6 ms·
A kindle direct title can easily earn you $3 profit even if you keep the price very low, and more like $7 if you price it like a normal book. So if you're able
by robfitz 12y ago
A kindle direct title can easily earn you $3 profit even if you keep the price very low, and more like $7 if you price it like a normal book. So if you're able to move that many copies, then certainly yes.
Self-publishing is more profitable per copy. With a publisher you'll make ~10% of cover sales (so $1-1.50 per copy) versus the above.
Publishers offer [small] advances and cover some of the costs like editing. If you can pay the $1250-3500 for a cover design and editor, and can do the marketing, then you don't need a publisher for anything else.
The resources you're going to want are:
* KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing for main distribution)
* CreateSpace (turn PDFs into physical print-on-demand and list them on Amazon)
* Scrivener or softcover.io (writing apps that easily export to ebook formats)
* Wordpress + Themeforest (or softcover) for a book page
And that's about it. Very doable without a publisher.
- netcan 12y agoI that case, why do established authors do deals with publishers?
- maccard 12y agoWhen they weren't established authors, they signed deals for the next X books to be with said publisher. Another is that an established author may sell X copies at 15.00/copy, or Y copies at 25.00/copy (but only take 7.00 of the 25). If I'm an author, and my passion is writing, not marketing, if X15 < y7, or even anywhere close to equal, then it makes sense to go with the publisher, so you can spend more time writing
- gdilla 12y agoExactly. I work in publishing and I often wondered why established authors don't just self publish. The answer: not all authors are Tim Ferris. They love having a staff cater to them, market their books, and editorial help. They are not really entrepreneurs like Ferris. They don't want to do too much more than write or whatever else they do (many authors are celebrities in other fields and are busy doing that, like most chefs on the food network).
- jarcane 12y agoBecause for an established author, an advance can be really big, and also because not every author actually wants to deal with the work described above. I know I sure as hell didn't, but in my case and my market at the time there just wasn't any other choice.