\tBut from the publisher\u2019s point of view, that level of sales is actually quite good for an average mid-list book. And if you\u2019re going to do indie publishing, you need to think about book sales from the publisher\u2019s point of view. After all, a publisher is not selling just one book. They\u2019re selling a bunch. So let\u2019s say the publisher is offering one hundred different titles. Ten sales per title per day means a thousand books multiplied by thirty days. If they make five dollars profit on each book, that\u2019s 150,000 dollars per month\u2014and 1.8 million dollars per year. Not a bad business, really. Large publishers like Random House make considerably more than this, of course.<\/p>\n
\tSo as an author doing indie publishing, if you want to succeed, you need to be selling more than just one book. So, I’ve made 17 of my books available as eBooks on Amazon. The list price for each is $7.99\u2014the average cost of a trade paperback. I get a 70 percent royalty rate on each book\u2014which works out to $5.59 per book for me, minus the 9 cents that Amazon charges as a \u201cdelivery fee.\u201d So, on each book sold, I stand to make $5.50 (much better than the 79 cents I would make from traditional publishing with a ten percent royalty rate.)<\/p>\n
\tIn the first two weeks of the experiment, I averaged a sales rate of a little over one book a day; that\u2019s not a lot of money, but it\u2019s money that I otherwise would not be getting. Obviously, if I can get my indie sales on each of the 17 titles to the levels of The Bible\u2019s Most Fascinating People<\/em><\/a>, I\u2019d see substantial income. It hasn’t happened yet, after three months. <\/p>\n \tSo how do I let people know the books are there for the buying? Do I simply hope that people will randomly come upon them? Mostly. Just like the big publishers mostly do. I have this blog (www.nettelhorst.com) and whenever I publish a book I announce it to my friends on Facebook and Twitter. And every so often I remind people.<\/p>\n \tAnd, periodically, for a limited time, I give books away for free. Sometimes I lower prices on select books. <\/p>\n So, over Christmas, I gave away the first book in a six book series, The Chronicles of Tableland.<\/em> Within a day and a half more than a hundred people had \u201cpurchased\u201d that free book, pushing it up into the top one hundred books in the category \u201cscience fiction\u2014adventure.\u201d This made it stand out to people looking for that sort of book\u2014which then increased its sales all the more. My hope of course is that the readers of that free book will then fork over the cash for the remaining five books in the series. And I\u2019m hoping that they\u2019ll tell their friends about it. And post reviews on Amazon (assuming they actually liked the book; if they hated it, I’d prefer that they keep that to themselves. Heh.)<\/p>\n \tSo, my New Year\u2019s project, at least thus far, seems to be generating some money. More money than the books were generating just taking up space on my computer’s hard drive. It’s certainly not making me rich, however. But maybe I’ll be able to afford a coffee at Starbucks once in awhile. <\/p>\n So what books of mine can you buy now? As I said, I have 15 science fiction eBooks available on Amazon.com for the Kindle. If you don’t own a Kindle, you can still read these books. Amazon offers an app for Windows based computers, and for the Mac. There are also free apps for all tablet computers, whether Android, Windows 8, or iPAD. And there’s an app for iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows 8 phones.<\/p>\n 1. Inheritance<\/a> Click on any of the book titles above or below. That will take you to Amazon, where you can see a brief description of each book and even read the first few pages for free. <\/p>\n I also have 2 non-fiction eBooks for the Kindle or Kindle apps:<\/p>\n 1. The Complaint of Jacob<\/a> And then there are my traditionally published books available on Amazon and wherever books are sold. Two are hardbacks and two are paperbacks. <\/p>\n 1. The Bible’s Most Fascinating People<\/a> Thus, a total of 21 books written by me are available to be purchased by anyone so inclined. Let all your friends know.<\/p>\n When a new year begins, it is not uncommon for people to make resolutions: they find themselves dissatisfied with some aspect of themselves or their lives, and so they promise themselves that they will make a change or two. It … Continue reading
\n2. Somewhere Obscurely<\/a>
\n3. Antediluvian<\/a>
\n4. The Wrong Side of Morning<\/a>
\n5. John of the Apocalypse<\/a>
\n6. Chronicles of Tableland 1: All His Crooked Ways<\/a>
\n7. Chronicles of Tableland 2: Twister<\/a>
\n8. Chronicles of Tableland 3: Dark Waters<\/a>
\n9. Chronicles of Tableland 4: Sail My Darling Lovely<\/a>
\n10. Chronicles of Tableland 5: Behind the Wall<\/a>
\n11. Chronicles of Tableland 6: Day Come<\/a>
\n12. With a Rod of Iron<\/a>
\n13. Darkness Warping<\/a>
\n14. Clash Point<\/a>
\n15. Narrow Gate<\/a>\t<\/p>\n
\n2. What Would Satan Do? The Devil\u2019s Theology<\/a><\/p>\n
\n2. The Bible: A Reader’s Guide<\/a>
\n3. A Year with God<\/a>
\n4. A Year with Jesus<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/plugins\/send-to-kindle\/media\/white-15.png\")
Send to Kindle<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"