By Robin Sullivan
The author's husband, Michael J. Sullivan, self-published on Amazon and went on to sign a six-figure contract with Hachette.
There have been many articles about self-published superstars like Amanda Hocking, Joe Konrath, and John Locke. While these success stories are noteworthy, we should look at them for what they are — outliers in the self-publishing world just as Stephen King and Stephenie Meyer are outliers in the big-six publishing industry. Most authors can never hope to reach sales in the hundreds of thousands for a single month, but there are more than a few who sell anywhere from 800 to 20,000. While selling books at this level would seem extraordinary by traditional publishing standards, the mere fact that so many self published authors have achieved this goal (with more being added each month), indicates that it is not an unusual occurrence.
Not only are these new mid-listers selling a lot of books, but they are also receiving significantly more money from each sale (the industry standard is a 25% royalty of net sales for e-books under contract by a big-six publisher). If a self-published author sells their book for $2.99 – $9.99, then Amazon will pay 70% ($2.09 – $6.99). Compare this to the $1.22 per book income (which needs to be shared with an agent) for a $6.99 e-book sold through a publisher. High volume combined with good revenue is providing self-published e-book authors five and six figure yearly incomes allowing them to quit their “day jobs” and make a living by doing what they love most–writing.
The Tipping Point
I regularly give lectures on the different options for publishing and up until recently my main point about self-publishing was the unprecedented control it provided. Recently I’ve had to change my presentations to also acknowledge that if you wish to maximize income then self-publishing, if done well, could provide the best revenue potential. A year ago I was definitely not making that statement — but a watershed moment occurred in October/November 2010. It was at this time that sales of e-books from previously unknown authors skyrocketed.
To illustrate the dramatic rise in sales for these e-book mid-listers, let’s look at some real data that I’m intimately familiar with: Michael J. Sullivan. He is my husband and has five of six books of the Riyria Revelations published through my small press, Ridan Publishing. The release dates of them were: The Crown Conspiracy (Oct 2008), Avempartha (April 2009), Nyphron Rising (October 2009), The Emerald Storm (April 2010), and Wintertide (October 2010). In nine months, from January to September 2010, his income averaged just over $1,500 a month or around $10,700 in total (Amazon US Kindle sales only). Certainly not a wage we could live off of. After the tipping point occurred he earned more than $102,000 in just five months. For details on his monthly income see the following chart:
If it hadn’t had been for Writer’s Café (a section of the Kindle Boards forums), I would have thought Michael’s sales increase had been just an isolated occurrence. But from postings there I found many authors who were experience the same rise. The following chart and graph shows the number of authors who sold books in various quantities (Data provided on Kindle Board):
Because authors on Kindle Boards were sharing sales figures and book prices, I was able to calculate March income for the following:
- Michael J. Sullivan — $16,648
- Ellen Fisher — $3,915
- Siebel Hodge — $15,425
- N. Gemini Sasson – $4,222
- David McAfee — $6,085
- David Dalglish — $12,132
- Victorine Lieskie — $7,281
- M. H. Sergent — $4,211
- Nathan Lowell — $9,296
Of these authors, only Victorine Lieskie ever had a book that made the Amazon Top 100 Bestseller List. Most of the authors selling at a rate of 800+ books a month tend to have rankings from 300-6,000. (A ranking of 1001 indicates that 1,000 kindle books are selling better than yours).
You Can Sell Foreign Rights
Many detractors of self-publishing point out that by doing so you close the door to foreign sales and any chance of ever seeing your books on a bookstore shelf. Again, this was true in the past, but times have changed and now being successfully self-published actually opens the door to foreign sales and provides a better chance of being signed by a major publisher since you already have an established audience which is so important in publishing today.
Let’s return to Michael as he is an example that I have real data for. The Riyria Revelations produced $154,000 in foreign translation rights sales in just the last six months. Deals are already finalized for: The Czech Republic, Russia, Germany, France, Poland, and Spain. Active negotiations are ongoing for Holland and Italy. Once more, the Writer’s Café forum demonstrates that this has not been occurring just for Michael. The following are authors who have announced either signing a foreign deal, or being approached by an agent or publisher for foreign rights translations: David Dalglish, Shelley Stout, M.G. Scarsbrook, Tina Folsom, Melanie Nilles, Dawn McCullough White, Victorine Lieskie, Imogen Rose, Lucy Kevin, Margaret Lake, Terri Reid, and Beth Orsoff.
Commanding Larger Advances
As for seeing your books in the bookstores…it is true that most brick and mortar stores will not carry self-published printed books, however, major publishers are very interested in authors with an existing fan base. What’s more, they have to offer larger advances than those paid to debut authors in order to woo them. A self-published author already has a pretty good idea what they could make from the works if they continue to stay independent. For a debut fantasy author, several surveys indicate an advance of $5,000 – $10,000 is standard. So a three-book deal would warrant $15,000 – $30,000 advances. In comparison, Michael was offered a six-figure contract from Orbit (the fantasy imprint of Hachette Book Group). Other self-published authors who have recently been signed include: H.P. Mallory (six-figure advance from Random House), D.B. Henson (who was approached by agent Noah Lukeman -– that’s right she did not query him…he queried her) whose Deed to Death sold at auction, Stephanie McAfee’s Diary of a Mad Fat Girl, Jerry McGill’s Dear Marcus, R.J. Jagger, and a book by Quentin Schultze & Bethany Kim.
The publishing industry is certainly changing at the speed of light. There used to be only one choice if you wanted to make any decent money writing novels: spend months (or years) querying for an agent, waiting months (or years) while that agent shopped the project around, and then if accepted, waiting up to two years for the book to actually hit the store shelves. If your book wound up on the midlist (which by definition most did) then low volume and a small cut of the books total sales price made it financially impossible for authors to write full time as their sole source of income.
There was a time when self-publishing produced little to no revenue, and doing so was often the last resort for a project that had been rejected by everyone it had been put in front of. Now, in the post digital revolution, the model has been turned upside down. Authors are going to e-books first based on earning potential and a quick time to market. If they do well, then they leverage their sales for larger advances and favorable contract terms. Of course self publishing is not for everyone, but at least for those that decide to go this route, they won’t have to be that one in a million outlier—if they can achieve the e-book midlist status, they stand a good chance of telling their boss, “I quit, I’m going to stay home and write for a living.”
100 Comments
Did your husband go to any extraordinary lengths to market his books? Congratulations go out to him.
I self-pubbed my YA novel, When I Am Singing to You, after my agent was not able to seal a deal with trad publishers. I wonder, though, what kind of sales I can expect to have if its natural readership probably don’t even have ereaders! It’s a book about social issues (teen homelessness, pregnancy, etc) besides, which doesn’t put it in the camp of fast-selling YA fiction in either the paper world or the eworld.
Any hope for writers like me?!
@Sandy – we focus on getting reviews from bloggers, giveaways on GoodReads, social networking, etc. By far the best thing you can do is write a REALLY good book as that will lend itself to word-of-mouth referrals. Most that are doing VERY well write series as each new book raises the sales of the preveious ones.
@Rebecca – other than marrying me? Seriously, I handle all the “business side” of his writing so he can concentrate on putting words on paper. I’m the one that does the marketing – I talk a lot about what I do on my Write2Publish blog – just click on my name to get there.
@Rebecca – there is no doubt that certain genres do better with ebooks than others. Juvenile is tough on ebooks (IMO) but YA should be fine.
In my experience, acquiring an agent has been the most confusing and frustrating part of writing, and that is what led me to self publishing my novels and short stories as ebooks. To attract an agent, you must write a query that suits his or her definition of a good query, and they all seem to have different ideas. With ebooks, at least I am in the game. I have the feeling that I can at least partly create my own luck. With my own blogs, websites, and social network efforts, I am at least selling some books. If I were still waiting for an agent, I would not be selling any. For now, and thanks to the examples of Hocking, Konrath, and Locke, I’m content to keeping trying this new way. Hopefully, I’ll get to the point that I won’t even need an agent!
I wanted to ask some of the folks who weighed in here, I’m very interested in having one of my books, the first in my series, translated into Spanish. It would be perfect, as it is set during the Spanish Conquest of the Southeast. Does anybody have any recommendations? Please PM me via my web site.
Thanks!
Great to hear of your husband’s success. My husband is the business half of ‘Anna Jacobs’ and has epublished all the books to which I have the rights back or never assigned the digital rights. It’s amazed us how well they’re doing, both the historical romances (not sexy ones, either) and the modern romantic novels.
Unfortunately, out of over 50 novels published, the publishers still have the digital rights to the majority.
A big advantage is that we get the money from Amazon each month, which is excellent, while the ebooks which my publishers have put on line bring in payment more than six months in arrears – which is something people often forget to mention among the advantages of epublishing oneself.
I wish Amazon’s CreateSpace published paperbacks in the UK and elsewhere, not just the USA, so that we could follow up with paperbacks as well. I think Amazon is missing a big market there.
Pew has released a report on ereader ownership that documents an inflection point in the adoption curve that corresponds to this increase in sales. While the overall adoption is only 12% (indicating that the dedicated devices have not yet penetrated to the “early majority”), I think that it clearly shows that adoption by a subset of all adults – namely, heavy readers – has clearly gone into the fat part of the adoption curve.
What I find more interesting is that cell phones have penetrated into 83% of the market, leaving only the trailing end of the curve of laggards and luddites. What that means is that a hugely significant number of people in the US have the capability to read ebooks. I know *I* read more books on my phone than on my kindle. It’s always with me and it’s very handy even tho the screen is small. I don’t think I’m alone in that.
Robin, this is great!
I always see you on Kindle Boards. When I click on your website, it always led me to “Michael J Sullivan’s” page and I always thought, “Where did Robin go!?” “I’m confused!”
But now it all makes since. Super congrats to the incredible sales your husband is experiencing! Thanks for writing this article.
Do you have any articles written about your publishing company, or a website to direct me to? Thanks!
Oh, just saw your write2publish mention @Rebecca.
@Nathan, I read all my kindle books on my Iphone!
Bravo for your husband and I immediately tweeted the good news for mid list authors: I really believe this is a sea change in the publishing industry – far more important than those jolly stories about John Locke and Amanda Hocking, that are anyway, one in a million.
Here we are talking about 100,000 in a million! Very encouraging! I’ve just published on Kindle, Nook and Ipad Book One of a paranormal YA trilogy Fear of the Past – your experience gives me hope! I had published this book in Italy in 2008 with a small press in Sicily, then translated it into English but the search for an agent proved daunting, as others noted here in the comments. I gave up and decided to self-pub.
Trouble is: it requires more promotion than I’m able to give it. I need a 72 hour day!
Thank you, Robin, for gathering this information and organizing it into an easily accessible format. I appreciate the tangible evidence that I made the right choice.
After cutting the heart out of a novel to meet the word count demands of an interested agent, I chose to publish “Enchantment” (June 2011) myself. I was motivated by the desire to maintain creative control, thinking I would pursue traditional publication after proving my point.
No freakin’ way.
Instead of querying a list of elusive literary agents, I hired a free-lance editor and a marketing expert.
The early response to Enchantment is every bit as validating as a signed contract with a publishing house. And … it proves my point that 106,000 words is not too many for a YA novel if every one of them serves the story.
Congratulations to you and Michael for your success.
Charlotte
@Anna – Good point about the timeliness of payments. As for selling print books overseas. My createspace prouced books are picked up by The Book Depository that has free shipping to several hundred countries so people abroad buy the print books through that.
@Lacy – funny you should ask as an interview was just posted today about Ridan Publsihing and what we do, why we do it etc. I also recently did a post on my blog called “What I believe” that explains my thought processess in pretty good deatil. Here are some links
Interview: http://www.andrewjackwriting.com/2011/06/an-epic-interview-with-robin-sullivan-of-ridan-publishing/
I believe post: http://write2publish.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-i-belive-in.html
Good post, Robin.
I’m not quite making a living yet, but close. Currently earning $1,000 plus per month with one novel out and a short collection of short stories. I’m waiting for my next short story collection to go “live,” and I expect that to boost my sales. I plan to bring out another novel this winter, and by this time next year I think I’ll be making enough to live on. My lifestyle is pretty simple.
Great article. As a self published author there are a lot of venues to branch into. Not making a living at it, yet. Hopeful as my stories develops a readership it turns into a livable income.
Thanks Robin for an interesting article, with some very informative comments. I’ve just ‘self’ published my first book using Lightning Source – Gate of Tears – but with all the press about million sellers at 99 cents, I’m wondering whether Kindle is the way to go. What I’d find hard to do is to price down to that level.
It would be interesting to see a sales/demand curve overall for Kindle. I was bought up on the notion of ‘pay peanuts get monkeys’ and wouldn’t want to be seen as a monkey…
Is 99 cents the new price for pulp fiction?
James, Dave Slusher over at the Evil Genius Chronicles plotted the supply and demand curves for JA Konraths numbers. It might be a bit dated now, but the data gives you a feel for what’s happening at various price points.
What’s interesting to note is that the variation in revenue is pretty small across the top of the curve (from 2.99 to 5.50) but drops off pretty drastically when you move outside of that range.
I always enjoy reading your articles and seeing your number-crunching, Robin!
Looks like my June is going to be about Micheal’s Sept as far as earnings go. Kind of fun to speculate that a big tipping point might not be that far off, but I need to get cracking and write more books for my main series. Looks like he put his fifth one out before he “tipped.”
It’s cool to see so many indies doing well, and I hope the climate continues to remain favorable (i.e. 70% royalty rate at an indie-friendly Amazon) for years to come.
Congrats to your husband. I’m so ungeeky that after I put my 12 books up in the Kindle Store in January, I didn’t even know there was a report section in dtp until the end of February. I had to play with the pricing a bit until I saw substantial increases (priced at $6.99 ea in January reaped an anemic 171 sales but at $2.99 for 10 of them and $.99 for 2 of them starting in March it grew to close to 7,000 sold in May and almost as much in June. I have found a number of forums but hadn’t heard of the Writer’s Cafe. I think most of the Kindle forums do not allow BSP.
Thank you!
I just did a few posts related to this–mentioning the common attack that Hocking and Konrath are “outliers” and asking if Rowling and King aren’t in fact “outliers” of a publishing induasty in which few actually make a living.
This is a very good response to that, as well as a much-need message to writers in general.
An incredibly encouraging post for self-pubbers. I’ve been flip-flopping back and forth as to whether I should attempt second round of agent queries for my super-niche and unique novel.
When I did so two years ago, I got requests for full manuscripts at a rapid pace, and great feedback on the concept/writing. In the end, the most common reason cited for rejection was rejected was poor market conditions/the economy making it tough to sell debut authors, particularly those with niche books. I’ve got about a decade’s worth of PR experience and a couple agents, much to my shock, suggested I publish the book myself.
I began to love the idea, but sometimes that fear of going it on my own creeps up on me. This post has given me a new surge of enthusiasm.
Can’t thank you enough!
Wordsmith & Wesson
I need to find out how to get Foreign Rights Deals. My first book was Pirated, which has resulted in very good sales for the sequel, and I now have a waiting list for the current manuscript I’m writing.
However, without getting pirated, how does one set up Foreign Right Deals if you are a “Indie Writer”? I truly do enjoy being an independent writer, however there are just things I don’t know how to do by myself.
Hey Robin – this would be a GREAT book for you to write! I’ll buy the first one.
- KT
I’m just getting the kinks worked out of getting my books online. I’m thrilled to report I’m already making as much as five dollars a week. I expect that number to grow.
I don’t play well within rules. I don’t do subtle. I can’t tolerate bureaucracies. I was never interested in playing the long game with agents and publishers; so I started several non-fiction books and set them aside. When I started my fictional human-rights-hacktivism series these new publishing options were still in development. I wrote on anyway; my hacksterish characters seemed to have a story to tell. I enjoyed the discovery.
As I said, I’m thrilled with my days of small beginnings. The time spent writing was a pleasure but is now a “sunk cost.” I have no plans to remove my books from Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, etc. — so they may keep earning week after week. Perhaps someday readers at their points on the longtail will discover them.
I expect to receive the equivalent of a small advance spread over the next five years, and to keep earning after that. I might be wrong. For now my books represent a small annuity that brings pleasure.
Thanks for such a detailed, honest account. Great info here!!
Just wanted to drop in and thank everyone for their comments. I’m glad this article resonated with so many.
Hi Robin,
GREAT article- really appreciate you sharing your insights. I believe in one or two places (comments section?) you mentioned that certain “genres” and types of stories are certainly more “hot” or marketable- especially in the e-publishing/self publishing market. If it’s not to imposing- could you give your opinion on perhaps what you see as the top 5 or so? Could you give a little more of your thoughts and insight as to why you believe particular genres are what appeal and sell? For example- is it mysteries, or romance, or romantic mysteries or even more subtle genres with sub genre branches attached? Thanks so much- would REALLY appreciate your thoughts and insights on this. Also- when your husband sets out to write a story- does he then consider what “sells” and craft the story to “tilt” towards one of the more popular genres? Or, does he just go with the story as it flows out of him – and then present it to the marketplace? Chandra- Orange County, CA
Great article! It’s entirely possible to make a living with indie books. Tomorrow marks my 4 month anniversary as an indie author. I have 4 romantic comedies and 1 nonfiction (which is doing very little business) published. Those 4 books have sold more than 90,000 copies in 4 months just on US Kindle.
My only regret about becoming an indie author? I wish I’d done it sooner!
Best wishes,
Joan Reeves
You might consider outsourcing for your promotions. I do this in a variety of ways, using many different social media outlets. It’s really not that expensive, I only charge $12 an hour and I work like a demon
You can also hire via outsourcing sites like odesk, freelancer, etc. Just keep in mind that someone who LOVES books, and loves to read, would be the best choice for the job.
Robin, you noted that “The Riyria Revelations produced $154,000 in foreign translation rights sales in just the last six months. Deals are already finalized for: The Czech Republic, Russia, Germany, France, Poland, and Spain. Active negotiations are ongoing for Holland and Italy.”
Are these foreign rights for doing a print version of the books?
Does Michael use an agent to negotiate these deals?
Thanks so much for the encouraging info. Congrats to you and Michael. I will follow your blogs with interest as I approach indie epublishing for my own novel.
Elle Moss
This is a great article. Authors have so many opportunities through e-publishing and going beyond what traditional publishers do for promotion.
I’ve read many of the comments on this thread. Many are very encouraging. But what are some of the central ingredients to finding success with a single novel–beyond the quality of the book itself? I’ve had my book available for 2 months, and sales have been very slow, so far, despite a 5 star review (On the Amazon UK site)and an ad campaign–including facebook ads. Any feedback would be most welcome.
@Chandra – sorry it took me so long to reply – I’ve not been following recent comments on the thread – my bad.
Genres that work well with epub
#1 – Erotica – I think a good reason why is there are no covers to show others “what you are reading” allows more people to indulge in guilty peasures
#2 – Romance – really led the way with ebooks. The romance reading population is epic in respects to the voracity of their reading habits so to have immediate downloading of “the next book” has been huge for them.
#3 – Thrillers – the top of the lists are almost always thrillers
#4 – Fantasy/science fiction – works well because it is easy to find the target market for these people as they share/compare reading quite a bit.
The only area I think is more of a challeng is “literary fiction” Not sure yet how to crack this nut.
As for sub-genres….The more specfic you can be the easier it is to market – Always aim at being a big fish in a small pond rather than a small fish in a big pond.
@Chandra – as for my husband’s writings….He doesn’t write “for the money” he writes for the love of freedom to be able to do what he wants to do so when he picks what he will write the “market” does not influence him at all.
That’s him…it is a personal choice. There’s nothing wrong with looking at the market and saying – this has legs I’ll write for it. After all making money from writing is an end goal. As long as you love the work you are producing (that will show int he work and the sales) then how you choose your genre is legitmate either way. At least that is my 2 cents.
@R. Barri Flowers – The foreign publishing deals are standard contracts – so print is the primary aspect but they also have ebook capabilities which is more important as Amazon continues to open additional sites. Yes we do have a foreign rights agent – I personally would not recommend doing foreign sales without someone who knows this market VERY well. Not even a “standard” agent would be good for this – I recommend a agent who is doing this full time – check out agents who go to frankfort, london, etc or those that are used by other agencies for foreign sales.
@Stephen – It is really almost impossible to make a writing career with a single book’s sale. I think you are putting the cart before the horse by advertising a book (with $’s not sweat equity) when it has only 1 review. My suggestions are this.
1 – Focus 90% of your efforts on writing the “next book.
2 – For the 10% you will use on marketing this book – use it to get review copies in the hands of reviewers. Wait until you get 20+ reviews before you start really pushing the “sales” aspects of the book
You need to establish credibility first…then promote. To do one without the other is a waste of time, money and effort.
Hello Robin,
No problem on the time to reply- know you must be super BUSY and that’s a good thing! Your reply was perfect- exactly what I was looking for and very insightful. Also, thank you for differentiating regarding your husband’s choice to write “what makes him artistically happy”. As you stated, perhaps we can all write to some degree to “pay the bills” and if some degree of success is obtained- then branch off and do those “we’ve always dreamed of projects, that may or may not sell well”. This seems to be a common theme when you hear stories of Hollywood producers/writers/directors; When they were young and hungry- they took any and all work to pay the bills and get established. After they achieved some degree of success and a reputation- then they would go to the table with their own project and pitch it and make it and sell it as they saw fit. Again, thank you for a very detailed and helpful reply. The genre breakdown info is priceless and takes an “insider” pro such as yourself willing to reveal it to the rest of us- MUCH appreciated. Take care.
I’m one of those authors who had a literary agent shopping my manuscript around, but couldn’t seal the deal. I eventually decided to create an indie publishing company (with two friends) and it’s been a fantastic experience ever since. We started the company in Dec 2009.
You definitely need a marketing plan because so many people can write a book and call themselves “author.” You won’t sell anything if your book can’t stand out.
Hello.
Just started researching the e-publishing area. this site is the only one, so far, that i`ve found that gives straight advice.
The increase in the business of e-publishing has made many companies come out of the woodwork, offering help, advice etc. All for a fee of course.
So, I thought it only fair to say thanks for pointing me on to the correct direction.
All the best
Vince
Hi Robin,
I went on the Writer’s Cafe site (my book is listed in ‘search’ as I am on Amazon), but how do I best use the site to my advantage for selling more books? Blog info about my book? Chat?
Thanks, Cindy
Hi Robin. Thanks for the great article. I am a HUGE fan of your husband’s books, and was sorely disappointed that I couldn’t get Percepliquis on my Kindle right away. But I will patiently wait for the January release. I’m currently writing a fantasy book about a parallel universe for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and am excited to get it finished, edited, and ready for e-publication!
We appreciate it very much that your articles are very useful for everyone.
I published my first book a little over a year ago. Kindle never listed it under new publications nor did they use my blurb to say what it was about so sales were almost nil for 6 months. After numerous e-mails they finally put it in the categories I listed and got it in the “published in the last 18 months” slot. I am only averaging 2 sales a month. I can see from one of your writers that the price was good. My editing was not so hot. I am unaccustomed to Word and it would change the format of what I typed. Also a good deal was phonetic dialect–maybe that turned folks off. But I have always done well in writing in school–I’m quite old now–and figured I could cash in on the Evanovitch popularity. It’s her category but nothing like a rip off. I feel snowed because of the volume I’m up against. To me it is a miracle anyone bought it at all. Any thoughts on that?
It’s called Brooklyn Ring Toss just so you know I actually have a book out there.
The other feature Kindle has gifted me with is to put free selections under the slot for my $2.99 book as “those who liked this also bought”. The latest is to put books that are five stars (courtesy of bookworm) under my book which no one bothered to rate at all. I feel I’m being Japped by the Kindle people. Has this happened to any of you?
Wow, thanks for posting those charts. That is amazing. You have to wonder as all of the authors stuck in those legacy contracts see these kinds of numbers and are immediately checking their contracts about how to get out.
Jim Kukral
http://www.digitalbooklaunch.com
To anyone with knowledge of the following, I am very green. I would like to know in what order to accomplish getting published and a suggestion of a legitimate publisher, retaining an agent and what I would expect to pay and the finer points of marketing and the name of a legitimate party and what I would expect to pay. I thank you for any information you might provide. Jean
I’m finally getting around to re-blogging this heartening post! Thanks so much for writing it.
Thanks for posting helpful and useful info relating to e-book publishing. As a relative newbie I like to surf the web for any related sites and reviews about the process and I will definitely be bookmarking this for reference and updates! I’m also trying to discover more ways to promote my new Amazon Kindle e-book Garters, Gunslingers, & Grace, and I will for sure check out the methods you recommend above!
Hey there just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The text in your article seem to be running off the screen in Ie. I’m not sure if this is a format issue or something to do with internet browser compatibility but I thought I’d post to let you know. The layout look great though! Hope you get the issue resolved soon. Cheers
I believe that just like movies and actors, there are writers who can be termed sleepers. They don’t necessarily make a big splash right out of the starting gate, but they achieve longevity through positive word of mouth and perseverence. John Konrath actually said in his blog that mid-listers are the real story. Most writers, the true lovers of the craft, just want to earn a living doing what they love. Thanks to the low overhead cost of publishing ebooks and social media, it’s an achievable dream if we accept that it’s going to take time.