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Thoughts on books, publicity, and the media from our Cave Henricks staff.

This week in publishing…

In defiance of Friday the 13th gloom and doom, a roundup of some of the week’s most positive and surprising publishing news:

Thriller/horror writer J.A. Konrath is trumpeting on his blog that he has earned $100,000 in three weeks selling his self-published THE LIST on Amazon.  Having been turned down by editors at St. Martin’s, Doubleday, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and more (an experience he recounts in bitter detail here), he is now triumphant in his $3500/day earnings–his daily average in January–and celebrating what it possibly means for future author freedom from traditional publishing.  (First-time authors, don’t try this at home!)

The Amazon Kindle Lending Library is bringing the authors of the books it lends 449% royalty growth.  Authors opting to give Amazon exclusive rights electronically must be quite delighted with their decision.  Apparently, the top ten authors in KDP Select (the program that feeds digital book titles into its Kindle Owners’ Lending Library) earned more than $70,000 collectively in the month of December for their participation in the library.

Mystery writer Carolyn McCray quadrupled her royalties to $8,250 in December and “couldn’t be happier with the tools, support and exposure,” she told GalleyCat.

Nancy Pearl, the Seattle-based Librarian behind the NPR book recommendation series “Book Lust” will, in a deal with Amazon Publishing, be re-issuing select out-of-print books in her Book Lust Rediscoveries series.  Which books on life support, published between 1960 and 2000, will she choose?  With her eye for literature, they are certain to be worthy of the high-profile resuscitation.

 

E-reader ownership could as much as double over the next year, according to Jack McKeown of Verso Digital, who will present original consumer marketing data at the Digital Book World Conference in New York later this month.  Though digital sales are growing significantly faster, digital and print sales are both up, he notes.  Perhaps most interesting, he will discuss how e-reader owners continue to buy equal numbers of e-books and print books, pointing to a future where print and digital formats co-exist and supplement one another (perhaps as bundled packages).

Can you imagine a world where you read your novel on the morning train using your lightweight, ultra-portable ereader, then cuddle up to your cozy hardcover at night?  I am ready!  I have been ready all of my life!