You may have read this story. While I applaud his feat, does his $.99 price per book ruin the price expectation of what buyers will pay for an eBook from a non-traditional author. He is now selling an eBook called How I Sold 1 million eBooks in 5 months for $4.99.

Independent author John Locke joins Amazon's million-Kindle-seller club, but at what cost?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/06/independent-author-john-locke-amazon-million-kindle-seller-cost.html

It doesn't look like there is an easy way to have a best seller.

Hi DJ,

The figures are all wrong. Traditionally published authors do not receive 70% royalties -- they receive closer to 20%. James Patterson's ebooks for Kindle range from $2.58 - $12.40 (average $7.49). This gives 70% royalties to the publisher (not the author!), which would be $5.25, of which the author would be lucky to receive 20% -- $1.05. However, the royalties on books over $9.99 and less than $2.99 do not receive 70%. So, in reality, the traditionally published author receives a lot less than $1.0/download and not much more than an indie author selling ebooks at $0.99.

6/21/2011


The only way I can think you will sell 1 million books
is if it's on a famous person, a political scandal.
Example : " Weinergate - How my weiner became
famous around the world in 5 minutes"


Cheers..Joe

Joe,
Perhaps a book with the title "How to survive with no job and no security" would be a big seller. It would obviously be a book of fiction.

John Locke did sell a million copies of his nine books in Kindle format. I mentioned this when Amanda Hocking's ebooks sold a million copies. She too had nine books for sale. The world of publishing is changing. If you want to sell a million on Kindle, you need to write a series of books. One bestseller is a thing of the past.

6/21/2011


I like Abe's title, I've read hundreds of stories on people
50 and above who can't find work, this I think is do to
the fact of their age, no matter what the laws say, they
still discriminate !

Cheers..Joe

Write it, Abe.

I give up. For years, you've all been talking about how authors who can't sign with a top publisher should be given a chance. Now it's happening and you are more interested in politics.

No, we just have given up.

So, for a first hand look at Kindle, here you go.

If you publish on Kindle as an author, without a publisher, then you do indeed keep the entire amount of the royalty. BTW, the Kindle Direct Publishing royalty for a book that is priced .99 is not 70%, it's 35%. In order to qualify for the 70% royalty you have to price your book above $2.49 (I think that's the bottom price. I'd have to look to be sure.)

I'll be the first to admit that most of the independent Kindle authors are not getting rich, or even getting by for the most part. Not even with books and stories priced at .99. You still have to be a well known author, or you have to have one of the flukes happen to you that allows your book to take off.

I have all of my books listed on Kindle, as well as all of my shorts. The shorts are in single editions and in compilations, so readers can buy them just about any way they wish to. Even with all this, and even with really good prices, I only average a little over one download a day. I have never failed to get a royalty check, but so far I've never got one large enough to do anything other than have a good dinner for my wife and I on.

Interestingly enough, my most popular download is the non fiction story of America's First Serial Killers, the Harpes. It's priced at $1.49 and is downloaded regularily if not in great quantity. The Redneck Riviera Series, which was my best selling shorts in the old Amazon Shorts program, sell a copy or two, but not nearly as many as I'd thought they might.

SUNDOWN TWO, the book I co-authored with Phil Whitley, is now available on Kindle, and we're hoping that we see some downloads from it. I have no idea if we will, but what the heck, I'm retired, I don't have a lot of other things to do, so this is an excellent way to pass time, be creative, and make a buck or two now and then.

All of my works can be found here

[url=http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_3?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=e+don+harpe&sprefix=e+d]http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_3?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=e+don+harpe&sprefix=e+d[/url]

And I invite each and everyone of you to check them out.

Have a great day.

I just found it interesting that the two biggest selling indie eBook authors are selling their books at $.99. Now I know of other Kindle eBook authors selling their books for $.99 and don't sell 1 million and it is hard for them to increase their price afterward.

We would all sell our ebooks for $.99 if we knew we would sell 1 million to make over $300,000, but most will not. The publicity behind the million sellers being $.99, which is 10 percent of the $9.99 that traditional publishers charge, sets an expectation level at a low bar price wise. I have considered a wholesale drop of my entire catalog to $.99 for one month as a test, but once you go there it could be hard to come back, but the question is how many repeat visitors are there in this internet world?

This seems to be a race to the bottom while starting at the bottom.

Good luck to all. When they are free--then what? Pay people to read them.

Most menbers know I'm after a New York Publisher...but, I'm not stupid. Why not start our own Kindle authors like book store? Don Harp, Shelagh, and others know their way around this sort of thing. I'm sure there are thousands of writers on other forums who whould join in. If we could link three, or four hundred writers web sites together, it would be a big force on the net...
I used to use "Network Solutions." It's easy, 99 pages, looks good, and only cost $109 per year. Sites linked together draw attention. With a bucket full of writers, we could even help writers who want to join clean their work up...if it's worth cleaning up. Is this a dumb idea, or worth thinking about?