Fantasy favorite George R.R. Martin has joined a short list of authors who have sold more than one million Kindle e-books in Amazon’s Kindle store, the online retail giant said Monday.

In recent months, the individual books in Martin’s multi-novel fantasy epic, A Song of Ice and Fire, have vaulted to the top of best-seller lists with the release of the fifth book in the series, A Dance with Dragons, and the successful first season of HBO’s Game of Thrones, based on the first of a planned seven novels set in the fantasy realm of Westeros.

“Groucho Marx once said, ‘I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member,’ but even Groucho might have made an exception for the Kindle Million Club,” said Martin, a one-time television writer who worked on Beauty and the Beast and the revamped Twilight Zone.

“It’s a real thrill to be inducted into this one. There are no dues, no meetings, and I’ll be in some wonderful and exclusive company. But really, all the credit here goes to the people who made it possible—to Amazon, my publishers, my editors, and most of all, my readers. I owe this to everyone who ever read one of my books and recommended it to a friend. Thanks, and keep reading. The best is yet to come.”

Martin joins an eclectic group of authors in Amazon’s “Kindle Million Club,” which includes the late Swedish crime novelist Stieg Larsson, young adult author Suzanne Collins, and English philosopher John Locke.

“George R.R. Martin’s series is simply epic,” said Russ Grandinetti, vice president of Kindle Content, in a statement. “And an elaborate series like this is great on Kindle because you can turn the last page of book three at 10:30 at night, then buy book four and be on its first page at 10:31.”

Here is the list of all 11 authors who have sold more than a million books made for Amazon’s Kindle ereader in the Kindle store, along with some of their best-known works:

The Kindle Million Club

1. Lee Child—Killing Floor, Without Fail
2. Suzanne Collins—The Underwood Chronicles, The Hunger Games
3. Michael Connelly—Hieronymus Bosch novels, Mickey Haller novels
4. Janet Evanovich— Stephanie Plum novels
5. Charlaine Harris—Sookie Stackhouse novels (source for HBO’s hit series True Blood)
6. Stieg Larsson—The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest
7. John Locke—Two Treatises of Government, Some Thoughts Concerning Education
8. George R.R. Martin—A Song of Ice and Fire
9. James Patterson—Alex Cross novels
10. Nora Roberts—The Heart’s Victory, Angels Fall
11. Kathryn Stockett—The Help

Who’s next? It could be you!

Val Waldeck
Author of Kindle Publishing Made Easy

I was very delighted to receive this review of KINDLE PUBLISHING MADE EASY with thanks to Anne Erikson.

I am absolutely amazed at the way Kindle books are selling in the Kindle Store. The traffic is HUGE and my books are selling faster there than anywhere else on the web, including my own Online Bookstore.

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If you want to know how to professionally format and publish your books, ebooks and short reports in the Kindle Store, take a look at my special eGuide “Kindle Publishing Made Easy.”

Val

P.S. I LOVE my Kindle!

A struggling writer landed a book deal with a major publisher after putting her novel online for 96p a copy and promoting it by using social networking.

Louise Voss, 42, shot to the top of the Kindle charts after publishing the book in digital form herself after being rejected by literary agents.

It attracted the attention of publishers HarperFiction, which offered her a six-figure, four-book deal.

As a result, her ebook Catch Your Death will also be printed and stocked in bookshops in the traditional way.

She learned how to publish her own material after studying for an MA in creative writing at Kingston University.

She made it available on Kindles and iPhones, using an Amazon service which allows writers to turn their manuscripts into digital books.

Ms Voss promoted the book using social networking and by asking independent reviewers, who specialise in reviewing self-published books, to write about it online.

As a result the book made it into the top 100, and worked its way up to the number one UK download position. It stayed at the top spot for the whole of June and sold 50,000 copies.

At one point a second novel written by her and writing partner Mark Edwards was at number two. Ms Voss, from West Molesey, who is divorced and has a 13-year-old daughter Gracie, said: “Everything has happened very fast, although it feels like a culmination of a lot of hard work.

“I did an MA in creative writing at Kingston University a couple of years ago. It gave me loads of advice on publishing as well as writing.”

Ms Voss said she thinks the book was successful because its low price encouraged people to take a chance on it. She also generated publicity.

“Initially I emailed everyone I knew to ask them to buy the book. Then we approached a lot of indie reviewers on line. When it started going up the charts it was really surreal. We were going past Michael McIntyre and Stieg Larsson.”

The deal which HarperFiction has done with Ms Voss and her writing partner, will allow her to go part-time at her job in the music department of Kingston university.

Ms Voss said it cost nothing to put the book on Amazon, but she paid some money to use an image of the front cover on the site. She made around £20,000 from the combined sales of Catch Your Death – a thriller about a deadly virus – and her second book, Killing Cupid.

Alison Baverstock, her former tutor at Kingston, said: “Louise’s writing was always very good but her effective marketing, and the fact that they were able to prove there is a market for their work, has made publishers and agents come running to her.

“She moved from being yet another person vying for their attention to someone who was able to command it. It seems the tables have turned and authors are now driving publishing companies.”

Can you do this? Learn how with my special eGuide – Kindle Publishing Made Easy – http://kindlepublishingmadeeasy.com – nominee for the Global eBooks Award 2011.