GalleyCat has an interesting interview with Elizabeth Lowell, a traditionally published author who has made a successful move to self-publishing.
She has an extensive backlist in the genre of romantic thrillers and says the market for romantic suspense has exploded in the last decade which shows there was a pent-up demand that was not being met. She thinks it’s a great time to be a genre fiction writer in general.
Lowell says readers are seeking contact with authors and want to feel a connection that goes beyond the books and often includes a community of other fans.
She has a big backlist but some of it is still controlled by her publisher. On her self-published titles, she analyzes the sales data and responds rapidly to opportunities to publicize books.
Lowell self-publishes her backlist through her own imprint, Two of a Kind, and has found that everything she does to sell more backlist titles has a synergistic effect on sales for her new front list books. She points out there is no backlist without new releases coming out on a regular basis.
The term “self-publishing” has little to do with the modern reality, she says, and many of the best and brightest authors in commercial fiction have some type of digital self-publishing footprint. She adds that readers don’t care how a book is published, they want to be entertained, and digital self-publishing has been a boon to super-readers.
You can read the full interview at GalleyCat.