Could YOU write a bestseller every month?



 

 Every author dreams of  writing  a best seller, but Craig Osso, a retired property developer living in Mexico, produces twelve a year, according to  the Times newspaper this week. Mr Osso has sold more than 450,000 e-books in thirty months by releasing a book every five weeks.  He is currently in sixth place on Amazon's chart of thriller authors behind Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy and Dan Brown.

So how does he do it? 'He frequently works from 8am until midnight using 'a desk attached to a treadmill' and always publishes  his own books. Writing as Russell Blake, he believes that  being an author in the digital age is like being a shark. 'You keep swimming or you die.'

So are e-books the way to instant success? Last year self-published books accounted for about a third of the 100 best-selling-books on amazon.com leading many traditional booksellers to argue that Amazon is killing their industry.

Take the second-hand bookseller who wrote about his dwindling profits on Facebook in a 'last-ditch attempt to keep his business afloat.'

David Ford was making only £14 a day at his West Yorkshire book shop when he decided to publish the figures online. The response was amazing.  A few days later he achieved forty times that amount from customers who sympathised with his plight.

'There is something wonderful and unique about books,' he told the Daily Mail. 'I am certain they will never go away. We want people to get into books, but this won't happen without book shops.'

This is backed by Lisa Campbell from trade magazine The Bookseller who believes that the independents are starting to fight back. She said. 'Holding events such as author signings, book group sessions and poetry readings are key to their sustainability in their local community as is offering expert knowledge on books and recommendations. They rely on customer loyalty to thrive and many do buck the trend when they get this right.'

Will we go back to our traditional reading habits, or will e-book writers and readers take over the market? The debate goes on.

http://www.thebookseller.com/