57- 2017 Earnings Breakdown and Analysis

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Here's the breakdown by vendor and source of my 2017 publishing income along with comparisons to 2016:

Share of Gross Income by Vendor

2017
Kindle: 73.8%
Nook: 5.3%
Kobo: 5:7%
Audible: 5.6%

iBooks: 4.8%
Print: 2.3%
Google: 1.4%
Other vendors: 0.1%
Translations: 0.1%
Trad pub: 0.8%

2016
Kindle: 77.7%
Nook:     6.2%
Kobo:     5.4%
Audible: 4.4%
iBooks:  3.7%
Print:     2.0%
Google: 0.4%
Other vendors: 0.1%
Translations: 0.1%

Income Increase/Decrease from 2017

Google Play	223%
Translations	39%
Apple	27%
Audible	21%
Paperback	14%
Other	13%
Kobo	-1%
Kindle	-8%
Nook	-17%

Observations
-Kindle decrease is primarily attributed to the amount of time and effort invested in Kindle Worlds. Those books sold well, but brought in much less per-unit sold than books I published myself. Also, most were underpriced, in my opinion.

-I was pleased to see income from iBooks (Apple) increase.

-Audible increase is primarily due to sales of audiobook bundles as well as terrific sales of Primordial.

-I'm not sure why paperback income increased, but I'm not complaining.

-Google Play increased significantly. This is mostly due to the fact that I didn't have my full catalog in GP in 2016, but I do think their market share is growing.

-Nook income fell, which is not surprising to me.

-Income from translations and from "other" channels (Scribd, Tolino, Overdrive...) increased, but the income from those channels are so small that the changes aren't statistically significant.

Looking Back at Last Year's Musings

Last year: Several of my author friends tell me they are doing very well on iBooks. I'd like to increase my sales and visibility in that store.

 Mission accomplished! 27% increase in gross income and a modest increase in market share.
 
LY: I'm curious to see whether or not the lending program Kobo is beta testing will have an impact on sales.


Not yet. At this time it's only available to a couple of countries.

LY:Rumors are circulating that Audible plans to roll out an audiobook lending service, which will also be interesting to watch.


As far as I'm aware, this is still limited to the romance genre and authors have been unhappy with the compensation.


With the launch of the Dane Maddock Kindle World, I expect Kindle income to continue to rise in proportion to the other vendors.


In terms of units sold, this did happen, but not in terms of income.

-I am strongly considering going exclusive with Createspace, as the paltry sales through Ingram mean the annual listing fees for all books in my catalog aren't worthwhile.

I did cancel a number of titles with Lightning Source, but I have been experimenting with Ingram Spark. Rumors are circulating that CreateSpace will be going out of business. We'll see what happens.

Looking Ahead

-I expect Google, iBooks, and Audible to continue to grow.

-Not sure what to expect from Kindle. I'm still in the process of republishing the Kindle Worlds books. I'm hopeful they'll perform better now that I can control the advertising.

-I'm interested in seeing what happens with CreateSpace. I will probably experiment with KDP print because you can run AMS ads for print books published with them.

-Indie-published translations have not been worthwhile so far. This year, a single advance on one translated book earned four times as much as I made from my entire catalog of translated works in 2017. I might cancel my translations once the contract terms expire and see if I can sell rights to foreign language publishers.

50- Writing Income Part 1

Listen to the companion podcast episode

News:

Kobo Writing Life coop for NetGalley

Audible releasing audiobook first

Authors still getting rank-stripped

Stupid Author Tricks:

-Tit for tat invitations to strangers
-groups
-review
-promo

-Asking the distributor why your book isn't selling

-Not understanding how royalties work


Writing Income-Trad Pub:

Kameron Hurley's income report

-Very low income from trad-pub despite being well regarded
-Largest income from Patreon. Doing it in a way that requires lots of work. Could work smarter.
-Essentially making no money from indie. Doing it wrong and doesn't really care.
-Still has a day job due to insurance needs.

Jim Hines' income report

-Decent midlist income from tradpub sales
-Big dropoff from previous year, mostly due to working on books sold the previous year.
-Very little income from indie publishing

Overall:
Tradpub is very difficult if you're not a top-tier bestsellere.

$100K Authors

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Written Word Media recently published a survey titled "What Makes a $100k Author?"

You can read the write-up here.

They shared 8 major conclusions:

1- The vast majority of  authors earning $100k per year or more have been writing for more than three years.

88% of the $100k authors have been at this for over three years. No surprise here. It takes time to build a catalog and and audience. This shouldn't be construed as a negative; only that patience is often required.

While I technically started self-publishing in 2004, the first several years were paperback-only, and then paperback plus Kindle in its nascence. If you include the first year Kindle was open to indie publishers, I was in my fourth year when I had my first $100k year. I was working full-time and busy with family and graduate school at the time, so it's doable even if you have a day job.

2- The majority of $100k authors responding to the survey were indie authors.

72% were pure indie, 28% were hybrid, although the numbers are skewed by the fact that almost all the respondents to the survey were pure indie. None of the traditionally published authors who responded to the survey earned $100k last year.

Struggling writers often like to dismiss the accomplishments of successful hybrids by saying, "You springboarded off your trad-pub career." These results demonstrate that pure indie is a viable path to publication.

3. The Wide vs Exclusive debate continues

Survey data indicates that 64% of 100k authors were in KDP Select, and the other 36% were "wide." This would seem to indicate that Select is the more viable path, but it's difficult to draw that conclusion without knowing other factors. For example, some genres perform much better  than others in Select. What we can say is that both are viable avenues to success, and KDP Select performed well for many authors in 2016.

4. $100k authors pay for cover art, but they don't pay through the nose


42% of authors earning less than $100k spent between $0 and $50 per book cover.
88% of $100k authors pay more than $50 per book cover
68% of $100k authors pay $250 or less for a book cover.
Only 20% of $100k authors paid more than $500 for a book cover and none spent over $1,000.

Some of this is chicken-and-egg. As an author earns more from publishing (s)he can afford better cover art. That said, I recommend at minimum budgeting for affordable, pre-made covers.

5. $100k authors use professional editors, but they don't pay as much as you might think

96% of $100k authors paid for professional editing.
44% of lower earning authors paid nothing for editing.
52% of $100k authors paid between $250 and $500 for editorial services and 68% spent $500 or less.
Only 12% of $100k authors paid $1,000 or more for editorial services.

These data points ruffled a lot of feathers among editors and elicited a variety of angry and or condescending comments. A few thoughts:

All authors don't need the same sorts of editorial support. Depending on the skills you're bringing to the table, your knowledge and experience, and the expectations of your readership, you might not need things like developmental edition. If you write clean and really know the rules, you might not need several rounds of proofing.  I've corresponded with and seen early drafts from successful trad-pub authors who have great ideas, tell fairly good stories, write engaging characters, but absolutely need that kind of support. They leave plot threads hanging, have continuity errors, are clueless about spelling, grammar, and usage. It all depends on what you need.

The average reader in most mainstream genres is looking for a clean, entertaining read with engaging characters. Most will forgive a few errors. Many won't even recognize most errors. (And an annoying few will complain about errors that aren't actually errors.) That's not to say you shouldn't try to make your book the best it can be, but you can enjoy commercial success without paying through the nose for the most expensive editing options.

6. $100k authors handle their own marketing, and use paid techniques

59% of $100k authors purchased paid advertising from Facebook, Amazon, and discount newsletters, as did 45% of lower earning authors. 
Lower-earning authors made 50% more in-person appearances/promotions/signings than did $100k authors.
Lower-earning authors made greater use of book giveaways than did $100k authors.

While the article did not specify, I think it's fair to assume that, while the percentages of authors using paid advertising are not substantially different, the dollars spent are likely skewed heavily in the direction of $100k authors.

It's interesting to me that two strategies I've found ineffective for generating sales (in-person appearances and book giveaways) are favored more by lower-earning authors. 

7.  A surprising number of $100k authors still have a day job

20% of $100k authors reported having a day job to help support their writing.

Earning $100k from writing isn't all it's cracked up to be. Taxes are a killer. You have no health insurance. Those two factors alone take a large chunk out of your income. If you're paying for cover art, editing, and advertising, that's a consideration as well.

There are, of course, other reasons to keep a day job. Some people enjoy their job and don't want to quit. Others like the security of a steady paycheck, given the uncertainty of publishing as a vocation. Some people don't like the solitary nature of the writing life, and enjoy having a job to go to. The findings illustrate that you can have both a job and a successful writing career if you wish.

8. The more hours you spend writing, the more successful you will be.

$100k authors spend 46% more time writing than lower income writers, yet they devote an almost identical amount of time to marketing (12 hours a week compared to 10.)

The average $100k authors has 33 books published, compared to 7 for lower earning authors.

-This probably doesn't need explanation. More books=more products for sale=more income. 
-An author needs to earn a little less than $274 a day to make $100k. That's a lot more attainable with 33 books than it is with 7.
-Before you freak out and wonder "How am I going to earn $275 a day?" remember- your new releases will have substantial sales at launch, meaning your back-catalog doesn't need to earn nearly that much a day, especially if you are publishing regularly.
-Remember that $275 figure includes all formats: ebook, audio, paperback.
-The article doesn't specify, but based on my observations, it's likely that the $100k authors with 33 or more titles are writing a lot of novellas and short novels. They aren't cranking out 30+ epic fantasies.


In summary:

I'm a big believe in patience and determination. It might take time to achieve commercial success, but you can do it. And, you can do it without breaking the bank. Don't be discouraged by those who will tell you that you have to spend thousands on cover and editing for your first book or subsequent books. Depending on your strengths, skills, and resources, you can work within a budget and improve your product as you go. Keep writing, and keep striving to improve.

2016 Earnings Breakdown

Listen to the companion podcast episode.

It might be a little late in the year for this, but I thought I'd take a look back at my 2016 earnings and break down how much each vendor contributes.

As expected, Kindle was, by far, my most lucrative channel, accounting for more than three times what I earned from all other formats and platforms combined. It breaks down like this:

Kindle: 77.7%
Nook:     6.2%
Kobo:     5.4%
Audible: 4.4%
iBooks:  3.7%
Print:     2.0%
Google: 0.4%
Other e: 0.1%
Translations: 0.1%

Observations:

-Though my non-Kindle earnings seem small by comparison, I still earned a great deal more on my non-Kindle sales than I did in my previous day job.

-Nook earnings slightly declined over the course of the year.

-Kobo earnings generally held steady.

-iBooks earnings were up and down, but ended the year on an upward trajectory.

-Paperback earnings include both Createspace and Ingram (LSI and Ingram Spark).

-Since print-on-demand paperbacks are high-priced compared to their mass market counterparts, I generally price my paperbacks as low as possible. It might be worth experimenting with higher price points.

-I didn't join Google Play until the beginning of the year, and at first, I found their interface confusing, so I was lazy about listing my books. I think I finally have it down. That said, even the best months at Google Play barely surpassed 20% of the other, non-Amazon, ebook retailers.

-I sell almost nothing through small etailers such as Scribd and Smashwords. (When I say I sell almost nothing at Smashwords, I'm referring to direct sales to Smashwords customers via their site. SW remains a valid service to distribute to/sell on iBooks, Nook, etc...)

-I have been using Bablecube to sell translations of my books. Unless I can develop some effective marketing strategies, it might be wiser to hold on to rights and wait for translation offers.)

Looking Ahead
-Several of my author friends tell me they are doing very well on iBooks. I'd like to increase my sales and visibility in that store
 
-I'm curious to see whether or not the lending program Kobo is beta testing will have an impact on sales.

-Rumors are circulating that Audible plans to roll out an audiobook lending service, which will also be interesting to watch.

-With the launch of the Dane Maddock Kindle World, I expect Kindle income to continue to rise in proportion to the other vendors.

-I am strongly considering going exclusive with Createspace, as the paltry sales through Ingram mean the annual listing fees for all books in my catalog aren't worthwhile.

Overall
 On the whole, 2016 was a solid year. I was disappointed that, for the first time in many years, my units sold decreased, as did my income. I can attribute this to a lack of new releases in 2016, especially no new Dane Maddock main series book, which is my bestselling series. (Xibalba almost made it in at the end of the year, but I wound up publishing it the first week of 2016 instead.) 
 I also had to wait for Cohesion Press to publish Primordial. Had it been an indie book, it would have been out in early 2016.

I expect this year to  be better. I've been more productive, my co-authors are working hard, and the Kindle World has done very well. Fingers crossed!

Writing is Not a Job

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Writing is not a job.
No, really, hear me out.
It's not a job, at least, not in the way most people think of jobs, and in the way most writers talk about them.

First, let's get a couple of things out of the way:
-As always, I'm addressing writers whose goal it is to earn a full-time living writing commercial fiction.
-When I say writing isn't a job, I'm talking about the idea that writing is an endeavor for which you should expect a living wage merely by showing up and putting forth effort, as you might in many vocations. 

     

Let's take a look at some of the definitions of "job:"

job: a piece of work, especially a specific task done as part of the routine of one's occupation or for an agreed price:

As an author, a work-for hire agreement, in which the writer is paid an agreed-upon price for a specific task, is sort of a job, but it's a contract arrangement; you're not an employee, and you don't necessarily expect a living wage from that specific task. The traditional "Here's your advance; let's see if this book sells enough to earn it back" is not a "job" in the traditional, "full-time job" sense.

job: a post of employment; full-time or part-time position.

You are not an employee. You're an independent contractor producing a product that the people who have -jobs- at the publishing house will attempt to sell.

job: anything a person is expected or obliged to do; duty; responsibility.

This doesn't really fit either. My daughter washing the dishes fits this definition of "job." And even though writing a book is something we're obliged to do, the obligation is a contractual agreement between parties, not an employer/employee relationship.

What I'm getting at is, when you have a "full-time job" in the traditional sense, you almost always know how much you'll be paid, either per hour or year, or at least what your baseline pay will be. As long as you show up when you're expected, put forth something that approximates reasonable effort in the eyes of your superiors, and don't screw up, you'll get paid your agreed-upon wage. Furthermore, employees doing the same job will generally make about the same living wage  (although, certainly with some variation.) The author life bears little resemblance to that arrangement, and it's folly to discuss author compensation in those terms.

At this point, you';re probably wondering why I'm wasting our collective time on this topic. Here's why (and again, I'm talking about commercial fiction, not literary):

-I'm discouraged by authors complaining about how little their writing "job" pays them.
-I frequently roll my eyes at writers who produce one book a year (or maybe not even that) complaining that they're underpaid at their "job."
-I'm discouraged by writers who make the choice to surrender 50%-90% of their potential income to publishers and agents complaining their "job" doesn't pay them enough. If you're an author for whom indie publishing just doesn't fit, there's nothing wrong with that, but don't be surprised when you're making the same sort of income as others in your genre.
-I'm weary of writers bemoaning the low average and median incomes of authors, when we all know those incomes include unproductive authors, authors who dip their toes into self-publishing and fail...
-I'm weary of authors who think it's impossible to produce multiple quality books a year. (That's another post entirely, but it's been thoroughly debunked.)
-I'm puzzled by "full-time" writers who act like 500 words a day is a Herculean task, and then wonder why they aren't earning a living wage.
-I'm tired of hearing about muses, or hearing the word "can't" applied in silly ways to so many aspects of the act of putting words on the page.
-I'm worried for writers who quit their actual jobs (you know, the ones that pay the bills) because they believe unemployment is a magic pill that will turn them into writing machines, churning out loads of commercially-appealing prose.
-I'm baffled by writers who ignore all the readily-available data on what traditional publishing pays, quit their day job, and are surprised when they aren't  the exception to the rule.
-I'm frustrated at seeing writers who can't make a living at traditional publishing make a half-hearted effort at indie publishing (publishing a short story collection, a novella disconnected from the interests of their established audience, not taking the time to learn best practices of indie pub), predictably failing, declaring "indie publishing might work for some, but it doesn't for me," and then putting their hand out for donations.
-I'm tired of people who think they should be paid a living wage simply because they engage in the act of writing for a few hours, most days of the week, most weeks of the year.


So, if writing isn't a "job" in the traditional sense, what is it?

An author produces a product for sale. That's it. As I said in a previous post, we're paid for the product, not the process.

Also as previously discussed, an author's compensation will therefore be determined by:
-Commercial appeal of the product.
-Effective pricing and marketing strategies
-Work ethic (more products=more income)
-How much of an author's potential income is surrendered to agents and publishers (or, in the case of indies, investment in the production process, cuts taken by distributors...)

So, what's the point of all this?

I believe it's in our best interests to change the way we think about writing. Instead of thinking about ourselves as employees slaving away at a job that pays poorly, let's start recognizing ourselves for what we are: producers.

When we accept that our compensation hinges on quality and quantity of our products, and the wisdom and effectiveness of our business decisions, we begin to see writing in a different way, and we begin to focus on what really matters:

-Work on our craft
-Strive to be more productive and efficient
-Stay on top of the business aspects, best practices, and realities of the publishing industry.

Let's stop sapping our time and creative energy fretting about what everyone else is being paid, and figure out how we can make our own careers work for us. On that note, I'm going to get back to work.

Good luck on your writing and publishing journey!

"Fair Compensation" for Your Work

Listen to the Companion Podcast Episode

Something I see regularly discussed in writing and publishing circles is the subject of a writer being

"fairly compensated" for her/his work. Often this takes the form of a pricing discussion, or perhaps in the context of reports on authors' average or median income. There are many common refrains I think are misguided. They include:


"I set my ebook price at $9.99 [or other high amount] because I want to be fairly compensated for my work."

In indie publishing, seeking "fair compensation" on a per-unit basis is the wrong strategy. You're not flipping a house; you're creating a work of which you can sell an unlimited number of copies. Your strategy should be what any competent businessperson does: find the price point at which sales*price= maximum revenue. The ability to offer books at a significantly lower price than traditional publishers and still make a solid royalty per-sale is one of an indie's most effective tools. We'd be foolish not to use that to our advantage.

I recently participated in a pricing discussion in  which an author advocated for the $9.99 price point, cited the length of her books as a deciding factor, and claimed her readers "thanked her for charging a fair price for her work." Her book was ranked around 1,000,000 on Amazon, which means she probably hasn't sold a copy in more than a month. We'll give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she's selling a copy a month. Is the (a little less than) $7 she earned last month a "fair compensation" for her work?

"I'm going to set X price point and train my readers to expect that price for my work."

Bad news: your readers aren't exclusively yours. They're reading lots of other authors in your genre (and probably in other genres) and those other authors, if they're indies are most likely pricing according to the market. In commercial fiction, our work is fungible. Fans of George RR Martin don't go on a "book fast" in between new installments of A Song of Ice and Fire. If I stopped writing tomorrow, readers who love Dane Maddock will be disappointed, but they aren't going to give up reading forever. They're going to keep enjoying all the other thriller and action-adventure authors in their TBR pile. If I were to start charging $9.99 for an ebook, a fraction of those readers would come along for the ride, but most will simply spend their money one more reasonably priced indie authors, or will buy books from better-known trad-pub authors.

"I'm not going to charge less than X for my book. I worked too hard on it for that."

The level of effort you put into your work has no bearing whatsoever on what price point will maximize your revenue. If you want to be compensated for your hard work, charge a price that the market will bear, and earn as much as you can from your book.

"I'm not going to be a part of the race to the bottom in indie book pricing."

There's no race to the bottom. The indie ebook market is fairly stable, with $2.99-$4.99 being the price points (according to Data Guy) at which authors are maximizing revenue, and that's been the case for a while. Thanks in large part to Bookbub, 99 cents is no longer "special," and is now typically used as a special sale price. The same with free books- authors offer them as part of a larger sales strategy.

"X author charges X and earned X last year!"

- Are you sure?
- Even if that's true, the exception doesn't prove the rule.
- I'll wager I can point to many, many more authors who are pricing according to the dictates of the market, and are making a lot more money than X author.
- If you're new to publishing, or haven't yet reached the level of success you're aiming for, X author's income probably seems like a lot, but remember, your best chance of earning that much (or much more) is to follow the examples of those authors who are enjoying the most success.

"Oprah says, 'Don't accept no from people who don't have the power to say yes.'" 

I saw this comment in reply to a debut indie author who was planning to charge $9.99 for his book. (Side note- Oprah's a badass and, in context, that's a great quote.) If your goal is to succeed in indie publishing,  it is absolutely your prerogative to ignore the experience and advice of the authors who have worked their way to the level you hope to reach, but do so at your peril. No one's telling you "no:" they're saying, "I wouldn't do that if I were you." (Side note #2- the author did, in fact, price his book at $9.99, and it's not selling.)


"It's so awful that the average author only earns X per year. People need to value our profession more than that."

While I won't dispute that the vast majority of authors don't earn a substantial income from writing, let's face some harsh realities:

-A commercial fiction author is creating a product for sale.  The author's compensation is dependent upon that product's commercial appeal, the pricing and marketing strategies applied to that product, whether or not a publisher and an agency are taking cuts of the author's work, and how frequently an author generates new products.

-We are compensated for the product, not the process (and not the effort we put into it, nor the 'intrinsic value' of our work.)

-Author earnings reports tend to be skewed by authors who: don't put out books regularly;  write bad books; write good books but use bad business practices; are fully invested in the traditional publishing model (meaning they're earning pocket change per book sold, and then giving an agent a cut too) but have midlist, or lower, sales figures.


At this point, there are several rabbit holes down which I could run, but instead, I'll save those topics for another day and underscore my main points:

The best way to be fairly compensated for your work is to use the best possible pricing strategies.

While luck plays a part, your compensation as an author will be determined by the commercial appeal of your work, your business decisions, and your work ethic. The time we spend grumbling about underpaid authors is time we could spend writing. Get to work!