Minnesota e-book author parlays DIY success into major deal

BY TARA BANNOW, Associated Press

AUSTIN, Minn. (AP) -- For more than five years, Amanda Hocking spent her days tending to disabled adults, making their meals and cleaning up after them. When she got home, she would crack open a can of Red Bull and start typing away at her novels.

Her effort to make it as a writer was at least as grinding as her day job, with countless rejections from book agents before Hocking stumbled across a promising new business model for aspiring authors: self-publishing and marketing through e-booksellers.

A little more than a year later, Hocking's novel "Switched" sits at No. 41 on USA Today's list of top 150 best-selling books -- just a few notches below such major juggernauts as James Patterson and Maeve Binchy. Hocking's books also occupy slots 54, 57, 114 and 149 on the list, and on Thursday, the publishing world finally caught up when the 26-year-old college dropout signed a four-book deal with St. Martin's Press.

Hocking said the first book in a new "Watersong" series was slated for release in fall 2012. She declined to release details of the deal. St. Martin's Press confirmed the deal but would not comment further.

During an interview, the author was coy about discussing publishing deals before finally coming clean about her relationship with St. Martin's. She's only written one of the four books in the 'Watersong' series, and won't say what it's about yet, although it's in the same paranormal romance vein as her other books.

Aimed at young adults, Hocking's books occupy the same territory as the enormously popular "Twilight" books by Stephenie Meyer. Hocking has written about vampires, zombies and trolls -- a strategic decision that she says she made after scanning the shelves at Wal-Mart.

"I like vampires and they're popular," Hocking said. "So I thought, 'Why not write about them?'"

She has sold her books on such sites as Amazon's Kindle Store and Barnes & Noble's NOOKbooks at prices ranging from 99 cents to $2.99. Hocking keeps up to 70 percent of the sales.

She sold a few hundred books last May, and the numbers slowly grew to a few thousand before spiking to more than 100,000 in December. Monthly sales reports Hocking provided to The Associated Press showed more than 333,000 sold in January and another 300,000 in February, enough to back her claim to have sold between $1.4 million to $2 million in e-books.

E-book sales have taken off along with sales of electronic reading devices. The Yankee Group, a Boston research firm, estimates e-book sales will generate $2.3 billion in revenue in the U.S. by 2013, nearly nine times that of 2009.

Alok Gupta, a University of Minnesota marketing professor, said low pricing is critical to e-book success. Authors who do well tend to price their books around 99 cents and do high volume, he said. They also piggyback on popular topics.

Hocking was making $12,000 a year working at the group home, but she quit last August to focus on writing. She said she spends eight to 12 hours each day writing, most of it after dark.

"Switched," the first book in her Trylle Trilogy, is about a rebellious 17-year-old girl who meets Finn, a mysterious new boy at school. She later learns that she's a Trylle, a human-looking troll who was switched at birth, and Finn was to return her to the other trolls. There, she learns she's a princess.

Stacy Schmitz-Miller, 37, of Wadena, Minn., a fan of romance novels who had read the "Twilight" series, said "Switched" was one of the first books that came up when she searched Amazon's romance category. Since it was only 99 cents, she said, "What the heck," and gave it a try. She went on to read all of Hocking's books in two weeks, swept up in their romance and mystery.

"I think every woman can relate to sort of wanting to feel protected," she said.

Grace Onorato, a young blogger from Delmar, N.Y., called "Switched" predictable but a fun "cheese read."

"It's an addicting, easy to digest book that can be devoured in an afternoon," Onorato wrote in her blog. "It probably won't win any literary awards, but it is definitely still worth reading."

Earlier this year, Terri Tatchell, co-screenwriter of the 2009 science fiction film "District 9," agreed to adapt the books from Hocking's Trylle Trilogy as a screenplay.

Hocking said she hasn't adjusted to having money.

Her big-ticket spending has been limited to a car, a television and clearing some debts for herself and loved ones. She still shares the same house she rents with her best friend, Eric Goldman, for $250 a month although she has her eye on buying another place across town. Goldman now serves as her paid assistant, handling email, tracking her schedule and taking the occasional media inquiry.

"I make him turn stuff down," Hocking said. "I don't like to tell people no."

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