My clients have earned more than $7,000,000 to date in advances from top publishers including Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette Books, Macmillian, and Hay House (among others). My weekly emails share my insights on how entrepreneurs and experts can position themselves to land literary agents and six-figure book deals with traditional publishers.
How a Traditionally Published Book Makes You Money
|
Hi Reader — I’ve worked in traditional book publishing for 20 years, and a statement I hear all the time is that “books don’t make you any money.” This can be true, especially if and when you choose to self-publish because the money to produce the book is paid upfront by the author. In that model, you only make money when and if you earn those costs back. So — let’s say you paid $10,000 to self-publish and your book is $10. You would need to sell 1,001 books to make any money. In traditional publishing, the math works the same way except that the publisher pays you an advance on earnings — basically money that the publisher expects to recoup after the book is published and sold. Using the same math as before — you got paid a $10,000 advance (for what it’s worth, my clients earn at least 10x that) and your book is $10. You would have to sell 1,000 copies again before making any money — but instead of getting 100% of the profits, you’d likely get a small percentage — 15% or less — as a royalty from the publisher. But here’s the catch: The real money isn’t in your book sales. Instead, it’s in your audience that a traditional publisher wants to leverage to make everyone money on your book. That’s because the amount of money you’ll earn as an entrepreneur with a large audience is way bigger than what you could earn as an author (with a few notable exceptions). When you publish a book with an audience, you earn money selling books — but also everything else. And — even if you don’t sell anything directly (think: influencer, thought leader, speaker) having a successful book often allows you to raise your prices, sometimes significantly. So while those entrepreneurial authors who chose traditional publishing may receive a small royalty check a few times a year, they’re also making substantially more in revenue month over month — because, as I said before, the real money isn’t in book sales but rather in the visibility and audience growth that a book can create for you. Now that I’ve shared a little bit more about what I know . . . I want to ask something. What do YOU want to know about getting your book published? Leave me a voicemail here. I’ll answer your questions live on my podcast AND include in upcoming emails. I’m excited to hear what you want to know! |
Hi — I'm Meghan Stevenson.
My clients have earned more than $7,000,000 to date in advances from top publishers including Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette Books, Macmillian, and Hay House (among others). My weekly emails share my insights on how entrepreneurs and experts can position themselves to land literary agents and six-figure book deals with traditional publishers.
In this email I’m not going to give you a specific number you need to fit in order to please the Publishing Goddesses and get a book deal. Because there is no magic number. Sometimes I wish there was — like when a client with the ability to sell lots of books gets turned down by literary agents for what I think are dumb reasons. Or when editors at publishing houses don’t see what I do in a project. Traditional book publishing is subjective and whimsical (and not in a good way). One of my...
Hi Reader — The most important thing to know about me and my team is that we don’t write book proposals for folks who aren’t ready. 93% of you reading this email aren’t ready. I know that because for the past few years, I’ve been keeping track of the people who reach out to me wanting to work together, and the conversations we have. I know most of you aren’t ready because you talk about yourselves instead of your readers. I know most of you aren’t ready because it’s clear from a two-minute...
I loved being an editor in traditional book publishing. Being an editor at big publishing houses — like Simon & Schuster and Penguin, where I worked — requires a lot of different skills. You have to be willing to socialize constantly — to build relationships with literary agents, to curry favor with authors but also your colleagues — designers and marketers and publicists and the entire production department. At the same time, you must be willing to hidey hole somewhere for days in order to...