Money quote from Joe Konrath. Check out the whole post -- but this is the section where he dismantles the ebook market as a magical cure-all
Q: Now that Kindle is adopting the agency model with a 70% royalty, and Apple is opening an iBook store, shouldn't I get in on this now before the market is flooded with shit?
A: Maybe. If you have an out of print backlist. If you have an agent with books she hasn't been able to sell. If you're a published author with some shelf novels. Then yes, you should get on Kindle and iPad and Nook and Sony and everyplace else that comes up.
But if you're a newbie author who hasn't even finished your first novel yet and is already designing the cover art, perhaps you need to slow down a bit.
I'm not out to crush anyone's dreams here. But writing a good book is hard to do, and not everyone can do it. There's a learning curve. We're all eager to get read. We all want to get published. But before you let the hard-to-please masses read your work, you really have to make sure it's good enough. Readers don't care about you, or your dreams, or how hard you worked on a book. They want to be entertained. Period. If they buy your book and don't like it, they'll let you and others know.
You wouldn't buy your first saxaphone, practice for a month, then go audition for the Boston Pops. You'd spend a long time practicing and learning before you were good enough.
One one hand, authors being able to instantly reach readers without any gatekeepers is a fabulous thing.
On the other hand, too many authors may jump into this too quickly, without mastering their storytelling skills.
I know this for a fact. I've judged self-published book contests. It was awful.
If you really want my ebook sales, here's the only path I know to duplicate them.
1. Write 9 unpublished novels and get over 500 rejections.
2. Sign a six figure print deal.
3. Mail out 7000 letters to libraries, visit 1200 bookstores, and travel to 39 states speaking at writing conferences, conventions, and book fairs.
4. Write a blog that gets half a million hits per year.
5. Sign six more book deals.
6. Get one of your big print publishers to release an ebook for free.
7. Study the market so hard your spouse thinks you're crazy, then take your early rejected books, make sure they're perfect, and upload them to Kindle along with several short story collections and collaborations.
8. Cross your fingers.
That's the journey I took to get here. Your journey will be different. But no matter your path to success, I urge you not to cut corners. There is no shortcut to selling a lot of books, because books sell one at a time. Learn your craft, learn the business, work hard, try your best. That's the secret.
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