J.A. “Joe” Konrath is no stranger to the citizens of Kindle Nation, whether he is writing under his real name or his “Jack Kilborn” nom de plume. He was one of the first authors to be featured in our Free Kindle Nation Shorts program with his short story “The Screaming” in May 2009, he has been a frequent occupant of the highest rungs of the Kindle Store’s bestseller lists, and he made big publishing news just a few weeks ago with the announcement that his forthcoming novel Shaken
, the 7th title in his bestselling Jack Daniels series, will be published by AmazonEncore as a Kindle edition in Octobe
r and a paperback in February
. He has sold over 50,000 Kindle books, and he has a huge following among Kindle Nation readers.
, the 7th title in his bestselling Jack Daniels series, will be published by AmazonEncore as a Kindle edition in October and a paperback in February. He has sold over 50,000 Kindle books, and he has a huge following among Kindle Nation readers.But today he is breaking some serious new ground for authors, publishers, and readers.
What’s the story?
Konrath is issuing a big fat rejection slip to the traditional publishing industry by pulling back Endurance, a “Jack Kilborn” novel that was headed for traditional publication, and publishing it directly and exclusively as a Kindle book at a price, at least for now, of $2.99.
It’s on my Kindle, and it is available to download wirelessly to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, PC, or Mac with a click of this link.
There will be another Konrath exclusive coming out later this week — Trapped, which had been accepted for traditional publication before Konrath pulled it back to publish it directly and exclusively himself — and we’ll be sure to issue a reminder here. In addition to being a terrific and versatile author of thrillers, horror tales, and police procedurals, Konrath’s blog about publishing and writing is a must-read for anyone in the book trades, and you can keep up with it at A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing blog, or read Konrath’s similarly titled ebook, The Newbie’s Guide to Publishing (Everything A Writer Needs To Know)
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Not every author who decides to circumvent the traditional publishers is going to experience anything close to Konrath’s success. But if you’re an author who is wondering whether direct publishing on the Kindle platform might work for you, here are a few things to consider:
- If you publish a paperback novel with a traditional publisher, your royalties will be somewhere in the range of 60 cents to $1.50 per copy sold, based on the standard contract royalty rates of 6 to 10 percent and a retail priced between $10 and $15.
- If you publish a Kindle ebook priced at $2.99 anytime after next week, your royalty will range between $2 and $2.07 based on a 70 percent royalty rate less a small charge for electronic transmission. At a price of $5.99, your royalty would be over $4.10.
- How much marketing power would you expect a traditional publisher to throw behind your book, if any? How much could you offset that force with your own marketing efforts and a much lower price?
- How much would you be limiting your market by publishing on the Kindle platform. Or, to put the same question another way, how many of your likely readers are without any of the following Kindle-compatible devices: Kindle, PC, Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, or iPad.
