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nihilistic_kid – this very interesting NYT piece on the suddenly ubiquitous Amanda Hocking who is the first person to have figured out how to become a millionaire through ePublishing.
In order to become a millionaire through ePublishing, she had to sell a lot of books. The algebra problem looks something like this:
X x (.7 x 2.99) = 1,000,000 where X c a lot of books
She’s being written about because St. Martin’s just signed her to a two million dollar deal for four books that will be published, sold and marketed the old-fashioned way on paper and with ad campaigns. Will her fanbase be willing to pony up $15 for a trade paperback? Somehow I doubt it. Nor, from the excerpts I’ve read, does she seem to be a compelling enough writer to attract new readers who will happily spend $15 especially since her older stuff is available at one-fifth the price. One assumes, too, that St. Martin’s will be ePublishing the new stuff – are they going to keep to Hocking’s successful pricing model of $2.99 or $0.99 or are they, like most traditional publishers, gonna aim higher?
Hocking, by the way, attributes her success to the book bloggers who touted her and to the fact that she is writing YA novels in a wildly popular subgenre. The secret to success is that you must always write series – sales pick up with the third book but they can go off the charts with the fourth.
I dunno. Should I change the book I’m writing so that John Steinbeck is a vampire?
In other news, I remain funk-bound and incredibly panicky over money to the point where I’m barely eating or sleeping. I spend a lot of time – well, no, not fantasizing about committing suicide per se, just wishing I wasn't alive. Seems pretty clear at this point that my existence on this planet was and is a mistake. Still. I’m writing like an angel on my book project, and writing very fast. I suppose I should hang on at least until it's done. And of course the industrious beaves continue to be a source of great pleasure:
Yeah, yeah, slow till the end when the adorable beave makes his assault on the Beave Fortress of Solitude.
nihilistic_kid – this very interesting NYT piece on the suddenly ubiquitous Amanda Hocking who is the first person to have figured out how to become a millionaire through ePublishing.In order to become a millionaire through ePublishing, she had to sell a lot of books. The algebra problem looks something like this:
X x (.7 x 2.99) = 1,000,000 where X c a lot of books
She’s being written about because St. Martin’s just signed her to a two million dollar deal for four books that will be published, sold and marketed the old-fashioned way on paper and with ad campaigns. Will her fanbase be willing to pony up $15 for a trade paperback? Somehow I doubt it. Nor, from the excerpts I’ve read, does she seem to be a compelling enough writer to attract new readers who will happily spend $15 especially since her older stuff is available at one-fifth the price. One assumes, too, that St. Martin’s will be ePublishing the new stuff – are they going to keep to Hocking’s successful pricing model of $2.99 or $0.99 or are they, like most traditional publishers, gonna aim higher?
Hocking, by the way, attributes her success to the book bloggers who touted her and to the fact that she is writing YA novels in a wildly popular subgenre. The secret to success is that you must always write series – sales pick up with the third book but they can go off the charts with the fourth.
I dunno. Should I change the book I’m writing so that John Steinbeck is a vampire?
In other news, I remain funk-bound and incredibly panicky over money to the point where I’m barely eating or sleeping. I spend a lot of time – well, no, not fantasizing about committing suicide per se, just wishing I wasn't alive. Seems pretty clear at this point that my existence on this planet was and is a mistake. Still. I’m writing like an angel on my book project, and writing very fast. I suppose I should hang on at least until it's done. And of course the industrious beaves continue to be a source of great pleasure:
Yeah, yeah, slow till the end when the adorable beave makes his assault on the Beave Fortress of Solitude.
