Why the Amanda Hocking Story is the Worst Thing ...

[MJ DeMarco]

Why the Amanda Hocking Story is the Worst Thing that Could Have Happened to the Epub Business ...

Why the Amanda Hocking Story Is the Worst Thing That Could Have Happened to the EPub Business | Fastlane Entrepreneurs

A great Fastlane story of EPIC PROPORTIONS ... but a prime invitation for the Commandment of Entry to be raped. Look out ... here comes the money chasers!

Topics: Commandment of Entry

As always, if you like, please retweet, share, email! Thanks

 

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[oddball]

Kinda seems like a lot of things though. A market is discovered, people make a lot of money from it but then others find out and it gets flooded. Now with the internet and the speed of connections, it happens a lot faster.

 

[MikeC]

Reminds me of when everyone caught onto niche internet sites, or "google-snipers."

I got on the a$$-end of that and made about $10 in six months. Too bad I didn't have The Millionaire Fastlane .

 

[InMotion]

Great post MJ, as you pointed out in your book under "The warning signs of everyone". I personally have seen this in other industries and it also happened to a relative of mine, who made millions in construction; when the word got out that big money was to be made in his market niche, boom competition and market noise up the wazoo; it really hurt the business.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I'd like to also clarify, at the intent at keeping the video less than 5 minutes, I think EPUB is great for the publishing business ... just that the story will cause a lot of entrants that have no business being there.

 

[Gymjunkie]

Same is happening in music industry now.. music record business model is in incredible trouble but music thrives since there is so much choice.. what I think is that the role of gatekeepers will only increase, applying it to music the radio and its role is decreasing now but once market is oversaturated people will start looking for great filters and then the new gatekeepers will have huge power, probably more concentrated then ever. Also could service providers will be huge huge winners since they will control everything..

May not necessary happen in publishing since I dont know the biz though..

 

[Anon3587x]

I'm already working on a book.

 

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[rico]

Great video MJ.

This is another fantastic article. It's VERY long but worth spending a few minutes to read. Basically about an author who turned down $500,000 advance to self publish.

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Ebooks and Self-Publishing - A Dialog Between Authors Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath

Secondly, I wonder how much of Amanda's success was attributed to the proportionally small marketplace compared to say walking into a book store. Was her book regularly featured on the homepage of Kindle etc? Or at least in her genre? I completely agree with you that this will mean a flood of new titles into the Kindle market and it'll become harder and harder to be seem as the best.

I have huge admiration for her success; would just like to understand it more.

I know a few guys who have had great success with iOS apps. Like Momento - diary writing for iPhone and iPod touch for instance (great app by the way!). Their traffic sky rocketed when they were featured on the Apple recommended list for instance.

It would be interesting to see a graph of Amazon publicity vs her book sales on a day by day basis. Purely to understand the marketing side of her. If I go to Amazon now, her Switched book is on the Kindle eBook homepage under "young adult", was this the case before her fame?

It'll end up going back to normal marketing methods. So the people like you MJ who build up a community, publish regular videos and blogposts in your genre, will be the ones who succeed.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Amanda responds to all the publicity ... and by God, she talks about the process that NO ONE talks about.

Amanda Hocking's Blog: Some Things That Need to Be Said

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.

In fact, more people will sell less than 100 copies of their books self-publishing than will sell 10,000 books. I don't mean that to be mean, and just because a book doesn't sell well doesn't mean it's a bad book. It's just the nature of the business.

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).

 

[Graves]

What's the best way to profit in an overcrowded market ? Let's say your writing is as good as Amanda Hocking's. How do you get noticed with all those droolers tarnishing the reputation of kindle books ? Do you just wait for the market to recognize your talent ? How do you differentiate yourself when you're writing books ?

 

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