livingfamilytravelmediahome decor

Attention soon-to-be authors!

When I wrote a post about the new world of book publishing, a number of Coffee with Julie readers told me that they hoped to author their own books one day. I know some of these peeps in real life, and some only from my blog. But regardless of how I know them, I hope they all manage to make their dreams come true. And if I can help push them along — heck, I will!

So, here is what I want to share with you my dear soon-to-be author friends: a self-published author has just broken into the ranks of the Kindle Million Club! To date, only 8 authors have achieved this milestone and they include heavy hitters like Stieg Larsson, James Patterson, and Nora Roberts. So this is a huge deal.

The author’s name is John Locke. In an interview on a blog called A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing, he says that Kindle Direct Publishing allowed him to “receive the keys to the [publishing] kingdom.” With this Kindle model, an eBook can sell for as little as $0.99, with the author receiving a $0.35 profit per book sold. As of June 19th, Locke had sold 1,010,370 Kindle books. And with a quick touch on the calculator, I can tell you that this leaves Locke with a sum of $353,630.  And apparently, all in a five-month time period.

I think that’s great work if you can get it, but others call into question his choice to sell novels at only $0.99 a piece. But regardless of where you stand on the pricing issue, one thing is certain: indie authors are hitting the mainstream. And fast!

Comments

  1. Anonymous says:

    I think that`s genius!  There are always people who seem to think you can dictate what is fair to charge but people can make their own decisions and it has clearly paid off for him!  Given how successful he’s been he could decide to go to $2.50 for his next book and make even more money!  Genius!

    • Agreed! I checked out the comments to that article that was dissing him for
      pricing his books so low and there were a number of smart, supportive
      comments in his favour.

  2. Good for him! It’s early morning as I write this, but I am going to look into his book a little more. I’m so curious how his book became so well known. Is it a real page-turner or did he have great luck with promoting his work?
    Either way, very very cool.

Speak Your Mind

*