The Kindle Million Club gets a new member

Today, Amazon announced that self-published author John Locke, has sold over 1 million books using Kindle Direct Publishing becoming the first independently published author inducted into the “Kindle Million club.” Current members of the "club" include authors like Stieg Larsson, James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Charlaine Harris, Lee Child, Suzanne Collins and Michael Connelly.

Locke, the international best-selling author of seven Donovan Creed novels, all of which have made the Amazon/Kindle Top 20 Best Seller's List, has published nine total works including: “Vegas Moon,” “Wish List,” “A Girl Like You,” and “Saving Rachel.”

Tech Crunch sums up the situation well, "Taking a look at Locke’s works (i.e. Now & Then, which pictures a half-naked woman on the cover), it looks like he may not be in line for a Pulitzer, but the milestone is impressive for an independent author."

Awesome takeover for Bloodmoney

I love these high impact units- they don't obstruct anything on the site from readers' view, yet there's still no way to miss them. W.W.Norton & Company, Inc just ran a really cool skin and banner ads on Powerline for Bloodmoney with us (blogads) on Friday. From the author of the best-selling Body of Lies and The Increment: in a tragedy of revenge, the CIA falls victim to its own daring operation in the Middle East. Check out the book and contact us to learn more about how you can run a skin!

The most practical bookmark

New age meets old.

Adorable

book lover shirt available over at Threadless.

10 ways authors should use their Facebook fanpage

1.) Draw your blog's RSS feed into your fanpage with apps like Social RSS

2.) Show off your book trailer videos or live interviews with the Youtube app

3.) Update with tour info, like location and dates by creating an event. After the event, post your photos in an album on the page.

4.) Expand your network by inviting friends to become fans with a note explaining what value the page will provide, and a link to it.

5.) Encourage folks who land on the page to like it, by creating and implementing a specific landing page, asking them to do so, and giving them something (like a free book chapter) in return. Check out Facebook for Business's fanpage for an example.

6.) "Like" other pages to help build your community.

7.) Hold contests and giveaways.

8.) Include links in the "about" box to places where your books can be purchased.

9.) Respond fast to comments folks leave. When fans are engaging you, it's a good sign!

10.) Ask questions, start discussions and create polls (ex. asking your fans to vote on a topic they'll care about).

10 ways authors can treat their Twitter followers well

1.) Give your followers a shout out by recommending them on #followfriday and #writerwednesday (if they too are authors). And retweet their updates any day, if you relate.
2.) Teach your followers something. Explain the best way to start an outline, to query an agent, how to advertise your book, how to price your ebook, etc.
3.) Give away free books or bookmarks.
4.) Make them laugh. People are on Twitter to be entertained. Nothing captures attention, like something humorous.
5.) Hold contests- for example, literature trivia.
6.) Update with information you've not made available elsewhere- like a tour location you just booked.
7.) Connect your followers with each other- make introductions.
8.) Invite your followers to a chat/discussion around a certain topic, with a specific hashtag everyone can follow.
9.) Give your followers control, let them determine where your next reading will be, or what the name of the next chapter should be.
10.) Spice it up, include pictures (maybe use a popular service like Instagram), ask questions, let them know a personal life detail or two.

Crowdsourced funding for books

A new UK start-up is on the publishing scene, called Unbound, and it's a model worth examining. I'm curious to see how many successful books they're able to launch, and if a singular genre ends up taking off.

Basically Unbound is a program for creating new books, where in folks can pledge money towards publishing titles they enjoy; if the goal amount is raised, the book gets made. It's sort of a combination of Threadless (i.e. focuses on only one product type- books, and only the things the crowd likes actually get made) with Kickstarter and IndieGoGo (i.e. individual people pledge funds towards making the writer's dream happen, get rewards in return, and each writer has their own book page, video, etc.).

It looks like the "rewards" for every book are exactly the same though, which is one difference from Kickstarter's platform. The rewards range from a digital copy of the book to a launch lunch party. This makes the pledging based more on individual's desire for that specific writing style/author than their interest in a unique gift offering-- allowing the authors to concentrate on their true craft- writing.

If the books don't receive enough pledges, they don't get made- the most "successful" campaign posted thus far has only reached 3% of its goal but it has 46 days left, so fear not, perhaps. I read on Adpulp that campaigns with videos raise more money, according to IndiegGoGo and so far all the books featured have made videos, a pitch, an excerpt, and bios.

A unique feature to Unbound is the promoter opportunity. Unbound will reward you with 1 credit (£1) for every supporter you have referred when the books target is met. It's their way to encourage you to do their marketing.

I'm curious what % of the total money raised Unbound receives. I think Kickstarter takes a 5% fee.

Currently Unbound is only adding projects for authors with proven track records, but it looks like they hope to expand and increase their diversity of offerings-- taking submissions from "the public at large."

So at a basic level Unbound plucked a category off of Kickstarter and had a go at it. I'd like to see a similar concept executed for records/CDs. Actually speaking of music, I'd also like to see a platform like this that allows you to basically petition your favorite band to come perform in your area. Does something like either of those already exist?

How do you think Unbound will fair?