[Berlin_Freeper]

800 euros

[TChad]

Interesting.

[Kriggerel]

...The subject matter is also important. In this day and age, where it’s all about instant-gratification, and many folks born after 1975 have the attention span of a gnat on crystal meth. Hence, from the late part of Generation X onwards, most folks no longer read unless they absolutely have to.

So, for someone like myself, who has published poetry collections, you’re working with a tiny, niche market AT BEST, and you pretty much have to do it for the love of your art, and nothing else, otherwise you’re in for the loneliest and most frustrating experience of your life. You also need to be prepared to not make a dime on your books. :(

[montag813]

if your contract says you get 10% royalties off list, then you will get $2.50 per book

Highway robbery...unprecedented in any other product category. How on Earth is there still a book publishing industry? I would think it would be ripe for destruction via technology.

[Tainan]

I was the author of a series of books in the mid-80s.
It sold well, no lists or anything, but in its niche, we did well.
The advance, residuals and actual monies were pretty thin.

Authors today, stand to so much better.

Bravo to all of them !

[Skooz]

bfl

[reed13k]

bfl

[AD from SpringBay]

Going self-pub with three novels and a book of short stories, I’m at the ‘occasional pizza money’ level of success. Though it has been rewarding in other ways.

[celmak]

PING

[William Tell]

An issue I didn't see addressed is the return of merchandise.

I was fortunate in almost accidently becoming co-author of a computer game. There was no advance for this deal, but I received royalties quarterly for the number of units sold.

A big problem at the time was shelf space. This was before the advent of the internet. If you didn't get visibility on the shelf in the stores that sold computer games, you weren't going to get sales.

The game did fine for about a year or two but then tapered off quickly. An item almost unnoticed at first was the fact that the royalties were computed as "sales less returns". The last couple of quarterly statements I received showed that returns exceeded sales and so I owed the publisher money. Soon thereafter the quarterly reports ceased.

It was good while it lasted.