Table of Contents
How much money can you make off of a self-published book?
Self-published authors can make between 40\% – 60\% royalties on a the retail price of a single book while traditionally published authors usually make between 10\%-12\% royalties.
How many self-published books are successful?
The cat is out of the bag, finally we know exactly how many self-published authors make it big: 40. Yes, that’s not a typo. 40 self-published authors “make money”, all the others, and they number in the hundreds of thousands, don’t.
How many copies of a book do you need to sell to make money?
A typical book author barely makes more than minimum wage. You receive an advance and 10\% royalties on net profit from each book. If your book retails at $25 per copy, you would need to sell at least 4,000 copies to break even on a $5,000 advance.
How many books should you publish each year?
On average, traditional authors will tell you they publish 1 to 2 books every 3 to 5 years. There is no doubt, that pressure is being put on them by self-published authors willing to crank out more titles every single year.
How many copies does a self-published book sell?
Research suggests that the “average” self-published, digital-only book sells about 250 copies in its lifetime. By comparison, the average traditionally published book sells 3,000 copies, but as I mentioned above, only about 250-300 of those sales happen in the first year.
In fact, only about 5\% of self-published authors indicated “making money” was their primary goal. Suprisingly, none of the top 10 income earners listed “earning money” as their primary goal.
Is it possible to be a self-published author and a traditional publisher?
No. Self and traditional publishing are mostly orthogonal career paths. The vast majority (99\%) of self-published titles are not picked up by a traditional publisher, and most literary agents won’t represent self-published titles. However, it’s possible to pursue self and traditional publishing concurrently.