Back in September of 2011 - I wrote about what I believed was the first Indie Author Shake Out.
"It is the law of supply and demand in action. When there wasn't a supply of 'known' authors, the 'un-known' did very well for themselves. Now with the flood of 'name' authors with new and back-listed titles the average Indie is not able to compete."The reading season is upon us once again. The great post-Christmas Sales Event is on it's way. This is the time of year to really push those novels out...who is kidding whom?
Yes, the mid-list has moved to e-books instead of print.
Yes, there is always a slow season - summer time - and reading picks up in fall.
Yes, there are Indie's who have 'made a killing.' There are even erotica writers who made their fortunes -- before the latest 'anti-porn' campaign. (That has yet to shake out.)
Hell, I had a best-seller in the UK in 2010 with "Let's Do Lunch" sitting in the top 25 best selling Romantic Suspense novels, and was #10 to Nora Roberts #8 for ten glorious days!
This next wave of sales is going to signal the end of the Indie Author Boom. By this time next year there will more back-list titles than Indie titles. That will the end of the Indie 'Revolution' because the supply of back-list will meet the demands of readers.
It sucks to be right.
The Indie market will pop, like all bubbles.
This year, my sales have been very quiet. I ran "The Emissary" is free on Smashwords, since it came out, with record sales of....wait for it....4 free copies.
What I've noticed is that as my sales a Amazon went down, I started to sell a few things, here and there, via Smashwords. Enough to get my first ($12) payment, and be halfway to getting a second ($10) payment.
"Swallow the Moon" - the paperback - is very slowly earning out in face-to-face sales. I moved some 20 paperbacks over the summer. "Let's Do Lunch" sells an e-book or paperback copy here and there (in the world, not just on Amazon).
I'm still working on the spreadsheets to see what sales were last year. With the giveaways, I think we were in the 2k range. Not bad for a complete unknown like myself. However, the books published aren't clearing enough for me to keep publishing new ones.
The market is awash in backlist, just as I predicted.
While that's a huge blessing for those hard-working mid-list authors who worked with-in the system; its ruined the Indie market for genre fiction.
The playing field is level, and it hurts for some of us.
It's just the way the business works.
Happy Reading Season!
No comments:
Post a Comment