Here's part of an offer I received via email today, about self-publishing for Kindle. My comments are in red.
"You would be surprised at how easy it is for anyone to get published on this new platform and the industry-crushing royalties paid directly to you, the author, make traditional publishing a thing of the past." True, pretty easy. Traditional publishing isn't ready to die yet, but let's read on.
"You see, where traditional publishing offers their authors a mere 7% to 15% royalties on average, you can get up to a 70% profit share just by publishing on the Kindle Marketplace." Yes, that's true.
"And while the big publishing houses refuse to adapt to the change and keep pricing their digital copies for just a few dollars less than their print counterparts, independent publishers are stealing the market covertly with #1 best-sellers selling for just about the price of a good coffee." Name authors are still doing very well with e-books priced not much below the paperback version. There have been some number one best-seller e-books from unknown authors charging much less. So..mostly true.
"For this reason, we are seeing an explosion of new authors publishing their works of fiction as well as non-fiction and making a killing with cheap digital books." The explosion, yes. A killing...true for a very small percentage of self-publishers.
"Do not miss out on this revolution that can make you a fortune." Can you make a fortune from self-publishing? Sure. You can also win the lottery, be left a fortune by an elderly lady you once helped across the street, or find a cache of old gold coins in your back yard.
THIS IS WHERE IT STARTS TO GO WRONG
"Thousands of amateur authors are doing it already. Take Amanda Hocking for example. She started less than a year ago, and now has a handful of paranormal and romance titles on Kindle." Hold it! Amanda Hocking didn't start less than a year ago! She began self-publishing in 2010! She doesn't now have a handful of titles, she wrote 17 novels in her free time, and in her first year self-published nine.
THE SITUATION HAS CHANGED
An article in the New York Times reflects why this offer would prefer to cite figures from 2010 rather than current ones:
"Now, though, the world has more stories than it needs or wants to pay for. In 2010, Amazon had 600,000 e-books in its Kindle store. Today it has more than three million. The number of books on Smashwords, which distributes self-published writers, grew 20 percent last year. The number of free books rose by one-third.
Revenue from e-books leveled off in 2013 at $3 billion after increasing nearly 50 percent in 2012, according to BookStats."
"Most of her books sell for a reasonable $8.99. That means she gets around $6.30 for every copy sold." Wrong! She priced her books at either 99 cents or $2.99, that's one reason she was able to sell so many--a low risk for the buyer. Also, a very important factor was timing. She came along when lots of people were buying their first iPad or other tablet and wanted things to read on it, but there weren't yet that many titles available. Much less competition than exists today.
The promoter, Trent Steele, Editor of the Write Street Newsletter, also doesn't mention how much marketing Amanda Hocking did. I've read her own account of this, and she was a marketing demon. By the way, she no longer self-publishes. After her self-publishing success, she signed a rich deal with St. Martin's Press, so clearly she doesn't agree that traditional publishing is a thing of the past.
"Even a relatively small book, selling for $2.99, and selling just 500 copies a month - which is very realistic - would bring in an extra $1000 a month, or $12,000 per year." That's more than the vast majority of self-published authors earn and it's hardly the killing or fortune mentioned earlier.
AM I OUT TO DISCOURAGE SELF-PUBLISHERS?
Not at all. I'm all favor of controlling your destiny and self-publishing is one way to do that. However, you have to go into it with your eyes open, with a plan...and with accurate information. I've emailed Trent Steele (I don't know if that's a real person or a marketing persona) to ask why they're sending out information that is out of date at best, and misleading at worst. I'll let you know if I hear back from him/them.If you know someone who isc
>the next post: more hype aimed at writers--be aware!
