jvin248

Surprising about Amazon comment. Since you're traditionally published and have been writing for years, do you have any novels that all rights have reverted to you? Many traditionally published novelists have a book or two they got back with a note from their publisher "this thing isn't selling so you can have it" and then the author puts it on Amazon/Smashwords/etc and sells more in a year than the traditional publisher did in the last ten (and makes more per copy sold at 70% on Amazon vs 12.5% or 17% depending on your old contracts). Since you're an established writer your self published titles will sell well from the start - you have an established brand. Of course some new contracts have the publisher owning your soul on any future work (some discussion of this on Dean Wesley Smith's blog).

(Sorry for jumping in ..)

I once learned a poor review by a local newspaper critic meant I would love that movie while the ones they rated highly I would despise. Their tastes were directly opposite of mine but they were consistent and so still useful for me read.

So consistency of voice can be critical for a quality critic.

Advances are slim now compared to years ago, really slim. Many successful self published authors make more than the advance in a few months. Traditional publishing takes 18-24 months to get a book on the market where self publishing can be up in 24 hours and earning for the author the whole time that would have been wait time had they gone the traditional route. The numbers just don't make sense. The only authors that go traditional are the ones seeking validation by the old world, not validation with paying happy fans.

Check out Diresta and how he self-brands his tools unless sponsored, seems fair. I saw him mention that concept in one of his older videos.

... Not OP but books hitting top 10-20th rank on Amazon are selling 8-10,000 copies per day to stay ranked up there. More books sit in the 1,500,000th rank range not selling more than a copy every so often (still that is a reader and a potential fan). Each year nearly a million books get added to Amazon's list so competition is increasing every day.