WordWorks / Fall 2014
Indie publishing? It’s not all about going it alone “Humility’s a great trait, but as authors we have to have a little bit of ego and we have to believe that our book is something that readers want to read.”
by Craig Spence
it going, to keep moving up the rankings and finding readers.” The way Martin Crosbie sees it there are three basic Success on Amazon, his preferred platform types of success trajectories for books on the virtual because it has the market ‘muscle’ to reach the most shelf: in rare cases they take off, racking up phenomereaders, takes consistent effort, smarts and hard work. nal sales and netting their authors enough money to do It has to be part of who you are and what you do as a nothing but write forevermore; sometimes they ‘hang writer every day, Crosbie believes. “You have to enjoy it around’ in the ratings, selling 10 to 15 copies a day and and know that the readers are right there, that they’re earning a tidy income supplement of $25 to $45 for waiting for your book.” their creators; or they can yoyo up and down on the What does Crosbie mean by muscle? About charts, depending on how actively they are promoted. 65% of online book sales are made through Amazon. You’d think the author of How I Sold 30,000 And online sales account for about 30% of total book eBooks on Amazon’s Kindle and the chart topping novel sales in the US. That’s a significant chunk of the marMy Temporary Life could claim to be in the first catket. But it’s chump change when it comes to Amazon’s egory, or at the very least in the second, but Crosbie total revenues: books account for $5.25 billion of the is straight up about that: he can’t sit back and reap the Internet giant’s take, or roughly 7% of the $75 billion rewards of his writing just yet. For now he’s going to that rings through the corporation’s tills every year. have to keep following his own advice about what indie Conclusion: There’s not much Amazon can’t do if it authors must do to succeed. “I’ve got to work for it,” he sets its mind to it, and it’s determined to remain the said. “I’ve got to do a promotion every month to keep whale in its book selling pond. Page 6