You wrote a book. Now it’s time to upload it to Amazon and start making bank, right?

Hold on just a minute. Before you rush into publishing, there are a few things about the industry it will be beneficial for you to know.

The Standard Process

The process of publishing a book has many steps and none of them are fast—at least not if you want a high-quality end product.

1. Write the first draft.
2. Decide whether you want to self-publish or aim for a traditional or hybrid publishing contract.
3. Edit your rough draft into a good draft you’d be happy with if it went to print as-is.
4. If you chose to search for a contract, begin the submission process. If you chose to self publish, skip to step 5.
5. Work with a developmental editor to smooth out your character arcs, your book’s organization, the plot, pacing, and overall story structure, etc.
6. Work with a copy editor to catch as many grammatical errors as possible.
7. Lay out your book for printing.
8. Begin the cover design process (or work with a designer to create the cover of your dreams that also fits industry trends and will help you sell books.)
9. Work with a proofreader to catch additional errors that snuck through the first three rounds of edits.
10. Work with a publicist or marketing coordinator to create a plan to get the word out about your book.
11. Determine your release date (or work with the assigned release date from your publisher) and begin your presales.
12. If you chose to self publish, upload all the necessary files to your chosen avenue. If you chose to work with a publisher, skip to step 13.
13. Launch that book into the world! Celebrate!
14. Continue marketing from now until the end of days.

This is not a simple process, and skipping any of these steps will decrease the overall quality of your finished work and may impact your final sales.

This brings us to the next unfortunate truth about publishing: this is not the business for making money quickly.

Let’s Talk About Money

With a traditional deal, you’re likely to get an advance (commonly a few thousand dollars) and royalties on book sales (usually 15-20%—varies with advance numbers).

With self publishing, you won’t get an advance, all the production costs are on you, but your final royalties will be whatever difference there is between your list price and your production price, often resulting in 30-70% royalties per book sold.

This may sound like a no-brainer. You’re likely to make more per book sold with self publishing, so you should go that route, right?

Not necessarily. Without the distribution power of a traditional press, you may find that the money you would get from the advance is the most money you’ll ever make from your book, even if you don’t sell out your print run to start getting royalties. However, if you don’t have that distribution power, you may not get anywhere close to that advance number with your self published book.

$5,000 from an advance is still $5,000 in your pocket.

To make that much from a self-published book, you’d have to sell 715 copies (assuming the following math is correct and accurate: using an average retail price of $15 and an average production price of around $5, that’s a $10 profit per book sold split between the distributor and the author at a 30/70 rate assuming 70% royalties, $3 goes to the distributor for fees and listing costs, and $7 goes to the author).

According to OL James at Letter Review, most self-published books only sell 250 copies. That amount will fluctuate with your marketing efforts, your platform, your genre, and many other factors, but at that amount, you can expect to see less than $2000 in royalties even with a higher royalty rate.

So Which Path Should You Take?

The answer to this one depends on your motivation for writing your book in the first place, your willingness to learn all the different sides of publishing and sales, and what your deep desire for the book in question is.

If you just want people to be able to read your book, and you want to make some money on something you’re not sure would have wide appeal, self-publishing may be the right way to go. After all, $2000 gained is still $2000. Plus, you’ll maintain all creative freedom and production rights for your work. If the cover isn’t working, you can change it. If you want to try a new product description, you can. There are no limits to your potential here outside of your own resources and capabilities.

That said, if you really want to see your book picked up by a household name in the publishing industry, do not self-publish it. Once a book has been published in any form, it is incredibly difficult to get the book picked up by a different publisher. It is less risky for a publisher to take on a book that has never had a sales history than to take on a book with a sales history that doesn’t reflect results.

Unknown potential is a safer bet than a failed history.

If your book was published by a traditional press and you got your rights back, you can absolutely self-publish a new edition to get it back in print. But this flow rarely goes the other direction.

This is the last unfortunate truth about publishing: never expect that you will be the exception to the rule.

The publishing industry has a long history that continues to impact the present. Do not step into this industry expecting that the world is waiting for your book. They’re not. Some statistics show that up to four million books are published every year. That’s close to 11,000 books published every day. Readers have so many options when it comes to what book they want to read, and publishers have been finding what works for hundreds of years.

Don’t let any of this stop you from trying, however. Each of those books published is a new voice that needs to be heard. If you want help giving yourself the best chance possible at reaching the readers who are looking for books like yours, I’d love to see how we can work together. Check out my services to learn more about what I can do for you to help you increase your name recognition and sell more books—not to mention take some of those standard steps off your plate.

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