Selling books is hard… I don’t care if you’re Simon and Schuster or a self published POD author. The competition to sell books is FIERCE.
With this in mind, many authors have an unrealistic expectation of “success”.
One way to rephrase this question is “How many books will I have to sell to break even?”
If you’re self publishing, then this question is of utmost importance. After all this is YOUR money which you’ll be investing to publish your book. However, it’s also an important question if you’re a traditionally published author. After all, if you don’t sell enough books to cover your advance, what do you think your chances are of getting another advance from that publisher?
Basic math is what’s required here. For the self publisher, it’s simply A + B. Simply take the costs of publishing your book and add the cost of promoting your book. Take this answer and divide the amount you’ll make on each book sale and THAT is the number of books you must sell in order to be a “success”. (Remember, many, many traditionally published books do not achieve “break even” status!)
If you’re with a traditional publisher, there’s a third variable to be included in the calculation and that’s your advance.
Tess Gerritsen gained nationwide acclaim for her first novel of medical suspense, the New York Times bestseller Harvest. She is also the author of the bestsellers Life Support, Bloodstream, Gravity, and The Surgeon. She writes in her post the sad financial truth about writing:
So you want to be a writer and become rich and famous? You might want to dial down your expectations a bit — at least, in regards to the “getting rich” part.
She goes on to quote some pretty depressing figures released by an organization called Novelists, Inc. (NINC) whose membership is restricted to multi-published authors. In a recent survey, members were polled and asked if they could support themselves strictly with their writing. An astounding 52% said “No!”
