This self-published author makes US$ 2 million a year

Be acquainted with the name Amanda Hocking. She may not look the part, but she is one of the most successful self-published, indie authors in recent history, and a role model for hordes of aspiring writers.

Amanda is the author of several e-books specializing in ‘paranormal romance’ – in other words, the genre made popular by the Twilight saga. Her choice of genre, with the aid of new publishing technology such as the Amazon Kindle, has made her rich beyond her wildest dreams. Last year she made a whopping US$2 million from her e-book sales… that’s a 6-figure salary per month! More than 90 per cent of traditionally-published authors will not make that much.

Here’s a snippet of a TV interview with her:

With the recent surge of publicity around her success, naysayers on the Internet have also hit at her from many angles, heckling her on her choice of genre, apparent luck, and even her weight. But I say there are some important lessons we can learn from Amanda’s success.

1. New technology modifies the publishing game

Ten years ago I saw first-hand how the traditional publishing model was clumsy and efficient. That was why I self-published the book versions of Anima: Age of the Robots and later its webcomic version. Like today’s self-published writers, I wanted to ‘cut out the middlemen’ – the publishers, distributors and retailers. But writers are beginning to find success doing that only now, when e-book readers such as the Kindle and iPad have made this much easier.

Will this eliminate traditional publishers? Of course not. But it gives indie writers a chance to promote their work to the world, bypassing ‘gatekeepers’ such as publishers and distributors. And let’s not forget, it’s the big publishers who have the resources to put out hundreds of new e-books, authored by the most famous authors. So e-books can dominate the market 5 years from now, but many of the titles may still be from the same big names.

2. It simply PAYS to pander to the market

I have been a long-time opponent of this method for creating new stories… which probably explains why I haven’t seen my first million dollars! But this is the method used by the big Hollywood studios and big publishers. If ‘paranormal romance’ is in, they’ll saturate the market with new romance novels featuring every paranormal creature imaginable – vampires, werewolves, zombies, spirits, fallen angels etc. Sadly, it works very well.

And this explains Amanda’s success. She’s a big fan of the genre and has learned to write interesting stories on it. She published her work when the world was looking for new stories after Twilight, and captured the market at the right time. In a world without Twilight, she might have remained an unknown.

3. Traditional publishers don’t know jack shit on what story  sells

This isn’t the first time I have made a similar comment. In the TV interview shown above, Amanda was said to have approached many publishers, and like 99 per cent of queries, gotten rejected. But once word of her success reached these same publishers, they scrambled for a piece of her pie.

In a mad week-long auction that involved major publishers such as Random House, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins, Amanda sold the rights to her next series for a cool US$2 million. The winner was St. Martin’s Press, a subsidiary of Macmillan. Obviously, they were pleased to have secured her title, and gushed about how important it was for them to manage such a great series.

What a contrast to the normal query process by prospective authors, who must jostle in hordes for publishers’ attention.

Anyway, here’s the link to Amanda Hocking’s blog. There you can read about she is ‘surprised’ by her success and how hard she works to get her romance stories out.