LOCKE DOWN

So what are we to make of John Locke?

Not the philosopher but the eAuthor.

* 8th member of the KINDLE MILLION SALES CLUB, following Stieg Larsson, James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Charlaine Harris, Lee Child, Suzanne Collins and Michael Connelly

* First self-published author to hit Kindle Million Sales Club

* First self-published author to hit #1 on Amazon/Kindle

* Sold 1,100,000 eBooks in 5 months by word of mouth

* Has had four of the top 10 eBooks on Amazon/Kindle at the same time, including #1 and #2; has also had six of the top 20, and eight of the top 43…at the same time!

* Every eBook John Locke has written and published has become a best-seller.

His latest post on his blog, FATHERS AND DAUGHTERS,

http://www.donovancreed.com/Blog/tabid/105/ID/40/Fathers-and-Daughters.aspx

is a heartfelt, yearning description on his sorrow of seeing his daughter growing up and going to college.

She will never be his little girl again. And yet in his heart, she always will be.

Then, he darts into selling his latest book, BOX, with its cover showing a half-dressed girl the age of his daughter. Its hero, a sociopathic doctor who kills patients of other doctors.

It is a follow up to the first book on said doctor, whose cover had another clothing-challenged girl the age of his daughter.

Locke has written that each of his rare posts are crafted carefully to sell his books. So FATHERS AND DAUGHTERS was written to sell BOX. My ghost cat just coughed up a spectral furball.

He has recently signed a deal with SIMON & SCHUSTER to publish his books under his imprint JOHN LOCKE BOOKS. Yet he is faced with the twin problems of customer recognition and product placement. Then, there are the lack of print reviews.

Locke says,

"There’s a natural bias by reporters and editors that indie books don’t measure up. For another, I’ve been told (unofficially) that if newspapers review one indie book it would open the floodgates.

“Next thing you know, a million indies will call, demanding us to review their books!”

Also, traditional publishers’ ads are a huge source of revenue for print media, and traditional authors are a staple for TV talk show interviews. Where traditional media is concerned, indies and traditional authors are adversaries.

To put it another way, if you’ve got a popular blog, and Coke pays you a million a year to advertise on it, would you post a positive story about a wonderful new Pepsi product?

Locke says of the success of the self-pubbed 50 Shades of Grey,

“We’re still living in a world where self-published books aren’t allowed to be discussed in polite society until the gatekeepers buy the rights.”

"E.L. James has done a fantastic job!

She’s dominating the charts, and will likely break some of the all-time publishing records. My comment refers to the hesitancy of TV and print media to publicize or review indie books.

Ms. James self-published her book in May, 2011, and worked her way up the charts utilizing the indie author’s best friends: social media and word of mouth.

But was she interviewed on TV? Were her books discussed by talk show hosts or reviewed by newspapers and magazines? Not to my knowledge.

But in March, 2012, public awareness of 50 Shades exploded!

Within days you couldn’t turn on the TV or open a newspaper without hearing about E.L. or her books. They were mentioned and discussed on every TV talk show, in every newspaper and magazine you can name.

Six weeks after Random House purchased the rights to her books, E.L. James was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World!

Would all this have happened if 50 Shades had remained an indie book? I like to think so, but my gut tells me no."

What do you think of all this?

For more of John Locke's views, check out IndieReader:

http://indiereader.com/2012/05/john-locke-on-the-big-problem-still-facing-indies/