ok so if you wrote and self ublished a book by yourself and you are selling it out of your car or on the net?

Question

what is a realistic figure of sales you can make. please supply figures, thats the only answers am looking for. thank you very much. do you know anyone who has done this ? did they make great sales ?

i only went and slit my wrist

when you say she did very well, is that like 10,000 sales ?

gee thanks justin. it is a health book and i need a minimum of 5000 sales. is this reaching ?

Answer 1

There really are no figures. Your hard work + your writing talent and the quality of your book + your fan base = how many books you will sell. You have to have, first and foremost, a good product. That means a book that is both interesting and grammatically perfect. No one will read lousy books. No one will read average books and tell their friends to read them. But if your book rocks, readers will not only read, but tell their friends too, and their friends will tell their friends and so on. Word of Mouth. But you have to be able to build a fan base to sell enough copies to get the ball rolling, and that takes a LOT of work. You could make thousands of dollars, or you could make twenty dollars. It's up to you. How patient are you? I wouldn't self publish unless you're 100% sure your book is good enough. No egotism is allowed here. Have others read it and ask them, asking for all honesty, if they'd spend fifteen dollars for it.

Then find a POD publisher so you don't have to pay and arm and a leg for five thousand copies and storage. Pay a hundred dollar set up fee and print the books off as you sell them. Financially, that makes much better sense than putting up a thousand dollar investment or more.

If you write Non Fiction, you will sell many more copies than if you write Fiction. The difference is that people are much more willing to buy a book they will need and can use than to just buy a book for fun.

Answer 2

It depends on how much advertising and promoting that you've done PRIOR to the book's release, not *after*.

Exact figures aren't a given. And many people here will throw them out just to confuse you or give you reason to panic.

That's just the mainstream's way of slowing down progress--in my opinion. No need for imagination there, I guess.

I would suggest setting yourself a goal and then meeting it.

That's how you make great sales.

EDIT:

As far as finding a "real" publisher (I see some people here need their egos stroked a little), your chances of getting in to finding a reputable publisher is extremely SMALL. Say on the order of winning the lottery?

Most agents only accept about .05% of all submissions. And publishers only accept 1-2% of all books per year.

So think about how you and your book would fit in. It's not to say that you shouldn't TRY the mainstream. But consider these facts:

40 books a second are published. On any given year 170K+ titles.

Book space in book stores is severely limited. Go to your local Borders and see for yourself.

Most first-time authors don't make back their advance. Many first-time authors don't generate enough sales to get that much desired "sequel".

Most first-time authors don't have a generous advertising and marketing budget to work with. And most first-time authors are still working their day jobs--and supplementing their book income with what they make per month.

Only the top 1 PERCENT of all established authors make an independent living.

The rest of us are still struggling.

And think about this: Your book may not be "publishable" because of its theme, content, or length.

So think about that. Self-publishing may be your only choice. And it's not a bad one. This is the way the market is. It's a consumer-driven, money-making, industry--catering to a select crowd of readers.

But you have the internet, you have your local base. Make use of the resources you have at hand--to the best of your ability.

And stop worrying about self-publishing. It's not a stigma. It's not evil. It's just a *route* that you've chosen.

Answer 3

The typical self-published book will sell 50-100 copies, mostly to friends and family. That is the reality of self-publishing. Unless you have strong business acumen, good marketing skills, and monetary resources to handle distribution, do not expect much. It is incredibly difficult to sell a self-published book unless you really know what you are doing. At lulu.com alone, there are 4,000 new books published EACH WEEK! That is just at one POD vendor.

In contrast, the typical book buyer purchases between 10-20 books A YEAR. Now consider the tens of thousands of books they have to chose from. Unless you know how to promote, your chance of being one of those 20 is slim.

I operate a small press. There is a lot that goes into publishing a book. There is editing, proofreading, cover art, book design, layout, marketing, sales, distribution, legal and accounting fees, author payments, etc etc. It is not just a matter of printing it up and saying :HEY! BUY MY BOOK PLZ" which is how 90% of the self-publishers go about it.

Answer 4

Self-published author figures are kept, you know.

Most sell about 75% of the number of good friends and family members the author has. Those who market hard, and target a likely buying group (say, a medieval book author finagles a booth at a renaissance fair), may sell two to five additional copies per day the first several days, then fewer, tapering down to zero to one, as visitors there repeat.

All in all, it's pretty discouraging to know that you poured your heart and soul into your fiction and you'll probably sell under 100 copies no matter what you do. That's why the best route is to go with a "real" publisher who can place your books in stores, where thousands sell, and line up advertising, reviews, and other promotional events.

Answer 5

No it really isn't reachable. Gas is what, 3 dollars a gallon? How many bookstores do you know within driving distance? 5? 10? And I don't know if you are aware of it or not but bookstores are even starting to charge major publishers up to a dollar a book for premium spots in their stores - like in the window or on tables near the doors. You will be very lucky if you get bookstores to take the book. The thing about bookstores is shelf space costs money. They pay rent and have overhead, so square footage in bookstores is at a premium. They would rather stock 100 of the latest Dean Koontz high body count thriller than five health books because they know they can sell them.

As for the internet, the only way you can truly sell books on the internet is by advertising somewhere. How else will people know your book even exists? Most people who try it through the internet hire an internet marketing firm that specializes in getting your message to the proper audience and on the right websites. Space on websites costs money. And the more traffic the website gets, the higher their advertising charges are. To advertise on a site like WebMD would be a lot. And marketing specialists charge a lot too.

These are some of the downfalls of self publishing. Yes, there are one or two people who have done it. I have heard about that black woman through certain channels and it is not all she claims it to be. I have even gotten spam e mails from her. I think most of her success is in her own mind. Her book didn't impress me one bit. I got the impression she was begging for sales. Yet when you read about her she claims to be a major success. I don't know of any major publishers courting her. I've even seen her here begging for people to buy her book. She doesn't sound real successful to me.

The average sales for a self published book is about 100. I have seen some as low as 3 - literally and as high as about 500. Hardly worth the effort. Only 9 books that were self published have reached the bestseller list. One was the Celestine Prophecy. I don't even remember the other 9. That's how memorable they were.

What I would recommend is looking at local colleges for classes in publishing. I recently took a master class in book marketing. We did learn a lot of ideas for online and other POD marketing, but nothing that interested me. I am strictly a traditional publishing person.

Don't do anything to hurt yourself. How could you know? These darn self publishers fill people's heads with visions of sugarplums. They will have you think you are about to hit the land of milk and honey. Simple fact is -- they lie. Pax - C

Answer 6

I listened to a black woman who was a writer and couldn't get published because publishing companies didn't think she had a market. She self published and did very well. After that many major publishers were calling her.

P.S. Did you try to kill yourself?

Answer 7

How many friends and relatives do your have? Figure on a third of them.

Answer 8

very low, b/c the cost of printing a book (even in small numbers) is pretty high. and most people want established authors.

you migh tmake $20.00 off of it. seriously. but you would have put hours and hours into it, is that worth it?