Let’s Talk About eBook Sales Shall We?

Gillian wrote,

Siren has a page dedicated to the authors who have sold over 100k copies of their books http://www.sirenbookstrand.com/100KClub/ I don’t know how that translates to $ tho

Link | April 25th, 2011 at 4:11 pm

Gillian wrote,

Maybe Siren gets a huge amount of traffic through their website? Kinda boggles the mind given the quality of the editing there…

Link | April 25th, 2011 at 4:34 pm

Jess wrote,

Hiya,

I saw the 100K club and got curious – I thought how could it be possible to sell that many books.

SO I found one of the authors Leah Brooke and I noticed that she writes Menges and More – so 3 and 4 partnerships. and she writes alot of them.

out of curiosity I bought one of her books and it was one of the hottest menages I have ever read – with great characterisation and plot.

I can easily see such a good author gather such a following. I will be honest and admit that I was shocked because I have read Joyee Flynn and Stormy Glen books that have great plot concepts but are poorly edited in the extreme.

I am still un-impressed by Siren because for every book they release that is crappy they are shooting another hole in their reputation.

But….

I do believe that they could have authors that make 100K or more a year. For two reasons – if authors make the best seller list – they get released faster
- many of their authors are prolific formula writers :)

Link | April 25th, 2011 at 4:55 pm

Dhympna wrote,

Reading the Show Me The Money post at Hyatt’s (http://www.brendahiatt.com/id2.html ), I would like to read the Siren title(s) that earned out 24k.

We won’t talk about me reading the LoveXtreme bull shapeshifter one which was just a serial in a novella’s clothing. Nevermind the other issues. Not that there was anything wrong with such forays into gangbangdom and bukkake fests, but, well, I have a hard time believing their books are selling that much. *shrugs*

Call me a skeptic or anal retentive but I sort of need to see the evidence or, at the very least, see/read which book sold that many copies.

Link | April 25th, 2011 at 6:53 pm

Katie wrote,

I think the stories at Siren fall more into the stroke book category. And as a writer friend reminded me when those Brenda Hiatt numbers first came out, “p0rn always sells.”

Link | April 25th, 2011 at 10:10 pm

Erastes wrote,

also – if porn always sells…is porn excluded from the NY lists? if it sells in such huge numbers why isn’t it always heading the list–even in paper versions?

Link | April 26th, 2011 at 3:28 am

Treva Harte wrote,

LOL. You’re almost right. We edit our stuff to perfection, Mr. Pig. But also it isn’t fair to other authors or, really, to the prolific author. Readers do gobble up their favorite authors’ books but there has to be a point where they say enough.

Link | April 26th, 2011 at 9:06 am

Jadette Paige wrote,

Hi Teddy Pig,

I just had a novel released from Siren in Dec. 2010. The majority of my sales are through the Bookstrand site not through Amazon or any other site. My novel Blue Heaven has had some descent sales and I would gladly hold it up to any novel from any other publisher out there. I take great pride in my writing as any of my critique partners (Amber Green, Ali Katz, Cherise Sinclair) can swear to. It is a M/M that has received some wonderful reader reviews. I don’t write extreme sex, not my thing, but there are other publishers who sell the same type of books that Siren does. Each publisher will have flaws, some more than others. I joined Siren’s team of authors because I did my research on them and felt they would be a good fit for Blue Heaven. So far my opinion has not changed. Just wanted to let you know.

Link | April 26th, 2011 at 12:01 pm

Lillian Grant wrote,

Katie wrote,

I think the stories at Siren fall more into the stroke book category. And as a writer friend reminded me when those Brenda Hiatt numbers first came out, “p0rn always sells.”

I think this is a bit harsh. I have a book coming out with Siren in June that was turned down by Loose Id because it didn’t have enough sex. I also take great pride in ensuring my books are well written and well edited. I don’t churn out books every week and I don’t expect to make the big bucks but I also don’t want to be labeled as a porn writer.

Link | April 26th, 2011 at 1:33 pm

Marie Harte wrote,

Yeah, what Treva said. I find this very interesting. With the growing interest in digital sales, I think it’s more than possible for a strickly ebook author to earn that much. But her/his backlist would have to be enormous, that or her/his books are consistent Kindle bestsellers. I recently received earnings from a Kindle bestseller and the amount shocked me, as I hadn’t been expecting so much. But if the Siren titles aren’t bestsellers, I’m wondering where their earnings are coming from. Their site? And if so, I’m also surprised more Siren authors aren’t sharing this info, bragging about Siren. I gladly share that Loose Id, EC, and Samhain are great sellers. I’m not disbelieving, just curious as to why a great marketing tool would be such a secret.

Link | April 26th, 2011 at 2:35 pm

Cari Silverwood wrote,

I’m only starting out writing in the erotica genre but I have talked to Lesli Richardson (Tymber Dalton) recently about exactly this. A lovely lady and she’s very honest about her success and was generous enough to share some information. Good luck to her.
Siren seems to have a great marketing strategy. Not every author will want to emulate the high output a lot of their authors use to achieve these 100K sales. But…it sure is interesting to know it is achievable.

Link | April 26th, 2011 at 4:40 pm

Treva Harte wrote,

By the way, yes we do have authors who earn that much. They have a backlist, generally, but they also do exceedingly well with each (or close enough to each) book they put out. But it’s not every author. I suspect larger epubs are discovering that they have become a lot like mainstream publishers in that a smallish percentage of authors drive a lot of sales.

Link | April 27th, 2011 at 6:49 am

Treva Harte wrote,

I can tell people better what not to do rather than what to do if they want to write consistent bestsellers. But genuinely enjoying what you write helps keep you going. Genuinely enjoying what you write and hitting what readers genuinely enjoy is what sells big. I don’t think writers can fake enjoyment when they are writing just for the cash. Or not for long.

Link | April 27th, 2011 at 8:12 am

Lesli Richardson (Tymber Dalton) wrote,

LOL Holy crap I got quoted. :) I should clarify that authors who make over $100k at Siren or any e-pub house are the minority just like in “traditional” publishing. The vast majority do not make a fraction of that. Books I’ve had at other houses that weren’t racy didn’t sell a fraction of what my racy books sell.

Here’s a key point — I’m not in that $100k club yet but had health issues not set me back last year I probably would be. I write books with plot as well as heat, too, not just “stroke” books.

BUT, writing IS my full-time job, and I spend as much time doing promo as I do writing. I’m also coming from a very strong background in editing and non-fiction writing. I can produce a lot of copy quickly.

As far as bestseller lists go, look at your own story for today. :) Do you really think “trash” books are going to make it on Oprah or *gasp!* the NYT list? Heavens, they might have to admit that you can be a “real” writer and not write literature. LOL Like traditional publishers want to admit there’s a world beyond their crumbling crystal palaces. Does anyone not remember the first #amazonfail event where they quit ranking glbt books until they finally said it was a “glitch” and reinstated it? Puhleeeze. I hold out no illusions that my books won’t end up on bestseller lists. Another point is many lists don’t track ebooks, plus publishers have to report sales. Smaller publishers frequently don’t do that. They also use POD many times which, it is my understanding (correct me if I’m wrong) don’t appear on bestseller lists because those are usualy generated by reseller orders not by actual consumer sales to the public.

I dropped out of RWA because I felt like a red-headded stepchild because of their stance on epubs and GLBT books. I’ve heard they’ve been getting dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. If a ROMANCE writing organization is slow to embrace GLBT and epubs, you can guarantee that traditional publishing and its affiliates (for lack of a better term, bad fibro fog night sorry LOL) won’t want to give press to the kinds of books Siren and other indie pubs make the most money on: GLBT, polyamorous/menage, and BDSM.

Link | April 27th, 2011 at 6:46 pm

Lesli Richardson (Tymber Dalton) wrote,

You can’t look just at current rankings, you have to look at sales trends overall. A book that spikes and then drops might not make as much as a book that steadily stays in the top 20,000. And series books get bumps from each subsequent release the author has. And I know at least two authors at Siren in the top ranks who write under multiple pen names for various reasons, so if you add their earnings cumulatively, that bumps them into that magic realm we all aspire to. LOL I also know of at least one “author” who is actually a writing team of two authors, which of course will allow them to produce more faster. (I would be willing to bet there are more, but I only know of one personally.)

Another thing to keep in mind is the book length. Not all those books are 100k+ works. Some are less than 50k, and even shorter than that. It doesn’t take long to write a 30k novella, especially if you’re used to producing 10k or more words in a day. (And yes, those of us who are full-time fiction writers, that’s a perfectly attainable goal.)

I’m not saying every romance/erotica book out there is fine literature. Personally, I write the kind of books that make me happy and that I’d enjoy as a reader. I’m lucky to have loyal readers who want to buy my new releases. I don’t take that for granted for a second.

However, it’s not any accident I have good earnings, it’s damned hard work and persistence and constantly striving to improve myself. And it’s also a LOT of promotions and marketing. I also don’t sacrifice story for heat level, which is the reason my releases dropped off when my health tanked last year. I wasn’t happy with what I was producing and have been slowly and steadily working on my WIPs so that when _I’M_ happy with them, I can get them submitted to my publishers (not just Siren). (Cymbalta and Lyrica have greatly helped my body deal with fibromyalgia, but my brain is still learning to adjust and function at the previous manic level it used to. LOL I can’t work 18+ hour days 7 days a week like I used to.)

I agree that some books are formula. Harlequin, anyone? Formula works for some writers, because that’s what their readers want. Good for them, more power to them. That’s why there’s a book for every reader and no two readers are going to like exactly the same stuff.

One thing I saw on the Show Me the Money site was that some authors are making only 6% on e-book sales? I’m sorry, but there’s no way in hell I’d sign that contract. And if those authors are agented, no wonder they aren’t very warm on ebook sales. Indie publishers worth their salt are paying, on average (from MY experience) 40% on on-site sales and 50% of income (taking into account site fees like Amazon’s Kindle delivery fees, or cut-throat forced discounts like Fictionwise) from third-party site sales. Right on Siren’s submissions page they have their royalty rates listed:

http://www.sirenbookstrand.com/submissions/

40% of download price for e-book sold at BookStrand.com website
50% of publisher’s royalties received from distributors
6% of cover price for print books

My experience with Siren is that my books sell best on their site the first month or so following release, then the cumulative bulk of my sales come from third-party sites.

Again, not all writers are going to achieve stellar sales (most won’t), especially if they are a new writer and can’t spend all day writing and promoting like some writers can. Some writers are going to take several years to get to that point. A lucky few will hit it, IF they treat it like a job and work their asses off. Even a particularly lucky fewer will make it fairly quickly if they have a book that happens to hit it big and quickly follow it up with several other books to help boost their readership (partnered with working their asses off promoting themselves).

I write everything from mainstream (horror) to GLBT menage and BDSM (extreme erotica). My best sellers are always the hottest books. Sex sells.

Link | April 28th, 2011 at 5:46 am

Lesli Richardson (Tymber Dalton) wrote,

And further clarification, those 100k and 50k badges on Siren’s About page, those are for number of COPIES sold, NOT $ amounts. LOL I can see where that would confuse someone.

Link | April 28th, 2011 at 6:42 am

Lesli Richardson (Tymber Dalton) wrote,

I’ve never said writing success is a specific sales quota. Writing success is a lot of damned hard work. I’ve just said (and will continue to say) that it is possible to make a living writing GLBT erotica. It doesn’t magically happen though, it has to be worked for. And to clarify, I didn’t say if an author “never” makes those rankings. I said a book that spikes and drops might not make as much as a book that steadily stays in the top 20k.

I rarely buy my books based on where they are in Amazon rankings. However, I can’t tell you how many books I’ve bought from interacting with authors on forums, blogs, and email lists. Rick R. Reed is one such author. Damned good author, I put him up there against any NYT bestseller. I didn’t find him through Amazon.

That is why I say bestseller lists don’t matter. Getting your name out there to readers is what matters. Interacting, promoting. You can’t publish a book and sit back and put out one Facebook update a week and expect to make more than the price of a good meal in royalties. You have to get out there and, literally, whore yourself out to readers. You have to build reader loyalty and relationships. You have to show readers why you should make it onto their TBB and TBR lists. You have to become a person to them and not simply a name on a cover.

When an author asks me for advice on promoting their books, the first question I ask them is how much time a week they spend on promotions and in what venues. If they don’t know, I tell them to get their butt in gear and get to work.

This is a business. I am a writer, I don’t just write. It’s in my blood, it’s always been in my blood, it’s the only thing I’ve wanted to do. That doesn’t mean I can treat it like art and expect to not have a second job where I have to ask if you want fries with that burger.

No, money isn’t my ultimate goal. I was a writer when I wasn’t making money at it, I’d still be a writer if I had to do something else to pay my bills. But I’m not going to sit there and take a snobby attitude that I can’t make money AND be a successful writer. Maybe some writers get into this looking for a quick buck, but I’m not one of them.

It’s literally taken me over TWENTY years to get to the point where I can declare “writer” on my tax forms and it’s not a hobby, it’s my profession. LOL I didn’t do this overnight. I write what I want to write first and foremost. If it makes me money (which, fortunately much of it does) then all the better.

But I refuse to sit back and not tell writers they can’t make money doing this when they can. I’m not one to stand at the top and kick people trying to make it up there with me. I was fortunate enough along the way to have other writers mentor me and give me good advice. I’m not about to spit in the face of Karma and not help out other writers when I can.

Yes, you CAN make a living as a GLBT writer. Is it magical and easy? Hell no. But you CAN do it if you dedicate yourself to it, learn not just the art of writing but the business end of it as well, and treat both parts just as seriously.

Link | April 28th, 2011 at 6:57 am

Lesli Richardson (Tymber Dalton) wrote,

Bestseller lists don’t matter if they’re excluding publishers or if the publishers don’t report. That doesn’t mean books aren’t selling, it just means that list doesn’t necessarily reflect all sales numbers.

Link | April 28th, 2011 at 7:10 am

Lesli Richardson (Tymber Dalton) wrote,

Oh, and another reason bestseller lists don’t necessarily matter is because there are a lot of readers who don’t pay any attention to them anyway. And a book on a bestseller list isn’t an indication of the author’s success, just that book’s success in that particular list. If you compare that book to sales numbers elsewhere, it might not be as good as it looks. And if the author is a one-hit wonder, they might not make nearly as much as another author.

Here’s an analogy. Look at Jimmy Buffet. He’s been around for…how long? Thirty+ years easily? And I bet he makes more in a year than a lot of popular one-hit wonder pop singers. How many people can sing along to “Margaritaville” or “Cheeseburger in Paradise” but have never even heard of any of the current Top 10 Pop songs? He has fans who will buy everything he puts out because they love him, not because he does or doesn’t hit a bestseller list.

Link | April 28th, 2011 at 7:16 am

Lesli Richardson (Tymber Dalton) wrote,

Yes, you posted a snapshot. You can’t get the overall picture by looking at one particular snapshot. You need to look at overall long-term trends to gauge a writer’s success, not one hit of a ranking of one book.

I’d never heard of JL Langley until the plaigarism storm hit the fan. I couldn’t tell you who most of Samhain’s writers are because I’ve probably never bought their stuff. Ditto Ellora’s. I buy (and I’ve had other readers tell me they do this too) based on writers we like. And I’ll follow a writer across publishers. I prefer as a writer to buy directly from publishers because I know the writer will make more money that way. So to me, as a consumer, Amazon’s list is irrelevant. Especially when the writer makes money not just on Amazon. We’re not just talking cumulative Amazon sales. You need to look at sales from all sources: on-site at the publisher and ALL third-party sites. A book might sell like gangbusters on ARe and not sell as well on Amazon, or vice-versa.

Again I say, bestseller ranks are meaningless because it’s one limited snapshot for that one particular “list.” In Amazon’s case, that vendor. It’s not an accurate overall view of an author’s success.

And I don’t care of my publishers don’t show up on bestseller lists as long as they sell books and treat me right. Siren has done that. They have allowed me to build my career as a fiction writer in a way not available five or ten years ago. They have allowed writers who wouldn’t necessarily have a voice to make a living and reach readers. I’m sure Samhain and EC and Loose Id and other big indie publishers have done the same thing. But each publisher finds their niche. One of Siren’s biggest niches is menage/poly and GLBT.

Take a look at Siren’s About us page:

http://www.sirenbookstrand.com/about/

Siren-BookStrand was launched January 1, 2006. Our publishing company has experienced exponential growth during the past couple of years. To date, we have published over 900 titles, 500+ of which are in print format. We have sold over 3,000,000 copies of our own titles worldwide. The majority of our sales were during the past 24 months. Many of our authors receive a consistent 5-figure royalty payment quarterly.

Our success comes from knowing what our readers love to read and delivering exactly the reading experience that meets their expectations. Readers love our books because of the well-developed characters and story lines as well as the hot love scenes. Life without spice is bland, and we have ten different imprints to meet every taste. We have a large, loyal base of readers, many of whose permanent bookshelves are stocked with hundreds of our titles. They are passionate buyers of our books.

Our books are in high demand at BookStrand.com as well as at our major distributors, such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Our titles are prominent on many of their best-seller lists. We strive to make each book we publish the best that it can be.

At Siren-BookStrand, many stars are born. We have over 300 authors writing for Siren-BookStrand. About 40 of these authors write exclusively for us, many of whom are mega-stars who dominate bestselling lists wherever their current titles are sold. Our authors are talented, prolific, highly imaginative, and all-around fabulous writers. They simply are the best in the e-pub industry, and our readers adore them.

Siren-BookStrand is the first and only publisher in the industry to offer our authors access to real-time sales data for titles published by us and sold from the BookStrand.com website. This adds to the excitement of each new release and empowers our authors to make better informed decisions as they write and promote.

We advertise monthly in Romantic Times print magazine. Our different imprints are featured in a two-page spread, and our company is branded monthly in a banner ad on the Romantic Times home page. We have several other advertising venues, all of which are solely at our cost.

We are a full-service, royalty-paying publishing company. Our authors never have to pay to be published with us or to be advertised by us. We make royalty payments to our authors on time, all the time.

Our offices are headquartered in Austin, Texas. We have a staff of 17 full-time professionals and 10 freelance editors. All of our in-house editors have at least a bachelor’s degree in English or Journalism, and most of our freelance editors are multi-published authors. Our regular business hours are Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., CST.

Link | April 28th, 2011 at 7:25 am

Lesli Richardson (Tymber Dalton) wrote,

Because I have errands to run, let me sum up what my main point was so there is no confusion:

It is possible to make a successful, profitable living as a GLBT author. My main experience has been through Siren (because they are the publisher I earn the most with), but I’d be willing to bet other authors have had similar experiences through other publishers as well. And that a brief snapshot of one bestseller list is NOT an accurate indication of an author’s overall success across the board, and it’s not an accurate indication of a publisher’s success rate overall.

That’s my point, and I’m sticking to it. LOL

Link | April 28th, 2011 at 7:36 am

Lesli Richardson (Tymber Dalton) wrote,

As I’m heading out and don’t know if my phone will let me post… I glanced at your Kindle bestseller list post (Siren wasn’t one you listed) but the Siren list you have on this post…those books have higher sales rankings overall…unless I’m reading something wrong?

:)

And you said:

“TeddyPig wrote,
Sunita it was a joke. I make those when talking about Amazon stats because they are such an illusion. You honestly have to watch them everyday to observe what is a freak sales spike and what constitutes steady consistent sales by an author.
They are also relative to other sales that day so the actual underlying numbers generating the rankings can mean different things different days.
People get too carried away in what they really mean and after all these years even I am not totally sure.”

Link | April 28th, 2011 at 8:16 am

veinglory wrote,

I think your Amazon rank matters a lot because it influences whether your work is recommended, added to the ‘buy this as well’ specials, displayed on genre front pages, how high it comes in searches etc etc. I don’t look at the list per se, but I do use all of these tools/algorithms pretty heavily as a shopper. And as much as Teddy might not be interpreting Tymber quite right, Tymber is doing the same in suggesting anything here says a GLBT author can’t make a living. That seems a bit of a straw man.

I hope EREC does see some data (TB, could you possibly update the link in your sidebar, pretty please). For whatever reason I currently have almost no data for Siren. The do seem to run silent and deep.

IMHO it would be nice to be able to show that they are a top 10 option. I have similar little on other quite but apparently successful presses Liquid Silver and Amber Quill.

Link | April 28th, 2011 at 11:23 am

veinglory wrote,

Apologies for the typos. Now you know what my editors have to put up with….

Link | April 28th, 2011 at 12:08 pm

Jess wrote,

Your right, I looked into editing prices and if you wanted the best it would get expensive even for the 30,000 word books.

However the authors that are terrible at keeping a track of their characters names/ ages and other editing goofs – could send out a call for Proof Readers among their fans. Its free and it works.

Lets also think of it this way.

The authors that are so unprofessional as to submit stories without a reread/edit/rewrite probably would not get published somewhere else. So they are going to stay at Siren – I place equal blame on the author as I do on the editors. The authors have obviously blinded by the need to put out 2 books a month and get sloppier and sloppier.

The authors know they have issues – they know their editors are not fixing their problems, so I believe they should do something about it. They arnt going to leave Siren – cause thats where they are making the money.

:) I am not saying that Siren are perfect but I do believe that we should judge each author on their work, not on who they publish with. If they write a shitter then we can throw them in the hopeless pile and move on ;)

Link | April 28th, 2011 at 7:58 pm

rmbg1018 wrote,

Very interesting discussion that I picked up from a link on Tymber’s facebook page. I am a voracious reader, and have noticed issues with Siren’s editing, but still enjoy LOTS of their books. I have also been a Harlequin reader/subscriber for over 30 years. As a person who BUYS an enormous number of books annually I can say with some authority that the best seller lists are really irrelevant to me and lots of other readers, especially those of us who read in the “popular” fictions genres (as opposed to the “literary” fiction genres). We like what we like, and we recommend authors to each other and look at reviews on trusted sites and in trusted publications.

Link | April 30th, 2011 at 7:42 pm

Dede wrote,

Great post, even better comments! As an author, I couldn’t help but picture a whole story around the banter in the comments section alone *grin*. I have a random observation though: The Siren Sales rank in the script on this post, is much higher than all the sales ranks across the Kindle Bestsellers link at the top menu. At this time it’s 156 to Siren vs 546 to Samhain or similar. Logically this tells me that Siren outranks all the other epubs? Or am I reading it wrong?

I’ve just had a novel accepted for publication and would be happy to share the stats once I have them. However, in the real world 9/10 people are not comfortable with doing that so why would they want to do it online?

Last question: Siren has a host of best selling writers who write exclusively for them. Is it possible that because most of their books are sold through the publisher directly, those stats would not appear on the Amazon lists?

Link | June 24th, 2011 at 12:05 am

Dede wrote,

“The top seller on Siren is for a 99 cent book. I do not see that making the author much money in the long run.”

True – though it’s interesting that Amanda Hocking made a bucket load doing just that. (Major props to her though she is definitely the exception with a ratio of 1:Trillion !).

But thanks for the response – wonderful to see bloggers respond to their comments :)

Last question – why no “About Me” blurb on your site or am I missing it?

BTW love your blog, always interesting.

Link | June 28th, 2011 at 5:05 am

ILR67 wrote,

Here’s a message on the Siren authors group posted by the publisher before they paid out royalty for this past quarter:

“Siren-BookStrand’s past 12-month gross revenues were over $5 million for our own published titles sold worldwide.
Congratulations to over two dozen Siren-BookStrand authors who will receive a 5-figure royalty payment to be paid out on July 30th. Out of these authors, half a dozen will receive a royalty payment between $20K and $39.9K, and another half a dozen will receive a royalty payment between $40K and $60K.”

The announcement is on their website too.
http://www.sirenbookstrand.com/about/

If I break it down I’ll assume over 2 dozen to be 1 or 2 more than 24, then htat means:

13 or more authors earned between $10,000 and $19,999
6 earned between $20,000 and $39,999
6 earned between $40,000 and $60,000

From the Top 25 Authors bestsellers list on their site I’ll assume that those high earners have to be from this list.

Lynn Hagen
Joyee Flynn
Stormy Glenn
Gabrielle Evans
Sophie Oak
Abby Blake
Cooper McKenzie
Dixie Lynn Dwyer
Scarlet Hyacinth
Chloe Lang
Heather Rainier
Becky Wilde
Jenny Penn
Amber Kell
Morgan Ashbury
Stacey Espino
Leah Brooke
Marla Monroe
Cara Covington
Lola Newmar
Elizabeth Raines
Tonya Ramagos
Natalie Acres
Kiera West
Reece Butler

It would be nice if some of these authors would confirm the earnings. I actually met the publisher at the RWA convention last month. I also met one of the authors who indicated she was making a lot of money at Siren. Out of respect for a Siren sister, I won’t name her. But based on that, I guess it must be Lynn Hagen, Joyee Flynn, Stormy Glenn, Gabrielle Evans and Sophie Oak who earned the $40,000 to $60,000 last quarter. That is just mind boggling.

I don’t make that kind of money with Siren although it’s not that bad considering I don’t write man love or menage if their top authors are an indication of what sells.

So if you are one of the top earners and you are NOT making that kind of money for real, then I assume you would challlenge the publisher for your money…but I am not certain how this actually works because I don’t know if this list factored in sales from all other plaecs like Amazon.

When the announcement came from the publisher, it got a lot of their authors in a tizzy. One author came forward in the group to tell us how she did it with only 4 books in one year. I appreciate her willingness to share and to break down all the numbers. She said that 40% of her earnings came from the publisher’s site and 60% came from distribution sites such as Amazon. She said she made 5-figures two quarters in a row.

I think it will be fantastic if a few more out of the 25+ authors who earned a “5-figure” at Siren last quarter would please confirm.

Link | August 14th, 2011 at 9:55 pm

Stacey Espino wrote,

Teddy,

I was just responding to an email asking me to confirm if I was making a certain amount at Siren. I’m not here to wage war, just trying to be helpful. And yes, the figures are for all my books combined, not just my gay titles.

Link | January 13th, 2012 at 10:51 am

Stacey Espino wrote,

Teddy,

My m/f titles don’t do a fraction of the sales that my menage titles do. My gay books also do much better than my m/f titles. Hope that helps!

Link | January 13th, 2012 at 11:50 am