A Snapshot of Joe Konrath's e-Book Success

As authors, we know to write it now, get it out there and expect our payday later--much later.  And, yes, we cannot all pretend to reap the numbers of Joe Konrath, but we still have our hopes.  Whatever yours may be, here's a quick look at what Joe did and his earnings (per internet findings; my apologies to Joe if any of the info is incorrect).

To date, he has nineteen novels (purely written by him, whatever pen name used) which is what I'm tracking in this particular post.  So I'm not counting those books where he paired up with another author.  FYI:  He also has four short story collections:

03/01/2010 - Horror Stories - Assorted short stories, e-book

03/01/2010 - Crime Stories - Assorted short stories, e-book

11/11/2010 - Jack Daniels Stories - Assorted short stories, paperback

03/23/2011 - 65 Proof – An Omnibus:  Sixty-five Short Stories, paperback

The date shown above corresponds with the publication data given on Amazon.

From my research, Joe Konrath had his six Jack Daniels mysteries written, one per year, up to and including 2009 when he first began to upload his books to Amazon.  So he had a "backlist," multiple listings to entice new and newly addicted readers.  TIP:  Never stop writing.  Keep on creating those novels even while rejections are coming in.

Here's the Jack Daniels books and their "publication" date.  Sorry I don't know if that is the date of copyright/creation or whether they were actually published pre-Amazon.  Regardless, I'm just seeing how many books Joe had up to match against his earnings therefrom.

05/01/2004 – Whiskey Sour

05/01/2005 – Bloody Mary

05/01/2006 – Rusty Nail

05/01/2007 – Dirty Martini

05/01/2008 - Fuzzy Navel

05/01/2009 – Cherry Bomb

These are the other novels Joe uploaded to Amazon within 2009:

04/01/2009 – Afraid, horror novel, paperback

04/08/2009 – Origin, e-book

04/11/2009 - Disturb, horror thriller about medical experiments, e-book

04/12/2009 - The List, a police technothriller, e-book

04/12/2009 - Shot of Tequila - heist thriller, e-book

07/04/2009 - Truck Stop, a psycho thriller, e-book

He also offered Cherry Bomb in hardcover and e-book on 07/07/2009, but I'm just counting actual titles, not their form of publication.  Still, you can always keep those different formats in mind for later application with your own e-books--branch out into audio, paperback and hardback.

Then in 2010, Joe added three more novels:

06/16/2010 - Endurance,a horror novel by Jack Kilborn (pen name), e-book

06/20/2010 - Trapped, a horror novel by Jack Kilborn (pen name), e-book 

10/26/2010 - Shaken, e-book

Paperback versions of The List, Shot of Tequila, Disturb and Origin came out in July, October, November and November, respectively.

By 2011, besides Shaken coming out additionally in paperback form in February of that year, there were four more Joe Konrath novels on Amazon:

02/22/2011 - Shapeshifters Anonymous, e-book

02/22/2011 - The Screaming, e-book

07/27/2011 - Banana Hammock, a Harry McGlade adventure, paperback

11/22/2011 – Stirred, e-book

As of this writing, I have not found a new J.A. Konrath novel out yet this year.

His earnings are reported as being:

$    2,300/month as of January 2010 (first uploads in April 2009) from 12 novels offered
$  34,000/month as of January 2011 (first full year compared) from now 15 novels offered (total)
$100,000/three weeks as of January 2012 from his total library of 19 novels to date

Keep in mind he's doing e-books, audio, paperback and hardback, plus his books resulting from collaborations with other authors not to mention his short story collections, so all those are included in the earnings quoted above, with each book selling for a minimum purchase price of $2.99.  While almost all of his novels are in e-book format, only some become paperbacks, with less as audiobooks and even fewer in hardback.

Not bad.  Not bad at all.  I look forward to being able to report these numbers!  Of course, I need to get moving on my novel production, instead of my nonfiction books.  I'll have to work on that.

Starting right now . . . .