The Business of Books

Trying to survive in a flooded market

As many of you may already be aware, I recently made the decision to start self-publishing on Amazon. I had a great run with a small indie publisher called Crazy Ink, where everything was taken care of for me. All I had to do was write and then do some marketing when the book came out. After a period of not doing much creative writing, I returned with the idea that my publishing days were over, and I was comfortable with that.

That comfort did not last long.

When I decided to head back to Amazon, it was down to a couple of things. My Buy Me A Coffee store, which is where some of my old books now reside, was not seeing a ton of action, plus, I wanted to start having paperbacks made again, as that is where indie authors can really make some money. With the decision made, I also made it clear to myself that this venture had to pay for itself. I am not about to bankrupt myself for what might end up being a vanity project. This is going to be harder than I imagined.

The first book I released was a collection of drabbles that I had already written. It felt like a good way to figure out how to upload, size covers, and do all the stuff required to self-publish. Since this was something of a test run, I was more than happy with a Canva premade cover, and also not too concerned with how much this one made. It was good that I went in with that mindset, as it has been a bit of a bust to this point. That, though, was somewhat expected, as what I am essentially doing is starting from the ground floor again.

Let’s talk about the money now, as I’m sure many of you who are considering self-publishing are going to be interested. Amazon has a price point for eBook and paperback where higher royalties kick in. If you price an eBook at $2.99 and a paperback at $12.99, you get 70% of each sale. Anything below those prices and you are looking at a 35% cut. What you are left with as an unknown author is pricing a book to make a decent cut, but to also potentially scare off readers who are not prepared to pay those prices for an unknown.

Now, there is the option of Kindle Unlimited for your eBooks, but the return on that is low right now. I remember the days when it used to be over a half cent per page read, but the influx of AI written books, all of which go to KU, has sliced that. As it stands now, each page read delivers about $0.035 to the author. it’s not a lot, but I think it helps people take a chance on a book that they might ordinarily skip past.

Right now, my earnings for Tiny Terrors is sitting at a little over $17, but I am hoping I will add more to that once the paperback comes out on September 8. I am setting the price for that at $9.99, which triggers the lower royalty and will mean that I make less on paperback sales ($1.77) than I do with the eBook version. This is more about making it a decent price and going for quantity. I have to pay for an editor for my YA horror release, with will be about $75, but since the cover is already done and paid for, that is not so bad.

Moving forward, I will need future releases to earn in the region of $200 or more in order to afford the next release and make a little bit of money. Of course, anything I make on Substack or Buy Me A Coffee will also be added into that pot.

I understand that this is going to be a slow, perhaps somewhat painful, rise back to the level I was at when I was with a publisher. As an indie, leaving years between your last release and the next is career suicide, as even your most loyal readers will move on and forget about you. Right now, it’s all about trying to deliver great stories and build back an audience. I hope you guys will continue to follow me on that journey.