Day two of the pre-festival workshops for When Words Collide and yet another great session.

As an author of speculative fiction AND director of self-publishing and author relations at Kobo Writing Life,  Mark Leslie (Lefebvre), offered a unique perspective on the world of Hybrid publishing.

Hybrid publishing? To be honest, I wasn’t familiar with the term until I saw the title on the festival programme, but it appears that many writers are finding success by embracing both traditional AND self-publishing.

From his position at Kobo, Mark was able to offer us some very specific numbers.
In 2013, only 12 authors made more than $100,000 through Kobo Writing Life. (Out of those 12, 11 were romance authors.)
5% made more than $50,000
8% made more than $10,000
20% made more than $5,000
Which leaves a LOT earning between $100 and $5,000

He talked too about The Three P’s of self-publishing.
Practice. Patience. Persistence.

And don’t expect the money to come from having only one book out there. The general wisdom is that you don’t start making money until you have a minimum of 3-4 books published.

A great workshop. I came away with a much better understanding of the realities of the self-publishing industry and a cautious optimism (that phrase again) that this is do-able. Thanks, Mark.

Roll on tomorrow when the conference really gets under way.