Uh-oh! It happened again, another Kindle author has found success. This time it is Boyd Morrison, author of THE ARK, which along with his other eBooks sold 7500 copies in less than 3 months and landed Morrison a book deal with Touchstone.
In my interview with Morrison, he goes on to explain exactly how he landed an A-list agent, scored a book deal and how he’s able to sell 4000 copies a month of his titles with little to no marketing.
Congratulations on your success. For those who aren’t familiar with your story, what’s THE ARK: A Novel all about?
In THE ARK, a relic from Noah’s Ark gives a religious fanatic and his followers a weapon that will let them recreate the effects of the biblical flood, and a former combat engineer named Tyler Locke has seven days to find the Ark and the secret hidden inside before it’s used to wipe out civilization again. One reviewer said it’s a mix of Indiana Jones and MacGyver, which I thought was fantastic because I’m a big fan of both. I think THE ARK would appeal to fans of Clive Cussler and James Rollins.
What was the process of you finding an agent?
I’m a big believer in going to conferences and meeting agents in person to pitch your book. It’s a great way to get your query out of the slush pile. When I finished THE ARK, I attended the first AgentFest at the ThrillerFest conference.
In those days, the pitches weren’t like the speed-dating sessions they are now. At the luncheon, each agent presided at a table, and which agent you ended up with was totally random. I happened to sit with Irene Goodman, a well-respected agent who was looking to expand her list into thriller writers. She went around the table and asked each of us to pitch her our ideas. When she got to me, she lit up as soon as I said “Noah’s Ark” and asked me to send her the first three chapters.
When Irene got those chapters, she read them right away. She called me that morning to ask whether I’d be willing to FedEx the rest of the manuscript. I was shocked to hear from an agent by phone instead of an email, so she might have thought for a moment that I was hesitating, but I was actually trying not to hyperventilate. When I caught my breath, I said, “Of course,” and got the manuscript out that afternoon. Three days later she called back to offer representation.
What did you do specifically to promote your ebook and pbook?
THE ARK was originally turned down by twenty-five publishers, so I decided to post all three of my unpublished thrillers onto the Amazon Kindle store in 2009. My marketing plan was nonexistent. I had a web site where I allowed readers to download my books for free and find out more information about me and my novels, but I didn’t do any advertising or promotion. I listed my books for a low price, and then word-of-mouth took over.
Ebook readers on discussion forums like Kindleboards, Mobileread, and Amazon started recommending my books, and THE ARK started climbing the Kindle bestseller lists. In a month, THE ARK was the number one technothriller in the Kindle store, outselling authors like Tom Clancy and Brad Thor. Within three months, my three books together sold 7,500 copies and were selling at a rate of 4,000 books per month.
It really all goes back to writing a book people want to read. If readers like it, they’ll recommend it to others, and the Internet makes that even easier to do now.
Once Touchstone Books, a division of Simon & Schuster offered me a publication deal, I took the books off the Kindle store while we edited them and got ready for the re-release of each book. THE ARK came out in May, and the promotion included advance reader copies, a book trailer, ads on the New York Times web site, radio and TV interviews, NPR ads, guest blogs and web site interviews, pre-publication luncheons where I got to meet booksellers, front-of-store placement at many different outlets, and a five-city book tour. In addition, THE ARK was selected for the May Indie Next list, which is chosen by the American Booksellers Association, so that was a real honor.
What didn’t work effectively in promoting the book that you wouldn’t do again?
It’s always hard to tell what works and what doesn’t, but I honestly can’t think of anything that was a waste of time or money. In addition to promoting THE ARK, Simon & Schuster is helping me build a career, and I think the investment they’re putting in now will pay off down the road.
How much were you selling the ebook for?
Instead of pricing my books at a paperback cost of $6.99 and using the proceeds to advertise, I priced THE ARK and THE PALMYRA IMPACT at $1.99 and my first book, THE ADAMAS BLUEPRINT, at $0.99. I looked at those prices as a way to get readers to try a new author and let Amazon’s bestseller lists do the promotional work for me. Now THE PALMYRA IMPACT and THE ADAMAS BLUEPRINT are both part of my S&S deal, with THE PALMYRA IMPACT coming out this December as ROGUE WAVE, and THE ADAMAS BLUEPRINT coming out in December 2011 under a new title.
It’s so rare that authors get a book tour anymore. Is Simon & Schuster funding your tour or are you doing it on your own?
A book tour for a debut author like me is even rarer, so I realize how lucky I am. S&S’s funding of my book tour showed they have a lot of confidence in THE ARK, and it was great to meet so many booksellers and readers while I was on the road.
Now that you’ve landed a book deal with Touchstone would you consider going the eBook route again?
I can say without a doubt that I would not have a book deal if I hadn’t self-published ebooks, so it was well worth it. Now that I have the support of Touchstone, all my novels will come out in ebook form, so I will still be part of that growing community. I just won’t have to do all of the work myself.