Show Me the Money (Part #2): Self-Publishing v. Micro-Publishing

A Literal Literary Loser Lets You Know Lots

An April 2024 post entitled “No One Buys Books” by Elle Griffin shared the following statistics, gleaned from the 2022 lawsuit wherein Penguin Random House was blocked by the Department of Justice from buying Simon & Schuster, and various publishers were compelled to testify about their painfully inadequate revenue model:

• The majority of books published (96 percent) make no money at all and typically sell less than 1,000 copies

• Of 58,000 titles published in a year, 90 percent sold fewer than 2,000 copies and 50 percent sold less than a dozen copies

In May 2023, I wrote a post called “Show Me the Money: Large Publisher v. Small Publisher v. Self-Publishing.” A year ago, I promised to come back and share with you my earnings from my latest historical fiction, “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region,” published by the micro-press, History Through Fiction.

Here I am… and here we go.

“My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region” was officially released in November 2022.

My first ever royalty statement, for the period of January 1- June 20, 2022, reporting 12 pre-orders, was for $34.95.

My second, from July 1 - December 31, 2022, the period when the book was first out and expected to sell the most, was for 1742 units sold (many of them as part of a $.99 cents ebook promotion in the first official week of sales), and $927.20.

January 1 - June 30, 2023 brought 483 sales and $345.73 in royalties.

My most recent statement, July 1 - December 31, 2023 reported 315 units sold for $294.62 in royalties.

Altogether, I have sold 2552 books to date in all formats (ebook, paperback, and hardback), and earned (including the initial advance) $2070.55. (Which would seem to suggest that I beat the industry average quoted above, of selling less than 2000 copies, and made a little less than $1 per book.)

Now let’s compare that to my best-selling self-published fiction book, “The Figure Skating Mystery Series,” which, since its publication in January 2014, has earned me $2,047.24 in royalties on Amazon, and roughly another $300 on BN.com. But not only do I share those royalties with Ice Theater of NY, which provided the videos for the multimedia edition, but I have also spent close to $1500 on promotion for that title (a detailed breakdown on my latest efforts coming next week), so the profit is minimal.

While I have spent countless man-hours promoting “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region” through book club talks, guest blog posts, podcast interviews, YouTube videos, and social media, I have not spent a single penny on any of the following services:

• Developmental editing (costs can range between $1000 and $5000)

• Copy editing ($40-$50 an hour)

• Formatting ($300 and up)

• Cover design ($500-$800)

• Blog tour ($95-$465)

• Sending out Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) and review copies (honestly, I have no idea how much that costs)

History Through Fiction took care of all of the above. Now, granted, had I gone the self-publishing route with “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region,” my royalty rate would have been considerably higher. Yet, if I’d had to pay for all the pre-publishing services on my own, I don’t know that my profits would have been any greater in the end.

Plus, as I wrote in “Never Take Advice From Someone Who Isn’t Paying You,” I put more stock in the editorial notes of someone who only makes money when I make money and thus has a vested interest in making my book the best it can be, than somebody who makes money whether they did a good job editing my book or not.

Which is why I am sticking with traditional publishing and History Through Fiction. Stay tuned for an announcement about our next book project together shortly!

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And speaking of my tireless man-hours of self-promotion, please enjoy my latest YouTube video, below: