Indie or not?

THE EAGLE’S COVENANT is now available in paperback in Europe only. I ordered a copy for my son, Terry because he designed the book jacket. I always send him the books he’s designed so he can scrutinise the results. I have also ordered some copies for myself and will no doubt buy more at some future date. I can’t release this book in America because Harlequin Books have the English language rights over there, and will be releasing the book in November this year. This means that all my books, eight in all, are now available on-line and in paperback. Now I have to concentrate on promotion and marketing for a while. Anyone know a shortcut to success? Let me know if you do.

There has been a lot of talk on the web for some time now about the conflict between self-publishing and mainstream. No doubt the big five (or is it six?) will not be too worried. I can’t see the threat of indie publishing making a hole in the main industry, but what I do see is the huge increase in digital sales, which will force the giants to get thoroughly involved. And once they do that, they will try to dominate the market again, by hook or by crook. But the advantage that the indie writers have is price. As an example, the rights to my eBook, THE BOY FROM BERLIN belong to my publisher. The price is currently around $9. It is languishing at about 1,000,000 in the rankings. This almost certainly means that it isn’t selling. Even Dan Brown would have trouble selling an eBook at that price. My eBooks are priced at $2.99 and from time to time I drop the price or have given them away free. It’s about flexibility and trying to gauge the right time to promote with a price change. I have an author friend who managed to free herself from her publisher’s contract and is now selling about 1000 eBooks per month: something her publisher was never able to match. So for indie writers, their future is in their own hands, and if they are happy to build a readership gradually, and by that increase their sales, they will never need to consider mainstream publishing.