Kindle-Fever

Dana Kaye

 

This week, most of the publishing world is buzzing about J.A. Konrath’s recent deal with Amazon. In case you’ve been living under a rock, Konrath is the author of the Jack Daniels series and blogger at Newbie’s Guide To Publishing. He has a large, loyal fan base and he recently signed a deal with Amazon to publish his next Jack Daniels book on Kindle. Print books will be available as they’re ordered, but most of sales will come from Kindle.

This is an exciting journey into a new frontier, one that early adopters such as Konrath and Boyd Morrison are having great success with. But I feel that there will be (and already has been) much backlash from newbie authors wanting to jump on the e-publishing bandwagon. They see Konrath, who is earning a phenomenal living on Kindle sales alone, and Morrison, who sold his book to a mainstream publisher because it did so well on Kindle, and they think, “I should do that.” I’m here to say, maybe not.

Why this deal is perfect for J.A. Konrath:

· He already has a strong, loyal fan base that will purchase his books no matter what form they take. His books are coming with a built-in audience.

· He has product. The man wrote a book while you were in the shower this morning and three short stories while you were eating breakfast. It works for him because he has a lot of product on the market and all of it is selling.

· He knows how to market. Konrath has a strong knowledge of the industry and how to promote. His blog gets hundreds of hits a day, he’s visited half the bookstores in the country, and frequently attends conferences, shakes hands and kisses babies. Not everyone can market themselves.

Why Kindle publishing worked for Boyd Morrison:

· He was ahead of the game. When he published on Kindle and priced his book lower than the bestsellers, not too many others were doing it. Now, the market is flooded and it’s 10x harder to stand out.

· He had an agent. He had already gotten over the first hurdle, his manuscript had been edited, and when Kindle sales were growing, his agent could immediately jump on the publishers and make them take a second look.

· He wrote a %*#^ing great book. When he and his agent went out on submission, the editors didn’t have a problem with the writing or the story itself. They just didn’t know how to market/sell it. The Kindle sales demonstrated that there was a market, but Morrison already had a great product.

Why Kindle publishing may not work for first-time authors:

· Most of the $0.99 Kindle books listed on Amazon aren’t good. Plain and simple. Traditional publishing requires many sets of eyes to read your manuscript (agent, editor, copy editor). All authors benefit from that feedback.

· You don’t have an audience yet. Unless you’ve already published books or have been marketing yourself for a long time, you probably don’t have the audience who will purchase your Kindle books.

· The market is glutted. There are SO many self-published books on Amazon now and all of them are listed at that low price point. It’s difficult to stand out.

· Most newbie authors don’t know how to market. I say most, because there are exceptions to every rule, but if you haven’t published yet, you probably have a lot to learn about the market. Even multi-published authors still admit they don’t get it. Having the support of a traditional publisher can be beneficial to learning about the industry and the process.

Again, there are exceptions to every rule and there may be plenty more Konraths and Morrisons coming out of the Amazon market. But if you’re a first-time author thinking about jumping into Kindle publishing head first, take some time and think about what I said. Publishing on Kindle is easy, selling on Kindle may not be, and the success stories may be exceptions rather than the rule.

Comments

[Eric Bremer]

Interesting perspective Dana. I like it. The bigger issue is how publishing is completely changing, including the scientific literature I deal with. How do you as a publicist navigate all this?

[Kevin R. Tipple]

As I undersatnd it, Konrath's book was rejected by all the major houses so that is why he went the Kindle way. It wasn't his first choice.

Print copies, based on what I saw from him the other day, will not be out until the Spring of 2012. That leaves readers like me who get books via the library out and not able to read the book.

Clearly, he can do what he wants. But,I wonder if, in the long run, this will turn out to be a mistake.

[Mary]

The publishing world is indeed changing. Major publishers now what electronic rights. Would they if there were no money in it? Hardly.
Of course all .99 books are good but then neither are $24.95 all good. Crap is crap no matter what the price but I'd rather lose $1 than $25.
I can't imagine anything could beat the thrill of seeing your book in print and being sold in a book store. But times are changing and if an author has the pull to make money now he should. Soon the publisher will find a way to get the big cuts again.
That's just the market.

[Mike Dennis]

Don't forget, Dana, publishing on Kindle seems easy at first, but once you get into the formatting, you'll feel like you're trying to pull a covered wagon through quicksand. You will have to go over your book line by line--no kidding--and even then, it may not be formatted correctly. They don't make it easy.

[Robin Agnew]

Konrath is a marketing genius. I don't love his books but he works hard and he has thought of every way possible to sell them. Some of the outrageous comments he is making seem guaranteed to get him more buzz, and I'm sure that's just what he wanted. As you point out, his methods won't work for everyone.

[Roy Innes]

Like your facts of life approach to publishing, marketing, writing. Your "glut" comment above struck a chord. Where does the reader go for good reviews? There appears to be a glut of online review sites as well. Can you do a blog for us on this?

[Mike Dennis]

Roy, try Allan Guthrie's Noir Originals. He has some pretty good reviews on there.

[DA Kentner]

That's not entirely correct.

Joe's publisher dropped his genre line, not Joe's book.

I was led to believe his agent shopped around (I do not have firsthand information as to the results) and the agency decided to cave to Joe's lingering desire to test one of his new novels as e-published only.

Joe is undoubtedly one of the most knowledgable authors regarding e-publishing, and believes it is the future of all publishing.

As for the library, many have the ability now to provide e-books. More and more are heading in that direction.