More Honest Talk about Royalties--and the Truth Hurts

I found out earlier this week that my book from last year, Writer for Hire: 101 Secrets to Freelance Success, won ASJA's 2013 Outstanding Book Award in the service/self-help category. What made it especially gratifying is that I've been a judge for the awards before, and the competition is fierce! So I have an extra reason (besides my Irish ancestors) to celebrate St. Patrick's Day this weekend. 

Coincidentally, I just received my latest royalty statement from Writer for Hire. And as a freelancer and author who believes in full disclosure, I'm sharing it here.

However, I have to say the news is pretty disappointing. During the first royalty period, I sold a total of 1,975 copies, including 92 e-books. I made about $0.83/book for the print edition and about $2.37/book for the Kindle edition, for a total of $1,776.43 in royalties. Close to 2,000 copies in the first few months isn't bad for a book like Writer for Hire, and I've been actively promoting the title since then. I expected to sell at least that many copies in the last six months of 2012. 

Well, that's not what happened. Between July 1 and December 31, I sold a total of 652 copies, including 105 e-books. That's not even a third of what I sold in the first royalty period, and it brings my total number of copies sold 2,627 for a book that was released in April, 2012. So far I've produced $2,601.79 in royalties, which still isn't enough to offset my advance--meaning I haven't earned out yet, so I'm not seeing royalty checks yet. 

I wish I had better news to share. I've been promoting the book steadily, but the fact is that no amount of promotion as an author can guarantee that your books will sell, or sell well. I'll continue to market Writer for Hire (and my latest two books, Dollars and Deadlines: Make Money Writing Articles for Print and Online Markets, and Six-Figure Freelancing: The Writer's Guide to Making More Money, Second Edition), because that's what authors do. But sometimes sales figures are downright depressing. 

**Coming next week, an excerpt from Dollars and Deadlines: Make Money Writing Articles for Print and Online Markets, and another giveaway. And if you're a fan of Six-Figure Freelancing, stay tuned--the print version will be published later this month! 

Why Invisible Authors Can Make More Money

Writers Digest publisher Jane Friedman recently tweeted an eye-catching stat from Book Expo America, or BEA. According to a recent Publishers Weekly article, 7 percent of traditionally-published books generate 87 percent of book sales, and 93 percent of all published books sold less than 1,000 copies.

For a midlist author like me, that’s pretty scary. But here’s the thing—despite sales projections, marketing plans, big-name endorsements, a kick-butt social media presence, thousands of Facebook fans and Twitter followers, and oh yeah, a compelling book, you simply don’t know how many copies of a book you’ll sell. That’s why as an author, you should assume the advance (the money you’re paid upfront to write the book) is the only money you’re going to see for the book.

The vast majority of books (more than 80 percent) fail to “earn out,” or pay royalties. But you still want your book to sell, right? You want royalties. You want big sales. Let's admit it, you want a bestseller. So you spend months both before and after it’s published securing blurbs, getting reviews, writing articles, blogging, speaking, printing up postcards, visiting bookstores, you name it…all to help sell your book. And it may pay off—or it may not.

Because there's an essential conundrum every book author faces:

1. To sell your book, you must commit substantial time to marketing it.

2. The time you spend marketing will not make you money (unless you eventually earn out and receive royalties), forcing you to either work more to make up the difference in lost time and income or take a cut in what you're making (which most of us freelancers can't afford to do) … or both.

That's why I started ghostwriting and collaborating on books as opposed to only writing my own. As a ghostwriter or coauthor, when the book is done, I'm done. I’m not “stuck” spending my limited, precious time promoting the book and going broke in the meantime--that's my client or coauthor's responsibility.

And ghostwriting can be lucrative, even while the average advances given by traditional publishers stagnate and fall. Here’s what I've made on some recent ghosting and coauthoring projects:

• $20,000 for a 60,000-word book for a nonprofit organization.

• $15,000 for a 40,000-word book for a book packager (the author already had 14,000 words written).

• $12,000 for a 55,000-word book; while this was a “ghost” project, I actually worked more as a developmental editor as much of the book was already written but needed expanding, editing, and rewriting for voice and flow.

• $25,000 for an 80,000-word manuscript for an expert who had a contract with a major publisher; my client wrote one-third of the manuscript while I wrote the rest of it and edited her section for voice and consistency.

These numbers aren't huge advances, true. But I'm being paid for the writing of the book, not its promotion, and that more than makes it worthwhile.

What about you? Are you ghosting, or considering it? What do you want to know about this niche?

In future posts, I’ll report more on the lucrative field of ghostwriting, how to break in, and how to determine whether it’s right for you. In the meantime, for an insider’s look at ghosting, check out http://ghostwritingrevealed.blogspot.com/, an excellent blog hosted by two smart, successful ghostwriters.