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Best-selling Amazon self-pub author Amanda Hocking clears up misconceptions
March 14, 2011 | 1:50 am
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By Chris Meadows
Amanda Hocking, who I mentioned the other day as an example of a best-selling self-publishing e-book writer, has an interesting and long blog post in which she tries to clear up some misconceptions in the way that Internet media have been covering her story.
She worries that people seem to think she has some kind of a magic bullet—that she’s making money hand over fist for just writing some stuff down. In fact, she explains, there’s actually a lot of hard work involved.
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 is also bemused by seeing people claim that publishers are “terrified” of her, as this new force in self-publishing e-books that somehow demonstrates publishers are no longer necessary. She points out that e-books are only 20% of the market at most, and not all e-books are self-published in any event.
I just don’t understand writers animosity against publishers. So much of what I’ve been reading lately has made me out to be Dorothy taking down the Wicked Witch.
Publishers have done really great things for a really long time. They aren’t some big bad evil entity trying to kill literature or writers. They are companies, trying to make money in a bad economy with a lot of top-heavy business practices.
She notes that even she isn’t sure exactly why her books are so popular—she points to one of her own favorite self-publishing authors who isn’t doing as well as she is—but he’s doing exactly the same sorts of things she does, in the same genre. Nobody knows what makes any given book a bestseller, she explains—because if there was some way for publishers to tell in advance, they’d only publish bestsellers.
And she warns that a lot more people will sell less than 100 self-published e-books than will sell 10,000, let alone a million.
Self-publishing is great, but it’s not easy. Most people who do it will not get rich, just like most authors signed up at [J.K. Rowling’s US publisher] Scholastic books aren’t billionaires. Traditional publishers are not evil any more than Amazon or Barnes & Noble are evil. Things are changing, hopefully for the better, but it is still hard work being a writer.
Words to remember. I suspect that there’s a tendency on many people’s part, including my own, to assume that there’s some sort of magic formula for success: you write something good, then you turn around and sell it on-line. And then, as the South Park joke goes, “PROFIT”. It’s actually kind of refreshing to see that Amanda Hocking is no exception to the truth that behind every bestselling author lies a whole lot of work.
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Yeah, it’s hard work. I think what’s really being addressed here is something that people have seemed to forget. In the past, self publishing was doing it the hard way. Now people are trying to say it’s the easy way. So when someone like Ms. Hocking has some success they want to say she cheated. They imply that the publishers don’t want to deal with cheaters, and that cheaters are winning by simply over saturating the market.
Well, she did for herself what she wouldn’t wait for them to do for her. She worked hard and then harder and then put in more time and energy and then waited, and then ouila, apparently she cheated.
I think that what’s missing from this is that if she had a publisher, the publisher would be doing part of the work she’s doing now, when it comes to advertising, editing etc. which would have let her focus more on writing at this point. They provide functions beyond simply being a gatekeeper.
@Frode — Although what you say is true, it is HERESY. I’m sure you will shortly be put right by commenters.
Hardly heresy.
There *is* room for publishers who add value to the supply chain.
What there is less room for every day is publishers who take the lion’s share of the profits and *don’t* add comparable value. For publishers more interested in deals for “sure-fire bestsellers” than in supporting/promoting their midlist and backlist catalog. For publishers more interested on short-term, share-erroding pricing practices instead of content acquistion. For, as Ms Hocking says, “top-heavy” glass tower publishers.
That is not the entire publishing universe.
And, in fact, given the self-defeating nature of those tactics, the BPHs are ensuring their dominions will continue to errode.
The biggest threat to the BPHs isn’t self publishing; it’s *competent* agile competitors who do their job right.
And I suspect one of those will soon reach a reasonable accomodation with Ms Hocking that does *not* involve them taking 83% of her net.
“I think that what’s missing from this is that if she had a publisher, the publisher would be doing part of the work she’s doing now, when it comes to advertising, editing etc. which would have let her focus more on writing at this point. They provide functions beyond simply being a gatekeeper.”"
NAhhhh not if your not a bestseller. The thousands of midlist authors have to do exactly what she is doing, advertise, blog, twitter, get the word out, AND write if they want their books to sell and their contracts with the traditional publishers to continue.
Apparently so, Richard – Helen seems to certainly have missed where I said “part of the work” for instance.
Amanda’s distaste for marketing and her frustration with time it takes away from her writing suggests there’s a serious need for people good at marketing who’d help authors raise sales, taking a slice of the income without becoming a publisher.
If you are self published check out the wishing shelf awards at http://WWW.thewsa.co.uk.