Is it possible to make any money via self publishing?

[NamelessGem]

I am leaning towards self publishing now after sending off some dreadful and soul destroying cover letters, each one sent makes me hate myself more and more - I feel the same when sending out CV’s!

Anyway, I’ve spoken with two women who have self publish via kdp and neither made any more than £1 per book.

However...

I have a substantial following online (in the thousands) and have had many many requests for a book to be written, last year I began writing, had a break when a parent died and now I’m finished.

I have a professional proof reader friend, which is lucky. And editing is under way.

But I want to have my book in print. I want to hold it and say I made some money for my hard work!!

Is it possible ? Or a pipe dream...?

It is possible though the majority of self-published authors don't make a substantial income. It's a big sea with lots of what seems to be to be poorly written and arguably copycat or similar material that might make it harder for an author to gain visibility and sales. You've picked up on the down side of self-publishing. The author might earn a higher percentage of the sale price but might not sell many.

To be fair, I suppose the majority of writers who try don't get a traditional publishing deal.

And of all writers who earn an income, I understand form the Society of Authors that the UK average income is c£8-10,000 hence many authors have a second (or main) income. This average was, I think, a mean so includes the income of best selling authors so the median would (probably) be lower. It's not helped by the industry structures where the publishers, retail channels and agents all seem to make a healthier return.

There are lots of things that a self-published author can do to make their 'product' the best it can be to replicate the development/line/copy editing that a traditional publishing process (agent and publisher) would achieve. It sounds like you have some of that in hand.

There are marketing and related activities that can help your book get visibility and sell better. There are lots of guides, some by successful self-published authors. I hear some good things about Mark Dawson's guide. I've skimmed it but not well enough to have formed a valid opinion. I've no relationship to them but if it's helpful, here is the link - selfpublishingformula.com

There are lots of you tube and blog and website advisory sites. It seems many self-published authors try and earn by selling this advice or monetising their traffic.

It is certainly possible and not a pipe dream to earn well with self-publishing but probably requires more than just firing and forgetting your novel onto KDP (I'm not saying this is what you planned to do) unless you are lucky and a talented author. If you have a following then that sounds a really good start (and seems to be something that traditional publishers look for too).

Good luck.

@Zilla1

Thankyou for taking the time to reply, and that is all brilliant info!

I will take a look at those guides, I have been skimming through things here and there, and know a few ladies who have published via KPD but they didn’t earn much and have given some brilliant advice also.

I am definitely not ‘in it for the money’ or have dreams of becoming a millionaire ! but wondered what realistic figures were and if it was even worth my time.

Thanks again :) x

Always welcome.

You mentioned realistic figures - I'm not sure if realistic figures could be a meaningful concept though happy to be wrong (I usually am). It's a rubbish analogy but I think of it like how much income a randomly selected individual in the UK would earn. Many earn minimum wage. I vaguely recall the average income is c£20-30k depending on what figures you look at. Some earn much, much more. And a child might have no income. I think writing would have a spread of outcomes from nothing to lots.

In terms of it being worth your time, I'm not sure this is the best way of looking at it for your first novel though I understand why many writers do. If you've written something you would want to read then well done. Being positive, I've seen that for self publishing, authors who earn well seem to do so on the back of series of novels and having new writing to sell. Lots (but not all) of the guides seem to emphasise this.

So, even if you don't earn much with your first, I'd expect your writing to improve with subsequent novels and when you sell well, especially if it's one of your later novels, this might/should/could lead to your income being earned across your range of novels.

Good luck.

Some self-pubbed authors are making 7 figures a month.

Some are making 2 figures a year.

Most successful self-pubbed (who do it full-time) are publishing at minimum a full length novel (50k words minimum) every 4-8 weeks and some of the top earners easily spend 6 figures a month on advertising (fb ads, ams ads, bookbub, etc.).

The cover, blurb and look inside will sell the book. The end of the book will sell the next one.

Genre matters, too.

In genre fiction, erotica, romance, cosy mysteries and scifi/fantasy are probably the biggest indie sellers. YA and kidlit are barely worth the effort in indie because most readers of those genres prefer hard copies, and ebook are more the arena of indie success. Horror is a struggle too. Thrillers are growing in the indie market, and there a few standouts (Mark Dawson being the one that always comes to mind).

fwiw I'm an indie author publishing in one of the genres indies do well in. I made substantially more than either of your friends on my first day and I had zero following.

I second everything zon said. I'm a ghostwriter in one of those genres and work for publishers. Stick to one genre, build an email list, and publish a new book (40k is fine) every 4 to 8 weeks. I've learned to write very fast!

I published my first book, written around my 9-5 and being a single parent to two children over the course of one month, and I made roughly half my day job monthly salary. For considerably less hours.

No following, no advertisements etc. (Although I am starting to build a social media following now!)

It's possible. Chris Fox's books are great (write to market and 5000 words per hour). So is Michael Anderle's facebook group (20booksto50k).

I think it comes down to- some people write books they love. Some people write books they know will sell. Some people write books they love and for a hungry market. I think the last group have the most success at this.

The people I have spoken to who are doing well- so lets say average day job salary all the way up to $20,000 a month- all have one thing in common. They treat it like a job, like a full time start up business. They become experts in the market, in facebook ads, amazon ads, kdp keywords, social media, marketing, booksprout, ARC teams, newsletter building. They hone so much of this that the actual writing of the book becomes the easy part. They're all determined and they're all pushing a strict release schedule. You must be publishing novellas every two weeks, or novels every 6 weeks. You must be constantly honing your ads on the first in series book, monitoring the ROI, tweaking, reacting to events and trends or dips.

Not everyone wants to do this, some people are happy writing books they love (and there is nothing wrong with that) but I do think to make any proper income you need to be either incredibly lucky, or incredibly determined and willing to put in the relentless work.

@hundredmilestare

What genre was your book in?

@NameChangedNoImagination dark erotic romance

Nothing helpful to add here, just wanted to say I’m seriously in awe of those of you writing a book every 6 weeks!

How much actual writing time is that per day?

I write m/m romance in my spare time. I don't have much time to do all the social media stuff but I do some as it seems to engage the American market.

It's a growing genre but still pretty niche in the grand scheme of things.

I earn £1-2k a book. However as I work full time I only manage 2-4 books a year. It's a nice top up of income for something that I consider a hobby.

I know someone who self-published his life's work move and barely made anything - less than £100. No marketing or social media at all etc.