Self Publishing

I was at a party Saturday when a friend mentioned she is starting to write more.  We started disscussing http://www.nanowrimo.com/ (November writing month - if interested, try it).  The conversation turned to how more and more people are e-publishing.  I recently looked into it, but when my friends are discussing it at parties you know this is the wave of the future. 

Many are having wild success with the new Kindle application where you simply change the format of your text to something uploadable and, boom, you are published.  I researched a little more and found the following breakdown.  If you sell your book for 99 cents, you receive 30% of the profits.  If you sell the book for $2.99 or more, you receive 70% of the profits.  That is a huge difference, but what an incentive to write and share your work!

From my little research, selling for 99 cents is a great way for unknown authors to upload to the system and get started making some extra cash/gathering an audience.  You also have to do a lot of self promotion on this though.  Amanda Howking, author of the tween vamp series, said she used her social network sites to promote the work and also other web related marketing resources.  She is now in the hundreds of thousands of sales and brick and mortar publishers are pursuing her.

The $2.99 option is 70% to the author, why the huge percentage?  Well, Amazon is now recruiting more famous authors away from the traditional publishing world into the e-publishing business.  Where a starting royalty rate for publishing house hovers around 17%, authors can now receive 70% with Amazon. 

Amazon in the meantime insists they are not driving business away from the traditional publishing houses, but can you hear that sound?  I belive that is the sound of Random House employees knees clacking together.  Random House should welcome the change though.  The "slush pile" of olden days needs to end.  How many works of genius are lying on someone's desk?  Amazon's system seems to encourage avid readers to do that work for them.  Think about the number of readers who are not net savvy.  People, like myself, who are constantly online are not the norm.  I know two people who are not: my parents.

One thing is for sure, your traditional publishing house will do a lot more for you.  Marketing, cover art, printing costs.  All of those things require a lot more money.  I suppose the traditional method has its benefits.

That said, I would still love 70% of profits.  Hmmm.  Only time will tell...Write more!!!