Self-Publishing By The Numbers

Well done infographic about self-publishing vs. traditional publishing.

Research your market, outline your book, section it into bite-size chunks, then work on it until it’s finished. It doesn’t have to be long, especially if it’s cheap. Check out Seth Godin’s books for an example of short and sweet. Just make sure your book delivers value on every page.

Once your feet are wet from your first eBook, you can finally get around to writing the novel you’ve been dreaming about!

Infographic by: Website Creation.com

Though I’m a creative type, I’m also pretty obsessed with numbers and charts, so I found this to be a really interesting breakdown of self publishing vs. traditional.

If you just scan the article, it will probably seem like e-books and self-publishing are no brainers. You receive a larger portion of the profits, there’s no printing costs, and the risk is significantly lower. But there are a few key points here that may be overlooked:

1. In the self-publishing vs. traditional book deal section, it shows that you’d have to sell almost 3000 books before earning $10k (the average book advance). Most people think, “3000 books? No problem!” but this infographic clearly shows that the average sale of Lulu.com books is around 150. Though we hear plenty of self-publishing success stories, the reality is, on average, self-published books sell less than traditionally published books. If your goal is to reach as many readers as possible, especially as a first-time novelist, you’re better off with a traditional publisher.
2. I was happy to see that this demonstrated the higher cost for print books. When you’re with a traditional publisher, they have the ability to print and warehouse bulk orders of books. The more books you order, the less each costs, so the overall profit is significantly higher. But as most self-published authors will tell you, it’s all about the e-books.
3. The e-book case study demonstrates some very appealing numbers. Who wouldn’t want to earn $24k a month? But what the case study neglects to highlight is that J.A. Konrath had a strong online following as a traditionally published author prior to transitioning to self-pubbing. I don’t forsee a newbie author, unless they’re some sort of celebrity, generating these types of numbers.

Feel free to share your thoughts or ask any questions you may have. It’s a lot of data, but I think overall, very informative.

 

This infographic was originally posted on The Digital Writer.