books published each year. Another point of interest is that these books are not as long as the standard hard cover. They run ten to twenty thousand words less.
The Price
Pricing is a problem. All pricing must end in .99. That’s Apple’s rule. Prices under $10 and greater than $2.98 will give you a 70% royalty. Over ten you are competing with King and Patterson. Would you pay $12.99 to read an unknown writer’s work? when you could pay $12.99 to read the latest Patterson’s book?
I price mine at $2.99
Letting people know you are alive.
There is a lot of money to be made. We are at the right place at the right time with the right tools. Throughout history how many people have been able to say that? But you must be willing to do the PR work. PR work consists of writing blogs, visiting blog, making comments, and doing reviews. Both Smashwords and Kindle have forums for authors to comment, ask for help, or make suggestions. Some writers who do very well at this are Joe Konrath, Barry Eisler, and John Locks. Check out their blogs. Joe’s blogs for 2009, when he was just starting e-books, are both informative and avaliable.
But the star of the show is Amanda Hockings. In one month last year she made enough money to buy a house, free and clear. She is twenty six, single and never published anything but an e-book. She just signed a two-book deal for a half million dollars.
The Industry
Which brings me to my final point. Most of the stuff out in e-land is not good. People can read free samples of the book and find that out. So I don’t think the agent is going to disappear. Nor will the publishing house collapse.
At one time every publishing house had their in-house, first readers. Then the publishers found it was more profitable to hand that job off to the agent. They made them do the culling. Now what I think I see happening is the agent is going to be looking for the high selling e-book. He will search out an author who has a large following that shows he knows how to build a platform. The agent will suggest the author sign with him. And some will do it. Amanda said she signed because she was tired of networking and wanted time to write.
And the publishing business is here to stay because no matter what you do on the internet, or in the world of e-books, it will not equal that one Tuesday morning where, in five hundred Barnes and Noble stores all across the county, your book is on display with a professional cover. And it is sitting there on the table by the front door.
