Success Story: Amanda Hocking

JayKim · Mar 1, 2011

The Very Rich Indie Writer – Novelr - Making People Read

FEBRUARY 27, 2011 – 2:24 AM

The Very Rich Indie Writer

Meet Amanda Hocking. She’s been in the news for quite a bit now, and I’ve been meaning to write about her since January (or really, to write about the phenomenon she represents – and what it means for web fiction). But if you don’t already know of her, allow me:

Amanda Hocking is 26* years old. She has 9 self-published books to her name, and sells 100,000+ copies of those ebooks per month. She has never been traditionally published. This is her blog. And it’s no stretch to say – at $3 per book1/70% per sale for the Kindle store – that she makes a lot of money from her monthly book sales. (Perhaps more importantly: a publisher on the private Reading2.0 mailing list has said, to effect: there is no traditional publisher in the world right now that can offer Amanda Hocking terms that are better than what she’s currently getting, right now on the Kindle store, all on her own.)

And that is stunning news.

http://amandahocking.blogspot.com/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tonya-plank/meet-mega-bestselling-ind_b_804685.html

[video=youtube;1qWOy4p4MvM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qWOy4p4MvM[/video]

maximus20895 · Mar 1, 2011

Awesome.

Here is one thing she said on her blog:

I first published two books in April 15, 2010. Since then, I've sold over 900,000 copies of over nine different books.

MJ DeMarco · Mar 1, 2011

Must read for Fastlaners! Out of the box thinking! No publisher! Access to distribution! (Kindle) Scale! (not magnitude)

I might have to write an article about this!

maximus20895 · Mar 1, 2011

Please do. I like seeing new articles on Fastlane Entrepreneurs | Entrepreneurs Engaged in a Fastlane Business Strategy as well as new videos.

I also read the magnitude vs scale chapter for the second or third time last night.

MikeC · Mar 1, 2011

This is awesome. I can draw a few parallels from this to the music industry, where I would like to do something similar with music.

Before the widespread use of the internet, both authors and musicians relied on massive record labels and publishing companies to get their product out to the masses. However, now that there are so many ways to get your product to millions of people (e-books, .mp3's, etc), people are finding that they can make MUCH more money without the bigger company.

Good news for the little guys, bad news for the major companies. That is, if they refuse to adapt to the new changes, and continue to lose money by using the old methods. Thanks for the post.

MJ DeMarco · Mar 1, 2011

Here is the article I wrote about this, pushed thru the Fastlane prism...

3 Ways to Leverage Technological Disruption To Ignite Your Dreams to Reality | Fastlane Entrepreneurs

RyanG · Mar 1, 2011

Great post man! Thanks

I recently got a Kindle and instantly I saw the potential it has for the future. It will do to books what iPods did to CDs.

The whole industry is going to be turned upside down, and I think were going to be seeing a lot more quality, well written novels getting more success.

maximus20895 · Mar 1, 2011

^I think that's true. The e-books have made it so there is a less barrier of entry so people don't have to get a publishing company in order to get their word out.

lightning · Mar 2, 2011

This story (and MJ's follow-up thread) really lit a fire under my asss last night...it kept me up till almost 1AM and I havent been able to stop thinking about it since. Talk about a low-entry way to merge into the fastlane! If you have some writing talent (or just have something interesting to write about and know someone who DOES have writing talent), there is NO excuse for not getting started here. I just read up on the process to get started with Amazon Kindle book sales, and it is a no-brainer. This is something one can get started doing immediatly. You just gotta want it bad enough to take action...

alankong · Mar 2, 2011

If one writes an ebook on something, would you guys agree that the best way to distribute it is through Kindle because it gets out to the masses very quickly? What about writing an ebook and putting it on Kindle AND Clickbank? That way affilaites can get the job done for you. I think with that, the "hardest" part would be to have a website that has very good marketing attributes to it. There are tons of sites that sell an individual's own ebooks now that sell through clickbank, is that a hard market to get into?

And I agree with lightning, that entry lit up a fire under my a$$ too. Time to start e-book writing and hustling

Vagabond 007 · Mar 4, 2011

alankong said:
If one writes an ebook on something, would you guys agree that the best way to distribute it is through Kindle because it gets out to the masses very quickly? What about writing an ebook and putting it on Kindle AND Clickbank? That way affilaites can get the job done for you. I think with that, the "hardest" part would be to have a website that has very good marketing attributes to it. There are tons of sites that sell an individual's own ebooks now that sell through clickbank, is that a hard market to get into?

The thing with getting affiliates is that you have to have numbers to show them. They don't want to promote something that doesn't convert. That's a fast way to piss affiliates off...have them pay money to send traffic to your site and it doesn't convert.

So if you want to attract affiliates, you have to have good stuff. You can't just create an ebook and expect to have a ton of affiliates pushing it just because you put it on CB.

Nicola · Mar 5, 2011

There are also vastly different price expectations on Kindle and Clickbank.

People will be reluctant to buy a book on Kindle for $47, but on clickbank you are unlikley to get affiliates at a price point much below that.

alankong · Mar 5, 2011

Thank you to the both of you for those follow up comments, I really appreciate it!

How would the two of you (Nicola & Vagabond) go about it then? I was going to write an e-book and put it on Kindle and Clickbank but definitely won't be doing that now. Like how do you determine what to write for Kindle versus Clickbank?

Just from my educated guess, I would say the e-book for the Kindles would be primarily more of a one time, read this book kind of deal, that's why it's priced much lower. Then for e-books to be used towards Clickbank/affiliates, they're more of a program type of deal.

I appreciate any help my friends

Need to get roarin' on this fastlane

Thanks!!

Graves · Mar 5, 2011

If you look at the best-selling products on clickbank it's mostly sleazy get-rich-quick $47 ebooks, HOT STOCK TIPS FOR ONLY $1.99 A DAY, and SECRET SPORTS BETTING SYSTEMS

I wonder if you can make an honest living with clickbank. (affiliates are going to pitch what sells best -> crap products)
Kindle is probably a better platform for quality content.

EDIT : WOW, I just got a f huge idea thanks to this thread. Time to get to work
By the way, about Amanda Hocking, one of the things she said that pertains 100% with fastlane philosophy IMO is "I thought this was the finish line, but it's happening right now"

Mano · Apr 30, 2011

Amazing achievement, indeed. Amanda and J A Konrath are my latest inspirations at Amazon Kindle.

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Success Story: Amanda Hocking

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