I made my first foray into publishing. It's ... weird.
First: pre-orders for my book exceeded £120k, and top 10 in Sunday Times, which is lovely.
But then I find out that translates to about £8k income for me because
- Amazon take 60%
- Distribution takes 10%
- I have to fund any additional prints of the book
- Publishers take half of what's left
- And I don't get anything - ANYTHING - for a year.
How do people make a living at this? Seriously? How?
I'm seriously considering self-publishing from now on. I can design promo and sales websites, design covers, typeset the book, market it via social media.
All I need is a printer and a warehouse, and how hard can it be to get that? Or just do it digital-only.
The entire industry seems swamped with needless delays, needless expenses, and needless layers of managers and editors.
@chrisdocstrange I'll look into it. 3 quick questions
- Would you do it again?
- Was it worthwhile, financially?
- Did it end up being a massive ball-ache?
@RussInCheshire the books sell slowly, I use Amazon prime when I need copies myself and they're pretty cheap.
My problem was publicity and I never launched it.
With KDP you get paid monthly on both book and kindle. You can also do Audible if you get it recorded.
@RussInCheshire I meant to say, it's not a ball ache, but pay someone to set it up for you. These KDP experts who used to be Createspace admins.
Once it's set up, you can add books and content really easily.
Yes, I'll do it again.
It's like having my own publishing house in my pocket.
RussInCheshire
Chris Doc Strange ☑️ 🇪🇺⚧️✌️📻🎥📚