Authors of the digital age

After taking notes from America’s digital equivalent of J.K.Rowling, Bournemouth author Michelle Dry reckons she has what it takes to succeed as a successful online author.

Amanda Hocking: Digital Millionaire

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

26-year-old US author Amanda Hocking is a self-made millionaire. After being rejected by publishers all over New York, Hocking decided to use the web to sell her books online. She uses Amazon, Smashwords and iTunes where her Indie-fiction ‘supernatural teen romance’  books are selling in on an average at 100,000 copies a month for as little as $2.99 and $0.99.

Regular authors normally earn 10% of the revenue generated from their books because a lot of money is lost between the final edit and hitting the racks in bookstores. This money is lost to the literary agent, literary editor, publisher, shelf-space, printing, marketing, sales, inventory, etc. However, publishing books in the digital sphere cuts those costs tremendously. Hocking self-edits her work and gets to keep 70% of her revenue. She does her own promotion and marketing via her blog and her social media accounts.

She is estimated to be earning $2million a year from the sale of her books. Having released 10 titles in the span of two years, she has already caught the attenion of Hollywood film-makers with her Trylle Trilogy.

Michelle Dry: Digital Dreams

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bournemouth author Michelle Dry is a business analyst who researches market trends as part of her full-time job. She has worked at Borders and Waterstones and has done loads of research on how people consume books in the digital age. With two books out, she reckons she has cracked the formula for digital publishing success, taking some tips from Hocking.

‘If you want to achieve digital success, you emulate something that has been done successfully previously. In this case Hocking has embraced the digital era,’ says Dry, who, like Hocking, has armed herself with her blog and social media accounts for getting the word out.

She credits Hocking for tapping into a genre that is still a hit with teenagers because of the success of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series. ‘Her (Hocking’s) books are on vampires, fairies, trolls, the current current trend is Twilight; there is a standard desire and supply and demand. People look for something similar.’

‘Time and place is paramount,’ says Dry who also attributes that Hocking had credible work ready at just the right time to tap into reader’s tastes and budgets. ‘She had five titles which she posted on Smashwords, iPad and Kindle for a price cheap enough for people to purchase on a whim.’

Dry has released two books simultaneously: ‘Retina Blue‘ under adult fiction and ‘Goylegate‘  under children’s fiction. ‘Retina Blue’ is priced at £10 for a physical copy whereas the digital copy costs under £3. She has deliberately released two books simultaneously to find out how purchasing works differently for adults and children.

‘Younger people don’t go out to play; they go on Facebook, they go look at recos, all of this is how we’re progressing. We’e not quite so sociable today. Sociability comes through digitization,’ says Dry whose sales are picking up as more and more people get to know of her work.

Earlier this year, the Guardian reported on how ebooks have become the best-selling category in American publishing for the first time. Dry is just back from New York where she has seen everyone on their iPads, Kindles, Playbooks and mobile phones. She says the US sets technology trends which the rest of the world then follow, so she is aiming to strike while the iron is hot.