Cross post: Analysis of Author Earnings Survey by Amelia Smith

A few weeks ago I was browsing Joel Friedlander's "Self-Publishing: Carnival of the Indies Issue #59" for posts about ebook marketing and came across this post by Amelia Smith, which she has graciously agreed to let me cross-post here. This post struck me as a great addition to the ebook marketing series because when I first started researching indie publishing in 2012, the #1 bit of advice I kept coming across was "publish more books." Smith's analysis of the Author Earnings Survey Data speaks to this advice and offers some insight into how much money a dedicated indie author might reasonably aspire to make.

An Analysis of the Author Earnings Survey Data

by Amelia Smith

I took a survey about half a year ago and promptly forgot about it. Then I wondered, why doesn’t anyone do those big surveys lately. All the talk seems to be about Author Earnings report, which collects and interprets sales from Amazon, focusing on top sellers and leaving out a lot of the not-so-successful authors like me. Then I found this, a huge collection of not-yet-summarized data. When I grabbed the spreadsheet from Hugh Howey’s author earnings survey, I wanted to find out what it takes to win at this game, and what my chances are of making a living writing books. I also wound up chasing a few side collections along the way. Here’s some of what I learned. The TLDR version? The majority of authors will never make a living at this, but chances increase both with number of books written and with years in the game. They get as good as 50/50.

I didn’t pay much attention to the merits of self-publishing vs “trad,” or to whether the authors in question used professional editors and/or cover designers.¹ Instead, I compared median numbers of books published versus median income for a variety of groups, mostly divided by number of years in the game. Through this, we can see if there’s any relationship between earnings and number of books published per year (there is, but it’s not straightforward), and whether there’s any point at which an author can be reasonably assured of making a living (there isn’t). I also disregarded author’s response to the question of “Are you making a full time living?” because some said that they were at $12,000 a year, while others thought they weren’t, even at over $100,000/year. I wound up using $32,000 a year as my “Making a Living” threshold, because that’s an Average Joe earns in the US, according to Google. 

Guest post on ebook marketing by Scott Burtness

I am the author of two self-published novels and a published short story. Currently, my self-published titles are on a single platform: Amazon.
So far, managing a single platform has been a wise decision. It has provided a controlled environment to try different marketing tools. With all marketing and promotion driving traffic to the same platform, it is easier to determine what works well and what doesn’t. When something works, I have downloads. When something doesn’t, I can usually be found in a dark room crying into a pillow and saying, It’s just allergies, there’s just something in the air…

When evaluating marketing and promotion efforts, I measure success by number of downloads, not number of sales. To explain the distinction, here’s a little info about my progress thus far.

I published my first book, Wisconsin Vamp, in January 2014. Between January 2014 and June 2015 (when the sequel was released), I had 246 paid downloads of Wisconsin Vamp, which yielded about $500 in royalties. Not much to crow about, but I also had 6,047 free downloads via Amazon’s KDP Select “Free Book Promotion.” By opting-in to Amazon’s KDP Select program, you agree to offer your ebook exclusively through Amazon for 90 days. During that time, you can make your book free to download for a total of five days. Free downloads don’t pay royalties. However, they do build a fan base and *hopefully* get more reviews for your book. Reviews are important, and I wanted to build demand for the sequel and my future works. Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint!

So. What I feel has worked.

5 reasons to self-publish

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In my 28 July post, "5 reasons NOT to self-publish," I mentioned that I'm a proponent of self-publishing despite the arguments against it. Today I'd like to expand on that a little bit and offer five reasons you might want to self-publish.

One of the most popular arguments against self-publishing is that the market is already glutted with books, and we need to have some kind of quality assurance so that readers can be reasonably confident that the books available to them are of good quality. We need, they say, gatekeepers (i.e. publishers) who have taste in literature, know what's already out there so there aren't too many similar books, and can assure us that the books we're buying are worth reading both in terms of content and style.

I myself am often overwhelmed by how many worthwhile books there are out there - far more than I'll ever be able to read in a lifetime - and while I agree that there are a lot of self-published books whose quality is not so great, it is also my experience that there are plenty of traditionally published books that aren't so great - even some that have made the bestsellers lists. What's more, I have read some phenomenal self-published books (e.g. Andrea K. Höst's Touchstone Trilogy, Ruthanne Reid's The Sundered, and Ember Casey's His Wicked Games), which is proof that self-published does not need to equate to poor quality, nor does traditionally published always mean high-quality.

5 reasons NOT to self-publish

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Followers of this blog will know that, despite the myriad arguments against self-publishing (the two most common being that there are too many books out there already and that the quality of the majority of self-published books is sub-par), I am a great proponent of it (more on that in next week's post, "5 Reasons to Self-Publish").

But self-publishing is not the right path for everyone, and I believe that an emerging author should consider both options before deciding which route to take.

Here are five reasons NOT to self-publish.

1. You lack the resources to give the indie author route a proper go.
Time/energy
Becoming a successful indie author is like having two full-time jobs: there's the full-time job of writing, and then there's the full-time job of finding and engaging with your audience in order to sell your books.

7 Tips for Self-Publishing an Ebook, Part 2

Image courtesy of renjith krishnan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Last week I shared my first three tips for self-publishing an ebook:
1. Start working with a cover designer early-ish
2. Ask your cover designer for a JPEG, not a TIFF or PNG file
3. Publish with both Smashwords and Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

Today's post contains four more tips to help you have a smooth ebook publishing process (and avoid learning the hard way).

4. Format for Smashwords first.
You've finished the book, which is to say you have a finished manuscript that has gone through several rounds of editing and revision and has been copy edited. You are 99.9% sure you will not be making any further changes to the content of the manuscript. Does this describe you? Yes? Okay. Then you are ready, young Jedi. It's time to format your manuscript as an ebook.

7 Tips for Self-Publishing an Ebook, Part 1

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A couple of writers have approached me lately looking for advice on how to self-publish an ebook, so I thought I'd share what I've learned over the course of the last three years and five self-published ebooks (plus two for a client) here, available to all.

As I worked on this post, I realized I had more to say than I originally thought, so I'm breaking it up into two parts. This week's post contains tips about working with a cover designer and which publishing platforms to use. Next week's post will address the recommended order of operations.

Please note that these tips are not meant to be an exhaustive how-to, much less a step-by-step guide. My intention is to make your self-publishing experience a little easier by sharing some things I wish I'd known when I first got started.

1. Start working with a cover designer early(ish).
I usually start working with a cover designer about 3-4 months before I expect to release my book. Depending on your cover designer's skill and availability - not to mention your availability, when it comes to providing feedback on mock-ups - it can take anywhere from a week to several months to nail down a cover.

To print or not to print?

One of my goals this year is to see at least one of my books in print, so I've been doing research on print-on-demand options for self-publishing.

Pretty early in my research I narrowed it down to three options based on price and packages: Xlibris, Outskirts and CreateSpace. Both Xlibris and Outskirts offer packages with features I was looking for - ISBN assignment, interior design, cover design with price-embedded barcode, and worldwide distribution - for $699. The Xlibris package also includes a set of promotional materials (bookmarks, posters, etc.), but I was leaning in the Outskirts direction because I have a client who used them and her book is beautiful, whereas I've never held an Xlibris book in my hand so I don't know what it's like.

CreateSpace, on the other hand, is free and they'll assign an ISBN, but I'd still have to hire someone to help me with the cover and interior design aspects. I was also leaning away from this option because the royalty calculator revealed that anything lower than a $9.99 list price would result in my actually losing money on sales through expanded distribution.

Traditional publishing research - Crystal Spirit Publishing, Inc.

a guest post by Andrea Scovel (@AndreaScovel1) 

Vanessa S. O'Neal, Crystal Spirit Publishing

Lately,  I have been wondering what an author needs to be preparing for when looking to get published. Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing Vanessa S. O’Neal with Crystal Spirit Publishing, Inc. Vanessa was able to answer a lot of the questions that I had. I was also pleasantly surprised to hear about Crystal Spirit’s independent publishing practices. It really broadened my perspective as to what an author has to choose from when it comes to finding a publisher. She was also able to provide some general information about the publishing biz. 

Distributing through Smashwords

a guest post by Andrea Scovel (@AndreaScovel1) 

For the past week I have been exploring the Smashwords website and am really excited to share what I have learned with all of you authors and aspiring authors alike. If you haven’t heard of it yet, Smashwords is the world’s “largest distributor of indie ebooks.” FYI: Smashwords only offers publishing for ebooks. I suggest you visit the site and have a good look because they have a lot to offer. I was both impressed and intimidated by the wealth of information on Smashwords; there is everything that an indie author needs to know about publishing their own ebook. For this post, Sione and I had some questions that we wanted answered and we thought that you may be interested in their answers too. 

Why distribute through Smashwords?

• It’s free!

• They provide tools to help you market your ebook.
• Smashwords has relationships with top ebook retailers.
• They have the know-how when it comes to publishing quality ebooks.
• Smashwords offers high royalty rates!

So how can you publish your book on Smashwords?

• Create a free account.

• Follow the free Smashwords Style Guide and upload your book.
• Obtain a quality cover; if you need help with that you can find vendors on Mark's list.

What exactly are the royalty rates that Smashwords offers?

• Authors earn 85% of their sales minus the fee for paypal transactions (.85) at their retail location, Smashwords.com.
• Authors earn 60% off the list price for sales from major retailers.

Interview with author Kristen Strassel

This week's interview is with my friend Kristen Strassel, whom I met on Twitter. Kristen is one half of The Undead Duo who runs deadlyeverafter.com, the other half being Julie Hutchings, whom I interviewed back in July.

I love Kristen not only because she and Julie helped introduce me to some important writing communities on Twitter and have supported my writing on their blog but also because her tweets are interesting and often hilarious. Unlike some authors on Twitter who are just there to push out tweets about their writing, Kristen engages with people and interacts as a whole, real person.

And so it brings me great pleasure to present Kristen's interview, in which she talks about her books, her unorthodox approach to self-publishing, her marketing strategies, her writing process, and more. Enjoy!

Self-publishing research: Interview with Chris O'Byrne from JETLAUNCH

Last week, I believe it was, Chris O'Byrne followed me on Twitter and I found out about JETLAUNCH Premium Publishing, a company that helps indie authors navigate self-publishing their print and ebooks by offering editing, formatting, file conversion, book and cover design, and distribution services.

This got me thinking of indie authors I've encountered who find the idea of learning about the nuts and bolts of self-publishing daunting (especially after having just gone through sometimes years of work writing the book), so I decided to investigate a little further and to invite Chris to do an interview so we could get a glimpse of the man behind the company. Happily, he said yes and was able to respond to the interview questions in record time!

In the following interview, Chris talks about how he got into the business of helping indie authors self-publish, his reading habits, and the challenges to and best strategies for selling a self-published book.

Interview with author Bill Cameron

The news is all good: I survived the Christmas holiday (specifically, the trip to and from the family gathering) - yay! - and today on the blog I bring you an interview with mystery author Bill Cameron - hip, hip, hooray!

Photo by Jill Cameron

I first met Bill, an award-winning mystery writer, a few years ago when my genre fiction writing class (taught by Chuck Caruso at Marylhurst University) went to his reading of Day One at Powell's Books and he joined us afterwards at a nearby restaurant for a drink and to talk about the writing and publishing biz. After that, I followed him on Twitter, ran into him at Wordstock once or twice, and then stumbled across the reading series he started at Rain or Shine, at which point I became an official fan of Bill Cameron.

On to the interview!

You're, like, one of the nicest people I've ever met. I literally can't even imagine you hurting a fly. You'd probably trap it in your hands and set it free outside. Why do you write noir crime fiction?

Traditional publishing research: Big Fiction Magazine

This month my learning about traditional publishing takes a new turn in this interview with Heather Jacobs, editor of Big Fiction Magazine. I met Heather at Wordstock this year and was impressed not only with her authenticity but also with the quality and beauty of the magazine. After only a few minutes of conversation I was able to bully her into agreeing to do an interview for the blog - yay! (And by "bully," of course I mean, "I asked if she'd be interested, and she said yes.")

Big Fiction publishes two issues a year and specializes in novelettes (7500-15K words) and novellas (15K-30K words). The magazine also hosts the Knickerbocker Prize contest each year, judged by a guest judge, with publication and cash prizes for first and second place winners. This year's guest judge is David James Poissant. You can find out more about the contest, including submission guidelines, here.

And now, before I slip into any folderol, here's the interview.

*trumpets & applause*

SHA: What got you into this business? Why run a lit mag, and why a print lit mag (as opposed to online) in particular? 

It's not about not being enough

A friend of mine who recently broke up with her boyfriend keeps asking herself, over and over, "What's wrong with me? Why wasn't I enough?"

One of my clients recently auditioned for a musical, got a call-back, and felt she nailed it. And then didn't make the cast list. I imagine her asking herself similar questions.

Several years ago, though, I realized that it's not about not having been enough, and it's not necessarily about having done something wrong. I can bring my A-game, be my most awesomest, and it still might not work out. Because it's not about me being "enough" or "right," it's about what they need at this time in their life. It's about fit.

And it's not my job to be right-for-them! It's my job to be my true self, the best true self I can be in this moment. Just like it's their job to be themselves. They can be their best, most awesomest self and still not be right-for-me. That doesn't make them defective, just like my not being right-for-them doesn't make me defective. Or unlovable. Or a bad person.

Traditional publishing research - University of Hell Press

This month I'm thrilled to bring you an interview with Greg Gerding, the founder and managing editor of University of Hell Press, whom I met at Wordstock earlier this year. Greg has been gracious enough to take some time out of his busy schedule (and around the holidays, no less!) to candidly answer some questions about his press, the publishing process, and selling books.

Welcome to the blog, Greg!

I think I remember from our conversation at Wordstock that you started the press to self-publish some of your own books. Why did you decide to expand to publish other people's books, too?
Yes, I decided to self-publish so I could represent my work the way I envisioned. I then came up with “University of Hell Press” to publish that work. As my books got around, I was often asked about “the publisher.” Who are they? Where are they from? There is a lot of enthusiasm surrounding the name.

It wasn’t until Eirean Bradley asked me about University of Hell Press and said to me, “I would kill to be published by a press with that name.” I told him that if he ever completed a manuscript and sent it to me and I liked it, I would publish it under University of Hell Press. He did, I LOVED it, it was the I in team, and the first book published by UHell Press not written by me. It grew from there.

Interview with author Scott Nadelson

Today I am positively giddy to be hosting Scott Nadelson on the blog. I met Scott at Wordstock last month. He was on a panel discussion called "Dangerous Memoirs" along with Jay Ponteri and Ariel Gore, all published by friend-of-the-blog Hawthorne Books. 

Only a few minutes after the panel had ended I ran into him in the exhibition room. I immediately broke out into a nervous sweat and started yammering at him. With good grace and far more self-possession than I'd be able to muster only minutes after being on stage in front of a packed audience, Scott not only refrained from calling security on me, but he actually had a brief conversation with me and agreed to do an interview for the blog.

And now I think I should present the interview before I get all fangirly and start squealing.

Curious Apes launch party

Last night I attended the launch party of Curious Apes Publishing, which included performances by the band Lincoln's Beard (had never heard of them before - liked a lot), Clark County poet laureate Christopher Luna reading a few of his poems (one with Lincoln's Beard providing music in the background as part of the performance - very cool), and the three authors with books out or forthcoming by Curious Apes: friend-of-the-blog Steven Parton reading from his forthcoming transhuman novel Hello, World; Donovan James reading from his recently published book of political poetry Saudade; and headliner Jonathon S. Kendall reading from his novel The Evolution of Strangers. (Click on the Curious Apes Publishing link above to find out more about these books.)

It was a good show all around, but what really blows my mind is how they managed to get over 100 people to this event and buying books. I want to know how to do that! Hopefully Steven and Jon, the co-conspirators at Curious Apes, will agree to do an interview for this blog. *wink, wink* *nudge, nudge*

No pressure though, guys. Unless that would be effective, in which case:

Interview with author Anya Breton

Today I'm thrilled to feature author Anya Breton on the blog. I met Anya on Twitter, where she is an active tweeter and member of the writing community and all-around slice of awesomeness. She also has some interesting features on her blog, including Crazy/Awkward Interviews and Trauma Llama posts, and I was fortunate enough to do an interview on her blog earlier this week.

In her interview here, Anya talks about her writing process, her choice to publish some of her books traditionally and self-publish others, and the single-most successful strategy for selling books.

Ladies and gents: the interview!

Traditional publishing research - Hawthorne Books

Last month I had the honor of stealing about half an hour of time from Rhonda Hughes's busy day to learn more about traditional publishing and Hawthorne Books, the press that published Jay Ponteri's memoir, Wedlocked. (If you haven't yet read Part I & Part II of my interview with him, check them out!)

 Though I didn't realize it at the time, I first heard of Hawthorne Books last summer when Dora: A Headcase came out. A Facebook friend of a friend is friends with Lidia Yuknavitch, so I saw a lot of the unique, interactive promo Yuknavitch did for that book. It wasn't until Jay Ponteri announced that Hawthorne Books was going to publish his memoir that the name started to register. And then it seemed like I started to hear about the small press or their books everywhere, including during my interview for VoiceCatcher with Trista Cornelius, who described Yuknavitch's memoir, The Chronology of Water, as an example of someone doing something really innovative and honest with their writing. "She invented a way to speak from the female body to express her experience and her choices in life," Trista said. "It was art. It didn't ask for forgiveness or pity."

Rhonda Hughes started Hawthorne Books about 13 years ago, after graduate school, with the vision of marrying form and function. "Books should also be beautiful," she said toward the beginning of our conversation, and they should last. Especially in this day and age, when readers have a choice between an e-book and a print book, she feels readers need an incentive to buy the print book. Which is why they take such care in picking the materials and work with Adam McIsaac, their graphic designer, to create beautiful, eye-catching covers.

Interview with author Jay Ponteri (Part II)

Last Friday I posted Part I of my interview with the fabulous Jay Ponteri, author of Wedlocked, a memoir published earlier this year by Hawthorne Books, and a creative writing faculty member at Marylhurst University. Part I was about Jay's writing and writing process. Today I'm happy to bring you the final segment, in which he talks about publishing with Hawthorne Books and gives new and aspiring authors a bit of advice.

How did you find your publisher?  
I know what presses publish what because I'm an avid reader and bibliophile. On any given day, If you go to the Blue Room at Powell's, you might find me. I was there one hour ago. This is a costly hobby, but it pays off when you need to consider what distinguishes one press from another. I think I sent this book to like six or seven serious small presses of unconventional nonfiction---Hawthorne being one of them---small presses that take chances on young writers without an agent / representation.