How Much Money Do Authors Make?

How much do authors make? Better yet, how much do authors make when they self-publish? That is likely the biggest burning question you have if you are towards the finish line of launching your self-published book. Because even if you got into this field for all the right reasons (aka following your passion for writing), it is still nice to get valuably compensated for your effort, time, and get back your ROI for the costs to make it all come together as a cover to cover masterpiece.

Now, to get this out of the way: No. The answer on how much you are going to get paid as a new self-publisher is not cut and dry or even across the board for every author. That in and of itself depends on a variety of different factors, such as your genre (the romance market is at $1.44B whereas horror is at $76.6M), how captivating your book cover is, what your marketing budget/plan entails, and even smaller things like if you are going with a hardcover (average 10% book royalty) or paperback (average 6% book royalties). With that being said, how much authors make might be a gray thing to answer, but something we can certainly answer with much more validation is how authors can make money in the first place – with book royalties being number one.

Book Royalties and What to Expect

Simply put, book royalties are the amount that a publisher will pay an author in exchange for the rights to publish the book they wrote. For instance, if you choose to sell your book on Amazon Kindle, you can get paid a percentage of each book they sell on their platform. Keep in mind that an 8% royalty would be an ideal percentage to shoot for, but the standard for new self-publishers is closer to 6%. How does this calculation work?

Example: 6% royalty x $7.95 price = $0.48. If you sell 10,000 books, you earn $4,800 in book royalties.

For a little more insight here, when using standard book royalties, a typical author will get around 20% to 30% of their revenue for hardcover books, 15% on paperback, and about 25% for an eBook. Even more, some retailers may have a 70% royalty option that you can take advantage of if your book satisfies the list price requirement of being between $2.99 and $9.99. Sure, you will be selling your book for cheaper, but that 70% boost and the low price means you are well below the competition on price parity, which can gain you immense exposure that enables you to charge more and sell more on your next book.

Additional Considerations

If you are someone who wants a lump sum of cash now instead of having it trickle in over time, think about going with advances. Advances are payments that are made to authors during the early publishing process before the book is even published and can earn you anywhere from $10,000 or more in one swoop. Though you can earn a large profit and marketing support even before you attain any royalties, the contingency here is that you will have to pay back that cash advance with a portion of your royalties until the balance is gone. If you are okay with that being the case, then acquiring an advance could be a wonderful route to take to give your name and book a head start.

Another route you can take is selling your book yourself, in addition to popular online retailers. If you have a strong marketing campaign, an existing audience, or a topical genre, then you may have success selling your books through your own website. This would involve having some inventory in place, rather than taking a print-on-demand route. The benefit to self-publishing through your own author website is you keep 100% of the profits because there are no royalties involved.

Self-publishing Resources

If you need help getting started self-publishing a book, 48 Hour Books has multiple resources available – many of them free.

·      Start with our self-publisher checklist

·      For marketing advice, read these marketing resources to start planning your strategy.

·      If you are looking for an editor, 48 Hour Books has helped narrow your search with these recommended book editors.

·      Use our instant cost calculator to explore book options, quantities, and per book costs.

·      When preparing your files, utilize our free book and cover templates. We also have a free downloadable PDF with formatting tips to help you make your files look perfect.

·      If you plan to self-publish and sell your books in stores or online, you will need an ISBN and barcode. 48 Hour Books can help you obtain these from ISBN.org if you place an order with us.

Summary – Position Yourself for Lucrative Success

As a quick recap, if you are a new self-publisher, there is a good chance you can earn anywhere from $10,000+ to $1,000 or less in your first year. Again, those numbers can sway heavily based on book quality, cover design, genre, and other external factors like a large social media following you can directly market to. For instance, you could always uptick your profits in a single year with a retail book price of $14.99 and a royalty percentage of 60%, giving you a $5.74 profit on each book sold.

As a final note, it is true that about 20% of new self-publishers do not make any money at all, but that should never discourage you from testing the waters yourself. Remember, every author has to start somewhere, and the only way to start building your rapport to hopefully turn your $5K annually to monthly is by positioning yourself for that type of success starting day one. So, don’t get discouraged if your first book doesn’t take off and become a movie, and don’t feel defeated if you don’t meet the milestones you had for yourself just yet. Just keep doing what you love, and when you are ready to take the next step toward that lucrative future, our 48 Hour Books team is on standby to help you make that happen.

Need help covering the costs to get your book off the ground? Consider applying for grants that can give you the extra support you need. Though most grants place their emphasis on fiction content, there are still many other places you can apply to, such as Artist Research and Development for literary writers, the Art and Change grant for Women and trans authors, and broader ones such as The Awesome Foundation.