Joe Konrath: Has He Changed Your Life Or Not

[Vaughn Heppner]

He sure changed my life with his blog. I sold some short stories, and almost had a few novel sales. Now I'm on Amazon and people are buying a few books. Three cheers for Joe.

[carld]

I just stared reading his book "A Newbie's Guild to Publishing." It's interesting reading.

[Valmore Daniels]

His candor and openness have changed the way I look at the business of publishing, and given me a newfound respect for independent authors.

[Russell Brooks]

JA Konrath's blogs are very informative and his Newbies Guide to Publishing ebook contains a wealth of information that is very useful. He's made a big difference for me.

[chicki]

Joe is the reason I decided to publish directly to Kindle. His blog gave me the courage to step out there after years of rejections, several close-calls and finally snagging a well-known agent. I wanted some of my earlier manuscripts to see the light of day. My current works in progress are going to my agent.

The haters have come out of the woodwork since Joe has so candidly talked about his success, but he's laughing all the way to the bank!

Chicki Brown

[Russell Brooks]

Originally Posted by chicki

Joe is the reason I decided to publish directly to Kindle. His blog gave me the courage to step out there after years of rejections, several close-calls and finally snagging a well-known agent. I wanted some of my earlier manuscripts to see the light of day. My current works in progress are going to my agent.

The haters have come out of the woodwork since Joe has so candidly talked about his success, but he's laughing all the way to the bank!

Chicki Brown

I agree, Chicki, I'm self-publishing my action/thriller as an ebook this fall. I've gotten a lot of help from people working in the publishing industry who've admitted that authors are always getting the short end of the stick if they were to traditionally publish. According to Gary Smailes, the CEO of BubbleCow.co.uk, on one of his blogs, he quoted a litterary agent that admitted that although a book is well-written it may not get accepted because it's not the flavor of the month. There've also been many cases where an author is accepted by an agent and the pre-publication process begins but the publisher doesn't want to invest more than $10000US on it. This small amount can guarantee that the book will not be marketed nor well distributed. And even if the author were to do all the marketing herself, she'd only get 15% fo the sale. With the same efforts as a self-published author, she'd get back much more.

So after reading JA Konrath's blogs, which I've subscribed to, I feel more and more confident about my choice to self-publish my action/thriller this fall. I have a website, a booktrailer (I produced on my own), and I posted the first five chapters--not just to entice fans--but to get the interest of book bloggers and reviewers. So far in 3 weeks I have 5 book bloggers that want to host me on a blog tour, 1 newspaper interviewer, and 2 reviewers (one works for the BBC), who want to review it.

It's time to truck on and take back your lives fellow authors.

[David Derrico]

The success of Joe and other break-out indie authors has definitely served to inspire me, to let me know what is possible with good writing and hard work (and, sure, maybe a little luck is involved, but less than with the traditional publishing route). The more other indie authors like Joe and Lee and those picked up by Amazon Encore sell books, get exposure, and raise the bar for all of us, the better indie authors in general will do.

They definitely highlight what an exciting time it is to be an author or a reader (or both!).

[MosesSiregarIII]

Joe's changed my life when it comes to my path towards publishing. I wouldn't have my work available as an ebook right now if it hadn't been for his blog. So far, I'm really glad I've gone this route, so cheers to Joe.

__________________



THE BLACK GOD'S WAR: A NOVELLA INTRODUCING A NEW EPIC FANTASY
Smashwords | Amazon | Moses and Dionysus Walk Into a Bar ...

[kcmay]

Yes and no. The ebook revolution itself is changing my life. Writers like Joe Konrath and Scott Nicholson, who are fully embracing it and having great success, gave me the courage to step outside the box of traditional publishing.

[indie]

I have read some of the blog posts, which are very useful, but if other indie authors had lit agents, would they have a better change of success?

[M T McGuire]

Originally Posted by indie

I have read some of the blog posts, which are very useful, but if other indie authors had lit agents, would they have a better change of success?

Possibly. If you're an author, you write for a living, if you're lucky, you're good at selling your work too. I know I can communicate well but I'm not the best at selling so I don't expect to do enormously well with my book. If I had an agent, there would be somebody who actually sells books for a living to... well... er sell my book. It would be, kind of, a relief to have somebody else taking care of all that.

On the other hand, I'm not really aiming at the paper market, fine if it does well but it's not my primary concern and would an agent know much more than me about selling an e-book outside conventional publishing channels? At this point, possibly not since they'd probably do the same or similar on-line research to me.

So, in summary of my long winded answer, yes, but only if you're looking at selling through conventional channels, I'm not sure many of us on here are doing that.

Cheers

MTM

[NickSpalding]

Sorry, this whole thing baffles me.

Konrath was an author with a back catalogue, an agent, a publisher and a career of many years behind him before he decided to self publish.

How does his success in any way influence the thinking of an unknown indie author with no previous career, no agent, no publisher and no back catalogue?

The two things are completely different. Konrath's success is because he was already established and while he makes for some fascinating and enjoyable reading about self-publishing, I don't think for one second that my situation bears any relation to his.

If somebody could set me straight, that'd be great...

[M. R. Mathias]

Who is Joe Konrath? LMAO Whoever he is he should read my epic. Tit for tat!

[M. R. Mathias]

Seriously... His name is a brand name. It would be like Elvis selling cookies. He would sell a ton because he is Elvis not because the cookies were good. Im not saying Konrath isn't good. I'm asking who the heck is he?

[M. R. Mathias]

Hey you guys all look familiar...