[iansales]

One reason for the success of self-published writers on Kindle is that the purchase is trivial. These are books that are significantly cheaper than their paperback equivalents. Quality becomes immaterial with such mini-purchases. If it looks like it might appeal, you spend your 99p and get it. If it proves to be rubbish, so what? It's not like you've spent a fortune, or have the object cluttering up your home afterwards.

When you look at the self-published genre works that have succeeded on Kindle, you can see that it's all derivative stuff, stuff with existing fanbases who are, let's face it, not especially discriminating. Bog-standard fantasies. Urban fantasies with feisty female leads. Sparkly vampires. Someone else has done all the hard work of marketing such books, the self-pubbed ones are just slip-streaming them.