Auggy, next time you pop in can you give us a brief summary of your experience as a self published (mostly) ebook author? First and foremost how is the money? Obviously you aren't getting rich since you are still working but you must not be going broke since you've got the third out now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phoenix Psaltery
I have to say that I am a little hurt that nobody ever bothered to ask ME those questions.
P2
Ok, P2 posted in Auggy's latest thread. We might as well have a whole thread about it. So tell us your experiences.
I'm also interested in your out of pocket experiences. How much does it cost to get a book on Amazon or SmashWords or GoodRead?
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Ok, P2 posted in Auggy's latest thread. We might as well have a whole thread about it. So tell us your experiences.
I'm also interested in your out of pocket experiences. How much does it cost to get a book on Amazon or SmashWords or GoodRead?
Well, short answer, for my situation: nothing.
To clarify: One of these things is not like the other. Goodreads is basically social media for readers. They don't publish books, it's just a place to share what you have read, what you liked, didn't like, and so on. The good thing about Goodreads for authors is getting people talking about your book. I did a giveaway on there and was shocked to find that something like 750 people entered to win a copy of PINBALL.
Amazon and its Createspace subsidiary is where i have chosen to focus my energies, and while they do have services available, especially at Createspace, that can cost you hundreds of dollars to get their assistance in things like formatting your manuscript, designing a cover, and so on (I have heard of people spending upwards of $1500 for these services!) I have chosen to go strictly on my own; luckily, I seem to have all the mad skillz necessary to go it alone in that regard, and my paperback editions have turned out beautifully.
Smashwords offers a lot of options that allow an author to submit a manuscript once and have it distributed through multiple e-book outlets such as Amazon Kindle, B&N Nook, and a number of others, but I found that their requirements concerning the way that the manuscript has to be formatted and etc. did not sit well with me, plus there are some strong benefits to enrolling a book in Kindle's KDP promotion plan, which requires that the e-book version of a book be exclusive to Kindle for a minimum of 90 days, so I removed PINBALL from Smashwords after a couple of months, seeing that I had sold only one single solitary copy.
Money-wise, Kindle typically pays a 70% royalty (35% in some cases) which is much more than I would be earning with a traditional publisher. Of course, the counterbalance to that is that I don't sell as many books as I would if it were being advertised in national media, since I don't have the deep pockets of a publishing house.
Still, the amount I get each month has gradually increased over the last year, and in December Kindle removed the threshold that they had previously imposed which said that an author had to have $10 or more in royalties in order to get paid. They pay royalties separately from each of several geographical divisions: amazon.com, amazon.ca, amazon.co.uk, and whatever the URLs are for France, Germany, Japan, Brazil, Mexico... and probably a couple of others that I have forgotten, so that, for example, if I had sold two books in Mexico and was owed, say, $4 in royalties, I wouldn't get paid for those until it accumulated to $10 or more. Now I get paid even if it's just a $2 amount or whatever.
The other thing I am working on is not depending on a single book as the be-all and end-all of my sales. A number of authors I have talked to say that the key to doing well is to have multiple book titles available; people will read one and get curious and want to read the others. This is especially true of a series. I know that I have had several reviews on PINBALL that mentioned that they were planning to read REPLAY as well, and that's kind of the idea. I have about seven more books at least in the planning stages, and three that I am actually working on right now. Steady as she goes, Cap'n.
P2
__________________ Genius by birth... slacker by choice. The indiscriminate use of vulgar language is the linguistic crutch for inarticulate motherfucking sons of bitches. I can figure the number of millimeters in a light year, but don't ask me to do algebra. And everything is green and submarine...
Seriously, I am not comfortable giving specifics, but I will say that my sales have increased by about 400% since the first month (January 2013). They tend to grow a little each month, which is what I was shooting for.
It's by no means a large amount, but I am hoping that by the time 3 to 5 years have passed, it will be.
Better answer: he did not even make minimum wage from the sales vs. the hours spent writing/editing/formatting/promoting. He made quite a bit more from doing editing/proofreading for people, but again, not even minimum wage for the hours he did that either. But he's got the start of a writing and editing business, so that's good.
Seriously, I am not comfortable giving specifics, but I will say that my sales have increased by about 400% since the first month (January 2013). They tend to grow a little each month, which is what I was shooting for.
It's by no means a large amount, but I am hoping that by the time 3 to 5 years have passed, it will be.
P2
Why, are you hiding something?
Dude, I'm not asking for your tax returns. Just trying to give people a general feel what to expect. 400% increase means nothing without knowing what you made.
I'm just looking for generalities. $2 a month? $2,000 a month? One person I've talked to said she made as much as she did in her full time job but she didn't say if she worked part time at Walmart or full time at Bear Sterns Brokerage! LOL and she wrote porn.
I'm not asking what YOU make, I'm asking what someone else can expect.
To be fair, that's a really hard figure to give a relevant answer to.
The amount you can make via "self-publishing" is going to largely depend on a few factors, two of the main ones being how good is your shit and how well you spread that shit around.
A great book with great advertising will easily make more money using the same printing/publishing process than a crappy book with no marketing.
Self publishing
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