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How much money will you make?
 | In very rough terms, given normal margins and prices, your margin is about
£1 per copy for a novel through the retail chain. However, a specialist or academic book, published
at a higher price, yields a much better margin. |
| The best way to increase your income from your book is to sell it
directly at signings and talks. This way you earn the distributor's and the retailer's
margins so could be looking at half the cover price. |
And how many will you sell?
| The advice must be to
think in tens or hundreds, rather than thousands,
and then you are unlikely to be disappointed. |
| The number you sell will depend very much on how
successful you are at promoting
your book and marketing. |
| It
takes time to build a reputation and sales. It is easy to be
discouraged if the sales do not take off in the first year. Read a few
biographies of writers and you will soon discover that it takes time for
your audience to find you. Plan you sales strategy to last for at least
two years. |
For those whose maths is a bit rusty, here's a check that you know
what you are being offered.
Let's say your book has a retail price of £10
| Your % |
Of what |
You receive |
Notes
|
| 20% |
The retail price
i.e. £10 |
£2 |
|
| 40% |
The wholesale price
i.e. £5 |
£2 |
Assume 50% to the retail chain, so 40% of the
wholesaler's £5 goes to you. |
| 100% less costs |
On books you order and sell yourself, after the actual
cost of production (perhaps £4) paid through WritersPrintshop |
£6 |
Deduct production costs of approximately 40%.
But, if you go for batch printing rather than POD, then add the
cost of storage and dispatch, plus chasing the money and the risk
of bad debts and you are realistically looking at a probable loss! |
We normally recommend a retail margin of 35%.
The real market is more complex. Check Inside
Publishing for details. |
The message has to be that writing is a risky business. It
has its rewards but not in a way that your bank manager or family
are likely to recognise!
Payment of royalties
You need to make an allowance of 30-40% to the retail chain and we agree this
with you in your contract. Royalty payments traditionally are a bit slow
arriving - we have to wait up to 90 days for payment through the retail chain -
We process the figures each quarter. This is better than most publishers who pay
annually based on figures that are months old. In practice you will receive
roughly 50% of the cover price and the good news is that any sales discounts
come out of the retailers share, not yours.
© writersservices.com 2003
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