Amazon announced today that thriller writer John Locke is the first self-published author to sell more than a million ebooks via the online retailer. 

Locke has reportedly sold 1,010,370 Kindle books using Kindle Direct Publishing.

Locke joins an elite group. Stieg Larsson, James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Charlaine Harris, Lee Child, Suzanne Collins and Michael Connelly are the other members of the so-called Kindle Million Club.

“Kindle Direct Publishing has provided an opportunity for independent authors to compete on a level playing field with the giants of the book selling industry,” said John Locke, in the Amazon press release. “Not only did KDP give me a chance, they helped at every turn. Quite simply, KDP is the greatest friend an author can have.”

The Louisville, Kentucky man is the author of nine novels including “Vegas Moon,” “Wish List,” “A Girl Like You,” “Follow the Stone,” “Don’t Poke the Bear!” and the New York Times bestselling ebook, “Saving Rachel.”

Locke’s latest book, “How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months,” is a how-to guide for self-published authors.

Foxnews.com credits female romance readers with being the real force behind skyrocketing ebook sales.

According to the article by John Quain, women account for 55 percent of ereader owners. And they’re helping drive titles like “Maid for the Billionaire,” “Outcast,” “My Horizontal Life” and “Cotillion” – to the top of Amazon Kindle’s bestseller list.

The New York Public Library, which has the highest circulating ebook library in the U.S., is seeing the impact of this. The article says its ebook loans are up 36 percent over this time last year. Romance novels are the library’s most popular genre by far, their checkout rate is more than double that of mysteries, the second most popular genre.

The library says most ebook checkouts take place on weekend nights.

The article’s findings are in keeping with a recent survey by the Book Industry Study Group, which identifies today’s ebook power buyer as a 44-year-old woman who reads romance, buys at least one ebook a week and spends more on books today than she has in the past.

A recent survey shows print readers are still pretty attached to paper books and advises publishers to retain as much retail space as they can to avoid losing print readers altogether.

Codex Group’s “Book Publishing Digital Transition Report: 1st Quarter 2011” surveyed more than 9,000 book buyers in February.

It found that many more people now have some sort of e-reader.
However, the percentage of people who say they read only ebooks was below 1 percent. By contrast, 40 percent of readers say they read only print books.

Peter Hildick-Smith, president of Codex, expects the number of people who read ebooks to rise while the number of people who say they only read treebooks declines.

More than one-third of those surveyed say they read both print and digital books. A quarter of the people who only read print book are thinking about trying an e-reader.

The report concludes that the high number of readers who want to read only print books – combined with those who read both ebooks and treebooks – demonstrates how critical it is for booksellers to preserve as much retail space as possible in order to avoid losing print readers altogether.

Codex predicts that 43 percent of book buyers will own an e-reading device by the end of the year. However, it also found little indication that consumers plan to stop buying and reading print books.

Makes sense to me. I’m one of those folks who has a Kindle and enjoys reading on it. However, I’m still loving my treebooks as well. I get that familiar thrill when I buy a real book from a favorite author. I have no plans to stop.

Just like I plan to keep reading on my Kindle. I’m even toying with asking for a Nook on my next birthday. I’m a lover of books and I love them in all forms.