Still Riding The Wave
(Big wave surfer Laird Hamilton, photo by Tim McKenna)
Just over a year ago, I wrote a post entitled "Riding the Wave," one in which I made comparisons between the emergence of e-books and my experience in the cable TV industry.
Back when I started in cable, MTV, ESPN, and CNN were new services and people in the business wondered if you could make money extending cable into inner cities or leafy suburbs with low population densities. There was great uncertainty, but the business model was so sound that it felt we were being carried forward by a wave. The same wave appeared in the mid-1990s when cable modems were introduced.
The emergence of e-books gave me that same sensation and it is no less so today than it was last year when I posted "Riding the Wave."
I suspect that the people at Amazon know a great deal about e-books sales – they may even know something about my e-book sales – but they aren't talking. So in the interest of spreading one writer's experience, here is my report:
1. Independent authors can find their audience with e-books.
When I wrote my "Riding the Wave" post a year ago my novel, A Single Deadly Truth, had been on Amazon for just over two months and I had sold 289 copies. A year later, I've sold close to 30,000 e-books (to be exact, 29,458 as of today). In December alone, I sold more than 14,500 e-books while A Single Deadly Truth sat at #1 on Amazon's Best Seller list for Hard-boiled Thrillers.
2. Readers are embracing e-books and they welcome new authors.
Last May, Amazon announced that it is now selling more eBooks than it is selling print editions, a mere four years after launching the Kindle. The company then sold millions of Kindles over the holidays, and the Kindle App is downloaded on iPads and other tablets (Apple is expected to ship 12 million iPads this quarter alone). This news is especially good for genre writers as you can see by taking a quick scan of Amazon's Best Seller lists. Readers are embracing new authors, especially those who price their books at $3.99 or less.
3. E-book distribution – all books available to readers everywhere – is remarkable.
My firsthand experience with e-book distribution was evident when I spotted a nice review out of Austrailia for my short story collection, Urban Shorts. I had a similar experience when I learned of a reader ordering A Single Deadly Truth from down on Jost Van Dyke in the Britirsh Virgin Island.
4. The best way to market e-books is e-marketing.
I tried many alternatives. Without hesitation, I recommend you put every marketing dollar you have into one outlet: Steve Windwalker's Kindle Nation sponsorships.
5. It's not too late.
The wave continues. Just ask Christine Kling who saw here new book, Circle of Bones, rise up to the Top-50 books on Kindle and look for it to be back up there.
In the past year, members of the Write On The Water blog have shown that e-books are a valid way to sell books. We're not buying sports cars or yachts with our royalty checks and we still haven't figured out this business, but this gig is interesting as heck. If you have good content, you just might want to paddle out into these waters.
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