Here’s an inspiring story making the rounds across the net: #1 best-selling indie writer, 26 year old Amanda Hocking has made a fortune self publishing her books on Kindle.

As an indie author she has no publishing deal, meaning she gets to keep 70% of her book sales, which are estimated around 100,000 copies a month at $1-$3 per book. With prices this low, she undercuts the bigger titles and captures impulse buyers, making more on volume, in addition to having zero printing costs.

So far this all sounds pretty sweet, so what sets her apart from other aspiring indie writers putting her at #1? It must be her stellar writing? An innovative marketing strategy? The answers surprised me:

RE: Stellar writing, here’s the description for Switched, the first in her Trylle Trilogy:

When Wendy Everly was six years old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. It isn’t until eleven years later that Wendy discovers her mother might have been right.

With the help of Finn Holmes, Wendy finds herself in a world she never knew existed - a world both beautiful and frightening, and Wendy’s not sure she wants to be a part of it.

Reading an excerpt from Switched, I wouldn’t say stellar writing alone is what put Hockings at #1. It is, however, entertaining for a particular Twilight/YA paranormal romance demographic.

RE: Marketing strategy, here’s an excerpt from an interview with HuffPost writer Tonya Plank:

TP: What has been your strategy for marketing and publicizing your books?

AH: I didn’t really have a strategy. I think one of the advantages I have is that stuff considered marketing is stuff that I do a lot anyway. I’ve been active on social networks and blogs for years.
I also send ARCs [advance review copies] out to book bloggers. Book bloggers are a really amazing community, and they’ve been tremendously supportive. They’ve definitely been a major force that got my books on the map.

When I first published, I did do a bit of promoting on the Amazon forums, but they’re not really open to that, so I haven’t really interacted there much at all in months. I hang out Goodreads, Kindleboards, Facebook, Twitter, and I blog. And that’s about it.

As a digital native, she doesn’t consider her daily routine (nurturing online relationships, self-promoting across social networks and niche communities to build buzz/pull/word of mouth about her product) as marketing strategy proper, but it’s key in landing her at the #1 spot.

This isn’t to say this all happened for her over night; she didn’t just decide to write a book, push it on Facebook, Twitter, blog and watch the money pile up. I must mention Amanda’s been trying to get published for around 8 years prior to her self-publishing success. During this time she read and wrote constantly, while building her network and communities.

Amanda Hockling’s success involves the perfect mix of technology (Kindle, democratizing publishing, allowing indie authors to thrive), culture (Hocking’s YA paranormal content timed perfectly to capture Twilight fandom), and society (people promote, consume, share across social networks). Although I can’t say I’m into her material, I admire her hustle, and passion and wish her sustained success.