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Saturday, February 14, 2015

INDIES HAVE HIT A BRICK WALL


 

The gravy train of exponential sales growth is over.

Indies have hit a brick wall 

and are scrambling to make sense of it.  

It's rather simple really: there are too many of us.

And too many of us turn out shoddy product.


If I see one more bare chest on a cover, I think I will start baying at the moon.

Sales at Amazon dropped significantly since last July after Amazon launched their ebook subscription service, Kindle Unlimited.

 For $9.99 per month, 

Kindle Unlimited offers readers unlimited access to over 700,000 books -- 


most of which are supplied by indie authors.

Amazon's power reader customers now have 700,000 fewer reasons to purchase individual books.


Many authors are considering quitting. 

 Sad to hear.  Living in Hurricane Country, I know that sometimes you just have to ride out the storm.

You have to consider the enormous ocean of high-quality, low cost eBooks out there.  


We are getting lost in numbers.

How many people are reading anymore anyway? 

For every 161 people who landed on this page, about 61 of you—38 percent—are already gone. 

This is a new world of Netflix and Hulu and Amazon Instant Video.

But kids don't read anymore because their parents don't read anymore.

Once eReaders were all the rage.  Now they are old hat.  

Most authors cannot break out of the Author Blog ghetto of readers to the larger world of non-author readers.


More and more, we are singing to the choir.

 

1.) You have to take THE LONG VIEW

Six years ago, authors were on the ground floor of an explosion waiting to happen.  Now, it has.

You have to keep producing product, while establishing a platform that entertains and enlarges your audience.


2.) GOOD IS BAD

Just being "good enough" is bad.

You have to stand-out.  Go for extremes.  Shoot for the moon.  Make yourself laugh, cry, and thrill as you write.

"OH, MAN" books makes disciples of your readers who go out and pull in other new readers.


3.) DON'T BOX YOURSELF IN

I know it is tempting to box yourself in with other writers to ensnare new readers.  

But if you are in a box of seven authors, you may end up a book never read.

4.) PIONEER

 

Go down avenues you never considered before.  


ACX still makes it easy to do audiobooks.  

They are a market that has potential for growth.  

Make an audiobook and see what happens.

 

5.) NEVER QUIT

That is the SURE WAY to ensure failure.


6.) ENJOY THE JOURNEY

 


No one is promised a Lotto Win.  

But each day of working towards your dream is made better by laughing with your fellow travelers.



12 comments:

  1. When one part gets easier, another part becomes more difficult. Isn't that the way of life? Your writing rewards the reader, Roland, and you have a gift of merging myth, fantasy and literary threads. Keep at it, as I am keeping at reading TSBAM, albeit in minute spaces of time. McCord is the reason.

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  2. D.G.:
    Life has that contrary way about it all right. :-)

    McCord and I deeply appreciate you reading TSBAM with so much going on in your life. I pray for you and your husband every day,

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  3. The 'gold rush' seems to be over...and not everyone found a wealth of readers....but that's to be expected. There are still those writers late to the once gold-filled hills or those still prospecting, and that's good. Competition encourages improvement, and those that don't quite have what it takes to find other avenues to explore.

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  4. Never give up, never surrender!
    There are so many books out there now. I have a feeling those who can't weather the storm or who weren't really serious will quit. Which will give more room for writers of quality.

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  5. Good advice, Roland -- I live by that Galaxy Quest quote!

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  6. Good post, Roland. Thank you for the gift you sent. Haven't downloaded it yet. But I will.

    Hugs and chocolate!

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  7. Terry:
    When a "gold rush" ends, those who prosper are those who "mine the miners" which is why WRITER'S DIGEST books always do so well.

    Alex:
    That would be nice, but I fear that for every author who quits, two more dreamers will take her or his place, lured by the ease of self-publishing. :-(

    Milo:
    Me, too. :-)

    Shelly:
    Thanks for thinking so. I hope you enjoy the download. I don't know how long those offers stay in effect.

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  8. I love your encouraging words! It is tough. And I had a feeling that's what happened with Amazon - sheesh, I was just starting to do pretty good with my book and then in July, it plummeted and I had a feeling it was that new feature they added. I got about two good months out of it.

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  9. Kimberly:
    Amazon is not our friend nor do they care about the Indie Author. They are a cold business, concerned only with milking added profits for their bottom line.

    I pray your sales start doing better. :-)

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  10. You are so right on this and I don't think it's just writing either.

    The ability to produce anything on ones own or on a small scale is so much easier. Visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers are all experiencing a similar problem. Consumers have so many options available to us that we've become inundated.

    I'm still trying to read books I started accumulating 40 years ago let alone trying to keep up with all the newer stuff that keeps coming. It's difficult for me to find time to read in addition to everything else going on.

    All serious writers can do is keep on producing and hope something catches someone's attention somewhere. Maybe once the writer has a big back catalog built up they might strike a hit and have customer buying up all the old back stock..

    Persistence and innovative thinking is what makes for success and maybe more importantly an ability to survive.

    If anyone ever said success as a writer was easy then they were dealing with anomalous statistics or lack of knowledge.

    Arlee Bird
    A to Z Challenge Co-host
    Tossing It Out

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  11. Arlee:
    I just discovered Michael Connelly due to the Bosch TV series. And before that I discovered Craig Johnson from the Longmire series.

    There is just so much out there, sterling music, movies, and books get lost and often go unappreciated. It is very sad ... and very daunting.

    Audio books now help me "read" books while on the road that I would never have the sit-down time to read.

    As you said: I am trying to produce quality books, accumulating a back catalog that, once someone discovers one of my books, will be sampled one book after another.

    We can only keep on trying, keeping thinking outside standard paths, and just plod on.

    Thank you for such an indepth, well thought-out comment. :-)

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