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The Very Rich Indie Writer (2011)

novelr.com

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Re: The Very Rich Indie Writer (2011)

#21

Post by Vinnl »

yesenadam wrote: post #9
GuiA wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Authors are now essentially internet marketers who also happen to write books. For better (anyone can get started from their bedroom with just a laptop and an internet connection) and worse (less time spent on actual writing, likely no correlation between being a good marketer and a good artist), isn’t that true of all creative endeavors nowadays?

Absolutely not! What an appalling and ridiculous thing to say. Even just to say it of writers. Let alone "all creative endeavors" (Maybe you didn't mean to cast such a wide net there. Maybe you just meant to include...the people who market themselves on the internet.) That word 'essentially' is vague to the point of unfalsifiability - whatever I could say against that, you could say, "Yeah, but essentially .." - the…

Are you not saying a similar thing? Those are the top of whatever charts are simply good marketers who happen to create whatever media the chart is about.

I think you're primarily appalled at the user of the word "authors" to only refer to those people. Which I can understand, but in the context of the point being made I'd argue that's mostly just semantics.

Re: The Very Rich Indie Writer (2011)

#22

Post by amelius »

I would have believed it if she sold her books in her own webstore.

But now I think it could just as well be a way for Amazon to trick more people into contributing to their platform, of course until they find out that they can hardly make a living that way.

Re: The Very Rich Indie Writer (2011)

#23

Post by yesenadam »

Vinnl wrote: post #21
yesenadam wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely not! What an appalling and ridiculous thing to say. Even just to say it of writers. Let alone "all creative endeavors" (Maybe you didn't mean to cast such a wide net there. Maybe you just meant to include...the people who market themselves on the internet.) That word 'essentially' is vague to the point of unfalsifiability - whatever I could say against that, you could say, "Yeah, but essentially .." - the…

Are you not saying a similar thing? Those are the top of whatever charts are simply good marketers who happen to create whatever media the chart is about. I think you're primarily appalled at the user of the word "authors" to only refer to those people. Which I can understand, but in the context of the point being made I'd argue that's mostly just semantics.

Sorry for not being clearer, I was just responding to the parent and GP saying "Authors are now essentially internet marketers who also happen to write books."

I'm appalled at the use of the word 'authors' to only refer to those people? um. I didn't realize anyone used 'authors' only meaning that, so, no, it wasn't that. Or maybe I don't know what they were talking about, who knows.

Re: The Very Rich Indie Writer (2011)

#24

Post by davidgerard »

proee wrote: post #3

How has the market changed since 2011? Is there a current list of top trending authors with a way to calculate revenue? Is kindle still a strong ebook platform to publish on?

Kindle is the platform where people pay money for books. There's lots of ebook stores, but Kindle is where the buyers are.

Re: The Very Rich Indie Writer (2011)

#25

Post by evangow »

jimmywanger wrote: post #10

The article was written and published a while ago. I've heard stories that the ebook goldrush has ended. Does anybody have firsthand knowledge? I know that romance novels always do well generally, or I've read that. Thoughts?

You could probably say that the "goldrush" has ended. To keep the metaphor going, this is like saying you can't just walk into a river, pan for gold, and make it rich anymore. Now, it takes serious a serious amount of time and investment to do well in the self-publishing world. Is there money to be made? Heck yes! But now, it's also more costly to get it.

Re: The Very Rich Indie Writer (2011)

#26

Post by SyneRyder »

yesenadam wrote: post #20
TeMPOraL wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. I'd even say creatives are late to the party. Almost all products and services are now driven by marketing, which has little correlation with quality.

At the risk of being downvoted again (and I don't know why; they didn't say. Maybe for finding something appalling and saying so?), I didn't understand any of those 3 sentences. (1. What do you disagree with? 2. Not sure what that means. It seems more to support what I was saying. ...They're not internet marketers but should be, should realize their 'essential' selves? 3. 'Almost all products and services' is again a…

> Who else would describe everything turning to internet marketing as a party

I think you've misunderstood - "late to the party" is a common English phrase, where late is the more important word, not so much party. Imagine arriving when everyone else has already gone home. The meaning here is that promoting your work online was profitable a decade ago, but authors & musicians are only discovering that now, when it has stopped being profitable.

People here agree with you - we want quality music and quality art! But we also need to hear about it & be inspired enough to even try listening to it. A musician or author has to learn "marketing" to be able to build an audience (unless they just want to make music for themselves, and that's fine too).

Don't think of it as "marketing", think of it as trying to find & make 1,000 friends. A lot of the music I buy is because the singer is actually a friend or someone I could email with a question. Marketing can also be writing about how you make your music, or being creative in how you distribute it (like Nine Inch Nails mailing their CDs out in bags of dirt that were stuck in customs, that gets people talking about it).

All people are saying here is that writing is important (it's the product being sold!), but if a writer wants to be profitable, finding an audience who will buy it now takes much more work & effort & time than the writing itself. And that's why authors are now marketers first, writers second. A bad song that people have heard about is more likely to get bought than an excellent song no one has heard.

(And for what it's worth, it's the same for indie software developers - I only spend a small part of my time making the software, most of my time is spent on customer support & talking to customers, accounting & tax compliance, administration and marketing.)

Re: The Very Rich Indie Writer (2011)

#27

Post by jimmywanger »

evangow wrote: post #25
jimmywanger wrote: post #10

The article was written and published a while ago. I've heard stories that the ebook goldrush has ended. Does anybody have firsthand knowledge? I know that romance novels always do well generally, or I've read that. Thoughts?

You could probably say that the "goldrush" has ended. To keep the metaphor going, this is like saying you can't just walk into a river, pan for gold, and make it rich anymore. Now, it takes serious a serious amount of time and investment to do well in the self-publishing world. Is there money to be made? Heck yes! But now, it's also more costly to get it.

> Now, it takes serious a serious amount of time and investment to do well in the self-publishing world.

Well, that's what I was curious about. Has the investment/profit ration gone way up? If so, that sucks for Amazon ebook publishers.

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