Amanda Hocking

[JReader123]

What do you think about the "queen" of self publishing? Have you ever checked out her books? What do you think about someone making so much money from ebooks?


I think that she just happened to get lucky. What she happened to write was popular at the time. People were looking for another twilight. I have actually gotten one of her books for free in the kindle store and I wasn't really that impressed. I couldn't get past the first few pages.

[Ashah Taylor]

I got one of her books for free and despite deciding early on that I didn't like it I read the whole thing. Her writing didn't impress me either and the story line didn't interest me one bit

[JReader123]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that way. I thought I just didn't like her work because it was aimed at teenagers.

[Ashah Taylor]

I think that's part of it for me. I rarely read books aimed at teenagers, only if they really interest me.

[dtvrivera]

I happened upon Amanda Hocking's novels by chance when looking for vampire fiction a few years ago. Back then, most of her novels were for sale on Amazon for only $0.99. I was surprised when shortly after I found out that she had received a book contract through St. Martin's Griffin for her Trylle Trilogy. I have not read this particular series yet, but did attempt to read her vampire novels that were available at our library. I, too, did not quite make it through the first few chapters before deciding to abandon the novel altogether. I did vow to come back to it eventually, after finishing up some other novels I had line, but still haven't. I am curious, however, about her Trylle Trilogy and how it differs from her other novels in writing style.

[M-Allmon]

I used to be a fan. I stopped reading her books after I started reading two series that she never completed, the vampire books, My Blood Approves and a zombie apocalypse called The Hollows. There were supposed to be 5 of the vampire books but she only put out four, and posted an outline on her blog for the fifth one. She stopped after 2 of the Zombie books and the series was supposed to be made into a graphic novel series, I don't know if that ever happened though. Since she can't finish the series I put time and money into, I will no longer buy her books.

[Lilianar_]

I thought her books weren't as good as i had hoped and were not the best written and even seemed slow at times. With that being said, I bought one of her series and though she could have done a waaaaaay better job of writing it there was some imagination behind the story line.

[SharisseEM]

I've heard a lot about Amanda Hocking, her books and her success so I read a book. There were spelling errors and grammatical errors and it made it a little difficult to push through to the end but I did and it wasn't what I thought it would be with all the 'rave' reviews I've been hearing. There was something lacking in her stories. I think that that something was depth. There was a lack of emotions. When I went back to Amazon, I decided to read the reviews and realised there were quite a few people turned off my all the errors and such. Then I read her debut book (should have done that in the first place...) and it was pretty good so I don't know what to think. Maybe it's just the more current books?

[lindell]

I haven't read any of her books yet, but from the success she's seems to have had I thought that the books were going to get better reviews. But I've seen others say pretty much the same things as you, that there were spelling errors and that she could have done much better. I have to say I'm a bit curious to check out her books myself now just to see what everyone's talking about

[Sparrow]

I haven't read her work either, but yeah, I'd say she just got dealt a good hand with timing and topic. Right now, with Amazon and free software like Sigil, self publishing is a big thing. Vanity publishers used to be looked down on, but with the growth is technology access, and the fiscally lower options to use Vanity Publishers, the market is flooded. I don’t doubt that there's some really good self-published content out there, but the problem is miring through the muck to find it. It's similar to the impact digital film had on the movie industry- it's much cheaper, and now everyone and their brother are film makers, and there's about 1000 “found footage” pieces of shlock for every 1 halfway decent movie put out by a major movie studio.

It's also worth saying that even writers who get published by actual publishing houses don't make very much money. Most authors sell their first book for a few hundred, in the hopes that it sells well and secures a contract deal for them.

Authors who self-publish through Amazon basically give away their first ebooks- the only time authors are going to get a lot of money for their work is by writing a best seller. That doesn't mean you couldn't make a decent amount of money by self-publishing, though. I know a girl who's been blogging for years, and she also self-publishes her ebooks, and she's made enough to make it (the blog and the books) her full time job. She's married though, so she's also got fiscal support from her husband. But she sells her ebooks on Amazon for about $5, and there are often little sales where they go to $2- She does okay, but she isn't rich by a long shot, or even comfortably well-off. The money she makes is because she is relentless about marketing herself- a large blog following centered on the same topic she writes about accounts for a lot of her sales.

I think a lot of writers now think if they self-publish an ebook, a publisher will see it and recognize it's genius and potential, and they'll be “discovered”- but that's not how things really work. If you want to self publish bc you love writing, and want to share it, then go for it; if you want to write and be published by a publishing house, and get the respect that comes with doing it, as well as the potential for contracts, then I think self-publishing can be a good way to get your feet wet. It lets you see how the process works, so when you're ready to send your work to publishers for consideration, you're somewhat seasoned.

In the self-publishing world, it's all about marketing. And as with Amanda Hocking, once in a blue moon, luck

[Allison]

To be honest about this author and her books...I find that I enjoy the overall story, but I find the content to be lacking, the grammatical errors numerous, the characters mundane and the world building atrocious. I personally think editing and publishing are parts of what makes a book a good read. Its not just about writing on a page, there are processes to it.