Salary for unknown writer

[ShittyFingers]

I’m just curious … say you write a book, it gets accepted by a publisher … it’s your first book and nobody knows who you are.

Let’s say it’s a chick lit book.

How much money could you expect to earn from this first book? How does it work?

I’m assuming the pay out isn’t great - but I need motivation

I have nine books published but this year has been the worst ever for earnings, despite having another book out in 2021.

The years I did well (2008, 2016-2028) I had huge publisher backing on two particular titles. Lots of sales and marketing behind them. I didn’t do much apart from book signings and a few festivals but for most of us, those aren’t big sales drivers. These days it’s advertising on social media and yes perhaps TikTok. I haven’t got into the latter yet.

I personally think the latest book is one of my most commercial and could have done well but the publisher didn’t throw as much behind me.

At the same time the pandemic and closure of book shops meant more pushing of digital and 99p became a common price point for at least some periods. At 35% royalty on 99p, you have to sell a truckload of books to make money. But if you/your publisher don’t discount to 99p for at least some periods in a book’s history, it can just sink.

My latest publisher is actually better than most as marketing but increasingly I have to do more myself.

If you look at average median earnings (helping to strip out the effects of comparatively few very high earners) they can be as bad as this:

Taking account of everyone who contributed to the latest review (more than 5,500 writers covering everyone from full-time professionals to occasional contributors), the overall median annual earnings figure has slumped to just £3,000, a real terms reduction of almost 50% since 2005.

(That’s from the ALCS.)

I just found this thread and can confirm there is plenty of money to be made from self publishing (@HollowTalk). And also to say I was inspired to self publish by reading lots of @themental posts on here! So thank you for that. It changed my life! I’m also trad published too and only make a fraction of my self pub income. So if you decide to self pub OP, drop me a line!

From a major publisher, such an advance is typically $5,000-$10,000 for a first-time, unknown author, more if the author is well-known. Small press advances are lower, usually in the $1,000-$2,000 range, though some make up for that with higher royalty terms.

Just about to begin my self-publishing journey as I know it is more lucrative in the long-term when you get it right. How is it going for your OP? I have found MN to be a really inspiring place to research about self-publishing.

I have a friend who is self publishing on Amazon. He's earning more than i did with my trad published non fiction book and he tells me that the dashboard/support/reports are excellent. He showed the screen that displays his earnings and whilst it's not a fortune, it's slow and steady. There are many Facebook groups out there but be selective. Some have some terrible authors on selling vampire erotica and so forth but others have writers that really know their stuff.

The other thing is that half the time I don't know if a book on my kindle is by a self published writer or a trad writer. If the hook is good and the cover doesn't look amateur, I'll buy it. Mark Dawson is a good example and is doing very well indeed.

MissBattleAxe that's really interesting, thanks. Do you still write for trad publishers?

Twenty books to 50k is an interesting Facebook group.

I don't self publish but I enjoy learning about it all.

It is a very useful group, there are several on fb

@EmmaH2022 my non fiction book was a one book deal and I was a co author. I'm currently writing fiction but don't have a publisher as I haven't finished it or submitted it yet

Do you think you will try trad?

congratulations on the book btw.

Thank you @EmmaH2022 ! Yes, I will try trad with my current WIP when it's done.