Most writers have been discouraged at one point or another by rejection letters. Some preserver and others give up. Mark Dawson is in the former group. Two years ago, he uploaded a manuscript onto Kindle Direct Publishing and he is now earning a “high six-figure” salary doing so.
It all began years ago when Dawson, a trained lawyer, published a novel The Art of Falling Apart in the year 2000. Published by Pan Books, the book didn’t sell well. Then, in 2014 he was inspired by a friend who used the Kindle Direct Publishing service.
The software program is offered on Amazon’s e-reader Kindle and allows authors to upload their work to the online store within minutes. Authors will then get paid royalties of either 35 or 70% depending on what they charge for their work.
While ebooks often cost less than print books, this still could offer authors a nice way to make money. Most royalties on books pay 12.5% with a publishing house.
As Mark said, “My friend was having great contact with readers, he was getting paid quite quickly in contrast to traditional publishing, which pays out quarterly or yearly. It was the impetus I needed to get going again.”
During that year, Mark then published six books which he managed to write during his daily commute from Salisbury to London. And now, he has actually become a stay-at-home novelist. As he said, “I’ll write in a coffee shop for a few hours then go for a run and pick up my kids. When I was a lawyer I would get in when my kids had already gone to sleep, but now I can play a part in their lives.”
He estimates that his novels have been downloaded more than a million times, although have of those were given away for free.