Allaboutwriting

By publisher Wesley Thompson,  a guest blogger  for our publishing month. 

The face of publishing, like any media that disseminated through the Internet, has changed drastically over the last few years. Some of the changes have been seismic. Publishing has been dominated for many years by publishers and agents. But the cordon to the VIP section has been lifted and now authors – without qualification – are clamouring to climb onto the stage to share a slither of the limelight. Software is changing how knowledge is produced and distributed. Marketing models have changed, and as we shall see, authors who harness the power of these new technologies are can be very successful. The advent of the eBook has brought with it unprecedented ease-of-access. And so, never before have authors so readily been able to compete with publishers.

Self-publishing phenomenon Amanda Hocking is one of the new breed. This 26-year-old rose from the rank and file of the pyjama corps – the armchair blogger and author – as one of last year’s brightest stars. Hocking, only twenty-six years old, rocketed to the top of the eBook bestseller charts with her Trylle series (Switched, Torn and Ascend) that feature trolls and vampires. In January alone, she sold more than 450 000 books across nine of her titles. Ninety-nine per cent of those sales were eBooks, which essentially have made her a millionaire who’s paid for her first house in cash.

Then there’s John Locke, another self-published author. In March 2011, Locke sold more than 370 000 eBooks. Every seven seconds, a Locke eBook was being downloaded. He was the first self-published author to reach the Kindle #1 spot, and at the time, only one of eight to do so.

There’s also Bryan S. Pitt, a self-publisher on Smashwords:

Recently the Smashwords blog highlighted the success of Brian S. Pratt, a fantasy author who has earned $25,000 from sales across Smashwords’ retail channels this quarter. He earned $18,000 last quarter and his projected Smashwords sales in 2011 will earn him a cool $100,000. But in his first quarter, back at the beginning of 2009? He made $7.82. 

Pitt started writing his books because, according to him, he was fed up with reading fantasy series’ that just never seemed to end. So, to solve that problem, he set out to write books that he would enjoy.

On the Smashwords blog, Pitt answers a question put to him by Mark Coker, co-founder of Smashwords:

[MC] You joined Smashwords [in] March 27, 2009 10:26pm (I checked!). Can you take us back to that moment in time, and recall what was going through your mind.

[BSP] Let’s see. I was a single dad living with three kids and boy, was I poor (under the poverty level). Up until then, I hadn’t really thought much about eBooks. I tried Mobipocket for a while and had great sales for three months, then it died off. Sales for my paperbacks, which I had published through iUniverse had fallen off dramatically. Where I had been breaking 4 figures a quarter, I was now less than 600 per quarter and bleeding red. I typed in ‘self publishing’ and saw a quirky little site called Smashwords. It said, Your eBook, Your way. Didn’t cost a thing so what did I have to lose? First quarter sales at Smashwords were dismal, 2009-04-07 – $7.92. As it happened, April 7th is my birthday. That was cool. But I wasn’t deterred. Books were selling. Sometimes, one or two a week, but they sold. I stayed with it and refused to allow all the naysayers (and there were those by the droves) to stifle my dream. Sales gradually improved and, well, here we are. Can’t give up on your dream, EVER!

It’s a great story! A single dad who had a dream that he refused to give up on; that he struggled with until it finally, against all odds, bore fruit.

But Hocking, Locke and Pitt are like four-leaf clovers in the publishing world. In America, there are over 750 000 self-published authors. The number of self-published books rose to 3.2 million last year. Add to that the number of traditionally published authors and you’re looking at what Tim O’Reilly called, in his 2010 Tools of Change speech, a needle-in-a-haystack scenario. Never before has there been so much competition. As Hocking says:

… just because I sell a million books self-publishing, it doesn’t mean everybody will. In fact, more people will sell less than 100 copies of their books self-publishing than will sell 10,000 books. I don’t mean that to be mean, and just because a book doesn’t sell well doesn’t mean it’s a bad book. It’s just the nature of the business.

So, if you are considering self-publishing, how can you avoid falling into the trap of ‘just another self-published book’?

You’ll need take a look at how you can produce the best-possible quality product, define your target audience, and successfully market your book.

Although self-publishing may be more challenging than traditional publishing, if it’s done right, the rewards can be much greater.

Wesley Thompson is a digital publisher interested in new publishing tools, trends and technologies that help authors make their works available to as wide an audience as possible. He works in the South African book-publishing industry and has experience in all aspects of book and eBook production. 

On November 3 in Johannesburg, publisher, Wesley Thompson will show you how you can produce the best-possible quality product, define your target audience, and successfully market your book in his Self-Publishing Workshop.

And on December 7 writer and speaker, David Chislett, gives his take on publishing, its perils and its opportunities. David’s Publishing Workshop will be available online from January.

Each costs R500 – but if you’d like to attend both the cost will be just R750. Email Trish, trishurquhart@gmail.com, to book your place.