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Author Earnings

Hi,

Not wanting to raise this battle again between indies and trades, but you should know that Hugh has just updated his newest author earnings survey results for 2014. It's sel reported data so that's a huge bias, and I would expect that indie authors who didn't self report are hugely in the didn't earn anything category, bringing the averages down. But having said that it still makes some interesting observations about quality control eg editing, and numbers of books published, and their relation to income.

Income, Covers, and Editing: More Fascinating Data About Indie Authors | Alexis Radcliff | Lexirad.com

Cheers, Greg.
 

BWFoster78

Myth Weaver
If it helps anyone, I earned $25 writing in 2014. That only puts me around $600 in the hole for the year as long as you don't count mileage traveling to my writing group...
 

Russ

Istar
Hi,

Not wanting to raise this battle again between indies and trades, but you should know that Hugh has just updated his newest author earnings survey results for 2014. It's sel reported data so that's a huge bias, and I would expect that indie authors who didn't self report are hugely in the didn't earn anything category, bringing the averages down. But having said that it still makes some interesting observations about quality control eg editing, and numbers of books published, and their relation to income.

Income, Covers, and Editing: More Fascinating Data About Indie Authors | Alexis Radcliff | Lexirad.com

Cheers, Greg.

There is plenty of really interesting info there. Thanks for sharing that.
 
I think the least surprising stat is that more books correlates to more money. Because one's skill should increase, which means more readers and that means more money. Then of course, more directly, more books out increases sales chances and more chances equals more money.

That said, my old golf coach's maxim comes to mind. Practice doesn't make perfect. It makes habit. Perfect practice makes perfect. I Think that comes from Vince Lombardi but I'm not sure. So, to me unless an author dies their absolute best to write, edit, and just as important learn from their critics they're not doing perfect practice.
 

BWFoster78

Myth Weaver
I think the least surprising stat is that more books correlates to more money. Because one's skill should increase, which means more readers and that means more money. Then of course, more directly, more books out increases sales chances and more chances equals more money.

That said, my old golf coach's maxim comes to mind. Practice doesn't make perfect. It makes habit. Perfect practice makes perfect. I Think that comes from Vince Lombardi but I'm not sure. So, to me unless an author dies their absolute best to write, edit, and just as important learn from their critics they're not doing perfect practice.

I think there's another causation: when I find an author I like, I immediately look at their entire works for something else I might like. That's one reason that it may not be a great idea to spend much time marketing your first book. For every dollar/hour spent, your total possible sales is 1. If you have 2 books out, that doubles.
 

MineOwnKing

Maester
She looks so spunky and full of hope.

What's a high octane fantasy thriller?

I could definitely live with being a 10 percenter.

$75,000 would make mommy proud.

Happy wife, happy life.

Tonight I'll dream of purple..3%...3%...3%...I am one with the universe, I am one with the universe...no, I am not one with the universe!!
 
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