Friday, April 15, 2011

E-book Sales Top Paperbacks--Just Not Mine


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I imagine, most everyone has seen this, but just in case, the Association of American Publishers just announced that E-book sales have topped paperback sales for the first time. I suspect it will not be long before ebook sales top both hardcover and paperback sales combined.

But that doesn't mean there's a bonanza just waiting to be made self-publishing ebooks. I've been giving out free e-books and even selling two (one at 99¢ one at $1.79) and I can tell you it's not as easy as putting them out and waiting for the dough to come rolling it. That's not to say you can't make big bucks by publishing your own works as ebook, but it takes lots of work and the market isn't ripe for kidlit yet.

In a couple months, I'll have had my e-books out for a year and I plan to post my results as well as lessons I've learned. In the mean time, my advice is play around with indie publishing, if you want to give it a try. Maybe publish a few shorts or a drawer novel, but don't dump your agent (or agent search) just yet!


3 comments:

  1. Looking forward to hearing your results and thoughts on the process!

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  2. I love kidlit, but I'm afraid it'll be too hard to sell it indie. YA and Romance seems to be the way to go, but I don't write them, so I guess I'll have to stick to the plan on finding an agent.
    Nice post, thanks!
    - EEV

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  3. These instant success stories (Konrath, Hocking) distract from the main lesson of Internet marketing: the long tail.

    You have a long time to find an audience, my friend.

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