The semantics of success have been bothering me lately, so I'll rant about it for a while. This thought has occurred to every self-published writer out there, including yours truly: "Can I make money through self-publishing?" It's asked as a polite euphemism for "can I be successful if I self-publish, or am I just another schmuck?" I get asked this question (in the politely version) almost every day.
Here's my answer:
"Can I make money?" is not the same question as "Can I be successful.?" Unless you are amazingly materialistic, there are other ways than income to justify your life. The sad truth, when limited to economic terms, is that no first-time writer, wether self-published or not, is going to make much money. I think it's funny that the initial reaction to self-published author's (especially from traditionalists in the book industry), is that you're wasting some grand opportunity at a life of red velvet smoking-room comfort by throwing your manuscript to the vanity whores. The truth is that there are several good reasons why self-publishing might be good for you. Another tidbit of truth is that you can make a quality self-published book: using "Cluck" as an example, I'll make the bold statement that it is high-quality, despite its self-published nature; an opinion that has been corroborated by many great reviews and two award nominations. At the risk of derailing this article into a "self publishing is as good as the next thing" rant, I'll steer back to the topic of money and its buck-toothed cousin, success.
If you'd like to enter this pre-armed, there are excellent articles on the finances of writing, regardless of which avenue that you've chosen (the link is down below ... see how I hook you into reading more with the promise of some delicious info? that kind of thinking will increase your sales by approximately 0.04% ... but hey every penny counts). Using Cluck as an example, the answer to the question "will it make money is?" is "not yet, probably never." Cluck is fairly new, after all, and while it has been selected as a finalist in some competitions, it hasn't actually won them (yet!) ... What I'll do instead is comment on how hard it is to sell books, and how much money that a mediocre amazon sales rank translates to.
[Aside: Amazon sales ranks don't mean much, but they mean more to self published others than others, because it's much easier to sell self-published books online (and thus the sales rank is more indicative of overall book sales). There's a lot to be said about sales rank, and it's said better here and here than I can say it.]
Anyway, we'll use Cluck as an example and make some assumptions:
- You wrote a good book
- You have a meager marketing budget (and I mean less than $1000, where most 'publicized' books have budgets in the tens-of-thousands)
- You work hard and get some good reviews anyway
- You work to be as creative as possible in getting the word out about your book
- You issue a press release
- You are selected as a finalist in a book contest
- You issue a press release about said accolade
- You are selected as a finalist in another book award
... well, in that scenario, I can honestly say that you can expect to sell about a hundred copies of your book over six months. Maybe a bit more. We'll see what happens if/when I actually win the awards, versus simply being selected as a finalist.
Why so low? The truth of the matter is that unless you get the big-budget promotions from a publisher, with cardboard end-caps at brick-and-mortar bookstores and all that jazz, you will not become an overnight success just because you wrote a good book (etc, ad nauseam, as per the above list). However - when compared to a typical advance for a first-time author, paid over time, you have a shot at making some money - even as much or almost as much as a 'traditionally published' book. The myth is that this amount is anything that you'll be able to live off of. The adage thus goes: to be a successful writer, marry someone who can support you. It gets easier as you become a known element. I've been told that after three "successful" books, you can expect to make some decent money. Wait -- there's that pesky "success" word again. How can you have three successful books that haven't made money?
Because success as a writer does not equate to, nor is it measured by, money. If I wanted to make money as a writer, and that was the only criteria, I would spend more time writing technical documents for the high tech industries, which pay well. I wouldn't write genre fiction, and I certainly wouldn't write it about zombie chickens. But that was my goal: to write a well written, well produced piece of off-the-wall genre fiction; to share it with the world; to make at least one other person besides myself smile and say "zombie chickens? Excellent."
The reviews speak for themselves, the awards (or the semi-almost-finalist-ism of the awards) speak a lot, also. People I care about, as well as a growing fan base, have enjoyed Cluck. So I say: yes Cluck is a success. I mean, I have fans. Am I making money? Nope, not really. But it's a start, and it's a gratifying one.
As a self-published author, you are the writer, publisher, publicist, press agent, marketing guru, webmaster, etc. You can be highly skilled at one or two or even three of these things and still have trouble selling a self-published book in quantities that will make you feel glorious. Brick-and-mortar bookstores won't carry them, (which also means you wont get stocking orders that then get returned, which is a good thing). Many reviewers wont touch them, although with a good premise and a good manuscript, you'll get takers. You'll hear words like "vanity", which will make you feel bad about yourself (which to me is the proof that self-publishers aren't vain: if we we're, we'd seek avenues that are viewed more positively, so that we could feel good about ourselves). But that doesn't mean you're not a 'success'. You're simply not a success in materialistic terms. The two are not mutually exclusive.
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