Many people have heard about the allure of Kindle and the promises of hitting it big as a fledgling writer. After all, Amanda Hocking did it. So, why can't the rest of us, right?
Oh, if only it was that easy! There are many websites out there on the net with promises of making a whopping million dollars by e-publishing your latest undiscovered (although brilliant) novel. Have you seen all of those websites? If not, just do a quick web-search for them. Such articles are in mass quantities on the internet.
In honesty, it isn't as easy as a lot of people try to make it out to be. Amanda Hocking pretty much went from rags to riches through e-publishing her novels, primarily through Kindle. However, she had been writing for years and years and years. She submitted her novels to countless publishers who politely, or not so politely, sent her countless rejection letters in return. Kindle seemed to be her last resort. She wanted her work to be published, so she took it upon herself and made it happen.
For those of you who don't know Amanda Hocking's story, you should really look her up. If memory serves me correctly (sometimes it does) she cleared around 1.5 million dollars her first year of self-publishing on Kindle. She's quite an inspiration for the rest of us still struggling with our work.
It's still possible to make a living as an indie published author. Kindle and other e-book platforms have wonderfully helped to level the playing field, creating opportunities unheard of for writers before the tablet generation of readers.
Don't expect to put up one 100-page "novel" and made $1,500 next month. However, if you are a good writer, and you are able to write several books and build a franchise around your material, then you just might make good money. Kindle isn't a get-rich-quick scheme. It takes work and dedication, just like publishing in other formats. The difference is you will be doing all of your own marketing.
If you are willing to do the work and get your book(s) up on Kindle, use all your social media, friends, phone numbers, etc., to get the word out about your work. Get the word out to family, friends, and tell them to tell others. They will in turn pass the word along if they liked what they read. More success stories on Kindle are still to come. My entire point of this is that it isn't a given. It's a load of work, but worth it.
Personally I adore the idea of e-books. It's very much the new generation of publishing, and it allows unknown writers to get their work out there for the world to read. So, get to writing. Just remember -- writing your book is the first step. Next, get it out there and market! market! market!
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