Since I independently published my debut novel a few weeks ago, I have fielded a sea of questions. I know not everyone is as interested in the evolving trends in the publishing industry as we writers are, but I was more than a little surprised by a few common misconceptions. So, in no particular order, I will be addressing what I have noticed are some myths about self publishing.
Myth # 1: Authors who self publish will not make as much money as those who go with traditional publishing.
Because publishing companies buy books and sometimes contract more than one at a time providing the writer with a substantial advance, one would naturally conclude that more money can be made with traditional publishing. That’s not entirely accurate.
While six-figure advances are largely a thing of the past (unless you’re the next J.K. Rowling or Stephanie Meyer), let’s work with that golden number for starters. Say you’ve written one great book and have two more planned for the same series. And, say you’re fortunate enough to have caught the eye of one of the big six and that publishing company give you a $100,000 advance or even $150,000/$200,000 for all three books in that series. At first, that sounds great. You can quit that terribly unsatisfying desk job and tell everyone you’re moving onto bigger and better things. Good for you! However, it’ll be at least a year, maybe more, until your book makes it to the bookstores. But, that’s okay because you’re getting published. So, say you received that very high advance of $200,000 for all three books in January of 2012. Book one gets to bookstores around January 2013. Books two and three make it to stores January 2014 and January 2015 respectively. Your royalties are maybe 10%, if you’re lucky. So, for every $7.99 copy that sells either on Kindle or paperback, you get about 80 cents. But, wait: They call it an advance for a reason. You don’t get that paltry 80 cents until your books have made the company back its $200,000 it paid you.
So, under the best circumstances, that $200,000, actually $170,000 after the agent takes his or her cut, has to last you about three to four years. Even at three years, that a little over $56,600 a year. How much was that unsatisfying desk job paying you? Were you getting health benefits? But, say everything goes wonderfully and that great publishing company marketed your book like crazy, and you make them their advance back within the first year, you’re still only getting 80 cents a copy. By the way, 10% royalties are high. For first books, they’re closer to 7%. That’s considered a success story, and if you’re determined to hold out for traditional publishing, I really hope that’s your story.
Here’s the other version. You took your $200,000, actually $170,000, quit your unsatisfying desk job, threw yourself a party, and started working on books two and three. Because you worked on them full time, which was always your dream, you finished them both within a year. The publishing company now owns them. They paid you for them, after all. Now, it’s one year later and you’ve eaten a little into your advance because you had bills, your own insurance to buy, and a life to lead. Maybe you have about $120,000 left, conservatively speaking. That’s okay because it’s January 2013, and your book is about to hit stores. Yea! However, the publishing company that saw so much promise in your work a year ago now has its sights set on what it thinks is the next Harry Potter. You don’t get an end cap, a table, or a poster in the window of Barnes and Noble. They’re saving that promotion for their new golden book. Your book gets a few precious inches on the new fiction shelf, if you’re lucky.
Ninety days later, your book has had disappointing sales, and the bookstore sends the copies back to the publisher. Three months is all the time they give your book to prove its worth. Then, it’s off the shelf, possibly spending a sad few weeks on the 50% off shelf on its way out the door. I hope you took a picture. Now, one year and three months later, you’re left with a dwindling advance and three books, the rights of which are owned by the publishing company, not you. Also, if your book’s sales disappointed the publishing company, you can be assured that you’ll have to start over from scratch with a brand new book and start querying agents and editors again. Remember how much fun it was the first time?
You have to look at the money made from self publishing a bit differently. There is no advance, no big book release party, no New York Times book review, and no visiting it at the bookstore. It’s just you, your computer, and that illusive ranking graph from Amazon. It’s a lot less exciting in the beginning. I remember checking Amazon over and over again after I put it up waiting for the paperback and the Kindle pages to build and link to each other. I didn’t want to announce it until it was really easy to find on the site. When they were, I hugged my husband and announced it on Facebook. That was it.
I set my own price, and with self publishing, I get 70% of the sales price of the Kindle version. This is where a lot of publishing companies mess up. They price the Kindle about the same sometimes slightly lower than the paperback. People who own Kindles prefer their books to be priced the same as iTunes. Fair or not, that’s the expectation. My Kindle version is priced $3.47. My print-on-demand company provided this lovely formula that let me calculate my royalties for the paperback based on my price, and I set it at $11.99 because it provided me with nearly the same royalties as the ebook, about $2.50. I decided to try to get the same amount of money for each version, even though I realize the bulk of my sales after friends and family will be ebooks.
Just because my royalties are higher does not mean that I’ll make more money at the onset of my book release, but I will make it right away instead of paying back a publishing company that’s already taking 90% of my book sales. Its success is based on the quality of the book, the attractiveness of the cover, and the aggressiveness of my marketing, not necessarily in that order, and I have an indefinite amount of time to make it an Amazon best seller while retaining the rights to my work.
Some book lovers will be brokenhearted to see the bookstores close, one after another, and I too will miss browsing the shelves for a new glossy paperback. However, when the newest technology of ebooks finally eats the bookstores, and all that remains are websites and e-readers, I’ll be a major player in a very exciting market, possibly even a best seller. How much money is that worth?
Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs
