Author Brenda Hiatt is showing us the money again.

On her blog, Hiatt lays out her initial findings as to how much “indie” or self-published authors are earning.

So, far, she says she’s collected data from 82 books, 33 of them are backlist titles. The rest are original self-published works.

The titles have been available as ebooks an average of seven months.The average price of the titles is about $3. About one-third have been discounted or offered for free for anywhere from a few days to months.

The earnings per title ranged from a few dollars to a current maximum of nearly $140,000.

For backlist titles, the average total amount earned over a book’s “e-lifetime” (as Hiatt refers to it) is $7,915. The median earned is $4,134.

The “average” usually refers to adding up all the numbers and dividing that sum by the number of numbers. The “median” is the middle number or the average of the two middle numbers.

When it comes to original titles, which have been available an average of 6 months, the total earnings to date averaged $12,548. The median was $5,150.

Hiatt reports the single highest-earning title in her survey was an indie original by a previously unpublished writer.

For the complete results of Hiatt’s survey, click here to visit her blog.

Publishers Weekly reports Amazon sold about 6 million Kindle Fires in the fourth quarter of the year – that’s the three-month period that ended Dec. 31, 2011.

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Jordan Rohan credits Amazon’s competitive pricing for the success of the Android-based tablet.

The Kindle Fire sells for $199. The least expensive Apple iPad 2 costs about $499.

“Kindle Fire has staked out an important market position due to its loyal Amazon customer base and attractive device pricing,” said Rohan.

The Kindle Fire remains the top-seller in Amazon’s electronics category.

Followers of this blog know I’ve already posted my Top 10ish romances for 2011.

The ish is because there were still so many 2011 titles in my TBR pile that I couldn’t come up with a comprehensive list.

Much less my favorite book of the year.

But now I have. One hundred percent. Hands down.

I don’t have to read anything else to know The Blawk Hawk by Joanna Bourne is the best book of 2011 for me.

Bourne is a new-to-me author. I’d seen her name on best-of lists and decided to give The Black Hawk a try. Boy, am I glad I did.

The Black Hawk is not only the best romance I’ve read this year, it’s the best book I’ve read – in any genre – in quite a while.

Why? For so many reasons. But let’s start with the fact that it’s a complex, intelligent read with the most memorable heroine I’ve encountered in some time. And everyone would want to be the object of the complicated hero’s single-minded affection.

So much is going on in this spy story, that I had to slow down at times to savor it all. To let it sink in.

I usually hate stories that go back and forth in time. In this case, it worked beautifully. Not only did I not mind it, I loved the way it heightened the intensity of the writing.

I checked The Black Hawk out from the library, but I plan to buy it because I want it for my keeper shelf.  I know I’ll be reading it again. 

It’s a masterful work. If you haven’t already read The Black Hawk, you should.