Author: I sell 60 books on the Kindle to every one iBook

By on Aug 23, 2010 at 12:24 PM
eBooks August 23, 2010

Back in June, Steve Jobs claimed that the iPad had captured 22% of the ebook market since its release in April of this year. J.A. Konrath, a popular fiction author, has recently stated that he is not seeing anywhere close to the figure touted by Apple’s CEO. In a recent blog post, Mr. Konrath wrote:

Publishers might be looking at enriched or enhanced ebooks as their new big-ticket items to replace hardcovers. But the major ebook retailer, Amazon, isn’t set up for video. Kindle isn’t even able to do color yet. That leaves Apple, and according to my numbers Apple is a very small part of the ebook market. I sell 200 ebooks a day on Kindle. On iPad, I sell 100 a month.

Konrath, who is a huge proponent of eBooks, goes on to say that author’s can net 70% of their work’s profits by publishing directly to ebooks; as well as pick their own cover, price, and title. Compare that with the standard 17.5% profit-sharing model publishers typically offer authors who go to print. This is just one authors tale, but you would think that if that 22% figure thrown around by Apple were accurate the numbers would not be this far off.

[Via The Next Web]

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  • http://firstain.com/ karan israni
  • StevenHamburg

    J.A. Konrath’s time on this earth is up…

  • Mark

    I just checked out this author. His books on Amazon sell fromm $.99 – 6.50, and the same books on iTunes at $17.95.
    I dont care what his net profit is……… but
    $3.75 average price x 200 x 30 = $22,500 per month
    $17.95 x 100 $17,950 per month.
    No one is going to spend four times the money for a book when they can buy the cheaper and read it on either device.
    Bogus story ! ! ! !

    • Holly M

      Wow, are you a Mathematics PhD? Dem there be some fancy computations, Mr. Genius Guy.

      • Will

        $17.95 x 100 = $17,950, LOL. Good job, Mark!

      • Mark

        Doh, sorry was trying to get that in while closing down shop.

    • Lars Träger

      Actually, his [i]Audio-Books[/i] sell for >$15 on iTunes, the books only cost $2.99 each.

  • Alvin

    Well, all he is saying “more books are being sold on kindle compared to the ipad,iphone,touch”. Steve Jobs things his company is perfect. They have good products but they are not the best out there. Some people think that apple is good while others don’t. It all depends on the cunsomer needs and wants. I just think that apple products are very expensive and overrated and some of their products lack simple functons and features.

  • mykie

    It seems like Mr. Konrath, it is apparent that Steve Jobs is also a popular writer of fiction.

  • Choc smooth

    He probably only sold 61 books….

  • iName

    why would you even use iBooks on your iPad? i would much rather use the kindle/nook. they work on more devices and their books are cheaper.

    • iName

      i meant to i would rather use the kindle/nook apps**

  • Brent

    Glad some of you noticed the retail price difference, but the next question is, how many of you noticed that Jack and Andrew are comparing e-books to audio books? There is a lot less overhead in a e-book compared to a audio book, like you don’t have to hire a narrator and recording studio.

    This from an author that collected nearly 500 rejections slips over 12 years for his first 9 unpublished books. He should be happy he is now getting published and sold.

    BGR, you’re better than this type of yellow journalism. Go check your facts, and check the logic of your articles.

    • Michael S

      But after you’ve hired the narrator, rented the recording studio, and you have the completed audiobook on a disk somewhere… all you’re doing is selling copies of an MP3 file.

      So, you might have to spend a little more up-front to create an audiobook… (and who knows how hard it is to create an e-book)… once you’re done you just sell copies of either.

  • Brent

    And I just look at the author a little more and it seems he does appreciate being published and sold. He seems willing to payback the help he got.

    So that makes me wonder if he was mis-quoted some.

  • http://tablets-planet.com Scott

    I wish I could write a book seems really profitable.

  • futurejohn

    There’s not much of a surprise here. Not all devices that have access to the Kindle store have access to the iBooks store, but all devices that have access to the iBooks store have access to the Kindle store.

    If someone owns something besides an iPad or iPhone, then it’s obvious who to buy books from.

  • http://www.absolutefiction.com [rono]

    And the Stevo/Apple hype machine struck again!
    Inflating numbers to promote their gadgets.
    Sad. So sad.

  • Travis

    Artie Lange?

  • DavidB

    He knows people aren’t reading his books in Kindle for iPad how? Hint…he doesn’t. So his numbers are meaningless in predicting end user usage and only marginally useful for authors choosing a publishing platform. Of course, why any author would want to limit their audience to only iOS devices is beyond understanding.

  • Jezz (like jizz but with an ‘e’)

    So Apple stretched the truth/lied about something, what’s new? Mr. Jobs is the most pathetic little man in the world; nothing is below him. He will lie all the way til the end.

  • http://modoku.com Nicholas

    I believe that this is a good example for why Apple should not try to enter every market, or to limit applications within the ecosystems. Kindle is on the iPhone/iPad as well, and I must say I would be more likely to use Amazon’s service due to the cross platform nature.

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