Ebook Rankings on Amazon

[Waylander]

I'm reading a book called Veiled Empire by Nathan Garrison at the moment which has a ranking of 68,139 paid in Kindle store. It is published by Harper Voyager Impulse.

Now, I read a really interesting blog post by Michael J Sullivan on Amazing Stories about author earnings, both in general and the actual report itself from 2014.

Anyway, according to the blog, a book at the rank above falls into the low-selling category between 25,001-100,000. Just looking at the numbers is interesting as it shows how much books actually sell, and what the rankings actually mean.

To be honest, with such low rankings and such good review, it probably would've been better if the author had self-published, made more sales and more money himself.

What do you think?

http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2014/03...rnings-part-2/

[mrscoach]

The reviews and sales ranking came out after the book was published (well duh) so choice of publishing was a crapshoot, just like always. Each author has to decide how they want to go, and take a risk either way. Just my two cents without reading the linked article.

[pwalker8]

Interesting article, thanks for the link.

I think that the answer to your question is that the author you are talking about only has one book out and it usually takes a while for an author to develop an audience. I suspect that it's a pretty decent sell for a first time author who wasn't heavily publicized, especially since the reviews, while positive (mostly five star) also indicate that the author needs a bit of polish. What to you think of the book?

[fjtorres]

Here's the Author Earnings link:

http://authorearnings.com/report/the...author-report/

They found a *lot* of interesting "hidden" facts about tradpub, like how two thirds of tradpub profits (and authir earnings) come from ebooks or that a similar amount of their gross comes from a small group of old, established authors. Everybody else is just catalog filler and has minimal importance to the bottom line individually.

Worth a detailed reading.

While only 32% of the publishing industry’s gross revenue currently comes from e-books, nearly 64% of the average traditionally-published fiction author’s earnings is coming from their e-books. Earnings for the average genre-fiction author will skew even further toward their e-book sales. Perhaps an e-book-based comparison between publishing types is not so unfair a comparison after all. Especially when considering that the gain of 8% – 15% royalties on print sales means taking a massive cut in e-book royalties—from 70% of gross to 25% of net. (We demonstrated this tradeoff graphically in an earlier supplemental report.)

So if you’re a new author trying to decide which publishing path to pursue, it’s worth looking at the following graph one more time while keeping in mind that even for traditionally-published authors, 64% of earnings now comes from e-books.

Of the 500 or so Big-5 debut authors in 2013, only 245 (fewer than half) are today earning $10,000 or more from their Kindle e-books. Surprisingly, despite having more books published and on the market, even fewer of the roughly 1,500 Big-5 authors who debuted in 2012, 2011, and 2010 are earning $10,000 or more. Referring to the earlier blue-and-orange pie chart showing what portion of the average traditionally-published author’s earnings is from e-books, we might convince ourselves that print and audio (as well as other e-book retail channels) could on average double this author-earnings number. But few folks would consider $20,000 per annum a living wage, and only 637 (fewer than a third) of the Big-5 debut authors from the last 4 years are earning that much today.

After years and years of querying and jumping through gatekeeper hoops, it appears that even the less-than-1% who are lucky enough to land an agent and a Big-5 publishing contract can’t manage to quit their day jobs. (This is an observation in the data that matches what we have seen anecdotally in the publishing and bookselling trenches).

By contrast, we see over 700 Indie-published authors who debuted in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 who are today earning more than $25,000/year from their Kindle e-books alone. For these authors, e-book sales on other platforms and POD print sales will add another 20%-30% on average to this total. It’s easy to see that, for the past 4 years, and even taking lost print sales into consideration, far more Indie authors than Big-5 authors are earning a living wage from their writing.

Again, this is something many of us have seen evidence of in the trenches for several years. Very few aspiring authors who query agents end up with publishing deals and their works displayed in bookstores. Having worked in bookstores for years, we have personally seen how seldom a debut author breaks out and sells enough to make a living. Advances are no longer high enough to support debut authors. And yet, at the same time, we have met and heard from hundreds of self-published authors who are not household names but are making a full-time wage from their works. All we and others have had to go on thus far has been anecdote when making the decision on whether or not to self-publish. But now we are seeing the same answer in the data that anyone can see in the trenches: The number of seats on the full-time writer bus have greatly expanded.

With the proviso that nobody gets to choose to publish traditionally (the choice is not theirs to make, they only choose to *try* to be chosen)today, the fastest way to ramp up an actual *career* as a writer is through Indie ebooks.

It is not a path to instant riches (neither road is) just the higher probability road even *after* getting selected for traditional publishing.

That particular author's chances of getting a second book published now depends on how he got the contract (does he have insider relationships), what type of contract he was given (multibook or single title) and what expectations the publisher had af the time. The higher the initial expectations, the higher the chance the book will be considered a failure and be done.

Put another way: unless a newcomer author thinks they're another Patterson or King, the higher probability road to success (for whatever value they attribute to "success") is to start out with Indie ebooks.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Here's the Author Earnings link:

http://authorearnings.com/report/the...author-report/

They found a *lot* of interesting "hidden" facts about tradpub, like how two thirds of tradpub profits (and authir earnings) come from ebooks or that a similar amount of their gross comes from a small group of old, established authors. Everybody else is just catalog filler and has minimal importance to the bottom line individually.

Worth a detailed reading.





With the proviso that nobody gets to choose to publish traditionally (the choice is not theirs to make, they only choose to *try* to be chosen)today, the fastest way to ramp up an actual *career* as a writer is through Indie ebooks.

It is not a path to instant riches (neither road is) just the higher probability road even *after* getting selected for traditional publishing.

That particular author's chances of getting a second book published now depends on how he got the contract (does he have insider relationships), what type of contract he was given (multibook or single title) and what expectations the publisher had af the time. The higher the initial expectations, the higher the chance the book will be considered a failure and be done.

Put another way: unless a newcomer author thinks they're another Patterson or King, the higher probability road to success (for whatever value they attribute to "success") is to start out with Indie ebooks.

I am guessing that Hugh and Data Guy did their homework and excluded formally traditional published authors in that 700.
Though it is cool there are at least 700 self-published authors making some money.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I am guessing that Hugh and Data Guy did their homework and excluded formally traditional published authors in that 700.

I suspect you perhaps mean "formerly" rather than "formally"? Completely different word.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I suspect you perhaps mean "formerly" rather than "formally"? Completely different word.

Well either that or I meant authors in tuxedos.
Great catch HarryT.

[Waylander]

Interesting replies, thanks guys. I've done some digging around and Impulse is Harper Voyager's ebook first imprint. I guess this means that a) the pbooks aren't given priority, and b) as someone's already mentioned, many of these books are just catalogue filler with the vaguest hope they'll sell well enough to justify more investment.

To be honest, I'm still reading the book, but am enjoying it. I can see what reviewers mean when they say the author needs some polish, but I think that'll come with experience.

I looked at some other authors' rankings, and sometimes they were higher up in pbook, and sometimes in ebook. These were quite well known authors; for instance, Jaye Wells' 3rd book in her Prospero trilogy is in the 30,000's in pbook, but over 140,000 in ebook, and she's a well known midlister/low-level bestseller.

The author in question must have sold enough copies of his first book, as according to fantasticfiction the second is due out in May, with the ebook releasing first.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Waylander

Interesting replies, thanks guys. I've done some digging around and Impulse is Harper Voyager's ebook first imprint. I guess this means that a) the pbooks aren't given priority, and b) as someone's already mentioned, many of these books are just catalogue filler with the vaguest hope they'll sell well enough to justify more investment.

To be honest, I'm still reading the book, but am enjoying it. I can see what reviewers mean when they say the author needs some polish, but I think that'll come with experience.

I looked at some other authors' rankings, and sometimes they were higher up in pbook, and sometimes in ebook. These were quite well known authors; for instance, Jaye Wells' 3rd book in her Prospero trilogy is in the 30,000's in pbook, but over 140,000 in ebook, and she's a well known midlister/low-level bestseller.

The author in question must have sold enough copies of his first book, as according to fantasticfiction the second is due out in May, with the ebook releasing first.

Or it could've been a multi-book contract.
If it was an ebook-first contract the publisher investment (and associated expectations) were likely low: he may have even exceeded them.

[pwalker8]

I find the definition of Old Name author including anyone who was published 5 years ago or more, a bit surprising. I suppose if the article is directed at first time authors, it makes a certain amount of sense, but generally old name authors are authors with a long track record and a long back list.

[fjtorres]

Old name author refers to authors who established themself before Indie publishing became a viable ramp-up option. The report comes from 2014--five years back takes you to 2009.
Before KDP moved to 70/30.
Before the conspiracy drove hordes of readers to Indies.
Before tradpub contracts crossed the line from "merely" exploitative to downright toxic.
Before all publishers "coincidentally" switched ebook royalties to 25% of net.

Things were truly different in 2009.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Old name author refers to authors who established themself before Indie publishing became a viable ramp-up option. The report comes from 2014--five years back takes you to 2009.
Before KDP moved to 70/30.
Before the conspiracy drove hordes of readers to Indies.
Before tradpub contracts crossed the line from "merely" exploitative to downright toxic.
Before all publishers "coincidentally" switched ebook royalties to 25% of net.

Things were truly different in 2009.

Sigh. Do we really need the "Rah, Rah my team rocks, everyone else suxes" stuff? I get that you are an Amazon fan. Really, I do.

The transformation of the publishing industry is interesting to watch and has gone in a very different direction that many expected. To my way of thinking, what is most surprising is the rise of the audio books market share. People aren't going from paper to ebooks, a lot of them are going from paper to audio books. In a way, it makes sense in today's world where fewer and fewer people are willing to focus on a given task.