It’s author monetization week! Monday through Thursday this week I’m going to have a series of posts on a crucial topic for the modern writer: How to make money.
Today we’ll start with the books themselves. With the e-revolution (e-volution?) well underway, print sales are declining and there’s a great disparity between the amount an author can make per-copy with a self-published e-book vs. a traditionally published e-book. Authors are taking a hard look at their balance sheets.
How is it that authors are making more per copy from $2.99 e-books than traditionally published are with $10.99 e-books? Does it mean everyone should self-publish?
First, some important background information to start:
Standard royalties via traditional publishers (note: these may vary):
Hardcover: 10% retail, sometimes escalating to 15% after sales thresholds are met
Trade paperback: 7.5% retail
Mass market: 8% retail
E-book: 25% net (usually translates to 17.5% retail)
Kindle revenue share for self-published authors (source):
Priced higher than $9.99: 35% retail
Priced between $2.99-$9.99: 70% retail
Priced below $2.99: 35% retail
B&N revenue share for self-published authors (source)
Priced higher than $9.99: 40% retail
Priced between $2.99-$9.99: 65% retail
Priced below $2.99: 40% retail
E-distribution fee:
Smashwords: about 15% (explained here). Usually translates to about 60% of the retail price.
Approximate E-book market share (source):
Amazon: ~55%
B&N: ~25%
Others (Kobo, Apple, Google, Sony, etc.): ~20% combined
So. Now that we have those numbers, the real question is: How do you use them? Especially when you don’t know the variables of how many copies you’re going to sell in which formats at which prices?
Well, here’s how. Start running various scenarios:
Scenario #1: Barry Eisler
Thanks to Barry’s wonderfully transparent conversation with Joe Konrath, we know he was offered $500,000 for two books, turned it down, and currently plans to (I believe) self-publish his e-books on Amazon with a price around $4.99, or via Smashwords.
Assuming he doesn’t also work out a deal with Amazon (or B&N, as Shatzkin suggests) for the print component, the math is relatively simple: How many e-books do you have to sell to make $250,000?
If he self-publishes only via Amazon he’ll make 70% of $4.99, or roughly $3.49 per copy. His break-even point would be 71,633 e-books. (UPDATE: Barry notes that his break-even point is actually $215,000 since he isn’t using an agent to self-publish).
If he self-publishes via Smashwords, he’ll make roughly 60% of $4.99, or $2.99 per copy. His break-even point would be 83,612 e-books.
Or he could deal directly with Amazon and B&N, and use Smashwords to reach the other 20% of the market (UPDATE: this paragraph and the next one was updated based on feedback from Cameron Chapman)
All things being equal, let’s say he sold those 71,633 e-books to break even at $250,000 with Amazon (with 55% market share). In that case he’d sell an additional 32,560 copies through B&N for earnings of $105,608.36, and about 26,048 through Smashwords for earnings of about $77,884.61. Getting the e-book out there widely is the way to go.
Lastly lastly, if he does work out a print component that would be a bonus to the above depending on the printing costs and level of distribution. But if he doesn’t work out a print deal, he’s essentially betting he can sell more than 70,000 e-books.
Scenario #2: Amanda Hocking
Amanda Hocking recently agreed to a rumored $2 million deal for four books from St. Martin’s Press. Assuming the royalty levels are standard, she’s giving up quite a bit per copy on e-book sales in order to break out in the print world. Was it worth it?
First, as Hocking herself writes, her reasons go beyond monetary, and she states that her desire to focus on writing was her primary motivation for going with a traditional publisher. But let’s take a look at what has to happen in print in order to make up for what she’s giving up in e-book royalties.
Now, a lot of this depends on St. Martin’s pricing decisions. But let’s say they decide to keep the same $2.99 price point for her e-books, which has worked very well so far. In that case, the amount she earns per e-book sold plummets from $2.09 as a self-published author (70% of $2.99) to $0.52 (17.5% of $2.99) as a traditionally published author. So assuming St. Martin’s doesn’t dramatically boost her overall e-book sales numbers, she needs to make $1.57 in print sales for every e-book sold to break even on a per-copy level. Is that a good bet?
Well, right now when e-books represent approximately 20-30% of the market, it’s somewhat of a safe bet. Hocking will likely sell, I’d predict, a mix of hardcover and mass market paperback. Over the lifespan of her books, let’s say 75% of those print sales are mass market (priced at $7.99, 8% royalties) and 25% are hardcover (priced around $22.00, 10% royalties). In that case, the average print sale would generate about $1.03 in royalties.
Assuming she sells eight print copies for every two e-books sold, she makes way more in print royalties than she loses in e-book royalties. Two e-books sold as a self-published author equal $4.18. Two e-books plus eight print books as a traditionally published author equals $9.28 (minus commission). But if she sells, say, six print books for every four e-books traditionally ($6.18), compared to four e-books as a self-published author, those gains evaporate ($8.36).
If she breaks out in print or if St. Martin’s boosts her sales significantly, the decision will definitely have been worth it (not to mention that she has a guaranteed $2 million that she gets no matter what). But if the bulk of her sales continue to be in the e-book format, she may lose money per copy sold.
Scenario #3: The Law of Averages
So, this following scenario doesn’t really exist. Authors tend to be either hardcover/trade paperback or hardcover/mass market or straight trade paperback or straight mass market authors with a mix of e-books thrown in. And authors who deeply discount their e-books can sell a very disproportionate number.
But let’s say that you’re the perfectly average author and you’re deciding between traditional publishing and self-publishing. And we’ll use the January revenue numbers as a (very rough) guide.
I don’t know the average hardcover/trade paper/mass market/e-book prices, but let’s say $24.99/$14.95/$7.99/$10.99 and the net to publishers is 50%/50%/50%/70%
That means your sales will be about:
11% hardcover
33% trade paperback
29% mass market
27% e-book
If you’re a traditionally published author with books available in all channels, you’ll make about $1.35 per copy sold across all formats: [($24.99*.10 royalty*.11 share)+($14.95*.075 royalty*.33 share)+($7.99*.08 royalty*.29 share)+($10.99*.175 royalty*.27 share)].
If you’re a self-published author working with Smashwords and selling your e-book for $4.99, you make about $2.99 per copy sold, but are only reaching 27% of the market, so an effective hypothetical-per-copy revenue of $0.81 across all formats.
So it really comes down to whether you can move print copies. My ultimate conclusion:
If you can sell print copies, all things being equal there’s still the bulk of the money to be made there.
But if you’re not going out in print in a big way, a self-published e-book is absolutely the way to go.
If you’d like to play around with some of these numbers, please check out Ted Weinstein’s very helpful spreadsheet (and thanks to John Ochwat for pointing it out).
Also, if any of this math is wrong (and there’s a lot of it), please correct me!
D U Okonkwo says
This is a great post, thanks, Nathan. I always appreciate someone else doing all the numbers 🙂
Richard Gibson says
Thanks for all this. I don’t know where (or if) I fit into all that. I made the deep-breath decision to self-publish (it came out 10 days ago) because I have a niche non-fiction that is somewhat time sensitive; I didn’t want to wait 2 years or more. I have a “moderate” platform according to the agents who were interested but worried about the market. I enjoy things like layout and design (did the whole thing including the cover, for better or worse) and am moderately confident of my marketing skills.
Having said all that, after lots of looking (and being confused) I went with an indie print-on-demand shop that offered (as far as I could tell) everything the bigger self-pub places do, for a lot less money and better royalties and much more personalized service.
I get 35% of the $17.95 paperback retail for copies sold through the publisher, and 70% of the e-book ($9.99) through the same channel – so that’s about 70 cents more per e-book. The book isn’t yet converted to Kindle, Nook, and iBook e-pub format but it will be; I’ll get less on those – something like 55% of whatever Amazon or whoever pays the publisher.
I have to sell 67 through the publisher to make back my investment, and I figure if I can’t sell 67, then I was just being stupid. After 10 days I’ve sold 46 so I’m not worried about that. Fortunately I’m not in it to get rich, although I do hope for beer money and maybe more.
Bottom line, I’m content and very happy with the process and the numbers.
Sandi Johnson says
Hi Nathan,
Interesting figures. While the numbers are interesting, for writers trying to build some kind of platform/following…I personally think self-publishing ebooks is a great option.
When you consider the odds of landing a publisher for an unknown…self-publishing can be the difference between finding readers/a following and drowning in publisher rejections.
I think it really boils down to a personal decision.
Neil Vogler says
A sobering, honest, readable, and common-sense post — exactly why we come here, Nathan! Like DU, I too appreciate it when someone else does the digit-crunching. We seem to be in the grip of e-revolution fever, and we certainly need some cold hard facts in the face of all the hyperbole, which presently seems to be spiralling out of control.
Breadline Books says
Great idea for the series, Nathan, and it couldn't have come at a better time! I look forward to reading the rest of them.
Karen says
It does not matter who publishes them/you or if you do it yourself, if you don't market the books.
Publishing houses of any size do so little in the way of marketing.
Either way, the author has to own their work and the responsibility for selling it.
Publishers are publishers, they are not publicists, and they are not bookstores.
I take my hat off to authors who can self-publish successfully, but that aspect of the industry does not make publishers obsolete.
There is enough room in this industry for everyone to do what is best for them.
This was one of the most informative posts I've seen in a while on this subject.
I sincerely appreciate you not picking sides, and just stating some simple facts.
Karen Syed
https://klsyed.com
Mr. D says
Whatever Math you use, I figure a deal that gives you two million bucks is a deal that's hard to turn down.
Cameron Chapman says
The whole Smashwords vs. B&N vs. Amazon is kind of misleading. Why wouldn't you distribute through all three? I have my ebooks available directly through Amazon and B&N, and then also through Smashwords (I just removed the B&N distribution channel so there's no overlap). This way I'm available almost everywhere.
Only distributing through one channel would be like mainstream publishers saying they're only going to sell books through Barnes & Noble. It's missing a big chunk of the potential market.
I think of it like this: B&N and Amazon are like the big chain retailers, while Smashwords is like the independent booksellers. Traditional publishers don't use an either/or strategy, so why should self-publishers?
DearHelenHartman says
I used to read a dozen industry blogs (yours among them). I have cut that down to yours and the occasional glimpse at others if someone says – hey so and so is talking about something good. This kind of post is why. It's useful info not pie in the sky everybody can become a millionaire with self pubbing ebooks stuff. Hey, I LIKE pie, I LIKE millions, I just know that given what I write and how mid-listy I have always been, that's not gonna happen for me at this point. Thanks for helping me make good decisions.
Sandra says
Wow, all that math and it's early still! My head hurts…
This is something I've been trying to figure out, and your post has helped clear the waters a bit – thank you!
TiffanyD says
This was fascinating. The thing that I do not understand about self-publishing is this: how do you "market" your book? Oh well. If you're the sort of person who can figure that out, it certainly looks like self-publishing is worth a try.
Pamela says
That's a lot of information and my hats off to you for compiling them in such an orderly manner. Numbers dumbfuzzle me, though. I just wanna write and let someone else worry about the rest of it. 🙂
Nathan Bransford says
Cameron-
Ah, thanks for that, I forgot there was that option. I'll update accordingly.
G.P. Ching says
All great information and something every author should understand before making a decision but a key piece of the puzzle is that Amanda Hocking initially self-published because she couldn't get an agent in a reasonable amount of time. A manuscript reaches no readers in the drawer. E-publishing is a great way to establish a platform and move forward as a writer.
Marita A. Hansen says
Fantastic post. Gives me good information in regards to thinking about going through the e-book avenue with Kindle. I will put this page on my favourites then reaccess it after my HC(UK) review from Authonomy. Thanks for the breakdown of numbers. Marita A. Hansen.
Paul Greci says
Great post, Nathan!! You've demystified this self vs. traditional debate a bit for me. Thanks!
Lexi says
The thing is, Nathan, that's not a choice most of us get to make. It's almost impossible for an unknown new author to get a novel traditionally published.
Amanda Hocking tried hard to get into mainstream publishing, and couldn't do it. That's why she self-published.
Michael Offutt says
Great theorycrafting post Nathan. If we were playing WoW together, I'd love to see your dps numbers.
Bryce Daniels says
Thanks for a great post, Nathan! Very helpful.
Now I am just kicking myself for not paying attention during math class in school. Who knew that as a lover of words I would have to know this stuff? Ha.
Livia says
Great post, Nathan! One more consideration. If you go traditional today, your book comes out in approximately 2 years. What will the ebook marketshare be like then? That's the major unknown in my calculations these days.
Dan says
There are a couple of assumptions here that I don't agree with. First of all, the proportions represent the total market, not the market for an individual book.
The reporting publishers earned $69 million in revenues for e-books, and $49 million for hardcovers. But nearly all the books that are available in all print formats are also available in e-book format, along with other titles that may only be e-published (depending on who the reporting publishers are). So the e-books include almost every title that is selling, while the hardcover sales are divided among a much smaller set of frontlist titles.
That means that you're probably overestimating the proportion of sales from a traditionally published book that are likely to come from e-sales. This is why I think it's probably a mistake for authors who can publish through a publisher to consider self-publishing.
By ditching his print deal, Eisler is cutting off a huge proportion of his existing readership who aren't buying e-books, probably still 80-90% of them. He's betting that his ability to attract new readers by offering a lower price point than his traditional publisher and the higher per-copy royalty for self-pubbed e-books will offset the loss of existing readers.
If he sets his price-point at $2.99, you can nearly double the sales-numbers he'll have to achieve to break even. Can he do that? Does he sell those numbers now? And if he sets his price above $2.99, as a prominent self-publisher, do you think the audience for cheap e-books will tolerate that? These people consider $2.99 a God-given right, and they've been known to spam one-star reviews onto authors' Amazon pages over pricing.
I'd really like to know where the people buying all the $.99 e-books and $2.99 e-books are coming from. I don't believe people who were routinely reading lots of frontlist titles have suddenly forsaken hardcovers for self-published books. If these sales are coming from used books on half.com or Amazon marketplace, this is a good thing for authors who got nothing from used-book sales. But it sounds a lot like it's eating mass-market genre fiction.
There's also the question of how much more the e-reader market can grow. This Christmas will see a new wave of devices and possibly a price-drop to $99. It will be interesting to see how many people out there want one of these and didn't already get one. I still say that e-readers are the niche and print will remain the favored format, but if e-books continue to grow, they'll kill off bookstores, making it harder for authors to connect with readers.
Narielle Living says
Great post, Nathan, thanks! Don't forget that for every author, both traditional and self-publishing needs to include a marketing budget. I would think the budget for self-published is higher due to the need for increased exposure. Much of the marketing can be of the 'guerilla' type (social media, etc) but there will still be dollars and time spent promoting.
Nancy says
Excellent breakdown.
As for self-marketing: I wonder if the whole self-pubbing thing works best if the writer has lots of books, not just one, to sell? Seems as if old publishing wisdom might be at play here—each new book on the shelf helps sell all the rest. A writer with just one book in the marketplace has a hard job of making a living.
danielle spears says
Thanks for keeping your finger on the pulse of the publishing world and sharing the information with us. I had been leaning towards self-publishing and this settled it for me. I still have a lot to learn, however. Thanks again and looking forward to the rest of the series.
Loree Huebner says
Thanks for the post, Nathan. Thanks for laying out the numbers. Wow. I really need some time to think about this topic. For now it's just, WOW!
I do salute the self publishers who are making it work them.
Monica Shaughnessy says
The catch-22 in all of this is: how do you know if you'll break out in print in a big way?
I think we'd all like to believe our book will be the "next big thing." But not everyone gets to the top. Most, in fact, are relegated to the mid-list. Even people who thought they'd written THE summer blockbuster.
So, how does a writer with no publishing history make a decision? It's a tough one…
Elle Strauss says
You tell us how many e-books Barry Eisler would have to sell to make 250k and break even, but I'm curious how that would compare to how many print books he'd have to sell if he'd stay with traditional publishing. Is it more or less?
Shawn Lamb says
I straddle both traditional and self with my books. It takes royalties from 4 1/2 traditional books to equal 1 of what I make on my self-published books. The decision for me is easy.
Reena Jacobs says
Excellent post. One thing to keep in mind is indie authors also have the ability to publish print through sources like CreateSpace and Lightning Source. A small print or indie author wouldn't get the same deals for bulk print as POD, but the royalty rates for a trade size POD can potentially be more than one receives via the traditional route.
When I calculate the figures for Amanda Hocking, I can see it's not all about money. The fact is she became a millionaire in less than a year through self-publishing.
Yes, she has nine books out compared to the four she has to produce for 2M. One thing to keep in mind is the first few months, the sales were slow for Ms. Hocking. According to her epic tale (https://amandahocking.blogspot.com/2010/08/epic-tale-of-how-it-all-happened.html), June was her first big month. She didn't come out the door selling 100k books a month. Her monetary boom happened in an short period (seven-eight months) and grew exponentially.
In December, she sold about 100k books with her nine titles (https://amandahocking.blogspot.com/2010/12/pics-or-it-didnt-happen.html). I highly doubt she'll receive the 2M in a lump sum–likely in 3 installments, the last as each work is released (whenever that'll be–12, 18, 24 months). 🙂 Then she won't see royalties until after she earns out her advance.
In the end, I think a more fair calculation is based on the period of time it'd take her to earn out her royalty compared to the amount of time it'd take her to earn 2M through self-publishing.
This isn't a push toward self-publishing. Those are Amanda Hocking figures, and few will see that kind of success. It's difficult to predict how successful other authors will be.
It's more of a hindsight is 20/20 kind of thing.
D.G. Hudson says
This is good basic info on the possibilities for publishing one's book. I hate number crunching too, so glad you did the math.
A lot of other decisions will need to be factored in depending on where you are in your writing career (1 book or several/prev. published or not), how much self-investment you can afford to pay for, and sometimes the type of book.
These aren't easy decisions, you must look beneath the surface flash of money. (Think long-term) Just define what you are trying to accomplish, then choose what best fits you and your book.
I'm looking forward to this series of posts this week, Nathan. The more we learn, the better we can use that information. More money doesn't hurt either. Thanks.
Joe Konrath says
Amanda's deal is minus the 15% agent commission, Barry's is not. So Amanda only gets 14.9% royalties on ebooks, while Barry still makes 70%.
It's also important to keep a few things in mind.
First, if St. Martin's does price Amanda's ebooks at $2.99, it would be the first time a major publisher did so. $12.99 is more likely.
Second, print sales in 2015, when her fourth book is released, may be a fraction of what they are today, following trends in both ebook upswing and bookstore closings.
Third, the goal isn't to just match the advance. After the advance is matched, Barry will be making a lot more per ebook than Amanda will. The long view, of how much Barry will make ten or fifteen years from now, will amount to a lot more money. Would you rather make 1 million dollars upfront, or $100,000 a year for life?
Nathan Bransford says
All good points, Joe. Thanks for chiming in.
Matthew MacNish says
This is beyond me. I just want to write great stories.
Anonymous says
Thank you very much. I'm on the cusp of making such a decision myself after years of being batted around by the cat paws of big publishers.
The more I read about e-publishing, the more I hesitate to give up any rights to a traditional publisher (or agent). To me, one of the best arguments for going this route is that I would like to see my books published in my lifetime! I have already wasted too many years waiting and waiting while my manuscripts get passed around, often with wonderful feedback but no understanding of how they'd fit a market.
So many of us writers have let ourselves be bullied by the publishing establishment…sometimes into writing things we don't believe in or care about, sometimes into silence.
Pen and Ink says
as far as I can figure out, all of these ebook assumptions are based on an author doing a lot of e publicity and being very prominent in the e-world community. If a traditional publisher does nothing else for you, they will at least send out ARC's to the reviewers and book stores. Putting your title up against 35,000 other titles? I am not sure how that translates into sales. You could do it, Nathan. Not so sure about an unknown. Pen and Ink may try it as an experiment and follow the results.
Anonymous says
I would love it if further discussion of this topic addressed whether it is a necessary or good thing to publish a print copy of your e-book–if it helps w/ marketing efforts, if the money and hassle is worth it, how to get started, if you can go it alone or if it is strongly recommended to get professional help.
One problem I face is that my natural readership probably doesn't use e-readers to any extent, at least currently. I would probably be publishing e-books for a non-target market (which is still better than not publishing any book at all, I'm beginning to think!). Another problem I and I'm sure many other writers have is that what we write varies greatly, book to book. I have 3 books I'd like to e-publish, and they couldn't be more different, so building an audience won't be as easy for me as for genre authors, et al.
Thanks, Nathan, for your invaluable blog. It's so nice not to be condescended to in an agent's (former!) blog.
Kristin says
Don't the publishing houses provide marketing though? I'm not against self-publishing, but don't you need to do a lot of your own marketing when you self-publish? Maybe you get more money from self-publishing (per copy) but with regard to sales and mass market- wouldn't that be through the publishing house?
Thanks for your very informative post! 🙂
thad says
Interesting post. Self-publishing has certainly made good sense for me. I only have to sell a fraction of the books that a traditional publisher does in order to make good money. (roughly $25,000 last year by selling around 2500 books — e-books not included.)
I really can't think of a good reason to go the commercial route anymore.
Marilyn Peake says
This is a very exciting time! Thanks for posting such a balanced view of traditional publishing vs. self-publishing. After your recent blog posts on the subject, I decided last week to self-publish a few novels and short stories on Amazon Kindle, to price them at 99 cents each and just see what happens. I’ve now sold more copies in one week than I normally do in six months. (That’s not a lot of books, but almost every day now at least one person buys one of my books, and I hope to grow those numbers by sending my books out to bloggers.)
I’ve also purchased self-published books by authors who are going the self-published route after having other books published by traditional publishers because some of their self-published books look fascinating. All the rules for publishing that existed as recently as one year ago have been turned upside down. I still plan to buy traditionally published books at full cost, but right now I cannot believe what I’m finding on Amazon Kindle for 99 cents. In addition to authors like Barry Eisler who are being discussed all over the Internet, there are a lot of self-published Amazon Kindle books – many for only 99 cents! – by award-winning authors and authors who have other books published by one of the "Big Six" traditional publishing houses. Some of their non-mainstream books that weren’t picked up by the big publishing houses are now being offered for 99 cents, and I love non-mainstream books. Finding these books on Kindle has been like finding treasure for me!
I hope to get an agent for my next book and to publish traditionally, but if I can’t interest an agent in my next book, I’ll most likely self-publish it for 99 cents on Amazon Kindle. It’s about creatures who appear to be aliens from outer space and a government brainwashing conspiracy, and I’m pretty sure I can find an audience for either of those two subjects through social networking.
Mira says
One of the things I appreciate the most about you, Nathan, is you forthrightly take on the "elephant in the room" topics. You boldly go right there. Right on!
I also appreciate the breakdown in this post and all of the information. There was alot here I didn't know.
I do have to agree with Joe, though, that these figures are missing some important factors. These factors are, as I see it:
a. Advances are getting smaller and smaller. I've heard of advances as small as $25,000.
b. If the author locks in the 25% royalty rate, they stand to lose money once the:
1. Advance pays out.
2. Print sales continue to decline and e-book sales increase, an inevitable trend.
c. IMHO, the 25% royalty rate on e-books, and teensy tiny 5-10% on print are not acceptable. Authors need to stand up for themselves financially. If they start refusing to sign at those teensy tiny rates, publishers will be forced to increase royalty rates.
And that is good financial sense for the author.
And if agents really are an author's advocate, and want to stop the inevitable attrition of authors from print, they will start refusing to sign their clients for such low rates as well.
Mira says
Sorry – weekly profile picture change.
Nathan, I was so invested in making my argument, that I really didn't give fair space to a thank you.
This must have been a huge amount of work, this post. And again, I appreciate your intellectual honesty and bravery in taking on these topics.
Thank you!
Richard Gibson says
@Kristin – the way it looked to me, and it was a major factor in my decision to self-pub via POD and e-books, was that I would have to provide 95% or more of the marketing (the POD publisher gets it listed on Amazon, B&N, Ingram, etc. – and of course listing there means almost nothing without additional marketing). My perception – right or wrong – was that with a traditional publisher I would have to do at least 90% of the marketing and promotion anyway. Note of course that I was not and did not expect to be some hot property that everyone would be after. I had to (have to) make them want my book, whether self-pubbed or otherwise.
Anonymous says
Something I find very interesting about Amanda Hocking’s situation, and I wonder if anyone in the publishing industry will ever address this in a Blog, is that her books have the problems that were usually considered a major stigma against self-publishing: poor grammar, lots of typos and misspellings that include incorrect usage of words such as "its" and "it’s", etc. But, once her stories made her over a million dollars, big publishers had a bidding war over one of her future series, and she landed one of the biggest publishing deals ever offered any author. (I imagine the traditional publishing house will simply correct her writing errors, but keep the basic stories intact.) I’d say that her deal for over $2million completely and irrevocabally removes the stigma from self-publishing standing in the way of more authors going that route. Clearly, spelling, grammar, and typos are no longer problems standing in the way of attracting an agent and a traditional publishing company. I’m hoping someone in publishing will eventually address this on a Blog. Amanda Hocking has already mentioned online that she can’t edit effectively and will have professional editors for her books that are published traditionally.
lac582 says
@Anonymous, regarding "Clearly, spelling, grammar, and typos are no longer problems standing in the way of attracting an agent and a traditional publishing company."
I don't think that's true, as evidenced by the fact that she was originally rejected when she attempted to go the traditional route.
Rather, poor editing (coupled with low pricing) doesn't necessarily stand in the way of attracting READERS, and if you've proven you can move sales, that trumps the original concerns over editing. And why shouldn't it, when the end goal is to make a profit?
But I also think that in Amanda Hocking's case, the fact that she writes YA has a lot to do with it. Her audience is likely going to be a lot more forgiving than the readership of other genres.
Also, the more saturated the market gets with poorly-edited works, I believe a good percentage of readers will get jaded and seek out books with publisher cred behind them, that pass the 'sniff test'.
Kinda like the evolution of search engines–the first wave of demand is to access a ton of information, then the second wave is filtering for quality.
Anonymous says
NOT YOU, TOO!
"Traditional publishing" is the brainchild of Publish America's marketing strategy. They coined it. It's used to HURT UNSUSPECTING WRITERS.
IT'S NOT A REAL TERM.
Domino says
I wonder what the breakdown is for different age groups. In my field, Middle Grade, I doubt that e-books have made much of a dent. Does anyone know this for certain?
Henry Baum says
How does the term "traditional publishing" take advantage of writers?
Someone above wrote about advances being "as low as" $25,000. That's funny.
Re: Hocking and grammar problems. I wrote a post about this. Interesting comments here:
Bad Writing Doesn't Matter Anymore
There are many readers besides teenagers who don't care about or don't notice grammatical problems.
Mark says
Great assessment Nathan!
I'd say, from an author's POV, to be successful, it all comes down to two things:
1. Storytelling – Can you write a fantastic story?
2. Marketing – Can you market your book?
90% of your success as an author depends on how good your writing is. Can you tell a great story?
After you've finished your book, you've only finished 10% of the work! Now you have to market it!
A great story will sell anywhere, but a terrible story is like a bad seed. It won't grow wherever you try to plant it.
– Mark O'Bannon 🙂
http://www.BetterStorytelling.Net
Transparent Mama says
Nathan- Thanks for this amazing run down. I just decided to self publish last week and feel such a sense of freedom. Authors now need to self-edit and self-promote anyway. Why not go "indie?" Especially, when it is essentially free.
Now, could you give us a list of editors who freelance for a good price?
Anonymous says
Iac582 said: @Anonymous, regarding "Clearly, spelling, grammar, and typos are no longer problems standing in the way of attracting an agent and a traditional publishing company."
I don't think that's true, as evidenced by the fact that she was originally rejected when she attempted to go the traditional route.
Iac582, you and I are saying the same thing. I'm saying that, if you can sell enough books without even an apparent understanding of correct grammar or spelling, the publishing industry will come courting you after you sell enough book copies…and, in the end, spelling, grammar, and typos will not have mattered. You also said, "But I also think that in Amanda Hocking's case, the fact that she writes YA has a lot to do with it. Her audience is likely going to be a lot more forgiving than the readership of other genres." That's exactly what I was thinking. I've seen MANY, MANY, MANY YA writers enter so many agent contests and lose out because their grammar and spelling were incorrect. Well, there are a lot of YA books in desk drawers right now that can be dusted off and sold, without needing to hire a professional editor.