John Locke the first Million Kindle Indie author

[vxf]

I had no idea there was a 'new' John Locke. Doh... I read the title I and I thought... well, at least people are getting an education...

[Stoneforger]

It probably has nothing to do with how good his books are (I'm not a fan of the genre), but rather how good he is in marketing. I'm not sure exactly how he did, and I am trying to have some tangible measure of success with my own novel, but unfortunately if you just want to sell it seems there are quite a few ways to exploit the market, possibly at the expense of other writers.

There's the cover, as someone pointed out, the initial boost from fellow authors' reviews, good site linking, tweets, amazon, boards, you name it. I don't know how he did exactly, even though he seems to offer an undetailed account of it, but it kind of reminds me the million pixel page.

Yeah ok, he sold a million pixels (or e-books), but what then? That can't go on forever. And it definetely cannot be repeated, at least not in the same marketing-trick-exploit fashion.

As I said, I haven't read his work but I'm simply saying he definetely seems to be a lot better at marketing than at writing (I even think he implicitly somehow agrees on that himself).

Even the pen name was chosen carefully (the philosopher and the Lost character are still the top google results).

In itself it is a feat, but not a feat of writing.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Since I never heard of him I looked him up at Goodreads. I'm going to pass on Mr Locke.

I have read a bit of one of his books.

When I saw your post I went to Goodreads to see the reviews, and I see that I will use Goddreads reviews much more often ;-)

[anamardoll]

I'm happy for the author (never heard of him before) and I'm a little surprised at how quickly the obligatory Sour Grapes post hit.

Good on Mr. Locke; it's an inspiration to the rest of us and (hopefully) yet one more wake-up call to the publishing giants.

[leebase]

Originally Posted by Stoneforger

It probably has nothing to do with how good his books are (I'm not a fan of the genre), but rather how good he is in marketing. I'm not sure exactly how he did

And thus the role of a good publisher. An author could contract out the art work. Contract out the marketing. Contract out the distribution. Etc. The author may have skills in some of those areas and do them for himself.

The role of the publisher is to be the single point of contact leaving the author free to write. If you go without a publisher, you have to pick up those responsibilities yourself.

Lee

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by leebase

And thus the role of a good publisher. An author could contract out the art work. Contract out the marketing. Contract out the distribution. Etc. The author may have skills in some of those areas and do them for himself.

The role of the publisher is to be the single point of contact leaving the author free to write. If you go without a publisher, you have to pick up those responsibilities yourself.

Lee

I spoke to a new author yesterday that I've been following since her ABNA 2010 excerpt caught my eye. Her newly published book is a SciFi story called "Don't Feed the Fairies".

The publisher who picked her up hired an artist who didn't even read the blurb and whipped up a "Tinkerbell" fairy in 10 minutes. When the author pointed out that the cover didn't fit the content AT ALL (her "fairy" is a punk rocker type of girl with short pink hair and no wings), the publisher told her to bite them. Politely, of course. She was welcome to "do better" if she could.

She had to find a new artist on the fly to get a proper cover that wouldn't cause reader-rage of the WTF COVER?! variety. And she had to do it under the gun with regards to time constraints.

True story, take it for what you will.

Oh, and before you say this is a rare occurrence or something that only indie authors have to put up with... This book here? The woman on the cover is supposed to be BLOND. It's even a plot point that her hair is blond. Poor Mercedes Lackey.

[leebase]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

True story, take it for what you will.

Another point proven by an irrefutable anecdote.

Lee

[abookreader]

Oh come on! Atrocious cover art that doesn't represent the story has been an author complaint for eons. That's one anecdote sure - believe it or not. Talk to any author's group however and they'll give you a bunch more.

As far as Publishers doing it all for the authors leaving them free to write. You might want to explain that to Margaret Atwood - who strongly addressed in her Tools of Change keynote address the expectation on the modern author to handle publicity and marketing with little to no help from the publisher.

And I'd venture to guess that Margaret Atwood is probably at the high end of authors attracting Publisher care. The mid-list to no name authors often feel blessed to get their phone calls returned.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

... and I'm a little surprised at how quickly the obligatory Sour Grapes post hit.

There are obviously at least several hundred thousand people that like him, and there are people that don't. See his reviews. They are pretty polarised.

Go ahead, start reading one of his books and see for yourself.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by abookreader

Oh come on! Atrocious cover art that doesn't represent the story has been an author complaint for eons. That's one anecdote sure - believe it or not. Talk to any author's group however and they'll give you a bunch more.

As far as Publishers doing it all for the authors leaving them free to write. You might want to explain that to Margaret Atwood - who strongly addressed in her Tools of Change keynote address the expectation on the modern author to handle publicity and marketing with little to no help from the publisher.

And I'd venture to guess that Margaret Atwood is probably at the high end of authors attracting Publisher care. The mid-list to no name authors often feel blessed to get their phone calls returned.

Well, I mean, sure!! That's my POINT, for leebase to breeze in and casually talk up publisher love because publishers coddle authors and take care of them and handle all that "art stuff" is SILLY.

I love Margaret Atwood.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by kacir

There are obviously at least several hundred thousand people that like him, and there are people that don't. See his reviews. They are pretty polarised.

Go ahead, start reading one of his books and see for yourself.

I was referring to a post above that seemed to basically say his accomplishment was meaningless because he had a pretty cover, a pretty name, and a pretty price. And that lightning wouldn't strike twice and he's a better marketer than a writer, and......... I think you get the point.

You don't like his work, you don't like it. That's fine with me. My comment wasn't directed at you.

[abookreader]

And I think that the "sour grapes" isn't even really reflected on this board. There has been a bit of grumbling lately coming from the traditional publishing establishment about the popularity of the low cost Indie Published book - not to mention that "sale" that Amazon just ran on a whole slew of non-Agency priced books where a bunch of prices dropped down to Indie levels. We're right back to the "How dare the devalue the perception of literature!" again.

I don't think it's any co-incidence that Hatchette, MacMillan and Harper Collins have all put a pretty big list on sale at around $2.99. There's a huge market of book buyers down in that lower price range there isn't going to be a void of sellers willing to make money from them - whether they're "Indie" or traditionally published.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by abookreader

And I think that the "sour grapes" isn't even really reflected on this board. There has been a bit of grumbling lately coming from the traditional publishing establishment about the popularity of the low cost Indie Published book - not to mention that "sale" that Amazon just ran on a whole slew of non-Agency priced books where a bunch of prices dropped down to Indie levels. We're right back to the "How dare the devalue the perception of literature!" again.

I don't think it's any co-incidence that Hatchette, MacMillan and Harper Collins have all put a pretty big list on sale at around $2.99. There's a huge market of book buyers down in that lower price range there isn't going to be a void of sellers willing to make money from them - whether they're "Indie" or traditionally published.

I know that sale got me to buy 3 books that I, uh, could have gotten from the library.

And, no, I haven't read them yet, so it's not like it was PRESSING.

[twowheels]

Is there a way to search for these sales? I've not seen any significant price drops in any of the books that I have on my wish list.

[HarleyB]

Originally Posted by abookreader

I bought a couple from Kobo with the $1 off coupons - but I've yet to read the books.

I did exactly the same. The books were 99 cents at Kobo and I used $1 off coupons so I got them for free. I haven't read them yet so I wonder how many of these 1 million books were actually paid for or read? After looking at a few reviews the books slipped to the bottom of my TBR list into the maybe I will - maybe I won't pile.

I suppose it's still an achievement to have 1 million books downloaded even if people didn't pay for them and haven't bothered reading them.