Colleen Hoover talks Indie vs Traditional Publishing on Bookbub blog

There are many decisions a writer must make before getting their novel into the hands of eager readers, but one of the most daunting steps is answering this question:

Which form of publishing is right for me?

Both traditional publishing and independent publishing have their appeals. Depending on your goals and preferences for the writing and publishing processes, each avenue can provide different opportunities. As an author who has published ten novels with my traditional publisher and seven novels on my own, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking and learning about the benefits of each path. I want to share some of my own considerations and learning in order to (hopefully!) help some fellow authors decide which path is right for them.

To find out which choice is best for you, read on for a more in depth look at each avenue of publishing.

You can read the full article on the Bookbub blog here:

https://insights.bookbub.com/indie-vs-traditional-publishing-which-path-right-you

About Colleen Hoover

Colleen Hoover is the #1 New York Times and International bestselling author of multiple novels and novellas. She lives in Texas with her husband and their three boys. She is the founder of The Bookworm Box, a non-profit book subscription service and bookstore in Sulphur Springs, Texas.

For more information and for a schedule of events, please visit colleenhoover.com

To contact Colleen and her team (Her team's name is Stephanie), please email hooverink@outlook.com

Interview with Wade Garret

Can you give us a brief overview of your latest book? Is it part of a series?

Overall Blurb:

            Jak Hartlen, 19, the son of William and Mary, will face many thresholds of flesh and mind on his road to reaping the Whirl Wind; seeds of grief and guilt only now coming to fruition. If only they’d know what they were doing... The Gan and their Areht who shape the world behind the scenes will hate him, because he's a threat they're not sure can be chained. 

            The Pillars and their Faithful who spread the world's leading religion will fear him, because his existence, once known, will challenge Ages of dogma and accepted history. 

            The Crimson King and its Servants who seek to return to power, destroying all that remains of The White, will hunt him, because even in death, they're not sure he'll ever bow to the Dark. 

            —They All Should. For as One of Five with the power to shake the world, they will hollow his heart and mind through countless sacrifice and vengeful selfishness.

            Back Cover Blurb:

            After a year of laborious solitude and a conflict brought to the doorstep of his father's house, Jak, a Southlander of meek circumstance, will come to accept the future isn't set. Through abilities unnerving to any Areht, against enemies rising in every corner of the planet, he’ll be forced to resolve his destiny as one of five that can change the world. Such selfless transcendence isn’t easy, nor simply the heroic result of dark revelations shielded from him since childhood now exposed; rather, it's because of what’s undeniable, even to him. Like all great forces collected at the tip of the spear, the truth of his purpose and the price of his existence has a cost and there's no getting around paying it

Do you have a favorite character?

            I have a favorite Main and Secondary Character. My favorite main character, is, of course, Jak—the hero of our story. My favorite secondary character is a two-way tie, though not between Jak’s trusted friends along the way of his epic journey: Palomeer, a guardian of sorts, who remains much in the background and Üllrik, a force-unto-himself, who doesn’t appear till nearly the end of the story—for reasons I can’t explain without giving things away. 

Have you ever had a minor character evolve into a major one? Did that change the direction of the novel at all?

            It happened all the time. As it should. Outside of Jak, every character is a minor character. The story is about HIM; however, as the plot moves along, people join the hero and thus their story/background expands. The world grows. Now, since mine is an epic world, the blending of Fantasy and Science Fiction, I’ve got tons of room and time—if my will holds—to expand all these characters in ways that flow back and forth through the plot. A common saying in my story is “And the World Turn(s)ed” which is a soft reminder that as the pages in your hand are turning, w/e you’re not reading about, is also moving forward. A great example of a minor becoming a major is the focus of my prologue, which outlines a brief moment before the story and focuses on Mr. Black. I hope everyone checks it out.

Did you try the traditional route to publishing, i.e. querying agents/publishers?

            Yes. It felt like forever, though my wife was constantly reminding me it’d only been a handful of months. I quickly gave up on Agents and began reaching out to Publishers directly. A few were interested, some had me on stand-by—email conversations taking weeks at a time—when Black Bed Sheet Books grabbed my attention and without haste made me an offer over a live chat on FB. Second best feeling in the world.

What factors influenced your decision to go with a particular agent or publisher?

            I’ll be honest. Like every author, you want the best for your book. You want that big deal. You want to be seen everywhere. However, it’s a business and the big guys play rough and despite how much they might like your book, if they can’t sell it FAST to make their ROI—meaning one of a hundred things, not all bad—they’ll pass. We all understand that: Publishers and Agents, for the most part, are about What’s Hot; What’s Selling: What’s now and how much are you like that. I like Black Bed Sheet Books and other small/medium press because, well, I see the passion there. Also, I like breaking new ground and with me, BBS, which did only horror, was reaching out into new territory. I liked that.

If you used a graphic designer/publisher’s designer, how involved were you during the creative process for your cover?

            I used Angela R. Sasser http://www.angelicshades.com/ for my cover and my world map and if you’ve seen them, you know she did an amazing job. I was as hands on as I could be, but I’m no artist. I sent her drafts from my work, detailed descriptions and we talked a lot over email. With all that, she took my world and ran with it. Only once did we revisit something. Everything she did for me was amazing. Without her, my book wouldn’t look as good as it does.

What is your writing process? Do you listen to music or do you like silence?

            I take a hack’n’slash approach to writing. I know the beginning, middle and end, points in-between, then I start writing. I outline here-an-there, but only for a few chapters ahead. When I’m all done, I reread a dozen times, putting things in, taking things out. It’s kinda messy but I feel better about an organic process rather than spending so much time banging outa fully realized outline without making a single keystroke. No, I don’t often listen to music, but at times I do. Mostly I take breaks walking around my house, outside, talking to myself—which is funny when I’m caught doing it.

Did you hire an editor to review your manuscript before publishing?

            I did that long long ago. It was horrible. Not only did it cost a lot $$$, but the editor/book Doctor—makes me mad to this day—wanted me to rewrite it to HER ideas of what my book should be. Then I spent some time shopping it around town to people in-the-know, contacts and such. Finally, the last thing I did was take it to the street. Me and a buddy took my work, a few pages, to a local bookstore (one of the big guys) and started asking people what they liked or didn’t like in books and if their taste fit mine, we showed it to them. Now, both of us said we weren’t the author, that he/she was outside and we were telling them our opinion of the work was that it wasn’t ready for publication and this was our friendly way of trying to get an unbiased read on readers so he/she wouldn’t be hurt by any rejections. However, to our amazement, 9 out of 10 people liked it and a few asked when it would be published, what was the writers name so they could look it up in a year or so. Sometime after that, I did take one more crack at a “professional” evaluation, someone I’d read about, double checked and felt would give me an honest reading. He did and with that confidence, I worked on the few things he mentioned and quickly began pursuing publishing.

What kinds of marketing [twitter, facebook, blog, forums] are you involved with for promoting your book(s)?

            Sometimes I feel like I spend too much time doing this. But, I use my blog Wade Garret’s World wjgarret.blogspot.com; Twitter @wadejgarret; Facebook WadeGarret and a handful of others, including Goodreads, Booklikes, LibraryThing, Dieselpunks and I’m a member of countless blogs and sites where I rarely frequent...I say this not because I don’t want to visit or post there, but because you can spend away hours doing this and feel like it didn’t get you anything that day. You’ve got to be specific. Best, link your twitter to everything and make one post and it goes everywhere.

What advice would you give a new author just entering into the self-publishing arena?

            Well, if you don’t have to self-publish, don’t. This is to say, it’s really hard, takes a ton of time and money. Remember, once it’s published, a publisher might not republish it...also, it’s very easy to get lost in the pile of free/cheap books out there. Ok, enough of that cause I don’t want to discourage people from publishing their works, I often thought about giving up on writing for awhile if I didn’t get a publisher. So, to my new authors just striking out, I say this. CAUTION!!!!! Wear a helmet, cause life sucks some times, but in the end, if you’re not writing what you want to write, what only you can write, why are you doing it? Don’t be someone else. You’re far more interesting.

Blog Tour: THE JANE AUSTEN COLLECTION

Jane Austen Collection

Cover links to Amazon

Published by Doma Publishing

Follow @DomaPublishing

Review: FEARLESS by Cornelia Funke

4 of 5 stars

This is the second book in the Mirrorworld series and the stakes are higher than ever. Jacob Reckless has saved his brother from the harsh life as the Jade Goyl, but at a terrible cost, his life for his brother's. The Dark Fairy has released a black moth that has settled in Jacob's chest and little by little steals Jacob's life force. He is in a race against time to find the cure from the Dark Fairy's curse. As Jacob and his ever present companion Fox search for the only magical item he hasn't tried to lift the curse, the Crossbow, purported to lift a fairy curse with a bolt through his heart, he finds himself in stiff competition with  another treasure hunter, Nerron, the "Bastard" Goyl.

The story is full of anguish, fear, heartache and love as Jacob and Fox realize how important they are to each other. Their feelings and undying support propel the story forward through one crisis after another. The magical world that Ms. Funke has created is inventive and exciting. There are so many twists and turns in the story that you'll be holding your breath to see if Jacob can find the crossbow before the Dark Fairy curse finally kills him. There is a cliff hanger at the end and I'll be eagerly awaiting the next volume to find out what happens to Jacob and Fox.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Secret of Indie Publishing by Dean Wesley Smith

The following article is taken in part from Dean Wesley Smith. The article plus many other helpful posts can be found at Dean's website here: http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/

This post deals with product. Take it away, Dean.

Why Having More Product Is Better Than Having Less Product.

I have heard over and over and over from indie publishers how their sales are not what they expected, or how they hope to promote their way to a big seller on their one book. Up to now I have mostly just bit my lip and kept my mouth shut.

It just doesn’t work with one or two or even five stories up. Or at least it doesn’t work that way unless you are fantastically lucky and wrote a great book on the exact right topic at the exact right time. I hate planning on being lucky to make it. I want to plan on hard work and quality writing.

So how can an indie publisher plan on making a living, paying the bills, without “luck” coming into play and without sending out thousands of flyers as I suggested last chapter?

Simple, actually. You have to write more.

And if you write more, you can count on the churn, the coin drop, the arm pull, the grind, whatever you want to call it.

An indie publisher needs a lot of products across a lot of sales locations all selling small amounts.

I have talked about this in various ways in other chapters and in other places. But here I want to try to be clear and put it together quickly one more time because this kind of thinking is critical to indie publishers.

Produce Model vs Long Term Sales Model

Remember this?

Publishing for the last sixty-plus years has worked on the produce model, meaning that traditional publishers treat every book as if it is a piece of fruit that will spoil if not sold quickly. They made every book into an “event” to help sell the books quickly. And if the books didn’t sell quickly, they were pulled from the shelves like bad fruit and trashed.

The reason for this is actually fairly simple. Physical shelf space is limited and the number of books being produced far, far exceeded the shelf space available. So if a book didn’t sell quickly, it was replaced with one that might.

Now, with electronic publishing and POD publishing, the shelf space is unlimited. And there is no hurry. A book can just sell along at a pace and as readers hear about it and find it, the sales can grow slowly.

That unlimited shelf space is the largest change in publishing the electronic device has brought about. And we have just begun to see the ramifications of that one aspect of bookselling alone.

Now, all publishers can do the work to list a product for customers and just leave it to sell.

Indie publishers need to lead the way into long-term thinking.

Books do not spoil.

And a reader who finds your book four years after you publish it is just as good as a reader who finds it the day after you publish it.

Places to Sell Books

Just this last week Kindle opened up its store in Germany and made selling through it automatic for all of us. Nice!

Kobo is opening stores in numbers of countries this next month.

iBooks already sells in many countries.

And the expansion continues of electronic book sales around the world every day and more and more people buy readers and smart phones.

Here in the States, the percentage of electronic book sales compared to traditional book sales continues to expand. And that’s not even counting that indie publishers, with some work and minor investment, can sell into the bookstores with POD books as I have been talking about.

Indie publishers need to start looking at the averages.  And make writing new product the most important thing you do every day.

Indie Publishing Average

The problem with indie publishing at first is that the writers watch their numbers and get discouraged. I have told the story many times how last May Kris walked into my office and made an off-handed comment about how the three short stories I had put up quickly in December of 2009 were making $12.00 a month on Kindle. They were the only three we had up at that point.

Three old short stories. $12.00 per month one site. Was I discouraged at that? Heck no. (But many writers would be.)

Honestly, I had forgotten they were even up. And $12.00??? Holy crap! I wouldn’t even let myself believe it for a while. I just kept doing the math over and over and over.

Across my office are sixteen metal file drawers full of short stories. Kris has double that. And that is not counting the massive number of large file cabinets downstairs with novels in them. All stories and novels basically dead to the old way of produce-thinking. I swear those file cabinets turned from an ugly puke-brown color to pure gold as I stared at them.

I have far more than a hundred short stories, Kris has two or three hundred, and yet three old stories were making us $144.00 per year. Holy crap! (You do the math. And don’t forget to add in collections at $2.99 and $4.99.)

Was I discouraged at seeing only $12.00 of sales? Nope. I got excited.

With some help Kris and I formed WMG Publishing. We have been off and running since last July.

WMG Publishing now has over 160 stories, collections, and novels up and the list is growing steadily every month.

Again, just do the math. Trust me, 160 stories, collections, and novels sounds like a lot, but you can get to it as well given time and a lot of writing, even if you don’t have a backlist like I do.

Indie publishers need to write like an old pulp writer. Fast and hard and get it into print.

Sales Numbers

So what can an indie publisher count on for sales? Is there a floor?

With one story? Not a clue. You might not sell a single copy across all twenty sites in a month.

With ten short stories, you should be able to start seeing average sales.

I use five sales per story average for short stories and collections across all sites and to be honest, many, many people tell me that after twenty or so short stories, that average is low (when you count all sites and not just Kindle). It is low, very low for me and Kris, but I like to be very conservative.

Novels sell better, so I use a floor of twenty-five sales for novels total per month across all twenty sites.

But again, you must have a decent number published and selling so the amount can average. (I am not talking about Joe Konrath numbers here, just us normal mortals.)

The Math Again

Using my friend’s example of writing drive, let me see what she might make.

—- Short story sells for 99 cents. You get 35 cents minimum. Up to 60 cents on some sites, but use 35 cents for now.

5 x .35 = $1.75 per story per month.  Or $21.00 per year per story.

—-

—- Five story collections sell for $2.99. You get 70% or $2.10.

5 x 2.10 = $10.50 per collection per month. Or $126.00 per year.

—-

—- Ten story collections sell for $4.99. You get 70% or $3.50.

5 x $3.50 = $17.50 per collection per month. Or $210.00 per year.

—-

Writing five short stories can make you in one full year of really minimal sales $21.00 + $126.00 + $210.00 = $357.00 per year.

Writing 50 stories in a year as my friend is working at doing can make $3,570.00 per year at minimal sales.

Writing 50 stories a year for three years will give you a base income of over $10,000.oo. Assuming the average stays on the bottom at five sales for each story or collection across all twenty sites. Which it will not with that many stories available.

Now, say you stopped and the sales just continued on.  In 9 years you would have made over $30,000.00 if everything stayed the same and the sales stayed on the bottom. And you didn’t write another word.

Summary

No matter what you do as an indie publisher, you must be writing first. You must be creating product.

In the first golden age of fiction, the pulp writers got very, very rich at 1 cent per word in the middle of the Depression.

We are in a new golden age of publishing.

We can write a few books, treat them like events and spoiling fruit, or we can write all the time, have fun, write what we want, put them up, and then just keep writing.

We now have the choice to go either to traditional publishing or do it ourself with indie publishing.

But just as it has been for hundreds of years, the writers who will make it on either side, traditional or indie, are the writers who just keep writing.

And that really is the secret.

Be Wary of these Clauses in Publishing Contracts

With the surge of authors choosing to go the route of indie, they won't have to worry about contract details with traditional publishers. However, there are still many authors who are signing with publishers or have publishers who come courting them when their self-published titles sells well.  I found the following 2010 blog post from Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary. All of these points are still valid today and as Chip says, "Read the fine print of any publishing contract." Chip's blog is here: http://chipmacgregor.typepad.com/


Some really, REALLY stupid things in book publishing contracts according to Chip: 

1. A contract with no title listed and no description of the project. So you're on the hook for...who knows what?

2. A grant of rights that includes everything, including if you ever decide to write or speak on this topic again sometime in this lifetime. (Keep this in mind when looking at the conflicting publications clause -- it's reasonable to expect a publisher gets a window in which the author is focused on their contracted title. It's not reasonable to make that a lifetime ban on the subject for an author -- something I've seen.)

3. A description of the work so broad that you would be considered in breach of contract should you write a thank you note to your Aunt Agatha for sending you that bad Christmas sweater.

4. An advance that needs to be paid back should it not earn out. Paid back?! This is an "advance against royalties," not a loan. For crying out loud -- why not ask 'em to fill out an application? 

5. Royalties that DROP when more copies are sold. (No kidding. Read the fine print.) Take a look at the contracts of some publishing houses -- if your book is sold at a reasonable discount, they'll cut your royalty in half, leading the sales team to SUGGEST THAT VERY IDEA to accounts. Great plan. 

6. Some contracts have words that basically say, "If we re-sell the idea to other people, we get to keep all the money." I've seen this happen a couple times -- and in BOTH circumstances it led to really bad feelings with the author. 

7. Be wary of the term "excerpts." It sure looks like some publishers can take excerpts from the books they're publishing, repackage them into a new product, and pay you, um, nothing. Zero. Zip. Zilch-a-rooni.

8. I recently saw a "reservation of rights" clause that described what the publisher reserved, but failed to mention anything for the author. Uh, the reservation of rights clause is there to protect both publisher AND author. Consider the wording carefully, so that you basically retain the rights not specifically granted to someone else.

9. I've seen several contracts that offer no definition of acceptance. In other words, "If we don't like it, tough luck."

10. An opt-out clause. I started seeing this a few years ago. It basically says, "We want to publish your book...but if we change our minds, you're screwed. Pay us our money back." Look, lots of people want out of a bad deal. But there needs to be some sort of reasoning offered -- it's not an acceptable manuscript, or it has libel potential, or you didn't write the book you'd promised, or they just saw you getting arrested on COPS. Those are reasonable reasons for canceling a book. The fact that the publisher woke up and decided he or she simply no longer wanted to publish your novel probably is not reasonable.

11. No publication time limit. I have a friend who turned in a piece more than 11 years ago. It's still not made it to press, but the publisher won't give it back, and doesn't have to because the contract states they don't have to publish it until they feel like it. (I'm not making this up.) 

12. The copyright in the name of the publisher. A bad idea.

13. While I think option clauses have their place, I remember the bad old days when one publishing house tacked on a double-option for every book you did with them. So the more books you wrote, the more books you owed them! You could never complete your contract.

14. Indemnity clauses that only flow one way. In other words, if anybody ever sues us, for any reason, the AUTHOR is expected to pay for it. (Don't laugh. I've seen it more than once.)

Dean Wesley Smith: WRITERS ARE LOSING THE FIGHT AGAIN

Dean has some valid points here and I totally agree with him.  I can hire my own editor and graphic artist for my books and then upload directly to Amazon and Barnes & Noble myself.  It's not hard to figure out.  There is lots of help out there without signing your books away to an agent turned publisher.  Here's a portion of Dean's post.  


You can read the entire post here: http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=4096

Because of sheer stupidity, writers once again are losing a major fight that they don’t even realize they are in.

In today’s news there was an announcement of yet another agent setting up a publishing company “for their clients.” These agents, of which there are many around the world now, are settling on certain terms for their new publishing business.

The terms from agency to agency are pretty much as stated in this new article today.

Three scary quotes from just today:

“…we are becoming partners with our writers.”

“…will recoup expenses first…”

“…then share net reciepts 50/50.”

In just the last few months many agencies have decided to go this way. Many others have been on this road for a time. One major agency has been doing this for over ten years now. In this new world this path is just about the only way agents can see to stay in business.

Also, more head-shaking, a number of major bloggers have been pushing this for some strange reason as if it’s a good thing for writers.

Okay, let me talk math here. Then ask a few questions.

Do it yourself

You put up your own book and you get around 70%, give or take, of the money.

Price your book at $4.99 and you get $3.50 per sale.

Yes, you might have  to learn a few new things, hire someone to help you with a cover, but folks, this is not rocket science.

Make Your Agent Your Publisher

Now, go with agents doing the same thing you could do becauseYOU WANT TO HAVE SOMEONE TAKE CARE OF YOU.

The agent puts your book up for sale for $4.99.  How much will you get????

Let’s do the math.

— At first NOTHING. “…will recoup expenses first…”

That’s right. Whatever the agent sees fit to call expenses, those come off the top FIRST.

So more than likely that includes the salary of the person doing the work, the cover art, and so on and so on.  You get nothing. And that’s if the agent is actually being fair to you. We are talking about agents here, remember. (For a lesson on agents, see Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s blog last week.)

And remember, that amount for expenses comes out of your share.  (See below.)

And wait, do those expenses count the accounting department’s expenses every time a new check comes in? Who pays for the accountant’s salary?

When do the expenses stop????

—- Second, “…then share net receipts 50/50.”

That’s right, you get 50/50 split of net after those unknown “expenses.”

What the hell is “NET?” How is that defined?  Does that deduct the assistant’s lunch and everyone’s coffee every day???

So being nice and assuming that “net” means the amount they say they got from Kindle, then you sell the book for $4.99, money comes in at $3.50.  You give your agent $1.75 of that and you get $1.75 of that.  So from getting $3.50, you get no money for a time to clear expenses and then get $1.75 per sale.

Of course, at $1.75 per sale, it might take you years to just work off the “expenses.” Because that’s how much goes against expenses. Not the agent’s half.

All because you were too lazy to learn a few new things, hire someone for a flat fee to do stuff you didn’t want to do, and take control of your own career.

Think Like a Publisher!

Dean Wesley Smith has many excellent posts about a number of issues dealing with writing, ebooks and publishing.  This one caught my eye and thought I'd pass it along.  You can read the full article here: Think Like a Publisher

To really act like a publisher, you need to understand what you are trying to gain. You need to know how many sales will get your expenses back. And you need to know at how many sales will you start making a profit.

So this chapter is about why you need to try to determine set income ranges, and how to do that at this moment in 2011.  Remember, this discussion is about acting like a real publisher, not a hobby writer. Real publishers are in the business to make a profit. That’s the focus now, so please keep that in mind. If that is not your intent, fine.

Pricing

To determine any kind of income and sales potential, you must first make some pricing decisions. And you must decide as a publisher what your long-range goals are.

The values we set for WMG Publishing and the values I will be using for this discussion on setting income are as follows:

Electronic Publication

Short story: 99 cents.

(Gross Income Expected: 35 to 60 cents per sale domestic. Use 35 cents for calculations.)

Short Novels, Short Collections: $2.99.

(Gross Income Expected: $1.94 to $2.o9 per sale domestic. Use $2.00 for calculations.)

Regular Novels (over 35,000 words), Long collections: $4.99

(Gross Income Expected: $3.24 to $3.49 per sale domestic. Use $3.25 for calculations.)

In the above calculations, Gross Income is after the fees and costs taken out by the bookstores and providers of electronic sales.

POD Publication.

Short Collections, Short Novels: $7.99 trade paperback.

Novels, Long Collections: $15.99 trade paperback. (Might vary upward with extra long books.)

Gross Profits on both are in the range of $3.00 to $4.00 per sale. Use $3.25 for calculations.

Why Pick These Prices?

These electronic prices are under traditional publishing ranges, yet not too far under to seem to be a discounted price. And the novel price is under the $5.00 impulse buy mark. Trade paperback prices are normal traditional publication prices for trade paperbacks in the size range indicated.

Also, keep some basic math in mind. If your motives are profit, you must sell ten books at 99 cents to make the same amount that you would make when you sell one book at $4.99. And since no traditional publishers do 99 cent novel pricing except rarely as a short-term promotion, a 99 cent price for a novel will label you as a discount or hobby publisher. WMG Publishing motives are very profit based.

Calculating A Project’s Projected Income

Now comes the fun part. Hang onto your math brains. And let me stress again that not even traditional publishers know this number for a fact. If they did, publishing would be a very simple business without risk.

In traditional publishing, publishers have some tools to use in this area. For example, they can look at a book and then (like shopping in real estate) they compare to other books of the same length in the same genre with the same basic author recognition. So if a similar book sold 20,000 copies, then it is pretty safe to use that sales number in the current books calculation.

They also use an author’s track record. If the author’s last book sold 50,000 copies, then it is pretty safe to do a profit-and-loss calculation with that as the sales range. (And that projection then sets the author’s advance.)

But as an indie publisher, with no real track record yet, (and a world that is expanding into electronic publishing faster than most people can keep up with) how is it possible to make any real projections of sales?

Bottom line: It’s not.

All Actual Costs plus Time Costs plus Overhead Costsdivided by Gross Income Per Book equals NUMBER OF SOLD BOOKS NEEDED TO BREAK EVEN.

The best way to show this is to just run through a calculation. Math brains ready? Here we go…

Example:

Novel

Total Cost Publishing Costs: $350.00. (Four hours of time at $50.00 per hour plus $100.00 cover cost plus $50.00 overhead for those four hours. Time includes electronic and POD layout time and launch time. For the moment exclude my writing time on the novel.  We’ll bring that in later. And remember, the $50.00-per-hour is my calculation from an earlier chapter. Do your own.)

I get $3.25 gross profit for both POD and electronic sales. So I divide $350.00 by $3.25 to get the number of copies that need to sell to break even on all production costs.

Bottom line: I need to sell 108 copies to make $50.00 an hour for my production time, $50.00 for overhead, and replay my cover costs. (If you are only concerned about first repaying the $100 out-of-pocket cover cost, you would need to sell 31 copies to recover that using these numbers and pricing.)

Now add in my time for writing and the overhead for that time.

Again, I use $50.00 per hour, and it takes me under 60 hours to write a 60,000 word novel. So I feel I should get at minimum $3,000.00 for my writing time on that book and my overhead costs for my office. (Side Note: It has been a long time since I took only a $3,000 advance on a novel and sure wouldn’t do it in traditional publishing now.)

Total Expense $3,350.00 divided by $3.25 gross income per sale equals 1,030 copies that need to be sold at $4.99 cover price.

Complete article is here: http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=3603