Guest Post by H.P. Mallory

HP Mallory is one of the authors smoking me in sales. Not only are her Kindle numbers fantastic, but she's going gangbusters on Barnes & Noble. My B&N numbers are so-so--roughly 400 a month. I expect this to change when I switch from Smashwords to PubIt next week. While I love Smashwords, in order to upload to B&N through them I have to use shorter descriptions and fewer product tags. Several of my peers have shown me that this is often the key to selling big numbers, so I look forward to seeing if I have similar results.

Like Karen McQuestion and Amanda Hocking, Mallory is kicking ebook butt without ever having sold a book through traditional publishing, even though she tried.

Now, I don't discount that the Big 6 reject a lot of crap. But their ability to separate wheat from chaff is impressing me less and less. My rejected books have sold over 100,000 copies, and I'm currently selling 600 ebooks a day (In the first ten days of January, I made over $12,000.)

Yes, everyone makes mistakes. And hits are hard to pick. Last I heard, only 1 out of 5 books lucky enough to get past the gatekeepers actually turns a profit (two lose money, two break even.) But every indie success story is a crapload of money that NY missed out on, and we're seeing more and more writers making big dollars on books that were passed on by both publishers and agents.

Publishers have had a hard few years. The recession was tough. Fewer bookstores mean fewer sales. Amazon and the rise of ereaders is eating into their print sales. But I don't think bookstores closing, or customers switching to ebooks, are what publishers need to fear most.

Publishers need to fear authors.

Now, if you talk to any group of newbie authors who have been rejected by the industry, you'll feel their bitterness toward the difficult, often humiliating, and seemingly arbitrary nature of the query-go-round.

And if you talk to any group of professional authors, you'll feel their bitterness toward publishers who have made a lot of mistakes in regard to their books and careers.

Add the fact that publishers take 52.5% royalties on ebooks, leaving the authors only 17.5%, and that even if an author landed a contract today there would still be an 18 month wait for the book to come out, and I have to wonder what publishers are going to do in order to keep authors submitting to them. Hint: DRM and high ebook prices aren't the answer.

As more authors hear about the possibilities self-pubbing offers, and read about success stories like this, what could possibly motivate them to ever sign another publishing deal? Publishers, once an essential part of the equation, are no longer needed to connect authors and readers. And, amazingly, they don't seem to understand this yet.

But they will. Now here's HP...

Hello! HP Mallory here! Joe was kind enough to let me borrow his blog for a quick post about a pretty fun contest I’m running. The winner will become a character in my next book, due out in April! You can find more information here.

OK, so now that my shameless promotion is out of the way, LOL, I thought I should introduce myself since I imagine none of you have a clue as to who I am. Well, as you know, my name is HP and I’m a self-published author. I sort of prefer the term indie—it just sounds cooler.

Anyway, my story starts about three years ago when I was living in England and decided to write a book. Although it might sound like my book writing debut was a whim, it was anything but. I’ve always wanted to be a writer, ever since I was young. But, it seems like life (aka parties, drinking and boys) got in the way while I was in my twenties. Fast forward to my early thirties and I was ready to write my novel. I’m a big fan of paranormal romance/urban fantasy so writing in these genres just felt right.

After I finished my first paranormal romance, Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble, I figured it was time to get an agent. So, I sent out query letters and was pretty encouraged by the responses to the book, as agents requested partials and fulls. Imagine my elation when my dream agent requested the full, stayed up all night reading the book and offered representation the next day! Oh, happy day! Well, happy day turned into two or three months of rejection after rejection and then the fab agent gave up on me and I never heard from her again.

So, thinking I had something in common with Hester Prynne, only my scarlet letter would be a big “L” for loser, I gave up. And I gave up for about two years. Then, my fabulous critique partner, Lori Brighton, told me about a lady named Karen McQuestion who had uploaded her books to the Kindle self-publishing platform and was outselling traditionally published authors. Well, I figured I had nothing to lose and decided to put myself out there and see what happened.

On July 7, 2010, I uploaded Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble followed by my other book, To Kill A Warlock. And…nothing really happened. I sold a few books here and there—not exactly earth shattering. Figuring I needed more of an audience, I started thinking about how to spread the word. I created a robust website, joined Facebook and started blogging. Then I got fairly involved in the Kindle forums and started contacting book bloggers to see if they might be interested in reviewing my books. I was amazed to find they were interested! Little by little my reviews grew and my rankings on Amazon improved bit by bit.

Then Barnes and Noble came out with the Nook self-publishing platform, Pubit, and I uploaded both of my books right away. The Barnes and Noble Gods must have liked me because my books were suddenly ranked first for searches like “fantasy” and “paranormal romance”. I was amazed as more and more sales rolled in. At this point, I was selling about 1,000 books a month across both platforms.

In December I came out with a third book, the second in the Fire Burn series, Toil and Trouble. And, wow, December was an incredible month for me. I sold nearly 23,000 books and to date, I’ve sold roughly 37,000.

So, the long and short of it is that self-publishing saved my books from a life of quiet desperation in my PC. Now, I have a thriving Facebook community, I’m on the Kindle bestseller list, I landed a new agent who hopefully will be better than the last one and some marketing company in Brussels just wrote an article about me! Random!

I’m an indie author and I couldn’t be happier!!!

Thank you to Joe for allowing me to tell my story and plug my contest!!

Joe sez: Success like Mallory's isn't the norm. Luck plays a part. Luck always plays a part. But selling 20,000 ebooks in a single month is more than just luck. She's done a lot right in order to maximize that luck.

Cute, professional-looking covers, good writing, low prices, and her ability to utilize social networks no doubt helped her sell so many. She's spent the last 17 days in the Kindle Top 100, and all three of her books are in the Top 50 on Nook. (Incidentally, two other indie authors, Amanda Hocking and Selena Kitt, also have several spots each in the Nook Top 50.)

Now, hindsight is always 20/20, and I'm sure the comments section will abound with Monday Morning Quarterbacks eager to explain and dismiss Mallory's success. These may include:

"Paranormal Romance is a hot genre."

Joe replies: Then you write one and crack the Top 100.

"She's an anomaly compared to the 300,000 other indie authors who sell poorly."

Joe replies: A New York Times bestseller is an anomaly too. But unlike the NYT, Mallory did this on her own, without a big advertising push or coop.

"If she had a traditional publishing deal, she'd sell ten times this amount."

Joe replies: If she had a traditional publishing deal, her books wouldn't be out until June of 2012. Will there even be bookstores still around then? And how much money will she have lost during those 18 months her books aren't available (best guess, minimum $300,000.)

"The majority of indie authors will never reach this level of success."

Why has it become "unless you sell 10,000 ebooks a month you're better off going the traditional route"?

The point of this blog is to show authors what is possible, not what is likely.

But I'm convinced that it is more likely to make money self-publishing ebooks than it is to make money landing a traditional publishing deal.

It's still notoriously difficult to find an agent and sell a book. And even if you manage that, the book takes a long time to be released (and it will be at a high price with DRM, which readers hate) and there is no guarantee it will be successful. To make the odds even worse, there is a high likelihood that it will be difficult to ever get the rights back, and the writer will be stuck in a bad royalty situation forever.

If there's something to be learned by me, HP Mallory, Selena Kitt, Karen McQuestion, Amanda Hocking, LJ Sellers, Michael R. Sullivan, and the many other indies currently doing well, it's that good books can find a wide audience without New York.

But before that can happen, those books have to be self-published.

How many trunk novels do you have? How many books of yours are currently on submission? How many of your backlist titles are out of print?

There is NO GOOD REASON not to get those up on Kindle, and Nook, and Smashwords.

Every day you wait is a potential sale lost.

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY, BLOG!

Yes, the Crabbit Old Bat is two years old today, or at least her blogging incarnation is. I suppose this means I'm entitled to some toddler tantrums. Actually, I do fancy going into a shoe-shop and lying on the floor, screaming and waving my arms and legs in the air.

A year ago today, I wrote a post which attracted 194 comments. (Do go read, as I would change nothing I said there.) We had a blog

Guest Post by Robin Sullivan

Some incorrect presumptions are just too good to die.

The "JA Konrath is selling a lot of ebooks because of his traditional publishing background" presumption has practically become an internet meme, being parroted by both my detractors and indie authors. This misconception makes it easy to dismiss me as an anomaly, which means people don't have to actually examine the issue and seek more data.

So I'm happy to provide that data.

These are DECEMBER sales figures for some indie authors. In other words, they account for only 31 days of sales.

Are you ready to be blown away?

Blake Crouch - 2500+
Nathan Lowell - 2500+
Beth Orsoff - 2500+
Sandra Edwards - 2500+
Vianka Van Bokkem - 2500+
Maria Hooley - 2500+
C.S. Marks - 2500+
Lee Goldberg - 2500+
Lexi Revellian - 4000+
Zoe Winters - 4000+
Aaron Patterson - 4000+
Bella Andre - 5000+
Imogen Rose - 5000+
Ellen Fisher - 5000+
Tina Folsom - 5000+
Terri Reid - 5000+
David Dalglish - 5000+
Scott Nicholson - 10,000+
J.A. Konrath 10,000+
Victorine Lieske - 10,000+
L.J. Sellers - 10,000+
Michael R. Sullivan - 10,000+
H.P. Mallory - 20,000+
Selena Kitt - 20,000+
Stephen Leather - 40,000+
Amanda Hocking - 100,000+

For a more detailed breakdown, visit Derek J. Canyon's blog http://derekjcanyon.blogspot.com/2011/01/keys-to-epublishing-success.html. This was compiled by him, and Robin Sullivan.

Now, this list is hardly comprehensive. There are many others who belong here, but neither me, Derek, or Robin are going to spend weeks tracking down every independent Kindle bestseller just to prove a point. I think the point has already been proven. To wit:

MORE WRITERS THAN J.A. KONRATH ARE DOING WELL SELF-PUBLISHING, AND THEY DON'T HAVE PUBLISHING BACKGROUNDS

That's right. On this list, only six people had previous print deals with major publishers. The rest did not. (Originally this article said five, which was erroneous on my part.)

In the upcoming weeks, I'm going to feature several of these indie writers mentioned on this list, asking them to share their self-publishing journey with readers of this blog.

Hopefully it will kill the "only J.A. Konrath can do it" bullshit that continues to circulate.

Speaking of Robin Sullivan, she brings a unique perspective to this. First, she's not a writer; she's a publicist for her husband. Second, they price their ebooks higher than I suggest.

As many have mentioned, having a lot of sales is great. But if they're all 99 cent books, it's tough for a writer to earn a living.

Robin and Michael price quite a bit higher than that. Here's their story.


History of an Indie Published Nobody
by Robin Sullivan

Many say that Joe’s success is a direct result of his traditional publishing foundation and that new authors can’t hope to do the same. Since we don’t have a time machine so that Joe can remake his career, perhaps looking at someone who started with nothing, and is currently selling similarly, can be used as an example for what is possible.

First, who am I? My name is Robin Sullivan and I’m the wife and self-appointed publicist of my husband Michael J. Sullivan. I basically handle all the business aspects for Michael allowing him to focus on doing what he loves—writing. Yes I know, every author wants to have someone like me, Michael gets requests all the time…sorry…after 30 years you can’t pry us apart so you’ll just have to find your own “Robin.”

Anyway…Michael has released five of a six-book fantasy series. It is called The Riyria Revelations and they are all “self-published” and sold through ebooks (Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords for iPad, Sony, Kobo, etc.) and dead tree varieties using POD through CreateSpace. The release schedule looks like this: The Crown Conspiracy (Oct 2008), Avempartha (Apr 2009), Nyphron Rising (Oct 2009), The Emerald Storm (Apr 2010), Wintertide (Oct 2010) and Percepliquis is in editing.

Now why did I use quotes around self-published? If you look at the copyright pages, the publisher listed is Ridan Publishing. Ridan has 6 authors with 18 released books (2 more authors are signed, 4 books are under development), which classifies Ridan as a small press (sometimes referred to as an indie press). Ridan is…well us. I (along with interns and paid freelancers) do the editing, Michael creates the covers and does layout, I convert to e-book formats. Marketing and distribution are handled by myself.

So…technically the other 5 authors are published through a small press but Michael is self-published since he was not independently vetted. (Sleeping with the submissions editor, even though you are married to them, pretty much guarantees you’ll get signed).

One thing that I’ve done differently than Joe, and I know he’ll take issue with this, is I set the price of all of Ridan’s ebooks at $4.95 except for Wintertide which I priced at $6.95. (There are many reasons why Wintertide is $6.95 but I don’t want to derail the post). His print books sell between $12.95 and $14.95.

Now I’m not saying Michael is Joe (we all know there is only one of him) but Michael is producing Joe-like numbers for November and December. Now I’m talking only about Joe’s self-publishing numbers (not including traditional publishing sales, and his super-secret (I could tell you but then I’d have to kill you) AmazonEncore sales, prevented by NDA).

Since Joe is so generous with numbers I’ll lift up my…err…spreadsheet and do the same. Ebook profits are $3.46 to $4.97 for US and $1.73 and $2.43 for overseas. His print books make between $3.50 and $3.80. As I write this (12/29/2010) Michael has sold just under 10,000 books for December: 570 print books 9,250 kindles, 85 Nooks, and some unknown number from Smashwords (I’m too lazy to look them up right now). While the US/Overseas division is not known I’ll use a 90%/10% split (which has been typical) so his expected income for December will be…drum roll please while I check the calculations on the spreadsheet…

$34,820.

Wow, is that really right? Had to check the spreadsheet six times to make sure I had not done something stupid.

As for November, I did a lot of playing with price points (believe it or not when I tried $2.99 I actually lost sales – not income but actual number of books was lower). When all was said and done the Kindle Royalty report shows $17,575 and CreateSpace $1,485. That came from 7,860 books of which 450 were print.

So that’s $53,880 in 2 months.

Now for the $64,000 question…is November and December part of a trend? Or is it a blip? Ask me come June 2011 and I’ll let you know. My crystal ball is too foggy for me to proclaim that 2011 sales will be $323,280 (53,880 / 2 * 12). And I still have my day job (Michael writes full time…so yes I’ve been supporting him during the lean months but I think I won’t be able to hold that over his head much longer).

Part of the problem is there are too many other factors in play here, we just released book #5 which was highly anticipated and sold over 1,000 for each month (1036, 1112, 1642). In addition, I did a lot of strange promotional stuff in November (messing with price points and even taking book #2 “free” for a short while).

But now let’s look back in time to get a historical perspective. Prior to October 2009 Michael was selling about 50 – 60 books a month. When Book #3, Nyphron Rising came out in October the sales went as follows: 190, 205, 355, 445, 576. Then March 2010 sees the release of Book #4, The Emerald Storm and the sales were: 960, 1105, 1044, 925, 835, 930. Book #5, Wintertide was released and the sales have been 2420, 7860, 10000.

Now Joe gave me a word count for this post, and I want to stay within it, but I do want to circle back to one thing that was pretty instrumental in Michael’s success (or at least I think it was). I’ve always positioned him as traditionally published even though he was self published. I can’t really describe the techniques I used to do that in this post now (not enough space left) – but maybe Joe will have me back at some point and I can elaborate. (Joe sez: the comment section would be great for that, Robin.) But this is how you can tell that I was successful in doing that…

If you look on the Amazon print books you’ll see down at the bottom a section that is entitled Customers Also Bought Items by. This is a listing of 17 authors that are cross selling to his audience. (NOTE: This is basically a pooling that takes in account those 100 books you see in the customer also bought list). For Michael, you see standard industry names such as Sanderson, Rothfuss, Weeks, Scholes, etc). Nothing unusual there but…

If you go to THOSE authors books and look at their cross lists…you’ll find Michael in the #1 spot for the following: Ken Scholes, Peter V. Brett, N.K. Jemisin, Robert V. S. Redick, Rachel Neumeier, Celine Kiernan, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Jon Sprunk, James Barclay, Mark Chadbourn, Jill Williamson, James Enge, Rowena Cory Daniells and a few more. All respected authors from traditional publishers. In addition, you’ll find Michael on the list (one of the 17) with industry heavy weights such as: Patrick Rothfuss, Joe Abercrombie, Tad Williams, Scott Lynch, and Guy Gavriel Kay. I have checked these numerous times (and saved the screen shots) and Michael is the ONLY indie on ANY of these lists. What does this mean? It means he sells very well to THEIR audience.

Another indication that I’ve been successful in aligning Michael with the other traditional fantasy authors is the following: Fantasy Book Critic (a well regarded review site for his genre) named Wintertide and Emerald Storm to the 25 best books of 2010 (every other book listed was…you guessed it from a traditionally published fantasy author). Also, Michael’s Emerald Storm was picked as one of 15 books in the Fantasy Category for the 2010 Goodreads Choice Awards (again no other indies). Lastly, Avempartha won the 2009 BookSpot Central Tournament of books where 64 novels of the previous year are pitted against one another in a March Madness competition voted on by the readers (guess how many other indies were there? Yep same as before…none).

So that’s my story about a little indie that could. I’m at 1308 of my 1500 words so I’ll wrap up. I just want to say Michael and Joe are not unique. There are hundreds of authors that are doing the same. Take a look at the Top 100 lists on Amazon and you’ll find a lot of indie authors there just like Michael, who started with no sales, no platform and are now selling thousands and thousands of books a month. I want to close by thanking Joe for allowing me to tell Michael’s story. I hope you found it both interesting and inspirational, and as always thanks Joe for being “you” and helping to light a torch that other indies can follow. Outside of the Dan Poynter (who I consider the father of self-publishing), you’ve done more than anyone I can think of to promote this publishing revolution.

Joe sez - This is an eye-opening post for many reasons, the first of which is Robin and Michael made $10k more than I did in December, even though I sold more books. It certainly makes me rethink my "$2.99 is the magic price point" stance.

But when I read this post, one thing jumps out at me: this is only the beginning.

Ebooks currently account for 10% of book sales. What happens when they're 40%? 60%? 85%?

What happens when, in a world economy, Amazon begins selling Kindles to China, India, Japan, Russia, and all the other countries?

There are perhaps 15 million Kindles now, and 70 million Kindle apps.

I foresee a day when there are billions of ereaders.

When that happens, I predict I'll be earning a wee bit more than I am now. And so will the other indies smart enough to jump on this bandwagon.

STOP RESEARCHING

Are you bogged down with research for your book? Don't be. When I was looking for amusing and pointful videos clips for your holiday gifts, I came across one about research. It's not a brilliant presentation, but the guy (I can't find his name) does make two good points. You don't have to watch it because I'll make the points below.

These are the two important points:
1. The idea of writing the

A Response to Richard Curtis

Yesterday, respected agent Richard Curtis posted an article he wrote called Do Authors Make Good Publishers?

His conclusion is: No.

He cited me as one of his examples, and quoted my website. I wish he'd contacted me personally, because the quote he took is out of date.

It's my fault for not updating my website regularly, but I've since had a 180 degree change of stance on self publishing.

Authors should self-publish.

As ebooks continue to gain ground, and print continues to lose ground, and publishers and bookstores continue to report losses, this industry isn't nearly as stable as it once was. In fact, I'm not sure the industry will survive.

In an ebook-dominated world, are publishers even needed?

I can't think of a single, compelling reason to allow publishers to keep 52.5% of ebook royalties and give authors just 17.5%--especially when any writer can make 70% by uploading to Kindle themselves.

In December, I made over $24,000 self-publishing, and I'm currently averaging $1300 per day. But I'm far from the only one doing well.

Among other insights, Curtis said:

If your name is not familiar to the reading public, however, emulating Konrath will flop.

That's an easy conclusion to jump to, but it's wrong.

LJ Sellers sold 10,000 ebooks in December. No agent or prior large publishing contracts.

HP Mallory sold over 22,000 ebooks in December. No prior publishing contracts, and she just signed with an agent.

Michael R. Sullivan sold over 10,000 ebooks in December. No agent or prior publishing contracts.

Amanda Hocking recently turned down a lucrative offer from a house to continue self-publishing. Amanda sold a staggering 100,000 ebooks in December alone.

Here's a partial list of authors selling more than 1000 ebooks a month, none of who had any traditional publishing background (no deals, no agents.)

David Wisehart
B. Tackitt
Vianka Van Bokkem
Maria Hooley
Tina Folsom
C.S. Marks
Melanie Nilles
Robert Burton Robinson
Bella Andre
Lexi Revellian
Michael Sullivan
Victorine Lieske
H.P. Mallory
Lauren Saga
Terri Reid
Imogen Rose
Nathan Lowell
Ellen Fisher
Vianka Van Bokkem
David Dalglish
Sandra Edwards
C. S. Marks
Sibel Hodge
Julie Christensen
Holly A. Hook
David McAfee
Danielle Q. Lee
Valmore Daniels
Steven L. Hawk
Edward C. Patterson
William Meikle
Maria Hooley
M. Louisa Locke
Beth Orsoff*
Eric Christopherson
Monique Martin
Ellen O'Connell
Karen Cantwell
Stacey Wallace Benefiel
Aaron Patterson
Zoe Winters
Karen McQuestion
JR Rain

And this is a very small sampling of authors doing well epublishing.

If you browse the Kindle genre bestseller lists, between 20% and 90% of the authors listed there are self-published authors. In some cases, because of the higher royalties Amazon offers, these writers are making more money than traditionally pubbed authors. I earn $2.09 on a $2.99 ebook. I only earn 82 cents on a $4.79 ebook published by my print publisher.

On top of that, I'm earning $100 a day on POD books through Createspace, selling through Amazon.

I really think it's time the world stops calling me an outlier who is successful because of my platform. Here are three reasons why the outlier argument is poor:

1. If platform is the key, why are unknown newbies smoking me in sales?

2. If background and name recognition leads to huge sales, why aren't my traditionally published peers who decided to self-pub (I can name a dozen) selling as well as I am?

3. And if my name is so gosh-darn golden, why weren't any of my print novels bestsellers?

Change is scary. When it first starts to occur, people are afraid of it, and come up with excuses for it. Of course the industry wants to view me as an anomaly. If I'm not an anomaly, and others can do what I'm doing, the industry is in big trouble.

Guess what? Others ARE doing what I'm doing. And the industry IS in big trouble.

If you want to read about more self-pubbed authors doing well, check out this thread on Kindleboards, begun by Robin Sullivan.

http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,47263.0.html

Guest Post by L.J. Sellers

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be spotlighting authors who have been selling a lot of ebooks. By "a lot" I mean near as many as I am, or more.

I can name at least ten authors making a very nice living self-publishing, and most of them don't have the platform, experience, or traditionally published backlist like I do.

There is money to be made, and you don't have to be a midlist writer with years of experience in order to make it.


I Left My Publisher, Gave Up on Bookstores, and Started Making Money by L.J. Sellers, author of the Detective Jackson mysteries

In January of 2010, I had one book on Kindle and sold 31 copies. I had two print books on the market with a small publisher, and they weren’t selling much better. In December, I had six books on Kindle and sold over 10,000 copies. To get from point A to point B, I had to make some radical decisions.

Several circumstances came together this year that forced me to rethink everything about my publishing career. First, I have to thank Joe for inspiring me to believe that I too could become a successful e-book author. The other incentive came from a round of layoffs in March for both my husband and myself.

I decided I had to stop wasting time and money on things that weren’t working and focus on things that were. What wasn’t working for me was my small publisher, which couldn’t get my books into bookstores. What was working for a lot of people was the growth of e-book sales.
I set aside the novel I was writing and got busy saving my career.

The first step was to rewrite and self-publish on Kindle a standalone thriller I had completed but never sold. I’d once had a big-name agent for it, so I knew it was solid. I also had a second standalone thriller that my publisher had offered a contract for, but I hadn’t signed it yet—because the book wasn’t scheduled to be released until late 2012. That seemed like an eternal and foolish wait. I had a mortgage to pay immediately. What made sense was to get the two thrillers into the digital world where readers were buying. I took the second major step and let my publisher know I was withdrawing my standalone.

I spent a couple months rewriting and updating the stories, then I paid for editing and cover design. I withdrew the money from my miniscule retirement account and considered it an investment in my future.

In August, I published the two thrillers (The Baby Thief and The Suicide Effect) on Amazon’s DTP. At that point, I had one foot in each world. I was self-published, but I still had a traditional press for my series.

Next, I rerouted my promotional efforts toward e-book readers. I quit sending marketing material to bookstores and instead joined several Kindle forums, where I participated in discussions. I got more active on Goodreads and did five back-to-back book giveaways just for the exposure. I wrote a dozen guest blogs and sent them all over the Internet.

My sales jumped significantly. By then my publisher had uploaded the second Detective Jackson story (Secrets to Die For) to Kindle, and I started thinking about how much money I could make if my publisher wasn’t keeping most of my digital profits.

After the third Jackson book (Thrilled to Death) faced the same difficulty getting into bookstores, I decided withdraw from my press. It took a few weeks to finally make the call. Who willingly gives up a second publishing contract? Taking back my series meant foregoing the industry’s stamp of approval. I hated to let it go, but I felt I had no choice if I wanted to make a living.

So I called my publisher and asked for my Kindle rights back. I also asked to be released from the contract for the fourth Jackson story (Passions of the Dead). I knew the manuscript had not been edited, so no time or money had been invested. My publisher was not happy, but graciously granted my requests.

Letting go of that contract was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Not only did it mean taking on the “self-published” stigma, it also meant giving up book signings, which I love. But I had looked into the future and determined that bookstores were not where most people would buy their novels in 2012. For once, I wanted to be ahead of the curve.

I sent my Jackson files to be converted to e-books, then uploaded my versions to Amazon, as my publisher took hers down. At that point, I had five books selling on Kindle, and my numbers were getting better every month. While the last manuscript was out for editing and cover design, I bought an inexpensive ad on the Kindle Nation newsletter and increased my online promotional efforts. Sales took another huge leap.

When I released the fourth Jackson story on Kindle, I dropped the price of the first book in the series (The Sex Club), to $.99. Sales for the first book skyrocketed, and a week later, sales for the follow-up stories nearly doubled.

I’m also fortunate that Mystery Scene magazine has been supportive, giving me great reviews and featuring me as an author. I received another terrific review in its Holiday issue and that pushed both e-book and print sales.

Yes, I’ve made all my books available in print through CreateSpace, and I’ve contracted with INgrooves to target all the non-Kindle devices and libraries too.

Interesting side note: For the fourth Jackson book, I made more money from Kindle sales in the first two weeks than I had made from my publisher in two years. If I had stayed with the contract, that book would not have been released for another nine months. Life is too short to wait for someone else’s publishing schedule.

Now in December, I have six e-books on the market, with all the royalties coming to me. The Sex Club consistently ranks in one of the top three spots on Kindle’s police procedural list, and the three other Jackson books are almost always in the top 20 or 30 on the same list. I’m happily writing a fifth Jackson story and calling myself a full-time novelist.

Joe sez: L.J. is a perfect example of all the things I'm constantly harping about:

1. Good books.
2. Good covers.
3. Good book descriptions.
4. Low prices.

She was smart enough to leave her publisher, and savvy enough to do a lot of marketing, including giving away freebies and working the social networks. By treating this as a business, and acting like a pro, she's managed to hit a lot of Kindle bestseller lists. She also has a backlist of several books; which is akin to shelf space in a brick and mortar store. The more books available, the more customers who will see them.

10,000 ebooks in a month is damn impressive. If she keeps this up, she's going to make a nice chunk of change in 2011, and beyond.

Here are some other successful self-pubbing writers whom I've interviewed, or who have guest posted on my blog:

• Selena Kitt
• Blake Crouch
• Robert W. Walker
• James Swain
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GIFT NO 18: Ready for work?

Today I have announced is the last day of the holidays at Crabbit Towers. So, are you ready to start work? Just to be sure, watch this video for your last inspirational message before term starts.

CAUTION: please don't watch if you have heart problems. Or take your medication first or whatever you need to do.

Click here.