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Now > Economics of Books
The economics of publishing are quite
revealing. Consider a book that sells for $10.00 in the bookstores.
When another publisher publishes your book, you might earn 45¢
to $1.00 for every book sold. There’s probably lower financial
risk to you when a publisher pays you an (nonrefundable) advance
and bears the risk on your book. Remember, the publisher invests
money to bring your book to market (production and promotion). But,
signing on with an established publisher does not guarantee that
you will sell more books or make more money than if you self-publish.
When you self-publish a full-length book,
you have to invest capital—perhaps $5,000 to $12,000—to
bring your book to market. But you could earn a profit of $2.00
to $2.50 or more for each $10.00 book you sell through retail channels.
When you sell your book directly to the consumer at full retail
of $10.00, you might earn $7.50 to $8.00.
That’s a healthy increase over the
profit margin in the conventional model. When you sell your information
products in electronic or digital format on your Web site, you could
increase your profit margin to 90% or more, because the cost of
delivery is essentially zero.
Plus, when you self-publish you can keep
your product available for sale (in print) for as long as you like.
This is important because it may take you more time to launch your
business or for an information product to turn a profit than a more
established publisher may allow. This is typically the case when
you first start out.
When you publish a booklet or other special
report, the costs can be considerably less. From start to finish,
we published 157 Ways to Cut Your Grocery Bill for $1,100. This
included paying our freelance designer and printing 1000 copies.
Our writing, publishing, and promotion
service can help you get into print and promote yourself and your
business.
When you write to promote your business,
you may be less concerned with the economics of earning a profit
and more concerned with promoting your business and maximizing the
return on your marketing and promotion dollars. Some businesspeople
we work with consider these expenditures as part of their advertising
and promotion budget.
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