McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
"The Report" (imperical data on self publishing $)
The Deposed King:
I'm quite interested in knowing how much authors make per book indie versus traditional.
However realizing this is most likely impossible....
I will say, it look to me like its production, production, production. If you've a big backlist your base income will be much higher, un-respective, of how much you make in the initial couple (1-2) month sales.
As an example:
Ignoring his #1 amazon best seller, I'm mainly jealous of Chris Nuttal's 34 book back list, mainly because it took him 34 books to get to that top seller. I'm sure there are other ways to win. But as far as I'm concerned, grinding out the books will get you there.
I will say, as an author whose been in the Amazon Rank 900+ that as far as I can see (keeping in mind I've only really ever gotten as high as the 900-1000 rankings) that they look fairly accurate. And 2.99 gets you about 2 bucks a book. Also my experience has shown that you get most of your blow out sales (after you're first book gets noticed) in the first 4-5 weeks. And frankly once my first book got noticed up about 3-4 months after I published it, I had the same 1-2 months of hot and heavy sales before it petered off. Now the first book only ever got to peak sales of 50 a day. While my latest book 120+
I've also seen that in my series. I get a 50-70% buy through rate from my first book to my 2nd. And that if they buy the second its pretty much a lock they're going to buy the rest. I think its like 90% that do the second buy the third and the third to fourth to fifth just pretty much plain buy them all straight through. Also sales in my last book in the series bump everything. I go from 1-3 sales on my first book, after things have died down, to low teens after my latest mainline book has caught. With spikes in the low twenties. And my follow through sales actually get higher percentages when my sales are low. Versus when they are high and this I attribute to being more highly visible on the search lists, when you have half a dozen books showing up on the top 100 lists. Versus when you're being found by people with keyword searches, or also bought.
For instance its been since november I published a book and sales had dropped like a rock this month. But the buy through from books 1-4 is incredible.
Sales -
Book 1 = 75
Book 2 = 75
Book 3 = 79
Book 4 = 80
With only one day to go in the month.
Anyways sorry if I hi-jacked your thread as this is supposed to be more of an imperical data thing.
8)
The Deposed King
Shecky:
--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on February 27, 2014, 05:39:35 PM ---The anecdotal evidence I have from people doing editing for non-traditional publishers is that it drives them crazy to be in a position where they're not given time to edit properly or where authors without even a basic grasp of grammar get to overrule them, fwiw.
--- End quote ---
As a freelance copyeditor who has done work for the entire spectrum of the trad-to-self-pubbed, I can attest that it's usually the traditional publishers that leave less time to do the work. Also, the self-pubbers who actually look for professional-level editing are both more aware of the basic mechanics and more likely to accept both corrections and suggestions. It's an expensive proposition, paying for the full gamut of editing services yourself up front, but the ones I've worked with all view it as a sound investment. This, of course, doesn't address the ones who don't look for editing services or don't want to pay for them, which is why there's been talk of offering a "Professionally Edited" tag for self-pubbers who bite the bullet and choose the full-editing route, so that potential readers can at least know that it won't be a grammatical or storyline nightmare (story may still suck, but this happens along that entire aforementioned spectrum :D ).
meg_evonne:
--- Quote from: Shecky on February 28, 2014, 01:21:05 PM --- ...there's been talk of offering a "Professionally Edited" tag for self-pubbers who bite the bullet and choose the full-editing route, so that potential readers can at least know that it won't be a grammatical or storyline nightmare (story may still suck, but this happens along that entire aforementioned spectrum :D ).
--- End quote ---
This offers two advantages. First, I'd be far more likely to pick up a debut author and, second, it might get a list of professional editors and an chance to see their work. I'd love to have editor's names listed right beside the author's or on the e-book flap for example. I've long thought that there is an illusive editor out there that I love. I'll adore an author and then, boom it turns to trash. It also explains my strange eclectic book shopping and genres...
--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on February 27, 2014, 05:39:35 PM ---The anecdotal evidence I have from people doing editing for non-traditional publishers is that it drives them crazy to be in a position where they're not given time to edit properly or where authors without even a basic grasp of grammar get to overrule them, fwiw.
--- End quote ---
Lost suspected.
As to DK's interesting number crunching, wow. I actually understood it too, but sigh at the thought of having to track those numbers... :-)
superpsycho:
In publishing, the issue boils down to volume. Unless an e-book is a surprise hit, the marketing reach of traditional publishing means their volume will be multiple times more than the vast majority of e-books.
Traditional publishing gives you two major advantages. The first is that marketing reach; everything from print ad space, to book signing and the talk show circuit. Second, is the support they provide to the Author's in developing their skills, including professional editing.
The total volume of e-books is up but it's divided among a lot of books. So, except for a few noted exceptions, the average individual traditional published book will have a higher volume of sales compared to the average individual e-book.
Shecky:
--- Quote from: superpsycho on April 06, 2014, 03:52:34 AM ---In publishing, the issue boils down to volume. Unless an e-book is a surprise hit, the marketing reach of traditional publishing means their volume will be multiple times more than the vast majority of e-books.
Traditional publishing gives you two major advantages. The first is that marketing reach; everything from print ad space, to book signing and the talk show circuit. Second, is the support they provide to the Author's in developing their skills, including professional editing.
The total volume of e-books is up but it's divided among a lot of books. So, except for a few noted exceptions, the average individual traditional published book will have a higher volume of sales compared to the average individual e-book.
--- End quote ---
Trad-pub "marketing" is far less advertising (what most of the general public thinks of as "marketing") and much more the ability to get shelf space (whether physical or virtual). Just having it out there where people can see it makes it far more likely to catch someone's attention. That being said, the rapidly inflating presence of social media's word-of-mouth effect is really starting to make inroads on those and other aspects of marketing, and word of mouth is the wild card in all of this.
It's a big, nebulous, churning, rapidly evolving world in publishing right now, and trad pub is working hard to incorporate those changes. Will it succeed? Says the Magic 8-ball, "RESULT UNCLEAR." We'll see.
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