Are most authors rich, poor, or somewhere in between?

Question

How much do authors make on each book, and how many copies does an average writer sell?

Answer 1

Somewhere in between. Most authors aren't full time writers. Only about 5% of authors earn a living at it, and the guys at the top kind of hurt the curve.

This is how royalties work. Your publisher sets a price for your book using a formula. The costs involved including price of printing x 6 = retail price. Generally on a hardcover book, it ends up around 25.00.

According to your contract, your standard royalty will be 10%.

So a publisher will determine your advance in the following way ...

Today's average first print run is about 15 thousand books. Which means your commission would be 37,500 dollars if all 15 thousand books sell. Your publisher will divide that in half and give you an 18,750 dollar advance - less 15% which goes to your agent. When - and IF - you sell 7501 books, you start receiving royalties on anything over 7500. If you sell 7501, you get 2.50 royalty for one book minus 15% for your agent.

If you sell out the entire first print run and there is a second, you get the other 18,750 less 15% for your agent and maybe a bonus or a higher royalty level for the second and subsequent print runs.

If you sell 10 thousand books and the other 5 thousand end up sold on bargain tables, you get royalties on the 10 thousand ONLY... Nobody makes royalties on books that end up as remainders - or bargain books.

If your book makes it to paperback, you may get a different scale of royalties. Not every book in hardcover ever sees paperback. And not every book starts out in hardcover either.

If you have a small publisher, odds are you get nothing in advance - just royalties.

If you have a great agent, there can end up being a bidding war for your book between major publishers who want it and it can drive up your advance. But remember having an agent doesn't mean you sold your book. They have to work hard for you to sell it. They earn their 15%.

Be very careful of small publishers. You have the right by law to inspect their records to determine if they are paying you proper royalties. Most of them are running on shoestring budgets and if they can avoid paying you, they will. You can also call distributors like Ingram and Baker Taylor and use their automated system to find out how many books you sold using your ISBN number. You can do that for any book.

The average self published book sells less than a hundred copies. Many small publishers sell around 100 copies of a book too. I have seen cases where an author's total sales for the year were as low as TWO copies.

Once you have this 18,750 bucks in your hand, you feel rich, right? You are running out to spend it on fancy cars and diamond rings. Well, the truth is most authors never spend a penny of it on anything but promoting their books. Most publishers - even major ones - won't give a new author an advertising and marketing budget. So if you want to sell those other 7,500 books or more, you spend your advance to promote the book. It may not be until a second or third print run that you actually see a little profit.

And figure it this way. Let's say the average author spends one year, 5 days a week, 6 hours a day writing. That comes to 1566 hours. And that is a low number - believe me. That comes to about 23 dollars an hour assuming you sell all 15 thousand books - not a heck of a lot considering the work you put into a book, is it? Pax - C

Answer 2

Rich Authors

Answer 3

The top 1% are rich and well off. 10% are "in between", and the rest of the 89% are "poor".

And like real life--the gap between the rich and the poor authors are only widening. The reasons behind such a diversity is because of the costs in advertising.

Things these days takes a lot of money to get ahead. Advertising and promoting yourself will eat up a lot of time and money.

So the amount of money you *get* from your publisher will vary.

On average, the smallest advance can run up to $1000.

The maximum amount for a first-time author can between $2500 and $10K. But that depends on what the publisher gives out for an advance.

Book sales are hard to determine for a first-time author. Or the average author.

Because of the fierce competition and the number of titles being produced per year by every publisher in North America--the average NUMBER of copies sold per author (new or not) actually begins to shrink in increments.

Slowly at first, then it starts to speed up in the long term--as the number of titles continue to rise.

Most people can quote you averages, but they are most biased towards one aspect or another--and they always don't have the most up-to-date information either.

So it's really hard to determine for the average author--what they actually sell.

The best way to measure is to keep a weekly log of how many copies are sold and then chart it on a month-to-month stipend.

Answer 4

"Don't quit your day job" lol
In my genre (romance) most MULTI-PUBLISHED writers make about 50k a year. An published writer can make anywhere from 1k - 5million or more a year. Yes, it varies that much.

Very few writers make the money JK Rowling, Steven King, Nora Roberts and Dan Brown make. Some can make a decent living, but most still need to work. It depends on so many factors.

The average advance (again, for the romance genre) is between 3k-5k for a first time writer. After you pay back the advance through sales, then you start to see royalties (if your book gets that far) I can't possibly tell you what a writer makes on royalties since I haven't gotten any yet lol

Hope this answers your question

Answer 5

Meg Cabot - Airhead series, The Mediator series Julie Kagawa - Iron Fey series L.J. Smith - Vampire Diaries Richelle Mead - Vampire Academy Sara Shepard - Pretty Little Liars Kimberly Derting - The body finder series (not so popular but awesome series) Suzanne Collins - Hunger Games Lisi Harrison - The clique series These are some authors that are my favorite :) I think you will like these books by the authors too!

Answer 6

we need a survey on this. but in my country, less than one percent of the population (90 million) are considered rich. and most of them do not write books. whenever their names appear as authors of glossy coffee table books, one can be certain that there is a poor talented writer who has become a ghost to live.

Answer 7

Most authors have to write at night and work during the day.

Because of the phenom JKR created, she is one of the exceptions to the rule.