26 Year Old Sells 100K eBooks Per Month

Piracy Schmiracy, She's Making Sales!

[incrediBILL]

Amanda is selling her books cheap, kind of like the iPhone Apps model, low cost and high volume, so cheap that pirating isn't worthwhile.

[businessinsider.com...]

Welcome to disruption. 26-year old Amanda Hocking is the best-selling "indie" writer on the Kindle store, meaning she doesn't have a publishing deal, Novelr says.

And she shouldn't. She gets to keep 70% of her book sales -- and she sells around 100,000 copies per month. By comparison, it's usually thought that it takes a few tens of thousands of copies sold in the first week to be a New York Times bestselling writer.

This is the future of publishing.

No publisher.

Sells each copy from $0.99 to $3.

Keeps 70% of her profits.

Sells roughly 100K eBooks per month.

Minimum earnings are $70K per month.

Assuming sales hold up, could potentially earn over $1M this year.

[edited by: incrediBILL at 2:49 pm (utc) on Mar 1, 2011]

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Good for her! :)

[jk3210]

Marry me.

[driller41]

So does she have Amazon do her marketing?

[walkman]

This is actually brilliant. If you are shopping and see a $1 or $3 book you add them as fillers or just for curiosity.

[topr8]

>>Keeps 70% of her profits.

hmm, i thought the publisher share was only 30% is she on a higher rate?

[Status_203]

But would the model hold up if everybody was doing it?

[StoutFiles]

This is the future of publishing.

No publisher.

Sells each copy from $0.99 to $3.

Keeps 70% of her profits.

Oh please. It's working for her because she has no cheap competition. First to an idea (Angry Birds anyone?) almost always succeeds. Just wait till the market is saturated with cheap eBooks. If anything, it'll get to the point where authors will have to sell their books cheap to get any sales at all. Death to publishers? More like death to good quality books.

[HRoth]

I was thinking, "Let me guess--she writes Twilight fanfic." Close:

"I write young adult paranormal romance."

[Leosghost]

There are worse things..( I have n't read any of Amanda's books..nor do I have a desire to ..see what I did there ;-) ..but compare any "book" to .
Every single book written ( I use the word very very loosley for the output of someone who dictated each ( " she averted her gaze from " genre "hem ripper" bodice ripping was verbotten ) one to a secretary in under and hour and thirty minutes ) Barbara Cartland for instance...and the "pink powdered old ultimate snob harridenic hypocritic ghoul" produced hundreds all with the same ( lack of ) story line ..made millions .. writing sexless books for the repressed damp sweat market..the veil wasn't drawn over her and her works any too soon.

[Jane_Doe]

I like it. Thanks for the post. I think I'll do the same thing but on a different subject.

[incrediBILL]

I'm always amused to see how some find a thread like this inspiring and may run off to make big buckets of money on their own following suit. Meanwhile, the detractors and naysayers just sit and criticize for no obvious reason. The post wasn't about her style of writing or anything else, it was about how to tap emerging market places and massive opportunities for the quick and the smart.

Just like when the iPhone App Store launched, developers that were serious were either in it to win it, or they missed it altogether.

Reminds me of people that initially ignored AdSense until the real Gold Rush cash cow glory days were long gone before they decided there was easy money to be made.

I just pointed out the opportunity, so criticize or not, some will jump on the bandwagon and make big buckets of money following suit. Others will still be sitting around criticizing those proactive people that now have big buckets of money laughing all the way to the bank.

[Status_203]

That may be what you take from it. That doesn't preclude those with no wish to write an ebook but who like to read (and read quality) from finding other corollaries to discuss.

[topr8]

>>I'm always amused to see how some find a thread like this inspiring and may run off to make big buckets of money on their own following suit.

i found it a very inspiring post incrediBILL, although you can't seem to write ebooks for kindle from the UK! can't wait for it to change!

i've had some other thoughts though, there is a whole new world of opportunity opening up already

>>adsense goldrush!
yeah, i'm eternally grateful to WebmasterWorld that i got in from the very first month! that was a lesson in itself.

[BillyS]

Great idea, good for her!

[outland88]

Bill that's not an emerging market. It’s a market already flooded with thousands selling brochure pamphlet books of 2-5 pages at those prices. I wouldn’t touch one if it didn’t mention page count. Really not a lot of people complain about being hustled for two or three bucks. The general attitude becomes if I got taken at a low price I might really get taken at a higher price. It’s become another market the schemers and free-worlders kill.

As for the young lady she has fair not astounding writing skills. She readily shifted this into the already hot vampire zombie market which young adults are gobbling up. The thing is for every one of her there are gong to be 100,000 schemers bombing the area with low quality crap. Remind you of something going on now?

[gecko1]

Good for her. I find the story inspiring. Not the kind of fiction I am into but people wouldn't be buying it if it wasn't any good.

[Leosghost]

Not the kind of fiction I am into but people wouldn't be buying it if it wasn't any good

See what I said about Barbara Cartland further up ..she produced blue rinse crapola by the truckload ..could've been responsible all by herself for clearing a sizable chunk of rainforest ..sold millions ..but crapola it was ..even those who read it said so ..

Lets hope Amanda is better ..but I 'm not going to shell out .99c to find out .."emovampireschlock"..meh

BTW highest selling book in France in 2010 "Stephane Hessel- Indignez vous!" .."be indignant" ..resistance survivor from WW2 , diplomat ..30 page book ( inc covers )

From suite 101

At age 93, Stephane Hessel has endured and survived much. He survived world reshaping events like the Holocaust, the French Resistance and World War II. He is the last survivor of the delegates, including Eleanor Roosevelt, who drafted the Universal Declaration of Human rights.

13 pages and 16 pages of notes ..goes for about $5.oo ..( five dollars ) in original "dead tree" format ..pretty controversial it is too ..in English in the USA sometime this year..

[outland88]

Ha, I never said 2-10 page books weren't popular. Most of the population has the attention span of gnats and that’s what they want. Witness the growth of Twitter.

[incrediBILL]

Most of the population has the attention span of gnats and that’s what they want. Witness the growth of Twitter.

Sorry, that's just idiotic.

That would be like claiming the expansion of email was because of tree-huggers saving paper mail.

There's no need to denigrate sometime if you can't understand why a disruptive technology takes off and blooms.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

The thing is for every one of her there are gong to be 100,000 schemers bombing the area with low quality crap. Remind you of something going on now?

This is inevitable unfortunately. I can c it now "2B or not 2B" - we r doomed!

[outland88]

Sorry, that's just idiotic.

This coming from a man who specializes in denigrating people one week about not working hard enough, if there Adsense earnings are poor, and the next week dropping out of the program altogether. Your consistency and bombastic behavior are akin to hangovers.

If you read what I posted and knew the market well many publishers will tell you buyers want a very compressed view. I don’t know what you’re talking about or where these contrived arguments you make are coming from.

There's no need to denigrate sometime if you can't understand why a disruptive technology takes off and blooms.

Where on the planet are you coming from. Disruptive technology? E-books have been around quite a while. What is being disrupted in your mind? Do you think the vast majority of us live in areas where other countries aren't undercutting prices of hard and soft goods.

Develop a sense of humor, Billy Boy.

[incrediBILL]

Disruptive technology? E-books have been around quite a while.

Yes eBooks have been around but most are the same old books just reprinted in eBook format with authors already under existing contracts. The direct mass marketing that bypasses the entire publishing industry is what's disruptive. Traditional publishers are about to find out the hard way where their profits will go, just like newspapers and music, thanks to the digital disruption.

It cuts out all the middle men except Amazon for distribution and the author keeps all the profits.

[outland88]

Bill, Bill you’re smarter than that. You remind me of a young lady who was lamenting the fact that a certain BMW dealership was feeling the pinch in sales during the gas crisis. I showed her that the owner also owned Ford, Dodge, Kia, etc dealerships. This is not uncommon. His overall profits went up because he was getting sticker price for high volume sales with high MPG cars. The warranty work quadrupled and repair work jumped through the roof. He was also shifting and hiring new personnel. As the papers revealed this and the people began clamoring that same young woman was heard to say “those greedy little ____’s.

As for the publishers how many times have you woke up in the morning and the headlines read “The Poor are Getting Richer”. Somehow these "penniless folks" have managed to snatch the market right out from under the major publishers and even Google. File that under never.

[Jane_Doe]

Somehow these "penniless folks" have managed to snatch the market right out from under the major publishers and even Google. File that under never.

Bill is talking about cutting out middlemen with the use of the Internet. It has happened with newspapers, stock brokers, magazines, travel agents, mortgage brokers and more. Craig's List and online job sites have taken over from print classified and head hunters.

My kids and their friends are making their own music videos and buying and selling them on iTunes - no record label required.

A young adult making 70K a month without a book publisher is certainly something the book publishers have to be taking a look at. Book publishers may no longer be the gatekeepers of what gets published and what doesn't any more. I think that is pretty cool.

[incrediBILL]

Bill, Bill you’re smarter than that.

Apparently one of us has to be, you keep missing my point. ;)

This lady and Amazon are selling eBooks like Apple is selling apps.

Amazon and Apple are kind of like the internet equivalent of the Farmer's Mkt. You don't need to be a big company to get in the apps business, you don't even need a publisher for the eBook or App, you simply need the goods and sell it direct. Maybe the publishers will adapt and survive, maybe they won't, just like with traditional print newspapers it's too early to tell.

Look at the software sales and distribution model as another example of how direct internet downloads (a disruption) have basically decimated what was a thriving boom industry in the 90s. All those people printing CDs, pressing manuals, making those software boxes, probably most out of business. Meanwhile, upstarts like Digital River stepped up and made a killing by creating a digital sales and distribution service.

Following the current trend it's obvious that Amazon the bookseller is positioned itself as Amazon the book publisher as well, pushing Harper Collins, Random House, etc. out the window eventually. Not only is Amazon the publisher, they're selling the digital reader, the Kindle.

Besides, Amazon already has the promotion gears in place to promote new books as they suggest other titles based on your purchasing and searching criteria, so getting new books into the face of people won't be hard even without a publisher.

Which the kid making $70K/mo is proving.

Likewise Amazon's Appstore for Android is another push in that direction, being the publisher.

I think successful authors, musicians, programmers, etc. under this model will make more money than ever before. Mainly because they get to keep it all instead of making a few thousand up front while a big corporate bureaucracy gobbles up all the profits. Unless you're a mega-success you currently get no further royalties thanks to fancy accounting while somehow they manage to make shareholders rich.

Scoff all you want, Amazon and direct publishers are changing the game, it will take some time to transition, but based on all the Kindle/Nook readers I see people using it's inevitable.

[HRoth]

You held this up as the future of publishing. It is not. It is the future of dreck, and as such it is no different from the past of dreck, which includes Barbara Cartland and any of those other drones who have spewed out endless dreck. All that is different is the medium. There is nothing to be learned here about new technology. It is about dreck, pure and simple.

Holding someone up like this as worthy of emulation is like holding up the King of Spam and saying the worst thing he ever did was get caught. After all, he made a lot of money, more than this person ever will, and I'll bet the spam emails he wrote were every bit as talented as her "books" are (they were sure creative), and you know, they didn't cost any trees and they were even free. Fact is, people read his dreck emails, just like they read these dreck "books." Does that mean we should salivate and follow the model of dreck production? Or does it mean he was just sending junk mail through a new medium? IOW, there was nothing qualitatively different about what he did. Nothing. He was churning out dreck, just like this kid. Dreck is technology independent.

There are people who approach their work like it is a vehicle to get money with which they will then have a life. And then there are people who actually want to have a life right now, independent of the money they produce, to enjoy what they are doing right now, which includes their work, and to maintain some self-respect while doing it. Big difference. Has nothing to do with sour grapes or any of that. It is a different choice and it allows people to see things from a different perspective than the all-is-dreck perspective.

Most people are not interested in using new technology to churn out the same old dreck. I, for one, am interested in using new technology to produce something actually worth reading. We are drowning in dreck already. We don't need more. This kid has got nothing new to teach anyone.

[incrediBILL]

LMAO - Y'all kill'n me.

My post was about the biz opp, not the actual content. You could make $70K/mo with quality or crap, know your audience. Who cares? It's all about the biz opp.

The kid is teaching people how to make buckets of money while others are sitting around debating if it's dreck or not, she doesn't care, and if I were making $70K/mo I wouldn't care what you called it either.

People seem to be more fascinated with her content than the promotional methods, just kills me, can't see the forest for all the trees, blah.

[freedata]

Thanks incrediBILL, I bookmarked the article in my "Inspiration" folder. Something to test and see definetly.

[wyweb]

@jk3210

Marry me.

LOL...

I caught this one late too. This site's too big to stay on top of everything...