Friday 10 June 2016

Three cheers for the Author earnings team.


Find them here, Indies and rejoice.
http://authorearnings.com/report/may-2016-report/

This  time they:
...went deeper. Instead of just looking at Amazon’s bestseller lists, we had our spider follow links to also-bought recommendations and also through each authors’ full catalog. This resulted in a million-title dataset, our most comprehensive and definitive look yet at author earnings. We were able to tally up precisely how many indie authors, Big Five authors, small/medium press authors, and Amazon-imprint authors are currently making enough from Amazon.com sales to land in a number of “tax brackets”.

And do read the article and check the figures. It seems that Indie author ebook sales are still climbing, and the big five publishers sales are declining.

Could that be the crazy price they set on their ebooks?

What is most cheering is that:

Fewer than 700 Big Five authors and fewer than 500 small-or-medium publisher authors who debuted in the last 10 years are now earning $25,000 a year or more on Amazon — from all of their hardcover, paperback, audio and ebook editions combined. By contrast, over 1,600 indie authors are currently earning that much or more.
The gap becomes even more pronounced when we look at those authors who first debuted in the last five years, or during the “ebook era.” And when we look at just the most recent debuts from each publishing path, only 250 Big Five authors and 200 recent small or medium publisher authors who debuted in the last three years are earning a midlist-or-better income from their Amazon sales.
By contrast, there are over 1,000 indie authors who debuted in the last 3 years who are doing so.
We see the same dichotomy play out in the $50,000/year “tax bracket”, which tallies up authors earning what would be a living wage in most parts of the US:

It might be hard work, Indies, but we are better off as Indies.

Monday 6 June 2016

Review of 'Down Among the Dead Men'

Down Among the Dead Men (Peter Diamond Mystery)Down Among the Dead Men by Peter Lovesey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Peter Lovesey has been writing good crime novels for many years, and they are good. He has some seriously prestigious awards for them.

'Down Among the Dead Men' is a British police procedural about one of his popular detectives, Peter Diamond. This time Diamond has to play spy in a neighbouring police force, checking on the claims of wrongful imprisonment and suppression of evidence. He does not want to do this but his commanding officer, Georgina Dallymore, has ordered him to accompany her on the job. Peter is even more reluctant when it seems that an old colleague and friend is the officer under investigation.

There's a nice brisk plot with lots of twists and turns, some interesting characters, and subplots which all tie in neatly at the end. It's a good read, not grim and gritty, but witty and clever. An excellent read for all those who like police procedurals and an excellent book for those who are new to the genre and want to see what a really good writer can do in the genre.



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