Kindle millionnaire

If you are not writing about vampires, you are missing out:

http://blogs.forbes.com/kiriblakeley/2011/03/06/who-wants-to-be-a-kindle-millionaire/

Aw Phooey! I don't like vampires. They are creepy.

I think even worse.

Why would a book about them get so much money?

I think some parts are missing to this story.

We all have a destiny. Obviously, hers was wealth.

3/8/2011


I have a book I started several years ago, about a handsome
Serbian Prince who comes to New Mexico looking for fresh
" Blood," I gave up after the first chapter, it got too bloody !

Cheers...Joe

LC wrote:

I think some parts are missing to this story.

It's all pretty straightforward, really. On her blog, Amanda says:

"I want you all to know that I don't think I'm super awesome special or anything like that.

Everybody seems really excited about what I'm doing and how I've been so successful, and from what I've been able to understand, it's because a lot of people think that they can replicate my success and what I've done. And while I do think I will not be the only one to do this - others will be as successful as I've been, some even more so - I don't think it will happen that often."

No it won't. Why not? Because not everyone is prepared to work as hard as Amanda. Oh, Amanda knows how hard she works:

"I don't think people really grasp how much work I do. I think there is this very big misconception that I was like, 'Hey, paranormal is pretty hot right now,' and then I spent a weekend smashing out some words, threw it up online, and woke up the next day with a million dollars in my bank account.

This is literally years of work you're seeing. And hours and hours of work each day. The amount of time and energy I put into marketing is exhausting. I am continuously overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to do that isn't writing a book. I hardly have time to write anymore, which sucks and terrifies me."

She also knows that this kind of success depends on keeping everything going:

"I also have this tremendous sense of urgency, like if I don't get everything out now and do everything now, while the iron is hot, everything I've worked for will just fall away. For the first time, I truly understand why workaholics are workaholics. You can't stop working, because if you do, it unravels all the work you've already done. You have to keep going, or you'll die."

Many aspiring authors think that they will be able to relax and enjoy life once that first best-seller hits the bookstores. Not so. Amanda did the same thing as JK Rowling and is now enjoying the same kind of success. What do I mean by "did the same thing"? She wrote nineteen novels before any of them were published. Then she self-published nine of those novels:

"But I just think everyone should be realistic about this. When J. K. Rowling became the world's first billionaire author, I didn't go, "Ha! I will publish now, now that I see an author can make that much money doing it." (Admittedly, I was trying to get published when that happened, as I had been for the past seven or eight years)."

So, what is the secret of success? Work hard. Be in the right place at the right time. And the secret of continued success? Work hard.

Work hard! Oh! Well I guess it's back to work folks!

There's no substitute for it.

Aw Phooey! Work is a four letter word and so is Play. Add Luck to either occupation and you might make millions.

Luck is a four letter word also Alice!

David,

When you are right, you are sooooooooooooooooooooooo right!

David, Dave is a four letter word. You are destined to be successful.

Abe is a three letter word so your star must be rising.

For a group of aspiring writers here, there is an amazing lack of interest in just how Amanda became successful.

I posted this on LinkedIn (which received the same lack of interest):

I think the number of books is the key to her success. JK Rowling wrote the outline for all seven Harry Potter novels over a five-year period before Bloomsbury accepted the first story. The first print run was for less than 500 copies -- and most of those went into school libraries.

The third Harry Potter took off and set the platform for the next four novels and all the spin-off merchandise and films.

Amanda had a ready supply of novels for readers to rapidly move from one story to the next (perfect for touch-button Internet usres!). I think we are seeing a new paradigm for publishing in the twenty-first century.

The message I get from your video Shelagh is to buckle down and keep on writing.
Maybe her success is creating an opportunity for us all.
It seems from observing my daughters who are all into books and swap with each other that they seek out other titles from authors they just read.
So as you say it is having more of your work available that is the key.

Yes, David, it is key. One book does not create the same buzz. Amanda has succeeded in less than a year in doing what JK Rowling did over a number of years. The Internet can do that.

Another key element in Amanda's succes story is her Twitter account. She didn't just upload her books to Smashwords and then sit back. She sought out her readers who, in turn, became her followers.

The easiest way to do this still takes a great deal of time. How do you do it? You find a bestselling author in your genre on Twitter and start following all the thousands of fans of that particular author. Some of those fans will follow back. They will see that you have ebooks online and check them out. Tweets about your books have to be interspersed with tweets that will interest your followers (and retweets of who is hot online at the time -- I noticed that Amanda was retweeting Charlie Sheen!).

There is more hard work than luck in success.

Tweeting is another key, I'm sure cast iron determination is the driving force.
It is a lot of work nothing comes easy eh?

Publishers in the old school of writing also favored and still favor authors who are prolific.

Well, good for her, seriously. Glad to see a success story in the self-publishing arena that isn't Doctorow or Konrath, those two examples get old. I still see it as a flash in the pan, but maybe I'm wrong and lots of self-published authors will follow her example.