J.A. "Joe" Konrath is no stranger to the citizens of Kindle Nation, whether he is writing under his real name or his "Jack Kilborn" nom de plume. He was one of the first authors to be featured in our Free Kindle Nation Shorts program with his short story "The Screaming" in May 2009, he has been a frequent occupant of the highest rungs of the Kindle Store's bestseller lists, and he made big publishing news just a few weeks ago with the announcement that his forthcoming novel Shaken
, the 7th title in his bestselling Jack Daniels series, will be published by AmazonEncore as a Kindle edition in Octobe
r and a paperback in February
. He has sold over 50,000 Kindle books, and he has a huge following among Kindle Nation readers.
, the 7th title in his bestselling Jack Daniels series, will be published by AmazonEncore as a Kindle edition in October and a paperback in February. He has sold over 50,000 Kindle books, and he has a huge following among Kindle Nation readers.But today he is breaking some serious new ground for authors, publishers, and readers.
What's the story?
Konrath is issuing a big fat rejection slip to the traditional publishing industry by pulling back Endurance, a "Jack Kilborn" novel that was headed for traditional publication, and publishing it directly and exclusively as a Kindle book at a price, at least for now, of $2.99.
It's on my Kindle, and it is available to download wirelessly to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, PC, or Mac with a click of this link.
There will be another Konrath exclusive coming out later this week -- Trapped, which had been accepted for traditional publication before Konrath pulled it back to publish it directly and exclusively himself -- and we'll be sure to issue a reminder here. In addition to being a terrific and versatile author of thrillers, horror tales, and police procedurals, Konrath's blog about publishing and writing is a must-read for anyone in the book trades, and you can keep up with it at A Newbie's Guide to Publishing blog, or read Konrath's similarly titled ebook, The Newbie's Guide to Publishing (Everything A Writer Needs To Know)
.
Not every author who decides to circumvent the traditional publishers is going to experience anything close to Konrath's success. But if you're an author who is wondering whether direct publishing on the Kindle platform might work for you, here are a few things to consider:
.Not every author who decides to circumvent the traditional publishers is going to experience anything close to Konrath's success. But if you're an author who is wondering whether direct publishing on the Kindle platform might work for you, here are a few things to consider:
- If you publish a paperback novel with a traditional publisher, your royalties will be somewhere in the range of 60 cents to $1.50 per copy sold, based on the standard contract royalty rates of 6 to 10 percent and a retail priced between $10 and $15.
- If you publish a Kindle ebook priced at $2.99 anytime after next week, your royalty will range between $2 and $2.07 based on a 70 percent royalty rate less a small charge for electronic transmission. At a price of $5.99, your royalty would be over $4.10.
- How much marketing power would you expect a traditional publisher to throw behind your book, if any? How much could you offset that force with your own marketing efforts and a much lower price?
- How much would you be limiting your market by publishing on the Kindle platform. Or, to put the same question another way, how many of your likely readers are without any of the following Kindle-compatible devices: Kindle, PC, Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, or iPad.
9 comments:
Thanks, Steve.
Endurance is currently ranked #102.
It would be pretty cool if it cracked the top 100 without any traditional publisher supporting it.
I think you have the story wrong. According to what JA posted on his blog, one of those books was rejected as written and again rejected as rewritten.
The other book was rejected as written. When asked to make changes, JA refused.
Thus. if I'm reading JA's blog correctly, neither book was ever accepted. One or more publishers may have had options for those titles, but no options were ever exercised.
That doesn't mean they're not good books. I have no idea, one way or the other. All I'm saying is that it appears to be a mischaracterization to claim that he gave publishers a "rejection slip." It seems it was the other way around.
Good going, Joe. You have exhbitied admirable faith in your vision!
Scott Nicholson
http://www.hauntedcomputer.com
Are these novels being releases without DRM? If so, while I've enjoyed other "Jack Kilborn" novels, DRM-crippled ebooks Don't Receive (my) Money, because while I'm willing to give up the ability to loan or resell the books, I'm not willing to give up the right to read the books as I wish, or to read them 10 or 20 years from now, neither of which are possible with DRM.
#81. Thanks again Steve, and all Kindle Nation readers. :)
Even if it doesn't crack the top 100 (and I suspect it will) you're doing just fine, Joe. :>)
And this article is correct. Reading Joe's blog is quite often an inspiration to us writers when it comes to getting published.
I don't think I'd have gone the Kindle route without some of the tips/trips and info that I found on his blog.
Congrats, Joe. Looks like the fun is just beginning!
@Anonymous, it appears that in your haste you failed to read Konrath's blog accurately. The following is Konrath's direct response to your misinformation:
"TRAPPED and ENDURANCE were both under contract. I signed this contract prior to self-pubbing anything on Kindle, back in 2008.
"My publisher rejected Trapped. I sent it to another publisher. They accepted it.
"My publisher did accept Endurance, but they wanted some edits. I could have made those edits, and the book would have been released by my publisher.
"But this Kindle thing happened. So I refused to make the edits, broke the contract with the publisher, and didn't submit it elsewhere.
"I also refused to sign the contract offering to buy Trapped.
"So I had two books, ready to go to press, and instead decided to publish that on my own.
"If you don't understand how that is turning down two print deals, I can't help you there. But I turned down two print deals.
"If my publisher was willing to accept Endurance without my edits, I would have been contractually bound to let them release it. But that would NOT have been my preference. If I preferred being traditionallu published, I would have made the changes."
@Sten wrote:
"Are these novels being releases without DRM? If so, while I've enjoyed other "Jack Kilborn" novels, DRM-crippled ebooks Don't Receive (my) Money, because while I'm willing to give up the ability to loan or resell the books, I'm not willing to give up the right to read the books as I wish, or to read them 10 or 20 years from now, neither of which are possible with DRM."
All well and good, @Sten, but it never hurts to actually find out what you're talking about before going on the attacks. "Endurance" and "Trapped," like all of the other books Konrath has published directly to the Kindle platform, and tens of thousands of other independently published Kindle books, are available with DRM in the Kindle store.
To his credit, Konrath has been a leader on DRM and related issues. As he wrote in an email t Kindle Nation over a year ago, ""Not only do ebooks cost too much, DRM is a disgrace, for a myriad of reasons, and the 'text to speech' feature is not something the publishing world should be concerned about."
Post a Comment