42 Rules

In the article “As E-Book Sales Rise, Apple iPad Bests Amazon Kindle” Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos says “After five years, e-books [are] a multibillion-dollar category for us and growing fast—up approximately 70 percent last year. In contrast, our physical book sales experienced the lowest December growth rate in our 17 years as a book seller, up just five percent.”

This is great news for indie authors who publish only on Kindle but it looks like Amazon.com has to contend with the rapid growth of the iPad.  You can read the entire article here.

Marcia Yudkin has written another good article about book promotion.  Although she is talking about promoting Kindle books her advice can work for print books as well.  You can read the entire article on the Warrior Forum.

Angela Hoy says that about 75% of Americans don’t own an e-reader and some of them never will!  Publishing for Kindle and the Nook is hot, hot, hot but don’t forget that the majority of readers still want to pick up a book and hold it in their hands.  To read Angela’s article click here and while you’re at it subscribe to her free e-zine.

Author Marcia Yudkin has a great article about getting a professional cover for your Kindle book and it has a couple of tips we didn’t know!  You can read it here.

Copyblogger decided to experiment with the KDP Select Program to give away an e-book for a 48 hour period.  At the end of the giveaway, which requires that you stop selling your book elsewhere, Copyblogger discovered numerous benefits from the giveaway including increased sales!  To read about the experiment and the results visit Copyblogger.

Thanks to Kindle and other e-readers Indie writers are finally getting the attention they deserve.  Hot off the presses the “50 Shades of Grey” self published Kindle bestseller  trilogy is now in paperback at your local Target and Walmart and the movie rights have already been sold.  The blog “Self-Publishing Success Stories” has compiled a list of more than 170 authors who have sold more than 50,000 self-published ebooks to date.  These sales figures are meant to inspire other authors but the real message is that traditional publishing houses have become dinosaurs.  Unable or unwilling to change with the times they are being left behind while self published authors sell more than many best sellers back in the day.  To see who is selling what and how many visit Self-Publishing Success Stories.

David Carnoy on CNet wants to know “With some publishers settling their antitrust lawsuit with the government, prices for e-books are expected to come down. But how much of a change will we really see?”  Read the rest of the article here.

I don’t know about you, but I spend a ton of money on e-books.  Practically speaking, I don’t mind at all because I can take an entire library on vacation (which I recently did on our Spring Break to Puerta Vallarta).  But I can’t re-sell them or donate them to the local library like I do my hardback and paperback books.  So there is a trade-off.

What do you think?

Is such a bold claim true?  We at 42Rules don’t know for sure but it does seem like many of our colleagues and friends are toting around the Kindle’s they received for the holidays!  What we do know for sure is that all of the 42Rules books come in a version for Kindle and all of the other e-readers as well.  However, if you want an e-reader to read your 42Rules books and you love the Amazon.com catalog then you should consider a Kindle!