In reply to Does It Pay to Be a Writer? by Concepcion de Leon, Jan 5, 2019
I submit that there has never been a better time to be a writer. We have to highlight the change in the publishing landscape and the advances in opportunity between 2009 and 2017, most notably, the windfalls that came with public acceptance of ebooks and the viability of self-publishing, thanks to Amazon. Traditional publishers had their methodologies for selecting authors to reward with contracts and advance royalties.
Many good authors were pushed aside because their stories didn’t fit with what a publisher was selling. That makes sense. Who wants a product they don’t think they can sell? But that barrier to entry has been removed. Some may contend that bad books predominate on Amazon as there is no gatekeeper to keep them out.
Is that what the twelve publishers are saying who rejected Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone?
I suggest that the greatest arbiter of a good book is the reader. Bad books will fall by the wayside. Good books will see the light of day, but only if the readers consider them good. The challenge is how to find those readers and self-published authors are exploring innovative ways to contact and expand their readership.
Who am I to make these claims? I run a group with over 30,000 self-published authors. We share best business practices. We share successes. We don’t promote to each other. Our fellow authors are not our target audience. Readers. They are varied and sometimes elusive, but they are out there. I wouldn’t have been able to sell a quarter of a million books without the knowledge I’ve learned in this group. And I’m still learning something new every day. This business isn’t static. It is constantly evolving.
What we have now are ways for authors to improve. Get feedback, rewrite, and try again. We have extensive market experience to help advertising to target a narrower audience, specifically, those who could like our books. Get the buyers to read the first in the series and then keep reading. You’ll find that some of us have reader numbers that any traditional publisher would be envious of. Self-published authors, indies as we call ourselves, are shoulder to shoulder as we learn how to sell to the reading public.
The self-publication model is far different and more appealing to the audience of right now. Our eBooks aren’t priced to make physical books more attractive. Self-published authors can price an ebook at five dollars, and pocket $3.75 from that single sale.
Marketing is more challenging now than it was just two years ago, but groups like 20Booksto50k® break down the walls to understanding. It is easier now than ever before to learn what you need to know when you need to know it. Being an author is a lonely business, but we don’t have to be alone. It is not a zero-sum game. One reader can read more books than we can write, and they will read the books they like.
Most of the full-time authors I know are making a full-time living, some into seven figures a year. There’s never been a better time.
A rising tide lifts all boats.
Craig Martelle.
Thanks so much for doing this on behalf of our community. May God continue to bless you, as you’re a true hero in the indie author community.
Well said, my brother, well said…Semper Fi.
Had to figure up my sales since I started writing and publishing six years ago. Came to about 126,000 books…and counting, more or less. Have two WIPs in the works.
A well traveled road is easy to find and follow and more people find it. Indies are selfless and smart game changers. Every story is worth its day in the sunshine because the reading public is as diverse as the books out there and those that are yet to be written. I am speaking from a reader’s perspective. Because I read, I write.