Write Good or Die

will survive. Those who weren’t really writers and just happened to “have a manuscript stashed in a bottom drawer from my high school days” will retire with $27 and a delusion that they were once “real authors.” Sure, they will leave their books up on the Internet, but they will quit blogging about how no one is buying them.
    4) The ones who don’t quit, who are real authors, will make a decent, healthy, satisfying living. A few will make crazy money, but the real story will be a quiet middle class of creative entrepreneurs operating small businesses with low overhead. They were lucky to stumble into the one amazing growth industry during one of the world’s worst recessions.
    5) The authors who got lucky during the indie era will never acknowledge it was luck: luck to be here when it happened, luck to get a boost from Amazon algorithms, luck to get mentioned by certain websites during a marketing push. The authors who didn’t get lucky will blame the system.
    6) Amazon will dominate the market for a decade. This is not really a prediction, because it is close enough to fact. It’s hard to see any development in which any competitor strong-arms away some market share. Barnes & Noble is just now getting around to recognizing “Gee, ebooks can reach overseas” while Amazon is actively setting up online stores in the world’s largest foreign book markets. Apple will never be interested in books because “Why should people read when we can sell them this zap-wowie app?” Kobo has a chance but is five years behind in a two-year race. Even if the vanilla Kindle vanishes, which is certainly likely within a few years, its bookstore will still dominate the tablet markets.
    7) Enhanced ebooks are dead in the water. Ebooks are getting cheaper, not more expensive, so who would be dumb enough to create more-expensive ebooks? Oh. The Big Six, that’s who. Glad I don’t own any stock in those clowns.
    8) I am half wrong. I am at peace with the reality of my own ignorance. I am amazed every minute, I am incredibly grateful I was here when it happened, and no one, not even Amazon, owes me anything (but make sure that royalty check doesn’t bounce.) When it’s all over, I’ll be able to look back and say, “Cat food on the moon? Have you seen my hearing aid?”

    Scott Nicholson- http://www.hauntedcomputer.com
    ###

32. KINDLE SALES: 30K EBOOKS IN 11 MONTHS
    By J.A. Konrath
    http://www.jakonrath.com

    I uploaded my first self-published ebook for Amazon Kindle back on April 8, 2009.
    As of this morning, March 4, 2010, at 9:23 a.m., I've sold 29,224 ebooks.
    I'm currently selling $1.99 ebooks at the rate of 170 per day. That means I'm earning around $120 per day just sitting on my butt. If this trend continues as-is, I'll earn $43,800 this year on previously published short stories and novels that NY print publishing rejected.
    But I don't expect this trend to continue as-is. I expect it to explode.
    In July, Amazon is doubling royalty rates for self-publishers, going from 35% to 70%.
    I have no doubt, by the end of the year, I'll be making $5k per month on Kindle. And that's probably a low estimate.
    So how am I doing this? What's the secret?
    Here are my guesses as to why I keep selling well.
    1. Being known. I already have some name recognition from my print books. There are half a million books of mine in print worldwide, and some of those readers go looking for me on Amazon and find my self-pubbed Kindle titles.
    2. My blog. I have a blog called A Newbie's Guide to Publishing where I often talk about ebooks. That blog gets over a thousand hits per day, and some of those readers wind up becoming ebook buyers.
    3. Low price. I've found the sweet spot for pricing to be $1.99, though that will go up to $2.99 when the royalty rate changes. Perhaps I could make a bit more money selling at $2.99 now, but that would mean some fewer sales, which would negate:
    4. Being on the Kindle genre bestseller lists. The bestseller lists are chances for browsers to find you when they're looking for well-known books by well-known authors. In my case, they'll buy a Stephen King, James Patterson, or J.D. Robb, see me next to that author for only $1.99, and it's a one-click impulse purchase. It's worth a lower price to stay high up on those lists. Last week I had ten titles in the Police Procedural Top 100. I believe these lists become self-fulfilling prophecies. The more you sell, the more you sell.
    5. Word of mouth. Or in this