“Kindles and
eBooks are changing the landscape of publishing. You can reach an audience and
create a buzz online. I think publishers are still important in terms of
editing, marketing and getting into bookshops, but self publishing can be
another route to that.”
Those were the astute words of crime writer Stephanie Merritt (aka SJ Parris, author of detective
novels like Heresy and Prophecy) at a recent Red magazine event on how to write a crime novel.
And she’s clearly
right. Her views are borne out by the news from Amazon.co.uk this week that a
self published novel by UK author Nick Spalding has become one of its ten
bestselling items over the last three months.
Southampton-based
Spalding has published a string of “comedies with adult humour” through
Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). So far he’s sold 245,000 copies of his books
and earned up to 70 per cent in royalties from his sales.
Spalding’s Love… From Both Sides is currently riding
high in the top 25 Kindle bestsellers list while two of his other books, Love… And Sleepless Nights and Life… With No Breaks, are in the top 100.
As Spalding says: “KDP is a fantastic
opportunity for writers to get their work into the hands of the people that
actually count – the readers. It's never been easier to publish an ebook thanks
to Amazon's progressive and forward thinking attitude. They've given many more
writers a voice - writers who would otherwise have remained silent. I can't
thank them enough for providing me with the means to become as popular as I
am.”
Not surprisingly, Gordon
Willoughby, director of Kindle EU, is delighted.
“Nick Spalding joins
international bestsellers such as EL James and Suzanne Collins in our top ten bestsellers
of the last quarter at Amazon.co.uk,” he says. “That’s a fantastic achievement
for a KDP author. KDP enables independent authors to compete on a level playing
field with the giants of the literary world and we’re excited to see it
succeeding for both readers and authors.”
Nick Spalding follows
in the footsteps of Kerry Wilkinson, a debut novelist from Lancashire who was
the number one selling author in Amazon.co.uk’s Kindle store during the last
quarter of 2011. Wilkinson didn't have an agent or publicist - just the determination to write the very best book he could. And it worked a treat.
