February 17, 2023

164: Let’s Talk Royalties re: Publishing Options (Part Two)

41 minutes

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “A book is a business card.” That’s because what you don’t hear is that a book is a wonderful revenue generator! It isn’t — at least not directly. The extreme Time-to-Revenue Ratio of writing and marketing a book is not for the faint of heart, unless the book connects directly to a larger part of your business model, serving as lead generation for more profitable products and services.

Some interesting stats for you: Even the big behemoth, Penguin Random House, reports that just 35 percent of books they publish are profitable. Among those that make money, just 4 percent account for 60 percent of those profits. In 2021, fewer than one percent of the 3.2 million titles that BookScan tracked sold more than 5,000 copies.

Continuing on last week’s conversation about the three different publishing options and how to choose which one is right for you, today I’m diving deep into the mysterious royalty waters. How do each of the three methods — self, hybrid, traditional — stack up? Listen in to find out.

For more data points beyond my own examples, check out The Transparency Project’s Publishing Paid Me crowd-sourced spreadsheet with nearly 3,000 responses.

🌟4 Key Questions:

Have you published a book before?

How much cash (and free cash flow) do you have available?

What is your creative vision?

What is your timeline?

📝Permission: To take your time and try to take the pressure off. Keep marinating on your book idea, and trust that you’ll be shown what to do with the process.

✅Do (or Delegate) This Next: Reach out to your network to schedule 20-minute chats with authors (friends-of-friends) who have taken each of these three routes.

📘Books Mentioned:

Free Time: Lose The Busywork, Love Your Business

Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One

Life After College

The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier

Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great by Jim Collins

🔗Resources Mentioned:

Articles: A Trial Put Publishing’s Inner Workings on Display. What Did We Learn?, The Random House Antitrust Suit Revealed How Out of it Book Publishers Really Are

Self- and Hybrid Publishers: Page Two, Running Press Publishing, Portfolio Publishing, Ideapress Publishing, Amazon CreateSpace

Calculator: When do I earn out? (Jane Friedman's calculator for traditional book deals)

🎧Related Podcast Episodes:

103: How to Land a Literary Agent and Publisher with David Moldawer (Part One)

105: “Don’t write the wrong book!” with David Moldawer (Part Two)

077: Happy Launch Day! Antonio Neves Guest Hosts (Part 1) and (Part 2)

158: How to Decide on a Book (or Big Idea) Topic—10 Filters

162: Should You Self-Publish? (Part One)

Pivot 207: How to Develop Your Book and Big Idea (Part 1) and 208: Your Book and Big Idea (Part 2)

💻 Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe »

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By Jenny Blake

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