JA Konrath

Go Read This | A Newbies Guide to Publishing: The List Experiment Update

~ Eoin Purcell ~ Leave a comment

I’m loving watching JA Konrath experiment with pricing the way he is, there’s much for him and others to learn. I wonder if any publishers are doing such brave and bold exercises? I suspect not. Though that said, I have watched some movement by publishers over the least few months and perhaps that indicates that they are.

I dunno if Disturb can crack the Top 100 or not. If it doesnt by the time The List drops to #90, then Ill put it back to $2.99 and drop the price on another, better-selling ebook. I believe Origin, Endurance, or Trapped could hit the Top 100 at 99 cents.

The concept of putting items on sale has served retailers well. Im thinking that my new sales strategy will always have one or two novels at 99 cents, and then rotate the titles monthly.

It should be fun to watch what happens for the rest of March…

via A Newbies Guide to Publishing: The List Experiment Update.

A Point Of Two On The Mike Cane And JA Konrath Thing

~ Eoin Purcell ~ 2 Comments

So I read this, and I disagreed, whereas normally I’m on board with Mike.

1) Ebooks are new and exciting, new names are making their way to the top of the pack, some of them are interesting names with back-stories in ‘traditional’ publishing, some of them are not. Some of them are loud and self promoting, some of them are not.

Should we condemn the loud ones for having had a change of heart regarding self publishing as Mike would JA Konrath (the target of his post)? Should we say that the self promotion makes his case somehow less valid? And should we call his numbers into question? I don’t think so mainly because it doesn’t really serve a purpose. The ebooks are selling, if Konrath’s taken the wrong message from those sales then soon enough the sales will drop and someone else will suck them up, if he hasn’t he’ll stay up on top.

Personally, if it works for him, I say good luck to Konrath. He’s worked hard to get where he is. I would caution writers to look at the work not the results before deciding if Konrath’s route is for them, but that’s about it, after all as Keynes said, “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”

2) In all of this, we shouldn’t ignore the fact that the authors who have sold over a million ebooks to date are HUGE traditionally published writers like James Patterson and Stieg Larsson. It seems to me that as ebooks become more mainstream, mainstream authors will dominate more.

There will of course still be surprises and outsiders. Digital publishing IS democratic in that it provides access for all but NOT equal in that outcomes differ very widely and often randomly for no discernible reason.

We can expect print bestsellers to be ebook bestsellers, at least until the notion of having started in print and then moved into ebooks becomes something so distant and rare that we find it novel or amusing.

Getting riled up about it won’t change it, that much is clear!
Eoin

Go Read This | A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing: Resolutions for Writers 2011

~ Eoin Purcell ~ Leave a comment

The whole piece is VERY worthwhile. But I was struck by this piece for a few reasons.

  1. It shows just how obsessed you need to be with price, jackets, descriptions and meta data to succeed in the
  2. How hard you work to be an overnight sensation like Konrath, who even now is pretty much an unknown outside of restricted circles!
  3. JUST how lucrative the self publishing aspect of Konrath’s publishing now is.

For the very first time, the writer can conduct their own real-world experiments. By trying different things, learning from mistakes, and constantly tweaking and improving, we have more power than ever before to find our readers.

A lot of folks know how much money I’m making. But how many know:

I’ve changed or tweaked cover art 45 times.

I’ve reformatted my books five times each.

I’ve changed product descriptions over 80 times.

I’ve changed prices on each book two or three times.

Unlike the traditional publishing world, where published books are static, self-publishing is dynamic. If something isn’t selling as well as you’d like, you can change it. The work doesn’t end when you upload your ebook to Kindle. The work is never-ending, and vigilance is mandatory.

Self-publishing is a wonderful opportunity to learn and to grow. This means you MUST try new things.

via A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing: Resolutions for Writers 2011.

Go Read This | A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing: Konrath Self-Pubbed Sales

~ Eoin Purcell ~ Leave a comment

There’s only one JA Konrath, that’s for sure, but he’s still mostly unknown and he’s still in the minority of authors who have embraced change

I reckon he’ll be copied in 2011 for all the reasons he points to here. Good for him!

In the past six weeks, my twenty self-pubbed titles on Amazon Kindle have earned over $26,000.

In November, I sold over 9000 ebooks on Kindle. That averages out to 300 a day.

In November, I also sold 266 print copies of nine self-published titles, earning royalties of $1000. This number is skewed, since most of the titles weren’t available until the middle of the month.

I’m not allowed to disclose sales of Shaken, which was published by Amazon Encore. But I’ll say that it puts my self-pubbed sales for November to shame.

I attribute the boost I’ve gotten on my self-pubbed titles to Shaken’s success. It hung out in the Amazon Top 100 for a month, and is now ranked at #148.

So is this as good as it gets? is the ebook bubble about to burst?

via A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing: Konrath Self-Pubbed Sales.

Go Read This | A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing: The Acquisitions Editor

~ Eoin Purcell ~ 2 Comments

Oh for sure he’s pitching a rocket into a pile of mess and it’s gonna offend folks, but there’s lots here that publishers should think about!

(Writer pauses, then turns around)

Writer: Look, it’s true that I do need a good editor.

Editor: See! I told you!

(Writer hands Editor his business card)

Writer: When your company goes bankrupt, and you’re unemployed, I want you to look me up. Send me a letter. One page, double spaced. List your qualifications for editing my book, and your rates. Also include a SASE. If you don’t hear from me in six months, no need for you to follow up–it means I’m not interested…

via A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing: The Acquisitions Editor.