Vincent Zandri has sold 100,000 ebooks in 60 days.
That's 100 THOUSAND books in sixty days.
Sumbitch, brother!
Now Vincent works his ass off promoting his books. There's no question about it. And I stand in absolute admiration at both his efforts and successes (and maybe a little jealousy as well?). But interestingly, in his blog, he mentions that his publisher, Stonegate Publishing, had the right juju in selling ebooks--apparently more so than other ebook publishers.
So that got me to thinking. How does one indie publisher absolutely excel at selling their books and promoting their authors, while others just shuffle along and seemingly only go through the motions of selling books? I mean you have some indie publishers simply beating the bejesus out of their competition. Other publishers in the ebook business just tread water.
Take Untreed Reads, for instance. A San Francisco publishing house that does only ebooks. They are one of those 'beat the bejesus out of the others' kind of houses I mentioned. They offer their books in a plethora of different bookselling sites around the world. And they are successful. Very successful. (a publishing house soon to bring out one of my Turner Hahn/Frank Morales novels, by the way)
How?
Don't all ebook publishers jump into the same swimming pool more or less wearing the same bathing suit? Each one has the tools in front of them to succeed or fail. Yet so few seem to really succeed while hundreds of start-up ebook publishers flash into existence for a year or two and then fade away.
Trestle Press is a new company. It's head honcho is a guy by the name of Giovanni Gelati. Full of piss and vinegar (and Giovanni, if you're reading this--that's a compliment). Has a thousand ideas about publishing. Asked me to submit a lot of my stuff--and be damn if it wasn't up and on Amazon in a matter of days. I'm excited to be one of his early writer/authors. I've got a feeling Trestle Press is going to be a stellar performer.
Let's hope so. I'm busting my ass trying to write the material he wants. His success is my success. And yes, brother, it's about damn time I saw some success in this gig.
It's been a long time coming.
Interesting post. Most everyone is still trying to figure out the whole e-publishing thing. I think Untreed does a good job using multiple formats, though I'd like to see lower prices. $1.99 for a short story seems rather steep, especially with so much good stuff online.
ReplyDeleteIt's a fascinating question. So many indies rely on the author to purchase their traditionally printed material and then sell it themselves. This explosion of ebooks brings a whole new paradigm to the front.
ReplyDeleteat the moment, the publishers need to be putting themselves out there more.
ReplyDeletei never see them anywhere other than their own sites. there's a window for some independents to capitalise on the cautious or misguided efforts of some of the other publishers, but there will be a game of catch up and catch up they will. make hay and tell the sun to shine.
I agree completely, Nigel.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. This is really informative and I think you're spot on.
ReplyDeleteNigel is so right. A lot of publishers of ebooks advertise very heavily, but only on their own sites. They highlight new releases and provide author bios/pages, etc., but unless people are shopping directly from them, your ebook goes unnoticed. My publisher advertises their ebooks on one other site, but again, it's not the first one buyers click on to. I'm not complaining; they've worked very well with me, but they would certainly sell more books (me too) if they would put themselves out there in a bigger way.
ReplyDeleteIf you guys notice...it's always pretty much the same crew chiming in no matter the post, no matter the publisher, no matter the bestseller list, no matter even the price. And guys, there's like 900,000 E-Books out there...Which leads me to believe, in the end, it's the quality of the writing, and how much we're succeeding at giving readers an entertaining read. In a way BR, I want to say, stop asking the question of why, when the answer is, you're just a really smokin'great writer....
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