If you’ve ever wondered if people who start out e-publishing their novels on their own sell enough to get noticed by the big boys, the answer is yes. In Ebook Authors Making Good Money with Amazon Kindle Sales, we’ve already looked at a couple success stories.
Michael J. Sullivan, author of The Riyria Revelations fantasy series is poised to be another one.
As I write this post, he and his wife are still deciding whether to take the offer. It may seem like a no-brainer, but with ebooks taking off these days, giving up one’s rights is a big deal. As an indie author with full control, you currently take home 70% of the earnings on ebooks sold through the Amazon Kindle marketplace. You make a much smaller cut if those same ebooks are being sold through a publisher. Even with a hefty advance on the table, there’s a question of whether an already popular e-author might make more continuing to sell on his own.
It’s an interesting debate (and a problem I’d love to have one day!). You can browse through the Kindleboards thread Stay Indie or Move to Large NY Publisher to see what they’re wrestling with. And, if you’re a fantasy fan with an e-reader, don’t forget to pick up the first book in the series!
