Tag: investment

Signs You Are Not Ready to Self-Publish Part 2: Not Preparing Financially

I once paid $300 for a book cover. At the time, I couldn’t afford to spend that kind of money on a cover. Not only did I not have the money, but even if I did, I couldn’t afford to invest it into a book cover when there were, as I saw it, much more severe priorities in front of me. But, I was young and excited, and I wanted to publish this book, and I wanted that cover.

But I was broke, broke.

So, what did I do?

I set up a GoFundMe.

I went around to people I knew and explained my vision and why I was raising the money. I (and get this) talked to people.

And I don’t like talking to people.

Not only did I make enough to purchase the cover I wanted, but I also made that money right back at a Book Signing in Chicago.

It was 2014, and we were at the Doubletree Hilton Hotel. I had just released my first screenplay, which, interestingly enough, is the book that inspired The Women with Blue Eyes: Rise of the Fallen.

I made that $300 back and then some.

You might be thinking, “But, EC, if you couldn’t afford to pay for a book cover, how did you cover editing?”

I didn’t. I had a friend edit the book, which is why it is retired today.

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Photo by Annelies Geneyn on Unsplash

Self-Publishing is an area where the term, Proper preparation prevents pissed poor performance holds much weight. We don’t talk about it enough, but financial planning is part of the basics of Self-Publishing.

Self-Publishing requires a mindset shift regarding how you feel about yourself and how you look at your finances. One of the first things I’ve noticed in my journey is that most first-time Self-Publishers haven’t decided if they are publishing this book for themselves or publishing the book for others to read.

Did I confuse you there? Read on.

Publishing for Yourself vs. Publishing a Book that Sells

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Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash

Publishing a book for yourself means you fulfill your dream of becoming a published author and want to give copies away to family and friends. It means you are not selling the book or wanting to create a business out of it; rather, you want to satisfy a desire for something you’ve always wanted to do.

In this case, it would not be necessary to put a lot of money into this project, mainly because you are not getting the money back through sales since you are not selling the book. You may decide to get your book cover made using a cover template from KDP or Lulu or a homemade cover from Canva. You might choose to have a friend edit the book for you or use free software for formatting. This would be sufficient for a book you don’t want to sell. There are tons of economical ways to publish a book for this purpose.

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But, suppose you are publishing this book because you want to leverage your business, spread your message and get it into as many hands as possible. Suppose you are a speaker and want to sell copies at your event, see your book on Amazon and Barnes and Noble or get the book stocked at bookstores, libraries, and schools.

What if you are writing this book because you want other people to read it?

In this case, you must prepare for this journey from the mind of a business person and not only an author.

When you publish a book you intend to sell, you consider other factors outside of what you want from the book because this book isn’t only for you. You think about building a platform, the market, and you consider the financial obligation necessary to bring the vision forward. 

This isn’t to say write a book that doesn’t speak to your soul. It means you publish a book that speaks to your soul and the soul of others. It means you are publishing a book you see is needed in your community.

“You may have a robust knowledge of quantum computing but if everything the audience wants from you is how to use Microsoft Excel, give them just that. You write no book about quantum computing until you are able to build an audience around it.

Most self-published authors don’t do this. They do the exact opposite. They write what they like and try to figure out how to shove it down people’s throats.”

-David O, Entrepreneurs Handbook

Publishing a Book You Want to Sell Requires A Financial Investment

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Photo by Michael Longmire on Unsplash

Spending money on your book is only an investment if you have put a strategy in place designed to ensure how you will sell this book. This, in my experience, is the difference between publishing for yourself and publishing a book for other people to enjoy as well. Many authors who venture into Self-Publishing ignore the market, so the book doesn’t sell outside of close family and friends because they have written a book no one wants to read. 

When was the last time you bought a book by an author you have NOT been following for some time, on a subject you really don’t care about?

This is called Indie Author Basics because we focus on laying a strong foundation (a well-written and packaged book) to make it easier to build everything else on top of it. Too many new Indie Books are not attractive, not well-written, poorly produced, and is about topics no one cares about. As a result, the average self-published author makes less than $1,000 per year, according to a survey by Guardian in 2015, and a third of them make less than $500 per year.

What does this have to do with preparing financially?

When authors publish books they intend to sell for reasons outside of themselves, they are mentally prepared to invest the time and money to produce a high-quality product because they know they will get a return on their investment if done right.

Again, an investment isn’t just putting your money into something. Investing is putting your money into something you know will yield a return, either financially, mentally, or spiritually. It is the act of allocating resources with the expectation of generating an income or profit.

That’s why we had to talk about if you want to even publish this book to sell it first because not everyone wants to publish a book to sell it, but for those who do, financial investment is necessary.

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My dope $300 cover for my first screenplay

My books do not sit on the shelves with major traditionally published books (and sell) because I’m the best writer or because I have the best books or even the best marketing strategy. I also put good money into producing my books, among other things. I wasn’t going to say this, but it needs to be said that I practice what I preach.

It also needs to be said I am on a budget just like most of us, but I prepare early for this so that what I do invest into publishing my book isn’t coming from the money I need to grocery shop or pay bills. It is coming from the money I have saved and put away specifically for this project since I first decided I will publish the book. That’s how seriously I take my writing.

I am not saying spending lots of money on your book will guarantee sales. It won’t. You first have to publish a book people want to read.  (Although I got my money back from what I spent on the cover from the screenplay, the book did not continue to sell after that.) But, after that, making sure the book is well packaged plays its part too.

I am also not telling you to sell a leg to publish your book. There is nothing wrong with finding economical ways to publish (premade covers are cheaper than custom made), but if you try to find the cheapest way possible or skim on editing because you don’t want to put in the work, it will only cost you more in the end.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INDIE AUTHOR BASICS WITH EC!

Self-Publishing (The Right Way) Is Not Free

I read a book a couple of weekends ago. I feel it has the utmost potential. To be clear, this isn’t a book from my book review service. I read this book on my own time from an author I do not know. I enjoyed the testimony; I loved the cover, and I can relate to much of the information.

Unfortunately, the book was in such terrible need of editing and formatting that it was troublesome to get through, which broke my heart. I am not usually ultra-sensitive to typos and such when reading a book for leisure. I am only irritated when the errors are so bad I can’t enjoy or understand the story.

I could tell very little money went into this book’s production just from reading it.

That is when I knew what I wanted to write to you as we enter this new month.

I know because I have been here. I have published books written in a Microsoft Word Document, turned it into a PDF, and uploaded it. I have not only removed a lot of my earlier works, but I have risked book reviews taking books down to revise them for this reason.

As many of us do when we enter Self-Publishing, I learned the hard way that authoring a book takes more than uploading a Microsoft Word Document or PDF to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing or Lulu. The hardest pill to swallow is that it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg, but it’s essential for new authors who choose to Self-Publish to be aware there are costs involved. Self-Publishing is not the easy route if pursued the right way. It requires both time and financial investment.

What Happens Traditionally:

I found it is helpful to understand what happens when someone publishes a book traditionally.

Traditionally, a publisher offers an author a contract. The author signs with the publisher who prints, publishes and sells the book through bookstores and other retailers. The publisher is buying the rights to the book and pays the author royalties from the sales.

Since this isn’t my area of expertise, I will leave it here. That’s the gist of it, but to learn more on Traditional Publishing steps, click here.

The most crucial part as it relates to this post is that the traditional publishing house “takes on the responsibilities and costs of designing, printing, distributing, and marketing the book.” (McLachlin)

Vanity Publishing

Vanity Publishing, the center of much controversy in the Indie world, is a publisher who publishes a book provided the author can pay for services. If the author doesn’t want to do everything independently and can afford to spend thousands of dollars to publish this book, a Vanity Publisher will gladly publish them.

Vanity Presses can look like Traditional Publishers to the untrained eye, but there’s a significant difference. The Vanity Press does not get paid royalties from the sale like a Traditional Publishing House. The Vanity Press gets paid money upfront from the author to publish them. The author is paying to get their book published. As you now know, this is not how traditional publishing works. After the Vanity Press publish the book, some allow the author to own the book and keep the profit from sales, but some Vanity Presses do not.

Why VP’s charge

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Newbie authors get excited to be “signed” with Vanity Presses under the presumption they are like traditional publishing houses. They are not. VP’s charge authors to publish them because, without paying for services, there are no services. Vanity Presses have a bad reputation for outsourcing to mediocre editors and designers, so authors spend thousands of dollars (sometimes upwards of $5,000+) to receive poor editing and crappy formatting and graphic design.

Take Rocket Science Productions / RSP Marketing Services, for example, where “Phase One” of this publishing scheme involves a $595 payment for copyright registration and an ISBN. (ALLI)

Self-Publishing companies that promise you can keep “100% of your copyright” promise the new author something they already own because the work is under copyright from the moment of creation. If the author wants to go the extra mile and register it, they can do that for $45, according to the .gov copyright website here.

ISBN’s are expensive, but you can purchase a block of TEN from Bowker (US) for $295.

That’s TEN ISBNs for TEN separate books (or multiple versions of the same book) as opposed to paying almost six-hundred dollars for ONE.

Morgan James Publishing is another example, a vanity press that profits by selling books to their authors rather than readers. (ALLI)

Author Solutions and anything under Author Solutions and Xlibris are also Vanity Presses to watch out for.

The only people who get paid in this situation are the publisher or company offering the services. There are tons of people making six figures off green Self-Publishers. If I charged eight thousand dollars per author, I’d be a millionaire too.

The primary way to identify a Vanity Press is to understand one simple fact:

A traditional publisher pays the author, not the other way round.

But the traditional publisher also owns the rights to the book, which is why many choose to Self-Publish.

Self-Publishing 

With Self-Publishing, you pay to produce, market, distribute, and warehouse the book. This investment can get expensive, which is why I understand why writers fall for vanity presses. Suppose you pay $2,000 to get a book edited (which is not out of the ordinary for skilled, professional editing depending on the editing needed) and still need a decent cover and everything else. Why not pay $5,000 for a team of professionals to do everything for you?

The problem is that the books these “professionals” publish are low in quality, and sometimes the author doesn’t maintain the rights to their book even after paying so much to get it published. If you charge someone $5,000 to publish their book, it should look like it, and the author should own the rights to the book. There is no excuse for charging this much money to upload a poorly edited and formatted text with a generic cover to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing and then call yourself a publisher.

Why Self-Publishing Can Be Free But Isn’t If You Do It Right

With Self-Publishing, you do not sign with a publisher, so there is no one to cover the cost of book editing and cover design. You are the publisher, so the financial responsibility is yours.

It will cost you nothing to upload a manuscript to Amazon’s KDP or Kobo or iTunes or whichever platform you’d like to use. You can take your Word Document or PDF and create an account with that platform and upload it. You can also go wide using Draft2Digital to make your book available on other ebook platforms like Barnes and Noble, iBooks, and iTunes.

But, if you want to produce a high-quality book, there are costs involved in getting the manuscript ready for publication.

You are not paying someone to publish your book, or I should say, upload your manuscript to KDP. You are investing in producing a quality product.

Technically, you do not have to pay anything to publish a book, but it will look like it.

You OWN your book, which places you in great authority, and with eminent authority comes greater responsibility. If you don’t want to be responsible for everything, then Self-Publishing might not be the route for you. It may be best to look into Traditional Publishing.

Again, it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg to publish a book. There are many great pre-made cover designs, for example, that are cheaper than custom made covers, and editors who have great deals.

This post’s purpose is not for you to think that paying a lot of money will make your book great automatically. No editor, despite how talented, can make a crappy story great again.

The purpose of this post is to inform those of you new to Self-Publishing that if you want to be an Independent Author/Publisher, you will have to invest some money in publishing your book if you want it done right. 

Click here for the Best Self-Publishing services and the worst rated by the Alliance of Independent Authors.

Looking for more Indie Author Basics?

Click Here.

Indie Author Basics with EC exists because after Self-Publishing my books, I quickly realized the lack of information available to Indie Authors. Sometimes the only way to learn is through experience, and I have discovered some ups and downs that I think will help those who are just beginning. I do not present these as concrete, guaranteed solutions, but I hope new authors can use these tips to better the Self-Publishing experience and make it less confusing.

Let each one, reach one.

Can you afford to be an Indie Author? | Angela J. Ford

Finances are a big deal when it comes to Indie Book Publishing. For those who want to do it right, it pays in more ways than one to have a budget for every book you intend to publish. Check out this article from Angela Ford on ways to break it down and later, I’ll publish a separate post on how I break down the costs for my very own books. Until then, enjoy:

“Can you afford to be an indie author? As independent authors, we have to be aware of the way cost plays into self-publishing. Cost can mean the difference between turning book publishing into a business versus having a very expensive hobby. The question is, how much is too much? When do you know if your books are bringing in a positive return on investment?” – Angela J. Ford

Keep reading through to the original article here.

The Broke Author’s Secret Weapon – A Guest Post By Yecheilyah Ysrayl

What’s the broke author’s secret weapon? My guest blog post with Kevin Morris.

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Thank you to Yecheilyah Ysrayl for the below guest post:

Can we be real?

Self-Publishing has opened the door for writers to finally make their dreams come true. Dreams that were hindered by way of jobs that got in the way of writing, Traditional Publishing rejections, children that parents needed to raise first, a school that needed to be finished first and a slew of other reasons that has stopped the passionate writer from producing a book.

Not only all of this but finances also play a part.

Self-Publishing has allowed people who have always wanted to write books an easy way to do so. With the industry changing and demanding more in the way of excellence and professionalism for the Indie Author (stigmas are fading and authors can no longer afford to produce mediocre work), it is no secret that financial strain is what stops many writers from either…

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Prepare for Your Success – Part 1

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The biggest mistake that people make is focusing exclusively on where they want to be instead of preparing for where they want to be. Someone may want to publish a book or have a successful blog but they aren’t prepared to receive it. What will happen if the book does blow up like you want it to, are you prepared? What if one of your blog posts does go “viral”, are you prepared? It’s not just about the end goal, it is also about the journey. I want to encourage you today to prepare for where you want to be. I wanted to provide blog and writing tips but I’ve decided to split this into multiple posts so it’s not too long because I know you got places to be. Today’s post is on mental preparation.

Mental

  • Nerves and Doubt is a Part of It

Don’t let others deceive you and don’t deceive yourself. You’re always going to be nervous before embarking on something that is truly life changing. You’re always going to have that fear or that doubt in the beginning and truth be told the only way to overcome that doubt is to do the very thing you’re absolutely nervous about doing. I always say that if you ever get too comfortable that’s when your humility is not as strong as it needs to be because you should always be just a little bit nervous before embarking on something great. Why is that? Because that uncomfortable nervous feeling is where the growth happens. No one ever did anything in the comfort zone.

  • Stop Telling Everyone Your Plans

Discouragement doesn’t just come organically but we also invite it. Not everyone deserves to know what you plan to do and how you plan to do it, especially people who don’t deserve to know. Spell casting is real and all it takes is the word. Words are spiritual and they live. When someone speaks negatively about your life they are trying to cast a spell on you whether they know it or not. Stop telling hateful people your plans and surround yourself with people who will support you. Remember, destruction is always loud just as the tree falls and hits the ground. However, the seed grows with no sound. Grow silently.

  • Surround Yourself with Like-Minded People

Steve Harvey said that if nine of your friends are broke then you’re going to be the tenth. If eight of your friends are smokers, you’re going to be the ninth. We’ve heard the saying repeatedly, “Birds of a feather, flock together” because they do. If you’re truly trying to grow your business or writing career, surround yourself with the people who are where you want to go. Don’t be intimidated by their success or jealous of it, feed off it. Mimic it. Work ethic is great but effort directed in the wrong places is counterproductive. It won’t do you any good. Chances are if someone is more successful than me it’s because they’re doing something that I’m not. That’s motivation for me to find out what it is.

  • Learn not to Respond to Negativity

Silence is a beast. Listen, many of you don’t know me and I don’t say this to be mean or to say that we can’t develop a closer relationship at some point in our blogging journey’s together as we become more acquainted and of service to one another (wow, that was a long sentence lol), but it’s the truth, you don’t. If you knew me, you would know that I am not the most liked person in the world. People hate me fiercely. They annihilate me and my family on and off social media both for who I am as a person, for what I believe in, for the things that I say, and for just being me. I don’t count this as a bad thing, in fact, it’s a blessing and I pray for the people who I have loved but who have given me hate in return. In fact, I know that many of you will one day grow to hate me too and that’s OK because I know what I do this for and it’s not to please any of you. I say this because if you’re going to be successful at anything in your life you have got to learn not to respond to negativity. You’ve got to change your perspective on life itself and stop listening to people who tell you your silence represents guilt or fear.

The true mark of maturity is when someone hurts you and you try to understand their situation instead of hurting them back. Silence amid the storm does not make you weak or incapable. It means that you’re meek and humble. You’re humble because you are not concerned about what you can say to lift yourself up above someone else who has torn you down. We’ve got to get to the point in our lives where we can understand that how we overcome adversity shines a light on who we really are. When you can hear something bad about me, something so unbelievable (because chances are it’s a lie) and still stand with me, that’s when I know that you know me as a person. It’s not the good times that you really get to know a person, it’s in the struggle that you find out just how real people are. If you have to jump in someone’s face or say something bad about someone because they said it about you that doesn’t mean that you’re fearless, it means that you are weak.

  • Spotting the Haters

Investing time in haters will halt your success. Point blank and period. If every time you bring something to someone they have something negative to say about it, that’s a red flag. They don’t have to agree with you but real friends will at least give you some insight into what you’re doing. They don’t just disagree but they give you something you can take back with you. You have to get to the point of understanding that everyone can’t go where you’re going.

  • Be Yourself

I know this sounds cliche but you’d be surprised how many people compromise their personal integrity once they think they’ve reached a level of success. Even in the blog world some of you start changing up your ways to please new followers. The truth is that things will constantly change but you have to stay true to who you are because who you are becomes your brand.

When Oprah started out she didn’t know what a brand was, and even though she’s a named brand today it wasn’t because she intentionally set out to be that, she just did what felt right to her. In fact, when she started The Oprah Winfrey Show everyone (except one person) said that she would fail. The point is that you are only successful being yourself. I hear people time and time again talk about how authors should be more personal on social media. That we should talk about more than books but more so of other things that we like and that’s cool if that’s you.

The reason I’m not as personal on Twitter, for instance (since I’m on there the most) is because I’ve never been that way on social media. Even when I was on Facebook I didn’t talk about walking the dog today or my favorite color. I keep telling ya’ll that I’m a private and laid back person so social media for me is just business and that’s how I use it. This isn’t to say that it’s wrong to get more personal online but that’s just not me is the point.

It don’t matter how many times people say it that’s not going to change my social media habits because it’s just not who I am. The same with this blog. I’m not changing the name of my blog, not even to my name. Is that a good strategy? It’s a great author branding strategy. Is it me? Nope.

I have this one blog post that I did not expect to do well (8 Ways to go from Author to Authorpreneur). I wasn’t trying to be someone giving advice, I was just sharing (as I always am) what I do and how it may can help you. Everything in that post is something that I did, that I literally put into practice myself and I wanted to share it with you. In short, I was just being me and it turned out to be one of my greatest PBS Blog posts (far as engagement is concerned).

In all things, to yourself be true. That’s what people are attracted to. You don’t have to change up because your subscriber number is growing or because the social media guru tells you to do this instead of that. Only do it if that’s what you would do anyway. Only do it if that’s already in line with who you are.

Yecheilyah Ysrayl is the YA, Historical Fiction author of The Stella Trilogy. She is currently working on her next book series “The Nora White Story” about a young black woman writer who dreams of taking part in The Harlem Renaissance movement and her parents struggle to accept their traumatic past in the Jim Crow south. “Renaissance: The Nora White Story (Book One)” is due for release July 15-16, 2017. For updates on this project, be sure to follow this blog and to subscribe to Yecheilyah’s email list HERE.

Writing and Financial Stability – The Harsh Reality

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When I was in the eleventh grade, Mrs. Labno, my AP Lit teacher, gave us our end of the year assignment. We were to write an autobiography or rather, a condensed version of where we saw ourselves as adults. I still have that paper today and looking back on my own words I laugh. I was a trip. Having written it at sixteen and to be a published author today makes me feel two ways:

(1) I’ve kept my eyes on the prize, pursued my dream and made it a reality. Unlike many who evolve into wanting to be a writer, I’ve wanted to be an author since I was twelve. My career choice has never changed.

(2) I can see what my teacher was talking about and will be forever grateful for her insight about what I’d then rolled my eyes to, which was this:

When Mrs. Labno, the little lady whose students towered above her, saw that I wanted to be a published author with the big house on the hill and white picket fence, she was the first to give me the realness about money and writing: “You may want to do something else on the side.”

“What?” my sixteen-year-old self, rolled my eyes and concluded that Mrs. Labno didn’t know what she was talking about. I was brilliant, obviously. Who did she think she was to say that my dreams weren’t going to come true? Just wait until I publish my first book and it hits The New York Times Best Sellers List. I’ll show her.

Of course, I was at the age where we knew “everything”. This was also years before Amazon and Kindle so my aspirations were to be published the traditional route and I had no idea of queries and agents back then. In fact, I knew little to nothing at all. Except that I was going to be a famous writer.

Fourteen years and eight published and two unpublished books later I’m still waiting.

Though not talked about often, financial stability is the elephant in the room and a huge determinant for writers who consider doing this full time. By full time I mean to write exclusively, as in not having other streams of income. What’s frightening is that many ambitious writers do the unthinkable. They decided to Self-Publish a book so they quit their jobs and waited for the money to start pouring in. They are still waiting.

Is it possible to make enough money writing and publishing books that you can do it exclusively? Absolutely. Is it possible you will go broke quitting your day job after publishing your first book? Absolutely!

Mrs. Labno wasn’t saying that it was impossible to make enough money as a writer to live, but she was saying that it will take lots of time, hard work, dedication, and many books before an author sees the kind of return that will give them the comfort to quit their day jobs (Exception: write a killer book that gets you a major book deal from which you then start your own business and then live happily ever after).

Mrs. Labno was telling me that I should not put all my eggs in one basket, that I should have something else on the side that can help contribute to my income until my writing takes off instead of rely on writing alone. Thanks to her, I didn’t come into this field with the mindset that I’m going to make lots of money and neither do I write for these reasons. In fact, before I graduated college I started work as a Phlebotomist while I was writing. Because of this piece of advice, I didn’t come into this naïve and saved myself some heartache and guess what? I want to save you the false financial expectations too.

“As I’ve said many times before, most authors will be lucky enough to make enough from their writing to cover out-of-pocket cash expenses, let alone any kind of a profit at all. I’ve argued long and hard with those who express disappointment at the meager return they’ve seen, if any, for all their labor, but I am going to repeat again here—money should not be the reason you write or publish.” – Susan Toy

If you have not listened in at The Publishing Success Summit (Comprised of 65 Book Industry Experts – Published Authors, Author Platform Mentors, Designers, Editors, Literary Agents and Publishers) at the close of last year that I am sure you’ve seen floating around WordPress, then you have missed out. Well, sort of. I’ll be quoting some of those people in this article. Speaking of quoting, multi-millionaire Tom Antion’s interview was the most real to me. In it he said:

“Books are the high credibility. If you’re an author people give you credibility. But the bigger money is in the CDs, the coaching program, and the mentor program, and all the other stuff that you can sell.”

I’m not going to say successful authors because you don’t have to make lots of money to be successful. Instead I’ll say authors who are well off financially, do not just write books even if they did get that book deal. They may go on to:

  • Open and run their own publishing house
  • Travel and speak
  • Found their own product line of things outside of books

Sometimes credibility can create a deceptive view of an author’s financial success. What I mean is that sometimes for those of us who aren’t where we want to be, it’s easy to look at someone we perceive as “doing it” and think they’re making  a lot of money. It’s the reason you don’t ever compare yourself. You don’t really know how people are doing or what they really know. They can be far behind what you perceive or admire you when you think you are admiring them. Sometimes you can say something to someone assuming they don’t know anything and it turns out they are a well of information. Don’t assume people don’t know what you know and don’t compare your success to someone else. Stay humble.

Anywho, a lot of stuff looks good on paper but when it comes down to what authors actually make that’s when it becomes apparent most writers don’t make much.

Too many people are not being real about book publishing. Instead, we’re recycling information like vacuums and leaving out the realness. The truth is that everyone has bills to pay and unless you can pay your mortgage or rent, light bill and Comcast bills (they be tripping with those prices smh) off the back of your book sells alone, you may not want to quit your day job. It’s no different than starting any other business. The exceptions are:

  • Someone invests some serious money into your writing career. Like say if EC happens to meet and impress Oprah *Waves to Oprah* 😉
  • A Spouse who makes enough to take care of the both of you while you get your career off the ground (Can you say a blessing??).
  • You already own a business or receive government funding (retirement, SSI, Disability) that brings in considerable income.

Unless you are in one of these categories I mentioned, if you quit before you have a financial plan in place that will help you to live until your writing takes off, then you will have to beg people to buy your book just so you can put food on the table and unfortunately for you, book buying is not like other businesses.

It’s a lot more work to get someone to sit down and invest their time in reading a book than it is to convince them to buy a bar of soap or try this new recipe which is the real reason it’s hard to get reviews to be honest. People must invest their time into reading your book which tends to be a lot more expensive than money. If it does not look interesting no one will take a chance on it. It’s simply just a waste of their time. I don’t want to sound discouraging here but that’s just the truth. People will always put their happiness first. Before me and before you. Sad, but true. At the end of the day people are out for themselves.

Authorpreneurship

In my own journey to self-sufficiency, I’m learning that the best way to make a real financial gain from writing is to not just focus on writing and publishing books alone but to also consider what I can offer readers that are beyond the book. This has led to what is now being called Authorprenuership, or the combining of writing books with a business model.

Since writing books is a business, Authorprenuership is something that should be second nature for writers but unfortunately for many of us, it’s not. Instead, we tend to learn about Authorprenuership after the book is written instead of years before. Though a new term, Authorprenuership is the common business sense that’s been around forever. The term is new, the concept is not. It includes, but is not limited to:

  • Paid Public Speaking Engagements
  • Monetized Blogs
  • Podcasting
  • Videos
  • Online Courses
  • Radio Show Appearances
  • Coaching Programs
  • Mentoring Programs
  • Small Publishing Companies
  • Products such as Bookmarks, Coffee Mugs, T-Shirts, Ink Pens, Notebooks

The idea is to secure other streams of income around the book.

I wrote this article weeks ago, and it has sat in my Blog Post folder on my laptop for some time. After reading it repeatedly, I hesitated to publish this because I’m still on my own journey and I really wanted to make sense to you before presenting this information. It wasn’t until yesterday, while preparing for a radio show, that I decided to blow the electronic dust off this article and get it out of the drafts folder. While scrolling through twitter I came across Income expectations for self-publishing authors by Lieze Neven. I’m a big component of confirmations (meaning that when I pray on something I wait until the answer is confirmed before I act. A man may plan his way, but it is YAH Almighty that orders his steps, but I digress) and this was another one of the many articles I’ve come across about writers and finances. In it, Neven  provides a breakdown on how much authors make on Amazon and the rankings:

  • Most books on Amazon sell LESS than 10 copies a year. If you would price your book at $0.99 this would mean you get $3 per book per year. Auwch.
    At least 90% of the books on Amazon will make LESS than $100 a year says John K.
    A small handful of books, not more than 1000 – will hit the gold mine.

Here’s a breakdown of the Amazon ranks and what they mean.

Rank = 10: Avg daily sales to maintain rank = 1,289
Rank = 100: 191 daily sales
Rank = 1,000: 28 daily sales
Rank = 10,000 : 4 daily sales
Rank = 100,000 : 0.6 daily sales.

Even if these numbers aren’t exact, you get the point.

“Is it Worth It?”

I noticed in Liezen’s comment section that someone said that if these numbers are true then it’s not worth it except as a hobby. I disagree. Writing is always worth it!

Here’s the deal: Where do you want to be? What do you want? Imagine it. Write it down. Pray on it. Work toward it. Prepare for it. In the words of Oprah:

“I don’t believe in luck. To me luck is preparation meeting the moment of opportunity.”

What she said. Even though you may not be making the kind of money you want to right now see right now as an opportunity to prepare. You don’t want to wait until the door is open to have things together. You want to have your business plans and everything already in place when that moment comes, not scrambling to adjust. You want to have an engaging blog, engaging social media, book reviews, someone somewhere other than yourself talking about your work BEFORE the opportunity arrives. You never know who is watching you, reading your blog posts, your social media, or your author website.  So prepare for your time to shine.

  • Have a professional author photo across your social networks
  • Have business cards
  • Have an author website
  • Have a blog
  • Have an email list
  • Have a business plan
  • Have an author media kit or portfolio
  • Have book reviews
  • Have bookmarks showcasing your book covers
  • Have author interviews and guest posts
  • Host live book signing events and take pictures. Add this to your portfolio.

Have something ready to show that special someone that you are already working. Be professional. Be ready. (And authors? Please don’t leave a review or rating of your own books! As much as possible, let others do that kind of thing for you.)

Thirteen revisions and many weeks of putting it off later, I decided to put my big girl skin on and publish this post because I think it’s time we start being all the way real about the financial aspect of Self-Publishing. Yes, this is a great time to publish a book but in the words of Nina Amir, the marketplace is flooded, and flooded is probably an understatement. The marketplace is a Hurricane Katrina of books. If I throw a penny into the sea, unless that’s a special penny, it’s not going to make any dents. This means that unless you are willing to do the work (producing an excellent quality book, writing the book, promoting the book, building platform, speaking networking, blogging, etc.) then people will forget you.

I hope this has been helpful for those considering this route. Writing and publishing is both exciting and liberating but before quitting your day job remember, it takes time and security of multiple income streams to be able to be realistically financially independent. It takes establishing strong author platforms and building a business model around the book you wrote. The book is important because it gives you credibility and authority, establishing you as an expert on your topic. What gives you money? All those other things.

The moral of the story?

Don’t come into this hoping to make lots of money out the gate. That takes time. If you’re writing specifically for financial gain writing and publishing books is not the place for you. You’re in the wrong field.

Yecheilyah Ysrayl is an author, poet, blogger, book reviewer and author of “Renaissance: The Nora White Story (Book One) and other works. For updates sneak peeks of other projects, nuggets and tidbits, video tutorials, writing inspiration, and more, be sure to follow this blog and to subscribe to Yecheilyah’s email list HERE.