After exactly two years of writing this Why I’m a Literal Literary Loser Substack (my first post was on October 14, 2021), my two most popular pieces have turned out to be:
The former broke down how much I spent on advertising my books, versus how much I earned, and the latter detailed expenses and profits from three different means of bringing my books to market. Another relevant (and self-explanatory) read is:
My most recent novel, “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region” came out November 2022, from History Through Fiction, a micro-press with their mission stated clearly in the title.
Due to popular demand, and because I finally have two royalty periods to work with, I will now compare how much I made in working with a small, traditional press, versus self-publishing.
My most popular self-published title, “Getting Into NYC Kindergarten,” has been on sale since April 19, 2015. Priced at $9.99 it has, in its lifetime, sold 1,829 copies, and earned $12,671.90. A handful of copies sold via BN.com brings the total to around $13,000.
This is all profit. I did not pay anyone to edit the book, my then 13 year old son designed the cover, and my husband did all the technical formatting. I update the book every year, so it’s not a case of set it and forget it, and I market it aggressively via a website, a mailing list, a YouTube channel, media appearances, and dozens of parent workshops.
But that’s non-fiction. See above for why comparing non-fiction to fiction sales is apples to oranges. Today, I’ll be doing a more direct comparison: Fiction to Fiction.
When I sold “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region” to History Through Fiction, I received an advance of $500.
The book, priced at $6.49 Kindle, $17.95 paperback, and $21.99 hardcover, went on pre-sale September 2022 and was officially released November 2022.
For my first royalty period, July 1, 2022 through December 31, 2022, my statement reported sold: 1152 e-books (8 returns), 477 paperbacks, 123 hardcovers (1 return). (This included a promotional $0.99 sale early in the process, as well as bulk sales for my launch event with UJA Federation.)
Total sales added up to: $1392.25. Minus the advance, I received a check for: $927.20.
For the royalty period January 1, 2023 through June 30, 2023, the statement read: 339 ebooks sold, 146 paperbacks (17 returns), and 20 hardcovers (5 returns). Some of the latter, I presume were sold at wholesale prices to bookstores where I spoke during my Bay Area tour.
With the original advance earned out, I received a check for $345.73.
So far, “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region” has netted me: $1,737.98.
Because I went with a traditional publisher, History Through Fiction edited the book. They paid to have the cover designed and to have it formatted for publication and distribution through IngramSpark. They sent out the ARC’s and review copies, and they paid for the marketing and promotion, including a blog tour.
I marketed myself aggressively. I wrote guest blogs, and appeared on podcasts and Zoomed into book clubs. I did all the legwork myself, sending out email after email, reaching out to press contacts and literary friends. But I did not spend a penny to get this book published.
That isn’t the case with my best-selling, self-published work of fiction.
“The Figure Skating Mystery Series: 5 Books in 1” is a compendium of the five paperbacks originally published by Berkley Prime Crime. I added videos from Ice Theatre of NY as part of the story, and released them all as one multimedia e-book.
I did not pay to have it edited, since the individual novels had been originally edited by the editor who acquired them. I did pay $5 for the cover. And my husband, once again, did the formatting, including editing and inserting the video clips. In addition to my usual aggressive promotion, I did pay for advertising to tie in with the Winter Olympics. (See the complete financial breakdown, here.)
Since it’s first e-publication on January 13, 2014, “The Figure Skating Mystery Series (5 Books in 1) has sold 292 copies on Amazon at $9.99 each, earning $1,923.60. There have been a few sales on BN.com, so let’s round it to $2000.
As a side note, “Murder on Ice,” the first book in the series which is available as a stand-alone, has sold 714 copies. But at $0.99 cents each, the total royalties from Amazon added up to $445.82.
When you factor in the 20% I pay to Ice Theatre of NY for the use of their video clips, and the money I spent on marketing, the total profit comes to less than my History Through Fiction advance.
Aspiring authors are always asking me, “Should I self-publish? Should I hybrid publish? Should I hold out for a traditional publisher?”
I can’t tell you what to do. A lot depends on what your goals are. Do you want to make money? Do you just want to be read widely? Do you have a message you are dying to disseminate? Do you want to prove to your high-school English teacher that it IS perfectly acceptable to start a sentence with an “and” or a “but”?
Large publishers pay the most, full stop, and are a well-oiled machine when it comes to editing and distribution. They take a royalty on all copies sold, but if your book under-performs, you still keep the advance, and they swallow the loss.
Small publishers give you personalized attention and take your input. As well as take a royalty. If the book fails, you feel the pain together.
Hybrid publishers assume duties you might not want to do, like editing, formatting and cover design, but they require a financial investment you have no guarantee of ever earning back, while they also take a royalty. If the book fails to sell, you suffer the financial consequences, not them.
Self-publishing leaves all the work up to you, but it allows you to decide what you want to spend money on and how much, as well as not needing to split the proceeds in perpetuity.
Before you commit to anything, though, ask yourself what your end-goal is. And crunch the numbers. You’ve heard my stories. How about yours?
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And speaking of me and my endless self-promotion, the latest from my book review YouTube channel! Click to watch.
I appreciate that you are so open with your facts and figures in relation to your work. Your newsletters are wonderful. In relation to this specific topic, I’m wondering how to find out how many books have been sold. You seem very clear on the number of books you have sold even including returns. My first book, Naked in the Woods; My Unexpected Years in a Hippie Commune, came out in 2015, published by university press. I don’t know how to find out how many copies it sold. The press indicated they don’t have an accurate number. Thank you again for your column. I look forward to reading it each time Margaret Grundstein.