The biggest possibility the Kindle and the Kindle Store hold, from my perspective, is the democratization of publishing.
Not just the ‘anyone can publish their book now’. More importantly -
- Anyone can get their ideas and work to readers.
- Anyone can write a book and sell it and create their brand.
- A self-published author can actually get financial success.
And self-published authors are beginning to have an impact in the Kindle Store.
So you’re saying Self-Published Authors are actually selling?
Yes. Take a look at the Kindle Store Stars -
- John Rector – The Grove (ranked #167). He actually just signed a contract with Tor on Wednesday (June 3rd) and unless I’m missing something that is his first contract.
- The Variant by John August - #147 in the Kindle Store. It actually hit #18 in the Kindle Store. John August also disclosed some interesting Kindle Sales and Rankings data on his blog -
All I really know is that the day I hit #18, I sold about 500 copies. So my hunch is that titles around that spot in the list (say, 15 to 25) might sell around 500 copies per day. That is, they probably sell 500 as opposed to 50 or 5,000.
- Dennis Batchelder – Soul Identity. Its just $0.01 and ranked #156 in the Kindle Store. 4 star rating off of 70 customer reviews.
- Boyd Morrison. His three books are all doing well – The Ark has Kindle Store Rank # 194, The Palmyra Impact has Rank #373, and The Adamas Blueprint has Rank #549. He’s also giving away the books free at his blog (although buying them at Amazon would help him make the Top 100 bestsellers list) -
I hope you enjoy my books. If you do, please recommend them to friends and family, and feel free to drop me a line. With your help, someday my dream will come true, and my novels will be available in bookstores everywhere.
- Stacey Cochran - His Colorado Sequence is at #205, and Claws is at #362. Also check out Stacey Cochran’s blog.
Two more authors worth checking out are Dawson Vosburg and J.A. Konrath (he has his unpublished books available for the Kindle).
But they’re all selling their books for $1
Yes – However, at the stage that you’re trying to make a name for yourself, and get a contract, do you really care?
- Your biggest challenge is getting people to read your books. With $1 and $2 kindle editions you actually get a shot.
- You let the actual readers vote.
- Everyone can tell if your work is good – The 70 reviews for Dennis Batchelder’s Soul Identity and the 35 reviews for Boyd Morrison’s The Ark let everyone see that their work is good.
- When you’re self-published you can keep your costs low. You don’t have to sell your books for $10 or $15 to break even.
- You reduce the risk for Publishers – they can see the reviews, the sales ranking, they can google you and see how much effort you put into promoting your books.
We should focus on the huge opportunity the Kindle Store creates, regardless of the price of the successful self-published books.
Take John Rector, who sold the Grove for 99 cents. He has a contract with Tor now. It doesn’t matter that he sold his book for less than $1.
What the Kindle Store needs
Is a section that highlights authors like these. If an author like Boyd Morrison can manage, just based on his own efforts, to hit the top 200 of the Kindle Store, Amazon ought to highlight him so that Kindle owners have a chance to buy his books.
And its not just one solitary person – We’re talking about 5-6 different self-published authors who’ve managed to crack the top 200 of the Kindle Store - out of 275,000 books.
These are self-published Davids competing against Goliaths -
- Established Authors.
- Big publishing houses.
- Free Book Offers.
- Public Domain Books.
Its about time that we, as Kindle Owners, and Amazon, as creators of the Kindle ecosystem, start doing a better job of rewarding these and other talented, self-published authors.
Update: After this mobileread thread, realized that buying the books would be a good idea too – bought 1 or 2 books from each of the authors for a total of 8 books that together cost me just $9.32. Amazing 
Filed under: evolution, publishing | Tagged: kindle publishing, kindle store
Hi Switch11,
Thanks for noticing our efforts! Kindle has provided a great opportunity to independent authors like me who have few other outlets for spreading the word about our books. Nothing is more gratifying than having books that have just been sitting on my hard drive now actually finding readers. The feedback I’ve gotten has been incredible, and I’m always grateful to readers who take a chance on an unknown novelist.
Your idea would be fantastic publicity for Amazon to show how their Kindle is changing the publishing industry by highlighting bestselling independent authors. And it would be great for me and the others you mention because it might mean that readers who were reluctant to try us would take the plunge. Mobileread.com and Kindleboards have also been very supportive to new authors’ works.
My estimate for rankings vs. sales is that a ranking of 200 means about 50-60 sales per day, and a ranking of 1000 means about 10-15 sales per day. So as you can see, there is an exponential dropoff in sales as rankings increase.
And thanks for buying my book! I hope you enjoy it.
thanks for the data on sales numbers vs rank. Clubbing that with John August’s numbers gives us –
Ranking of 18-20 => 500 sold a day.
Ranking of 200 => 50-60 sold a day.
Ranking of 1000 => 10-15 sales a day.
I, too, am a self-published author in both paperback and Kindle and am very grateful to Amazon for making the Kindle Store available to all of us struggling in the circular world, trying to get a publisher/agent’s attention.
I saw J.A. Konrath’s site and was impressed at the sales he got from one of his out-of-print novels. I think the Kindle presents a good opportunity for any writer with a backlog of materials, be it fiction, non-fiction, interviews, criticism–there are a lot of possibilities, and the market is just going to continue to grow. My non-fiction book “Kindle Culture” has been selling about three dozen copies a week (at $4.79) since I published it last month with a little self-promotion but virtually no ad support.
Thanks for mentioning me!
Dawson
you’re welcome. just found out from amazon forums that you’re just 14. that’s impressive.
Yes, this is true. I still have a few formatting bugs to work out.
Dawson
switch11:
thanks for the mention. i hope you enjoy “soul identity”! i’ve found that kindlers are its perfect audience: not afraid of a bit of technology and ready to take a risk,
dennis
[...] nearly every independent author featured in my ‘Self-Published Kindle Store Rising Stars’ post, people have visited the book page from the blog and people have bought their [...]
I agree with the idea that low prices is the way to go. I’m quite willing to take a 99-cent chance on a new author or title, and I believe many other readers would be so inclined. The question is: How are those authors with 99-cent books making them known — without spamming every blog and forum on the planet?
My wife recently made her out-of-print novel available for 99 cents on Amazon. How do we alert Kindle readers as to it’s presence? Can we send you a copy?
you can send me the amazon link and if the sales rank is high enough or the reviews are good enough i’ll add it on the list next time I do one for independent authors.
Thanks, switch11.
Here’s the link: http://www.amazon.com/Mauds-House-A-Novel/dp/B002DR329O/
But there are no sales and no reviews as yet, so the stats would not be impressive enough to make your column.
My real question is how are people who have no current following getting the word out initially?
[...] A decent number of independent authors were doing well in the Kindle Store. [...]