Ebook sales query

What genre and specific epublishers were you considering? because it depends on that. But generally erotic romance is the top selling fiction ebook genre. The top books might sell 10,000--the avergae 300 within 1-2 years. Other genres are likely to sell less both at the top end and on average.

I question the generalization that it takes 500 sales of one book to break even. Maybe the "break even" number varies from publisher to publisher, but I'm fairly certain it's not true across the board.

I would imagine it depends on how much each pub spends on overhead, and I suspect EC spends quite a bit more than the average epub, given all the irons the company has in industry's fire.

I would agree with that. As most epublishers would not sell more than 100 copies of an average book they must be operating on a lower input model.

to break even? Um, no. Maybe at EC or Samhain, but even there I doubt it. The overhead for the production of an ebook isn't that significant. The royalty payments are higher, yes, but I think 500 as a number to 'break even' is high for most e-presses.

Para, I'm curious about where you saw that information?

And, FWIW, from personal non-erotic, smaller, newer, e-pub experience, I'm REALLY curious, because I've only had 2/6 hit over 500...so why do they keep picking up my stories if they aren't breaking even?

(My current releases are short and sweet, so that may not be a fair indication of e-book full length sales etc. I do know my full length that went to print sold about 50/50 e vs print in the last 6 months)

Brenda Hiatt's Show Me the Money page.

EC is mentioned. Compare them (royalty only, no advance, low sales) to the print houses (royalty + advance) and it's no contest.

While this doesn't say anything about books sold, it can give an idea of what they earn.

Before anyone starts drooling too much over the print house earnings---my agent advised me to always look at the LOWEST numbers. The high numbers usually mean the writer has built up a large following, and/or it was a special title. First novels rarely get those kind of sales.

Take the median earnings numbers seriously, not those juicy high ones, however tempting.

If an e-book (45-69K) words sells for 4.45 and the writer gets .375% royalty off that price, she earns 1.68 for each one sold.

Sell 500 copies, the writer gets 835.00, the publisher gets 1,385.00.

I find it difficult to take in that it would cost an e-house that much to put a book up on a website, even when you factor in editing and web hosting costs. Maybe the cover art is pricey. Photoshopping from stock images can cost a bomb. (I'm being snarky, if anyone wondered.)

I was thinking on doing an erotica book just for fun, mentioned it to my agent, who said, "You do one of those, send it to me so you can make some real money." She was talking about print venues.

Yes, there IS talk about print houses tightening the belt these days, but I've never heard of one going broke on an erotica title!

Wise call, Para. Most look at traditional print pubs first, particularly for contemporary. When (if) it doesn't fit into that VERY round hole...it may be time to consider other options.

G'head, slap me if I'm wrong, but have any of you deliberately written a full length contemporary romance intended for an e-pub???

Just askin'!!!

(I have written shorts and novellas for that target...)

I see it as predominantly a novella market. However I have written M/M novel length which was not a good genre fit for print and also still a little on the short side for them as well (e.g. around 60k)

para said:

Thanks for all the info. I cannot for the life of me find where I read about 500 copies to break even, so I think I must have been confusing different strands of the conversation. Still confusion aside I'm finding this all really interesting. I think on balance I'll probably look at the traditional print route for my contemporary romance (short category).

Click to expand...

Is it possible you could have confused break even with the threshold for the epub to consider offering the book in a print edition? Some epubs have the option of offering a print version, but the number of sales needed before they will consider it varies from epub to epub.

You can do okay with an ebook if you buy the POD copies at cost and sell them yourself (and not through a book retailer). I made over $600 by having two booksignings at a wine shop during free wine tastings the shop was hosting. They didn't want a percentage, so I sat at my little table and offered cheese and crackers to go with the yummy wine folks were sampling. I sold a whole bunch of books both times.

As for electronic sales, I've made about $35 total. Yeah, not so great. But without distribution and having to compete with my own epub's four-hundred some odd books, it's not surprising. My book was even a best seller on the website for about a week, LOL! It's romantic suspense, which doesn't do nearly as well as erotica, and I'm afraid I'd be a poor erotica author. But that market is screaming successful. I can see how an author could make thousands of dollars in royalties by writing erotica.

I know several people who live off of what they make, but they have several books. Also, depending on your market sector in erotica (meaning paranormal, interracial, etc), you can really make a nice sum. I know someone who made $2000 (in '06)and $700 ('08 - according to SMTM, she seems to have underperformed!) respectively at two different pubs in interracial, and that was the first month. And no, they didn't have a youuuuuge fan base or anything. Interracial's a growing focus, and not many people are doing it, so the fans really dive for the new stuff.

If you're writing normal contemp erotica, then I can see the numbers being really small because you could get lost in the shuffle. That's whats happening at one house, or so I hear...

Actually, SMTM is opening my eyes. This just made my day. Thanks, Gilloughly.