How much do authors actually make for each book sold?

Question

I'm thinking of writing a book and am curious as to how much the author actually makes from the sale of each book

Answer 1

Don't write a book just for rewards-- even if you do finish it, it is VERY difficult to get something published. You will face many rejections on that road, and very few authors ever make enough money doing it to quit their day jobs.

However, if you love to write and see the process as it's own reward, then enjoy! I wish you the best.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Almost nobody gets books published regardless of whether they have been to college. I'm not aware of _any_ college courses in how to write bestsellers. No, you don't need to go to college to become an author. But you do need to write better than 99.9% of people who have. Probably add a few more 9s to that. You want to write? Then write. Either you'll have fun doing it as a hobby, or it will be good practice to set you on the path to being a pro. There's no downside :) There's also no jump start to getting a book published. You start off by writing short things which are not publishable quality. Everyone does. You get better with practice.

Answer 4

Yep, it would vary depending on publisher, but like it was said above, usually it will be a percentage which increases as the book is more successful. If a book only sells a smaller amount of copies, ie. only a few thousand, then the author will earn less since there are many fixed costs for the publisher which do not increase proportionally as the books sell more.

Answer 5

2

Answer 6

Are you a freelance author who would like to learn far more about how to earn fantastic income performing what you appreciate? If you want to advance your creating career

Answer 7

It depends how succesful the book is, A best seller can make a fortune. Authors get royalties on the number of books sold.

Answer 8

Since your advice is "reality," no one should have tried to invented the airplane because "it is VERY difficult." Or no one should develop a cure for cancer because "it is VERY difficult." And of course, no one should expect to get published because it is "VERY difficult." Might as well not try, right? Your "advice" is truly laughable and tragic at the same time. Obi Wan Kenobi would be ashamed of you.

Answer 9

depands on how many books they sell. some get bout $10/per book sold.

Answer 10

call 1-800-Stephen-King...he has all the answers...good luck in your endeavor

Answer 11

"Royalties for authors are all over the place, but as a new author, you start at the bottom. Fiction authors are actually the highest paid, if they sell, hardcovers pay appreciably more than softcovers. Royalties are typically broken out on a scale according to the number of copies sold, such as:

10% on the first 5000 copies
12.5% on the next 5000 copies
15% over 10,000 copies

The big question is percentage of what. According to the Author's Guild, these percentages are possible for hardcover works, in my experience, they are quite high. As a bestselling nonfiction author of trade paperbacks (computer books), I get 12.5% of NET on the first 10,000, 15% thereafter. NET refers to the publishers net income, slightly less than half of the cover price. In other words, on a $25 book, I average about $1.50 in royalties per copy. Through writer's groups, I know many authors who make appreciably less.
Most nonfiction authors work for advances, the money the publisher pays you to deliver the fished manuscript, with partial payments coming at contract signing, intermediate stages, and as late as publication. Foreign royalties, book club sales, special discounts and rights sales also play a part. See the article "Book contracts, publisher agreements, and author royalties"

http://www.fonerbooks.com/contract.htm

When it comes to self publishing, I must warn you that the main challenge isn't in the publishing part, it's in the sales part. You can get your books into distribution (the distributors like Ingram Books and Baker&Taylor) who supply bookstores and libraries if you make the effort, but retail stores will not order your book from these distributors unless you create the demand through reviews in national publications (very hard to get) or extensive book readings and speaking engagements.
That said, there are two choices in self-publishing, ordering and taking delivery of the bookstore get the per unit cost down, or print-on-demand (POD). I've self published several books using both
local offset shops and using the national print broker, RJcom

http://www.rjcom.com

RJcom has an online pricing engine that lets you put in the cut size (book cover measurements), number of pages, quantity, etc, and get the
pricing for various quantities. A 320 page hardcover with a four-color dust jacket I did through RJcom at quantity 1,000 cost around $6.00 each. At my cover price of $21.95 and the standard industry discount
of 55%, I only make about $4.00 each for books sold through distribution, BEFORE shipping and handling. Fortunately, that book was a labor of love. As a soft cover, a 288 page paperback at 5.5" x 8.5" with a four color cover will run

Quantity - Price/book
100........$5.00
300........$4.50
500........$4.00
1000.......$3.00
5000.......$1.25
10000......$1.00

As you can see, the price with offset printing falls drastically with the number of copies printed. Since your cover price is a constant, the more copies you print, the higher your profit will be, IF THE BOOKS SELL. Even large publishers will often print just a few thousand copies of a new book, to reduce the risk of returns and the book not selling.

The final option is Print on Demand, and you'll see some POD publishers offering very high royalty rates, 30% of the cover and better. However, in order to achieve these royalty rates, these POD
publishers are selling the books into distribution at a short discount, as low as 10%, meaning that a book store that wants your book will have to pay the distributor the cover price just to get the
book, and possibly shipping and handling to boot. Nobody will order the book for stock on these terms, and many book stores won't even
order it if you walk in and pay cash-in-advance.
Most of these print-on-demand publishers use on of the big fulfillmenthouses, of which Ingram Lightning Source is the biggest. There are many expenses involved in setting up as a POD publisher, such as
buying ISBN numbers, set-up fees, formatting the books properly, but in the end, you can use the following to estimate the actual cost of producing your book through POD.
$100 set-up per book plus
$0.90 per copy plus
$0.013per page.

So, 300 page book that sells 1000 copies (excellent sales for POD) costs the publisher $4.90 each. Since the book is produced by Ingram, there are no extra shipping costs to get it into distribution. The
cover price is whatever you decide, but for the book to have any chance to be stocked by stores, the discount rate must be at least 50%. You quickly see why POD books have such high cover prices, for
the publisher and the author to both make money. A POD publisher I've had several conversations with who pays a 35% royalty is Booklocker at

http://www.booklocker.com

Just keep in mind that they offer a short discount in distribution, so your book is very unlikely to make it into stores, the best chance for sales will be over the Internet"

"If you’re going to make a living by writing books, you need to understand how a book royalty gets calculated. That’s how the author gets paid, ultimately, if the book becomes a successful bestseller. What’s more, the royalties the publisher expects the book to earn determine the advance the publisher will pay the writer up front.

Royalty Accounting Only Starts Off Simple

Royalty calculations start out pretty simple. Royalties get calculated by multiplying the price of a book by the royalty percentage. Sometimes, the price used in the calculation is the retail price that the customer pays for the book in some bookstore.

Assume that you’ve written a book that retails for $20. Further assume that the royalty percentage is five percent. To calculate the royalty you earn per book sold you multiply five percent, or .05, times $20. The result equals $1. So that’s the royalty you earn for every book the publisher sells.

Many authors and agents prefer royalties based on retail prices. The calculation is simple to understand. It’s simple to compute. And there are limited opportunities for argument about whether the calculations are correct.

Big Authors Often Do It Differently

Some very powerful authors receive a set royalty amount per book—such as $1—which is essentially a variation of the royalty based on a retail price. The agent, through his agent, says something to the publisher such as, “I don’t care what you sell it for, just give me $1.”

Wholesale-price Royalties are Common—and Complicated

Sometimes, the price used in the calculation is the wholesale price that the publisher receives from the bookstores and wholesalers who buy the book.

Royalties based on wholesale prices—which are technically called net royalties--get a little more complicated. Again assume that you’ve written a book that retails for $20. Assume that the royalty percentage is ten percent. Ten percent, in other words, is the royalty percentage that the publisher applies to the wholesale price that its customers pay for your book.

Okay, so far so good. Unfortunately, calculating the wholesale price of a book is tricky. Publishers calculate the wholesale by discounting the retail price by some percentage. And the discount percentage depends on the number of books that the bookseller or wholesale orders from publisher. If a bookseller or wholesaler buys from one to four copies, the discount might be 46% which means your $20 book wholesales for $10.80. If the bookseller or wholesaler buys between 51 and 500 copies, the discount might be 52% which means your $20 book wholesales for $9.60.

These differences affect the royalty you earn on a book, of course. Assume that the publisher pays you 10 percent. If the publisher sells a book for $10.80, you earn $1.08. If the publisher sells a book for $9.60, you earn $.96.

And here’s something else to consider: Using the earlier price discount schedule, you might assume that the only time the publisher discounts your books by the biggest possible discount is when the publisher receives a large order for your books. But the bookseller or wholesaler applies the discount to the total order they place. If Barnes and Noble orders five hundred copies of some other bestseller that your publisher sells and three copies of your book, the price for your books is also calculated by discounting the retail price by the biggest discount, which might be 54%.

You now need to understand something else that’s really important. Publishing contracts usually don’t specify just one royalty rate. They specify a schedule of royalty rates. Normal sales to bookstores use the regular rate. And authors always focus on that rate.

However, other rates come into play in special situations. If your book sells an enormous number of copies, such as more than 25,000, the contract may say you get a higher royalty rate (perhaps 15% instead of 10%, for example). If your book sells through a book-of-the-month club, outside the country, or at the biggest price discount, the contract may say you get a lower royalty rate (perhaps 5% instead of 10%, for example).

Now at this point, you may be thinking that I’m making an awfully big deal about a situation where we’re talking about pennies. But the combination of these price discount schedules and royalty rate schedules hugely impact your royalties.

Suppose you and a publisher agree that you earn a 10% wholesale-price-based royalty on a book that wholesales for $10. Further suppose that there are two exceptions to this accounting treat. You get only a 5% royalty on deeply discounted sales, but you get a 15% royalty on any copies sold after the first 25,000 units. Here the various royalties per unit amounts you might earn:

1. If your publisher sells a copy of your book for $10.80 and it’s not deeply discount and the book hasn’t yet sold 25,000 copies, you earn $1.08.

2. If your publisher sells a “deeply discounted” copy of your book for $9.20, you earn $.46.

3. If your publisher sells a copy of your book for $10.80 and it’s not deeply discounted and the book has sold 25,000, you earn $1.62.

Those are very large differences. Take the situation where a book becomes a big success and sells 50,000 copies. In the worst possible case, you might earn $23,000 in royalties (calculated as 50,000 times $.46). In the best possible case, you might earn $68,000 in royalties (calculated as 25,000 times $1.08 plus 25,000 times $1.64).

I’ve actually had this experience. The terms of the publishing contract prohibit me from identifying either the book or the publisher, but in the first year of sales, my bestselling book sold 90,000 copies. I knew the numbers would be big. The publisher kept reprinting the book, 10,000 or 20,000 copies at a time. When I finally received the royalty statement and check, however, 70% of the books were sold at a big discount. Per the terms of the contract, this meant that I earned about $.40 a copy."