The Amazon eBook Market

Authored By: Samantha Zacharda
Marketing Director & Promotion
Published By: Lot’s Cave

Special Note: Lot’s Cave would like to add a special thank you to Lily Weidner for participating in the Amazon publishing experiment. The transparency required has been quite eye opening and insightful. Please check out Lily Weidner’s followup post as well, found here.

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For the last year stories have abounded regarding authors getting rich with incomes of ten to a hundred thousand per month by writing short stories. Is this possible? How much can I really make?

Ever since Amazon changed their Kindle Unlimited program, authors have been trying to gauge the eBook market. Authors, particularly those writing short stories (3,000-5,000 words) have started to wonder if the market will even support their shorts, or if a shift into longer works is necessary to earn an income. Doing some initial research, I found answers couldn’t have been more conflicting.

Usually when conflicting answers exist, one finds in them a majority opinion. With enough backtracking the answer process becomes clear. In this case however, little data could be found with which to form a starting point. What I found is the entire industry consists conceptually of a clear divide most easily represented by factions we find in the initial Kindle Unlimited program (KU), and what authors have come to call the second Kindle Unlimited (KU2). Desperately wanting some numbers to work with however, I came up with a solution–I did a study of my own. The goal was to achieve $20.00 in profit.

With help from a Lot’s Cave author, I was able to create a test designed to take advantage of Amazon’s large eBook market size. Since Amazon’s KU program had been designed for short stories and the new KU2 program is now desgined for longer works, contrasting income performance between the KU and KU2 programs could simulate what it would be like for a new author specializing in short stories starting out with their first book. As an added byproduct–which is what this is about–I would also learn what authors face when trying to sell their eBooks on Amazon. After spending a couple of days to form the rules of this research project, I came up with the following:

Rules for KU2 Publishing Experiment

1. All stories are to be the minimum 3,000 words
2. eBooks must be enrolled in KU2
3. No additional marketing must take place
4. Stories must have a common kink
5. Prices start at $.99, and then after a week increase to $2.99
6. At minimum, author should publish two books a week (9 titles a month)
7. Titles should include subject matter metatags
8. Covers must fit their target audience’s particular style
9. After completing 9 titles, bundles must be published in varying forms
10. Stories must emphasize romance with intense but short sex scenes

First, an Amazon Author Page was created to begin the experiment. Starting our test off, progress seemed quite slow and uncertain. Week one saw a total of two sales and sixty-five page reads. Given Amazon’s current payout rate (.0005 a page) our author only made $1.02. To my surprise, discouragement over that insignificant amount was immensely high. Convincing the author to keep writing new titles wasn’t easy, but Amazon’s ninety day exclusivity trap helped. The author had already committed such a large investment to the test that persuading the author to continue for the remainder of the month was not difficult.

Thankfully, week two saw somewhat better results. Significantly, this result could only be due to the price increase from $.99 to $2.99. Page reads increased while sales increased dramatically. Taking a quick look at the numbers, week two tripled the previous week’s results. Seven sales and two hundred and thirty-six page reads increased the week’s total to $3.61. While the author remained apprehensive, I could detect a little more eagerness to move forward into week three.

To my dismay, the growth occurring in week three was quite minimal. Sales topped out for the week at nine purchases and page reads dropped to two hundred and ten. Thankfully, the author was still able to see an overall increase for the week’s profits at $4.17. By this point however, the author made it clear the process didn’t seem worth the effort. The author felt drained and expressed a feeling that writing wasn’t as enjoyable as it once had been.

Finishing up the month, our author completed the nine titles. Able to take a break from writing, the author decided to release an additional four bundles created from bundling various combinations of the nine titles. Interestingly, week four’s breakdown is rather surprising. Out of thirteen sales, only one of them came from a bundle and there were one hundred and thirty-one page reads. For the final week, the author made $8.28.

Summary of Author’s Income

• Week 1: $1.02
• Week 2: $3.61
• Week 3: $4.17
• Week 4: $8.28
• Total Month: $17.08

Before we examine the market figures, let’s examine what no other study gives… the author’s experience. Interestingly, our author became extremely discouraged. This occured despite nearly reaching the $20 personal income goal. What caused this? Well, the author felt the money didn’t merit the time and effort put into the process. Worse, the author began feeling readers didn’t enjoy the titles because some of them were no longer selling after the first week they were published.

Moving onto the numbers, the first month performance of $17.08 is nothing to shy away from. In fact, the amount is actually quite impressive for a new author starting from scratch. We can see the growth potential, after all, because no marketing was involved. What’s important to note though, remains the fact the author felt the eBook titles were worth more. Dividing the author’s income by the number of books released ($17.08/13), we find the author only made around $1.31 per book published. Sadly, this is nothing considering the figures reflect an entire month.

Worse, $1.31 per book title published isn’t even the right number when comparing income to actual sales. Lets look at the sheer number of eBooks the author sold. On the surface, we’re quick to assume the author sold thirty-one copies. However, we must calculate into this figure the number of page reads. With a total of six hundred and forty-two reads, we can figure out the real number of books this would be.

Given the average page count (according to Amazon) was twenty pages per book, that would equal an additional thirty-two eBook sales (642 pages/20 = 32 books). With a grand total of sixty-three eBooks (32+31=63), the payout rate becomes $.27 per each book sold. Can anyone blame the author for feeling their title is worth more than twenty-seven cents? Even if the author only spent three hours working on the book, minimum wage would make them $21.75. Chances are the author spent more time writing their book than just three hours, but the statistics remain quite dismal. After nine titles, there’s a potential twenty-seven hour investment. At a minimum wage job, the author could have made $195.75.

It’s interesting to note, there’s hope at the end of this bleak tunnel. The author that participated in our Amazon experiment also publishes novels with us at Lot’s Cave. These longer stories of 40,000 words each are priced out at $4.95 and distributed across multiple retail platforms. This fact allows us to compare the same amount of effort on longer titles, distributed across multiple websites. The results couldn’t be more eye opening.

Taking the author’s latest eBook alone–written during the previous month, we find the sales for that month coming in at a total of sixteen eBooks sold. While that number may seem small in comparison to their Amazon sales, this book was able to be sold at the $4.95 price. Assuming these websites payout at a consistent rate of 70%, this author made $55.44. Keep in mind, this is one book. While it may not be minimum wage, it more than doubles what the author made on Amazon.

Now it’s important to note that longer novels have a very unique distinction from short stories. Longer novels have staying power while sales on short titles drop off quite quickly. This means the most this author will ever make on Amazon from their titles is that initial $17.08. No future sales income can be expected. Yet this author’s longer novel will continue to earn sales for several years, adding to the $55.44 amount. While the author may have felt discouraged at their efforts from putting out nine titles, the author did not feel that way about publishing one full lenght novel with Lot’s Cave.

While not every novel will sell sixteen titles a month, the opportunity cost to other authors following in these footsteps is important to consider. Amazon authors are invested in their shorts taking off immediately, if they fail to perfom, there’s no back catalog to make up the difference. If the worst happens and a novel does not take off however, consider having the benefit of having a back catalog that still sells alongside the future new release. In order to make the $17.08 Amazon monthly figure, an entire back catalog of multiple novels would only need to sell five titles. With a full month’s time span, five additional sales seems entirely reasonable. The back catalog becomes an almost guaranteed source of income the author can depend on. So, what happens if an author wants to go down this path and shy away from Amazon’s market?

The very first thing an author should do if they wish to publish outside Amazon’s market is examine their short stories. Because of Amazon’s market size, we can see how many authors feel they run an output treadmill. This output treadmill has caused many authors to diminish the quality of their short stories. If this is the case, authors need to invest in revamping their stories. Before publishing elsewhere, consider doing a general read through for errors.

After revamping the story, formatting remains the most important issue with eBooks coming from Amazon. For authors formatting their own books, reading up on the latest formatting requirements is a time consuming investment. This is a necessary investment however, one readers highly notice and value. Taking time to add the appropriate formatting can really set an eBook apart from the rest.

Another important difference is pricing. Amazon authors choosing to list their eBooks on multiple websites often find pricing uncomfortable. When authors are accustomed to charging $.99, selling the same eBook later for $2.99 can be quite unnerving. With the new price point comes a new change for author’s accustomed to Amazon’s market, slow sales. Instead of selling a book every day, authors can wait two or three days before seeing a single book sell. The benefit of this however is the higher royalty rate balances out the sale’s rate.

Lastly, any author looking to publish across multiple websites should factor in time. On Amazon, the results of sales is immediate with a sixty day lag period for payout. When authors choose to list books across multiple websites, this can be a significantly longer progress. Payouts have been known to range from a month to six months, or longer. Keeping this in mind will help authors looking for immediate results; sometimes authors just need to set a time length and stick to it beforehand.

In closing, the Amazon experiment was a grand success. The marketing insight I gained for Lot’s Cave has been exceedingly helpful for both Lot’s Cave authors, and those coming in from Amazon. While each market has its own difficulties, it’s important to remember different systems work for different types of authors. The main thing to note however is this, authors can still make the same, if not more money, by skipping Amazon’s eBook market. There’s no need to feel trapped or held over a barrel.

Submitting Your First Manuscript

As an author just starting out, it’s tough to know exactly what to do. You want to make a good first impression, but don’t know how or where to start. With today’s growing eBook market, finding advice everyone agrees with can be its own challenge. Lot’s Cave would like to help authors through the process of submitting their first manuscript. Many of our authors started out submitting their very first manuscript directly on our website, why? Because Lot’s Cave provided the resources. Since our company values author experience, Lot’s Cave would like to make submitting your first manuscript as painless as possible.

Research Where to Publish

When first starting out, it’s important to have a basic knowledge of where and what to submit. Not all publishers accept the same material, especially when dealing with erotic content. Doing a little research regarding your story, and potential publishers can save lots of time in the long run. Is your story too short for one publisher but not another? Does your content require a little polishing before submission? Is there a special format required for your manuscript? These questions can be answer with minimal digging on any publishing website. If you’re hoping to publish with Lot’s Cave directly, authors can find such information here: Submission Guidelines.

Summing Up Your Manuscript

Once you have a publisher in mind, start summing up your story. Before you start going through the metadata and manuscript process, know what you have. Making a list to go back to is always helpful. As a new author, it’s easy to get lost in fancy words or difficult requirements. Summing up your story’s information, while your mind isn’t spread out will be worth the time. If you’re unsure of what kind of information to include start with the following five items:

1. Story Theme: Is your story Menage? Incest? BDSM? 
2. Title Information: Does your story have a name yet?
3. Brief Summary: What happens in your story?
4. Length: Approximate word count?
5. Cover Image: Do you have a cover? 

Fix The Gaps

At this point, it’s easy to feel unsure or have some parts of the list missing. When starting out, it’s extremely rare to have it all figured out. Try doing a brief search for more information. How have authors handled covers in the past? What categories seem to fit your story? Does your summary seem to work for you? Many times, these gaps can be figured out doing ten minutes of digging. While you may feel more unsure, you’ll still have something you can come back to later. Don’t settle for a blank space. You can find more information provided by Lot’s Cave here: Writing Tips & Advice.

Tackling Manuscript Submission

 After a basic summary of information, a completed story, and some brief research, you’re likely ready to begin the submission process. Today, many publishers have an online submission process similar to that of Lot’s Cave. During this first submission, it’s extremely easy to feel overwhelmed. Try not to feel overwhelmed by the entire form. Focus on one detail at a time, and before you know it, the form will be complete. Simply grab your story/manuscript, your summary information, and open the manuscript submission form.

 Tackling Manuscript Submission: Basic Author Information

Starting out, it’s important to feel accomplished fairly early. The likelihood of an author finishing their submission form is increased if the author starts out confident. To encourage this, we recommend providing your author information first. This information often includes: name, pen name (if using one), and email. That’s it, though providing such personal information can seem a little daunting. Taking that first step though is always the hardest.

Tackling Manuscript Submission: Basic Story Information

The next step in the submission process is going to require some of that summary information. Enter your book’s title, story length, and category information. From here, you’ll also want to provide a price for your future eBook. Often, this is done by considering the length of your story. Price ranges will vary site to site, but competitive market values should always be considered. If you’re unsure, publishers will often be happy to help recommend a price. For now, enter what you feel comfortable with. Once the basic information is entered, you’ll often find most of the form has been completed.

Tackling Manuscript Submission: Submitting Metadata

Metadata is a term that describes much of the information already on your summary sheet. Remember that plot summary? Well, you’re going to need it. As an author it’s important to provide that summary, or a book description. Even better, try to take your summary and turn it into a description using your category information. A combination of the two will help promote your story. When in doubt, stick to what feels right. If you feel your story’s summary provides better information, then go with that. Descriptions take time, and they’re not easy. If you’d like more information on descriptions, check out our information here: Writing A Great Description.

Tackling Manuscript Submission: A Brief Note About Keywords

Many publishers have started asking authors to provide a set of keywords. These may feel like a daunting task on the submission form. There’s an easy way to find keywords however, think of them as search terms. If you wanted to search for your book, what words would you use? Consider your category, description, and book title, what themes stand out to you? A list of keywords is essential information to provide, as it helps readers find your story! Don’t skip this information, you might find out it’s more important than you think.

Completing the Submission Process

After providing all the above information, all that’s left is to upload your story. Today, most publishers accept Word files. There might be some additional publisher specific information you need to provide, but otherwise you’ve completed your first manuscript! Allow the publisher time to get back to you. If a publisher has any questions, they’ll contact you. While many authors wait to submit their next manuscript, it’s not necessary. Try using the wait time to write your next book, or submit a new one. In the end, you’ll find your books published in no time!

Short Stories, Novels, & Motivation

In today’s erotic eBook market, authors debate between writing short stories or going for longer novel length books. While both story lengths seem to appeal to various readers, authors want to know which style maximizes sales. In a rush to decide what sells better, I think authors have forgotten to take a step back. What we really need to be asking as authors is simple, what length is best for my personal writing style? Having made the transition myself, I thought I’d discuss what I found.

By: Gerry Maxwell

Write shorts to explore a genre or kink: When I first started writing, shorts were everything. Stories in the 3,000 – 5,000 word range were a perfect way to explore subject matter. Despite the decline in short story sales, shorts remain a viable option for authors. Considering a new kink? Try writing a short story first. Just starting out in your writing career? No problem, write plenty of shorts to get your name out there. Before defining yourself as an author, shorts are a great tool to make an impact while exploring various erotic subjects.

By: William Cooper

Novels point out writing flaws: One of the reasons I love writing novels now happens to be they point out my weaknesses. If you’re writing stories spanning only 3,000 words, odds are writing weaknesses won’t be apparent. Trust me, 40,000 words points out all the writing flaws an author has. If you’re looking to be a stronger writer, try a novel. Using words like that, just, and honestly, too much? By the end of a 40,000 word book, the habit will be obvious. Plus, you’ll get plenty of practice weeding these words out in the long run.

By: Betty Beckett

Price points make a difference: If you’re looking for the most sale potential, novels are the way to go. For every single you sell, you’ll make double your money. On the other hand, shorts are great for authors looking to expand their catalog. Whether you have novels or shorts, only having one title decreases odds book will sell. Taking the time to have a variety of books to offer has a direct impact on sales potential. In the long run, an author can better choose to write shorts or novels based on personal preference.

By: John E. Jay

Time constraints don’t matter: Want to write a novel, but are afraid of the time investment? Don’t be, in reality it’s the same amount of writing. On average, authors of shorts write between 8 – 10 books a month. If these books are 5,000 words or more, authors are actually writing 40,000 words a month already. The investment for authors in the case of a novel is more long term, instead of eight short titles. Authors shouldn’t worry about if they do it, odds are they already have!

By: Vinod Nair

Ultimately, writing shorts and novels depends on personal preferences. As an author, I now prefer to write novels. Because I started out writing shorts however, shorts remain my favorite. If I have an extra day at the end of the month, I’ll write a short story. After writing a couple novels, I discovered my shorts improved. Novels may create better writers, shorts might be more practical. In either case, we need to examine what motivation drives us to write. The answer might surprise all of us.

By: Lily Weidner

How to Enhance Your eBook

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With so many authors trying to make a transition away from Amazon, there’s an apparent problem. The challenges many authors face remains rooted in the fact Amazon was a market of its own. There were facts, data, market techniques authors learned to navigate Amazon’s market. Sadly, authors are having to realize these techniques do not work outside of Amazon. Successful authors upload their books only to realize there’s no sales. If there are sales, authors become disappointed seeing their small profit. Many authors remarked that Amazon was, “an easy gold mine” one that has dried up paying out a potential half a cent a page. Taking a moment, authors will notice a few necessary techniques in the market outside of Amazon.

Amazon Means Cheap: Many authors have never made this association themselves, but Amazon eBooks have become cheap. With Amazon being seen as a, “potential gold mine,” many authors put up whatever they could to make a small fortune. This growing quantity of eBooks lowered prices below the standard $2.99 to a surprisingly low $.99 even bundles of 30 books were offered for this $.99 price. The eBooks readers got for their $.99 drove them to alternative sites like Smashwords. Readers that enjoy good quality eBooks would rather pay the $2.99 then settle for these bad quality $.99 eBooks. Because of this, today’s market is filled with readers that avoid Amazon looking books, and yes, they can tell. This means that if authors want to sell their eBooks on sites outside of Amazon, they need to shed their “Amazon identity” and present a better quality product.

Text Based Covers: These covers with full text are a sure way to turn off readers. There’s nothing more distracting than an image covered behind blocks of text. Covers are made to appeal readers, and initiate their interest. When all readers are left with is a blur behind bold often off colored neon text, that doesn’t say much about a book’s potential story. Some of the best selling books in the market today have one word titles. These intriguing titles combined with sexy cover images really excite the reader’s curiosity. Authors coming off of Amazon will find their block text covers will not appeal many readers. This directly impacts sales, leaving some authors to feel discouraged. The market has potential buyers, they just happen to know what they want. Text based covers are not what readers want.

Long Book Titles: Similar to the issue of text based covers are these long book titles. A book’s title should never take a full cover to display. Often, this problem arises because there’s too many keywords in the book’s name. This stems from Amazon having a weird way of using metadata or a book’s keywords. Authors could literally write anything in the keywords, and it’d have little to no effect. Outside of Amazon this issue doesn’t occur. Readers will find a book based on a catchy title, along with those keywords typed in the appropriate box. It’s painful to see good titles off Amazon drowned in layers upon layers of the book’s keywords. Readers are not accustomed to this on outside sites, and many associate this with lower quality eBooks now. If authors want to improve their book instantly just edit out these keywords from the book’s title.

Quality Cover Images: Now first off, I know not everyone is a cover artist or can afford to pay for covers. Amazon books however are well known for extremely lower end covers. These are covers using photos that are often quite frankly terrible. Often, these images will have very little to do with the book’s story at all. When the image does pertain to the story, it’s off colored, neon colored, out of focus, stretched, or even appears photoshopped. Put bluntly, these covers do not further a book’s sales. However, it’s worth noting these bad covers are better than some books with no cover images whatsoever. In the end, a book should have the best cover it can. Whether that means being creative with ideas, or just knowing how to put an average but good cover together. A well put together cover will sell an eBook, but a poor one will not.

Certain Kink Advertisement: Outside of Amazon’s market, there’s a realm devoted to the controversially kinky. While menage might be the highlight on Amazon, it’s standard elsewhere. Authors should note certain kinks are not in high demand outside of Amazon. This includes (with exceptions) Billionaire Romance, Alpha/Breeding, Menage, Tentacle/Monster Erotica, and Pseudo-Incest. While these categories in many instances will appeal to some readers, they aren’t the selling point authors think they are. Many times this has to do with the content Amazon excluded that outside sites allow. Pseudo-Incest can be replaced for outright Incest, Billionaire Romance can be BDSM, Monster Erotica often gets turned into Bestiality. The market can be quite different when listing kinks… in the keywords.

Pricing: The last change to note has to do with pricing. Many books on Amazon have become cheap to seemingly compete in the market. However, these lower prices actually harm books outside Amazon. Readers want to pay for good quality works. Authors often remark, “$2.99 was the going price, but it’s too much now” this is far from true. $2.99 is still the going rate for a short. Longer works can get as high as $5.95, but they have to be good quality. Remembering that price can communicate quality, authors will appreciate a reader’s willing to buy their properly priced works. Please take note, this does include bundles. Series books as a whole set should never be priced at $.99. Nor should books be given away free just to promote a series. These tactics worked mainly in the heyday of Pulp Fiction, but not anymore. Readers honestly associate a price with a book’s quality now.

While this post in no way should be taken as an end all fix all, it stands as a starting point. Authors who have shifted to an Amazon only focus and are now confused. They’ve forgotten what the market continues to be, though it’s only been a year. An author’s knowledge of the market continues to be a critical advantage. Taking a moment to fix a few of these changes will result in a better sales potential. Every author wants to succeed in the market today, and Lot’s Cave understands this. We hope this post might give a few authors a starting point. In time, authors can then learn the critical marketing information we’ve acquired as a company over the years. The Kindle Unlimited program’s fate may be uncertain, but that’s no reason to panic. Just take a deep breath, and try something new. It might not be so bad after all.

Incest In Popular Culture

The taboo topic of incest continually makes its way into every day conversation—an interesting prominence for something so controversial. Yet the frequency of these taboo conversational occurrences continues to increase. In the majority of these discussions, incestuous relationships are depicted as a “reluctant sexual experience” or worse.

Could it be that the environment of sexual censorship on television during the 1940’s, ‘50s, 60’s, and 70s required all incest to be depicted in an immoral light? However, a surprising number of consenting relationships exist as well, and more recently, the way incest is being depicted in society has started raising questions as to the possibilities of incestuous relationships being consensually romantic. Examining the motivations of each represented incestuous coupling only furthers the acceptance of incest as a whole. Whether or not someone looks for incest, it’s readily stumbled upon. In fact, the topic of incest is so widely mentioned it’s guaranteed to show up at some point.

Schools generally require young adults to explore mythology at some point in their education. While we often find mythological gods and goddesses involved in relationships riddled with incest, often these relationships contain lessons of a significant cultural relevance in today’s modern society. The Oedipus Trilogy is often required reading at the high school level. No one objects to these stories being read, examined, and then reexamined as a culturally important work. For many, these Greek Tragedies raise questions on the acceptability and impact of incestuous relationships. And the Oedipus Trilogy isn’t the only group of stories that high schooled youth run into regarding the topic of incest. Recommended books such as The Mayfair Trilogy by Anne Rice, V.C. Andrews’ Flowers in the Attic, The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradely, and Aztec by Gary Jennings all contain incest at some level.

Incest permeates not only our everyday culture, but our pop culture as well. We easily see this in some of today’s most popular shows and movies. Witness Back To The Future and Star Wars. The currently popular Game of Thrones television series is certainly no stranger to incestuous sex. Likewise, the cult movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show features the beloved characters of Riff Raff and his sister Magenta who many debate maintain a sexual relationship. Lolita seems to be another cult move classic that captures the story of pseudo incest well enough to figure in a variety of film adaptations. The popular shows House, Numb3rs, Sons of Anarchy, and American Horror Story: Coven all touch on incestuous relationships in a variety of forms.

The topic of incestuous relationships between cousins can be tough to debate despite the ever growing list of its acceptance within pop culture and dramatized depictions. Sometimes movies portray cousin relationships as consensual and completely acceptable, while other times the topic is dealt with carefully to meet censorship sensibility standards. Nevertheless, many different stories touch on sexual relationships between cousins, such as, Mansfield Park and Jane Eyre, which have become great works of literature. One popular film series that touches on a cousin romance is the ever classic Godfather Trilogy. This romantic relationship is depicted in a better light, if not completely acceptable as well. More frequently today, cousin relationships are being depicted as consensual bordering on assumptions of social acceptance.

Today we find incest brought up in many different environments, in many different ways. Often we don’t even notice the presence of incest while taking the overall story as a whole. In movies and television shows, incest means guaranteed expansion and ever growing popularity with audiences. Today’s view is changing away from the established belief of forced sexual relationships. The realistic depictions of consented incestuous romances have us asking, “Just how taboo should incest be today?” Considering the controversy surrounding incest, the taboo is quite popular and embedded into our everyday culture. Just what the future holds regarding the legality of and social acceptance of incestuous relationships remains unclear. All Lot’s Cave knows is that incestuous erotica has never been so popular.