E-publishing income?

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Chazemataz

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I'm sorry if this sounds silly or shallow in any way, but... long story short, I'm a broke college student with a couple of completed YA manuscripts sitting on my harddrive taking up space. I was thinking of uploading some to Smashwords as a source of supplemental income. Even if it's 20 extra dollars a month or something, I do not really care. I am mostly interested in the type of money people have made from this venture. Yes, I enjoy writing and all, but I also happen to be desperate for money and many people have said they enjoy my work, so I figured this was as good an option as any.

Thoughts? How much money have you made from, say, an average-selling e-book?
 

c.m.n.

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I also happen to be desperate for money

I haven't self-published yet (plans are still in the works) but your comment makes me ask: If you don't make your $20 a month goal, would you back out??

To get the most out of self-publishing it takes time. A lot of patience.


FYI: I'd also consider Amazon as well.
 

Little Ming

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Not a silly question, most of us want to make money from our writings. But what you're describing sounds more like self-publishing (which can be e-publishing), which is a lot more complicated and difficult than you may think. Unless you already have a reader base or are willing to do a lot of marketing and promotion, you're unlikely going to see $20 a month.

Check out the self-publishing section for more information.
 

Al Stevens

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Can't hurt to try. You're making zilch from your work now. Anything you made from a Kindle/Nook upload would be money you don't have. What can you lose? And, in the process, you'd learn all about what many see as the next big paradigm shift in publishing.

However, take some time and read everything you can find about how to do it right. Which is difficult to sort out since it's such a pioneering effort.

I don't think twenty bucks a month is an unreasonable expectation. If that's the best you think you can do.
 
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Quiggs1982

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It could work out. Don't think you can upload a book and make magic money though. You still have to take the time to promote your work and get the word out there. Your success with self-publishing will be based on this.
 

Alitriona

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How long is a piece of string?

I know that isn't helpful but that is your answer, there is no way for anyone to predict the income you will have, if any. There are too many determining factors like, how good the story is? Is it edited well? Eye catching cover art(for the right reasons)? Is the formatting done well? Interesting blurb? Where is it for sale? Reviews? Price point? Promotion? Does it look professional? All these questions and more will impact on any income you receive. I would say you'll get out what you put in, but that's not always the case either.

If you are serious about self-publishing there is plenty of information around the boards here. You'll have to spend some time reading up and learning the process.
 

Terie

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The thing about self-publishing is that to sell any books at all, you have to do a lot of work. Too many people forget that time is money.

A couple of months ago, an AW member posted here that she was selling one or two self-pubbed e-books a day in her self-pub experiment. On the surface, that might sound like something you'd be happy with.

Only problem is, she was spending one to two hours a day promoting herself and her work. Without that time spent, she wouldn't have sold as much. As she herself said, that meant she was earning $0.25 an hour. Because it was an experiment for her, she didn't mind sharing this information. (And I hope that, in the months since then, her sales have gone up!)

So, as a broke college student (for which I have a tremendous amount of sympathy, believe me), is $.25 an hour a good return on your time investment? What could you be doing during that time that might be better for you in the long run? Studying? Working a minimum wage part-time job? At least with the latter (if you could find one where you worked only two hours a day), you'd made $10 a day instead of $20 a month.

Or are you already spending an hour or two a day on the internet that you could refocus onto self-promotion (instead of, say, surfing or gaming or something)? Do you want to learn the business of self-publishing? Because the only way to earn money at it is to treat it as a business. If that's something you're interested in doing, then the initial investment of nearly-unpaid time could turn out to be profitable for you in the long-run. But it still wouldn't solve your money problems right now.

The thing about writing is this: It's never been and never will be a way to earn a quick buck. If quick bucks are what you need, look for something else.

A writing career takes time to build, whether you're going for commercial publication or self-publication.
 
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girlyswot

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Sure, why not? It costs nothing and you might make some cash. Be aware that both Smashwords and Amazon pay in arrears, and only when your balance reaches a minimum level. So don't expect to see anything for at least 3 months. I put my first story up on Smashwords/Amazon at the end of July and the second a month later. I've made well over $100 and am still selling steadily. I don't spend hours every day on promotion, though I have done some.
 

VoireyLinger

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E-publishing means a book produced and distributed in a digital format. Self-publishing is the DIY/publisher-free thing.

Now that we have that out of the way...

The first thing I want to stress is that you need to make sure the books are good. And before you get offended, please remember that if authors knew their stuff was a hot mess before putting it out there, there wouldn't be so many cringe-worthy self-pubs on the market.

Have someone who's not afraid to hurt your feelings and knows the publishing market go over them. A good edit is invaluable for self-pub. Edit problems can stymie sales.

I have ebooks both through a publishing house and self-pub. RE and FE are with a publisher and PYLM and AU are self pub.

Publisher first...

RE and FE both had big releases. People who buy from that pub regularly jumped on them. This publisher pays monthly so I had 2 decent months after each release... then it tapered to people who stumble upon them. My monthly check for both books now hovers just under enough to buy the family a meal at McDonalds.

PYLM was intended to be a free read. Amazon refuses to have it under .99 but it's free elsewhere on the web. I still get an occasional sale at AZ.

AU is a slow but steady seller. I admit to not pushing it much, but it's listed as my 'current release' in places. Actual sales on this .99 short average a book a week through Amazon. Smashwords sold crap. I'm not sure I want to bother there, anymore because it was a lot of hair pulling for three sales. ARe had been pretty even with Az until last month. PYLM was free there and drove sales but as the freebie dropped in downloads, the story sales did as well.

With ALL books, self- and house-pubbed... get a bump when I have a new book out. Modest bump at this point, but it's there. As i have more books out, more books will sell until over time, I'll reach a point where I am getting a significant check on a regular basis. I'm just not there yet.

Paychecks... AZ and SW do not issue payments under $100. ARe/Omnilit pays quarterly, no bottom limit. I get my royalties via PayPal there. The idea of getting a "monthly" check right off is probably a bit optimistic.

I'm looking at all publishing to be long-term investments. it might not pay this month, this year, or even next year, but eventually I'll have the backlist to produce decent pay on a regular basis.

My take...
Publisher books get more money than self-pub.
In digital format, time and backlist matter
Publishing sales in any format are inconsistent.
An editor is your best friend.
New releases bump old releases.
Self-pub can be like a tortoise - slow and steady.
 

Irysangel

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Also, if you go through Smashwords, even if you select all distribution levels, you won't be 'pushed' through to Amazon. They do not distribute to them at this time. Sales on Smashwords for the majority of people are in the 'few dollars a quarter' category. It's the distribution that makes it key.

The majority of my sales are Amazon (60%), B&N (30%) and All Romance (5%). The other 5% is the scatter of what Smashwords brings in through their distributors.
 

Al Stevens

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PYLM was intended to be a free read. Amazon refuses to have it under .99 but it's free elsewhere on the web.
There is a way to get Amazon to sell for $.0 if it is listed elsewere for that. I forget the specific procedure, but if you need it, I can look it up. As I recall, it has to do with their guarantee to match any published price.
Paychecks... AZ and SW do not issue payments under $100.
Not sure what all the initials are in your post, but if by AZ you mean amazon, they pay monthly and they pay amounts less than $100.
 

Al Stevens

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Only problem is, she was spending one to two hours a day promoting herself and her work. Without that time spent, she wouldn't have sold as much. As she herself said, that meant she was earning $0.25 an hour...is $.25 an hour a good return on your time investment?
If you figure that some of that time is spent learning a new paradigm, it might very well be time well invested. But I wonder what serious college student has one to two extra hours a day.
 

Terie

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If you figure that some of that time is spent learning a new paradigm, it might very well be time well invested. But I wonder what serious college student has one to two extra hours a day.

Which is pretty much what I said here:

Or are you already spending an hour or two a day on the internet that you could refocus onto self-promotion (instead of, say, surfing or gaming or something)? Do you want to learn the business of self-publishing? Because the only way to earn money at it is to treat it as a business. If that's something you're interested in doing, then the initial investment of nearly-unpaid time could turn out to be profitable for you in the long-run. But it still wouldn't solve your money problems right now.

:D
 

Annmarie09

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If you're thinking of going into self-publishing, amazon kindle is by far your best bet. Well, that's where I get 95% of my sales anyway. As for income, it all depends on the book, the work you put into promoting, and luck I guess. I'd rather not say how much I earn a month from my ebook, but let's just say that like you I'm using it to help pay my Uni fees.
Personally I would consider my venture into self publishing successful. Yes, I did put in a lot of time for promoting in the beginning, but now I don't promote at all and my sales have remained the steady. I would reconmend you to go for it. Yes, it's a risk, but you never know, it may be worth it!
 

ios

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To get the most out of self-publishing it takes time. A lot of patience.

This is important. Dean Wesley Smith says:

It's something worth keeping in mind. I still fall back to the old produce mindset myself, even though I am actively pursuing the self-e-pub route.

Jodi
 
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valeriec80

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There was a thread a few days ago on Kindle Boards polling self-published authors of ebooks. I believe that about 65% of them were making less than $100 per month. The survey didn't break it down much more than that. And of course, it's self-reported, so people could be skewing their numbers higher. Also, it's a small sample of all self-published authors. Most KB-ers tend to be pretty active and serious, so that might be stating it a bit strongly. I'd guess that 80-90% of self-published authors are making less than $100 per month.

My first year self-publishing, I published four books. I grossed $600. After expenses (I did POD back then. Boy was that a waste of time and money!), I made $182. For the year.

The second year of self-publishing, I made $430. For the year. (Can't remember how much I grossed.) That year, I put out three or four more books.

This year, I've published six more books (two of them were written before I started self-publishing, and one of them is a novella). But I've grossed over $10,000. (I haven't figured out my expenses yet.)

My point is even to make waaay less than you'd make for a part time job, you have to be persistent, write like crazy, and be super patient. (Also, I think I might be close to qualifying for outlier status, which I guess means: Results not typical.)

That being said, I'm all for your doing it. Publish those suckers! (Unless, of course, you're pretty sure you'll never write anything else in your life. Then you might not want to blow your wad not getting a chance at traditional? commercial? trade? (what are we supposed to call it on here again?) publishing.)
 

izanobu

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Actually, the poll on the Kindleboards showed that about 65% were making MORE than 100 a month. But it is a self-selecting sample.

It took me about a year to get to the point where I was making more than 100 a month. Novels tend to do better than short stories though, so I think someone with a few novels might get there more quickly (I didn't have a novel up until March of this year).

If you want to get rich quickly, writing for publication is probably a terrible idea for you. If you are willing to give it five or six years and a lot of work (ie writing a lot of books), then you have some hope. Publish your books if that is what you want. Just expect that results will likely be slow and the money starting out will be very low.
 

veinglory

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The 'why not' might be that by self-publishing you make nothing, but by third-party publishing you would have made money--which is certainly possible.
 

MMcDonald64

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Paychecks... AZ and SW do not issue payments under $100. ARe/Omnilit pays quarterly, no bottom limit. I get my royalties via PayPal there. The idea of getting a "monthly" check right off is probably a bit optimistic.

Is this a new policy? Because my very first paycheck from Amazon a year ago July, was for ten dollars and some change. It went to my bank. I've never made more than $100 at Smashwords, but I've made enough to get a paycheck from all but maybe the first quarter my books were there. My next check should be $81 through SW, and I expect to get a notice that it has been added to my Paypal account.

I'm looking at all publishing to be long-term investments. it might not pay this month, this year, or even next year, but eventually I'll have the backlist to produce decent pay on a regular basis.

My take...
Publisher books get more money than self-pub.
In digital format, time and backlist matter
Publishing sales in any format are inconsistent.
An editor is your best friend.
New releases bump old releases.
Self-pub can be like a tortoise - slow and steady.

The OP can make some money on his/her books, but it depends on some very important factors. One, they have to be a good storyteller. YA is all about the story. People slammed Amanda Hocking because of her editing, but something about her storytelling resonated with readers despite some flaws in the grammar and editing. However, if you tell a good story, AND you have a clean, edited manuscript, your chances of success go up accordingly.

Get a good cover/title. There are a lot of people out there who can do covers, and some are very inexpensive. In fact, you might find a pre-made one, where the artist will just insert your title and name on the cover. Some are as low as $30. While it won't be the best cover, it should look professional.

Last week, my book sold 98 copies in one day, and I attribute it to the eye-catching cover and lucky placement. It was on the first page of the 'Also Boughts' on a book that was the Kindle Daily Deal. It has a bright, but ominous looking yellow cover, and it really stood out amongst the three other books also on that first page. Of course, it wasn't just the cover and luck, as I have a lot of good reviews on it, but you have to get the customer to see the book before they can ever read the reviews. Out of curiosity, I sort of kept track of the other three books showing that day, to see where their rankings went. Mine got down to about 750 in the store. The lowest the others got to, that I saw, was about 2,000, so I definitely think it was the cover that helped.

Marketing. Hmmm...yes, this can be time consuming, but if you're in college, I bet you spend a lot of time on FB, Twitter, or game sites anyway. Instead of wasting that time, use it productively. Create an author FB page. Most importantly, don't spam any sites with your books. That's a ticket to obscurity. Become part of any forum you feel would have members who might enjoy your books. Don't even mention the books for awhile, just post it in your profile. If you're well-spoken on the forum, people will check out your profile and if you have a link to a blog or webpage that highlights your books, you can generate sales that way. Go over to Kindleboards for more tips on marketing.
 

MMcDonald64

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There was a thread a few days ago on Kindle Boards polling self-published authors of ebooks. I believe that about 65% of them were making less than $100 per month. The survey didn't break it down much more than that. And of course, it's self-reported, so people could be skewing their numbers higher. Also, it's a small sample of all self-published authors. Most KB-ers tend to be pretty active and serious, so that might be stating it a bit strongly. I'd guess that 80-90% of self-published authors are making less than $100 per month.

My first year self-publishing, I published four books. I grossed $600. After expenses (I did POD back then. Boy was that a waste of time and money!), I made $182. For the year.

The second year of self-publishing, I made $430. For the year. (Can't remember how much I grossed.) That year, I put out three or four more books.

This year, I've published six more books (two of them were written before I started self-publishing, and one of them is a novella). But I've grossed over $10,000. (I haven't figured out my expenses yet.)

My point is even to make waaay less than you'd make for a part time job, you have to be persistent, write like crazy, and be super patient. (Also, I think I might be close to qualifying for outlier status, which I guess means: Results not typical.)

That being said, I'm all for your doing it. Publish those suckers! (Unless, of course, you're pretty sure you'll never write anything else in your life. Then you might not want to blow your wad not getting a chance at traditional? commercial? trade? (what are we supposed to call it on here again?) publishing.)

I'm also outside the norm, but just the fact that there are two of us right here on this board, plus many more on KB means it can be done and it isn't a pipe dream. My first year, which was actually just six months and just one book, I made about $750. So far this year, with two books out, I've made $28,000. Not bad for a part-time job. However, I would be surprised if I do that well next year. I had a really good few months in the summer. I expect next year, if I ever get my third book done (it isn't lack of time stopping me, it's a bad case of writer's block and plain old laziness) I hope to average about 2k a month.
 

Nick Russell

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I posted this on the E-publishing forum, but it might give you some ideas too. In late May I uploade dmy first novel, Big Lake, to Kindle. In the next few days I added four of my books on RV travel, that have been out in print for years. Here are my Amazon sales since then. Not nearly as impressive as MMcDonald64, but I have not put a lot of effort into promotion either, so to me it's found money. Go for it. What do you have to lose? Good luck!

May $107.53 (only had books uploaded for 10 days).
June $167.45
July $251.11.
August $289.05
September $422.50
 

Alitriona

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Is this a new policy? Because my very first paycheck from Amazon a year ago July, was for ten dollars and some change.

10 for US/UK/or Germany when payment is through EFT. For everywhere else payment is by check and for a check, there must be 100 in the pot.
 

shaldna

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10 for US/UK/or Germany when payment is through EFT. For everywhere else payment is by check and for a check, there must be 100 in the pot.

And in order to avail of the electronic fund transfer you must have an international bank account.
 

Noah Body

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My first titles went up in March, and so far I've made about $11,500, give or take. Went through a fantastic slow down starting in August, though. So yeah, you can make some coin...but don't count on it paying your mortgage or anything. (Though one royalty payment did just that.)
 
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