To find out what authors need to know about reading the radar—when to get your kite into the air, and when to head for cover—we interviewed select industry experts and key players in the indie e-book marketplace: In the first quarter of , e-books passed a critical milestone when they outsold hardcovers for the first time.

5 Ways to Make Money Writing - wikiHow

Insiders have estimated that e-books now account for a quarter of all book sales. And Bowker Market Research data shows that the number of self-published books released each year has grown exponentially, totaling some , print and e-books in a conservative statistic, as the absence of ISBNs on many e-books makes them hard to track.

While industry watchers never tire of speculating about the uncertain future of print, what does seem certain is that the market for e-books is warming by the day.

And self-published breakthroughs on e-book bestseller lists have drawn notice from authors and industry insiders alike. Learn about the Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing. Such reports of head-turning success have attracted not only newer authors, but also established ones looking to grow their careers in new directions or maintain more control over what happens to their work. After all, even modest earnings from such work are better than no earnings at all.

Kindle Singles offer one such outlet. These shorter e-books, typically 5,—30, words, can be accessible vehicles for short fiction and other types of work that have no real lucrative counterparts in the print marketplace, and can also be an attractive way for writers to release more material more quickly. Orna Ross, who leads the Alliance of Independent Authors, has published short e-books of poetry and meditations, and is satisfied with lower sales figures more realistic for those genres.

Pricing e-books in the digital cyclone sweeping the industry is, by most accounts, trial and error.

Everyone is swimming very fast, because nobody has the answers when the ship of publishing is overturned in the typhoon. The good news is that self-publishing authors have the power to be very competitive in the e-book marketplace. Even with the U. Self-publishing e-book author and speaker Elle Lothlorien has done a lot of experimenting with pricing through Amazon. Get 3 practical tips on writing a book made easy. All of which means that even a price change of as little as a penny can have a significant impact on your earnings.

Consider this chart Lothlorien created to measure how many copies an author would need to sell at various prices through Amazon in order to make the same profit:.

Consider the lines in red. But how can an unknown author or even an established one go about this effectively?

: : Elizabeth O. Dulemba : :

As with e-publishing at large, the most talked-about strategies each have pros and cons of their own. This may not be what self-publishers want to hear, as the stoop-to-conquer approach of dropping price to rack up sales has been popular. Evangelists claim that the highest-quality books will rise to the top on their own merits—and indeed, there is an abundance of subpar competition in the digital marketplace, at the lowest price points especially.

But from there, finding the most profitable price point will likely involve a requisite amount of trial and error. Jason Allen Ashlock is president of Movable Type Management, a literary agency that launched the e-book assisted publishing imprint The Rogue Reader in October Rogue Reader authors might have the best of both worlds.

A close look at Rogue reveals a pricing model that could be a guide for authors looking to release subsequent titles in close succession. After the price drop … it leapt to 20—25 percent. This is the sort of readership-monitoring price adjustment that any savvy self-publishing author can deploy. Conversely, some authors have found success pricing the first book in a series low to encourage readers to take a chance on an unknown, and then raising the prices of subsequent books once readers are hooked.

Both strategies rely on incentivizing readers—and, more tellingly, on your first book being good enough to interest readers in your second. So how can authors be among the lucky few who gain that kind of visibility? One size does not fit all. Indie e-book author Robert Bidinotto is eloquent about the bolt-from-the-blue effect of being chosen for a holiday special that placed his book, Hunter, alongside work by Stephen King in a Kindle Direct Publishing Select promotion.

Talty received similar promotional support at Amazon, and says it actually helped when Amazon lowered prices: Also, Amazon puts a slash through the original price and shows a new price. Think of yourself as a writer who will never stop. Which, for a writer, is the best forecast of all. The products in our Successful Self-Publishing bundle give you an inside look at the self-publishing scene and how to be effective and meaningful in your efforts.

Sign up for my free weekly eNewsletter: TAGS Brian Klems , online editor blog. Did you love this article? However, writers can make even more money by publishing their own eBooks here at http: You might extrapolate that if you charged another dollar less than the 0. I got about the 18, number, which is why I thought maybe the numbers in the chart were true….

The Ultimate Guide to Publishing Your eBook on Amazon's Kindle Platform - Copyblogger

I am changing my goals now that I have some word of mouth, but it is an interesting thing to be aware of…. You must be logged in to post a comment. Sign up now to learn how to make your submission stand out, how to land an agent and how to attract both child and adult readers. Plus, work with an agent online to refine your work!

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Self-published authors have found a way to actually make money — Quartz

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