Thread: State of the Publishing Industry? + My Thoughts

Originally Posted by shadowwalker

They may get more per book - but if they only sell a small percentage compared to what they might have via commercial publishing...

That depends. I've met plenty of people on the Net who claim to be making a few thousand dollars a month self-publishing e-books, and a number of previously trade-published writers who sell a lot more self-published books than they did in their trade-published career.

No advance, costs out of pocket - they're going to have to sell a lot of books to come close to what a commercially published author will have in hand from day one (and that's not counting the additional income from the print version).

Note that the advance is probably paid out over several years, and the book will probably take a year to publish. So if you're getting a $5,000 advance as a new writer, you'd need to sell a littlte more than one e-book a day for four years at $3.99 to make the same amount of money in that time. Two books a day would cover any production costs and give you at least as much money at the end of those four years.

Originally Posted by movieman

That depends. I've met plenty of people on the Net who claim to be making a few thousand dollars a month self-publishing e-books, and a number of previously trade-published writers who sell a lot more self-published books than they did in their trade-published career.

Yeah, I've met a lot of people who make those same 'claims'. Seems like a "I saw it on the Internet so it must be true..." kind of thing.

Originally Posted by movieman

Note that the advance is probably paid out over several years, and the book will probably take a year to publish. So if you're getting a $5,000 advance as a new writer, you'd need to sell a littlte more than one e-book a day for four years at $3.99 to make the same amount of money in that time. Two books a day would cover any production costs and give you at least as much money at the end of those four years.

Over several years? 1-2 maybe, but I've yet to talk to any writers who've got their advance in more than 2-3 installments. The royalties could continue for years, if the advance paid out. And yes, it's possible to earn that $5K in four years (versus on signing) - and possible to recover production costs (does that include payment to author?) in four years (versus having no production costs at all). Anything is possible...

I think we are at a tipping point. I see the future of ebooks getting much stronger, but on the downside copyright will be breached somehow unless the techies come up with a foolproof way of encrypting material until its paid for.

When I am at a point where I am ready to submit my work, I will go down the traditional route first like the OP said and then have a go at self publishing.