Infographic: The Value of a Book (to an Author)
Self-publishing is still synonymous with ebooks, but there's a lot of money to be had in the print book market.
Lulu put together the following infographic to show just how much money an author could make if they self-publish a print title vs selling the rights to a publisher, and other reasons why an author might want to self-publish.
Seriously? $24,000 for selling 3,000 print titles?
Nice advert for Lulu, Nate, but the only place any indie is going to get an 80% royalty for a print title is through Lulu’s own site.
Most indies manage only to sell handfuls of print titles on Amazon. Somehow we can’t see too many indies selling 3,000 copies at $15 a shot in the Lulu store.
My best-selling print title on Createspace is priced at $19.95. It’s not anywhere close to 3,000 sales, but some day it will be. In the meantime it gets about 20 sales a month, and that’s great extra income for me.
change 3,000 sales to 200 to be typical of most print editions. And calculate the profit after buying copies youself and trying to sell them to friends, family, after speeches to the local reading club, and at small book signings at the local bookstore that won’t stock your nonreturnable book.
I thought that sounded off, yes, but didn’t have the stats to dispute it. Thanks.
There is certainly more money to be made in self-publishing, IF your title sells. The majority of self-published authors don’t sell 3,000 books.