When JK Rowling first wrote Harry Potter, she couldn’t land a publishing deal. That’s right, the greatest money making book of our time was passed over repeatedly.
However, it was finally accepted…not because an editor actually read it, but because one of them gave the first chapter to his eight-year-old daughter and said, “Here, you read it.”
Not only did she read it, she begged for chapter two. She was hooked!
And so, a billion dollar industry was created.
This got me thinking about modern publishing, which is very much web-driven.
It doesn’t really matter much anymore what traditional publishers think about your book because brick and mortar stores are going away.
Today, it matters what readers think about your book. It’s what moves books to the top of the Amazon best-sellers list.
There’s a relatively new publishing company called Inkitt that I think is taking the right approach.
Inkitt creates a free copy of authors’ books that people can read using their app. If readers like the book, then Inkitt offers the author a publishing contract.
Authors then receive 25% of the book’s sales, which is a very generous contract.
But why would authors use Inkitt when they could just self-publish and keep all the proceeds? The reason is that Inkitt agrees to spend money promoting their authors’ books, and driving them to the top of Amazon’s rankings. Individual authors are usually not able to accomplish that.
This seems like a really good approach for new authors, especially if you are unsure about the details of formatting and self-publishing your book.
To get your book in front of Inkitt’s readers, all you need to do is upload the text to Inkitt’s site. If readers like it, you’ll be offered a publishing contract.
They accept all genres of fiction (but not fan-fiction). You can even submit already published books.
There are a few requirements:
- Your book must be 20,000 words or more.
- It can’t be a collection of stories or poems.
And…that’s it.
So, if you have a book that didn’t do well, or sales have started to dip, submit it to Inkitt and they’ll get it to their readers. You can even tell them to limit the number of free copies they allow their readers to read, just in case you’re worried.
If it works out, then you’ll have the option to sign a contract with them and let their professional marketing team get to work. There is no cost for this service — their revenues come from book sales.
Inkitt already has quite a number of successful authors. You can see some testimonials on their site.
Click here to visit their site and upload your books: