Quote:
Originally Posted by rlauzon
Obviously, it will vary per book. Wikipedia gives some numbers as far as what "best sellers" means.
But I believe your idea that well-known authors sell only about 10,000 books is very low. I would put the number more toward 1,000,000 for best-selling authors. 10,000 would seem more for the lesser-known authors. I can't seem to easily find sales numbers on the web (quick search before I head out for tonight).
But, you do make a valid point about the costs resulting in far fewer new authors being published. I've had new authors tell us that they paid for their own print runs. Also, I'm sure that many publishers do an analysis to see if the new author's book would sell enough to make it worthwhile.
Which makes eBooks all the more attractive. Since many of those costs simply aren't there, new authors will have a much easier time of getting ePublished. |
I must not have been very clear, sorry. My opinion is that *only* well-known authors sell as many as 10,000 copies of a book, and you're absolutely right that most of them sell more.
However, I've skimmed all the EF articles I could find on Baen's website and can't find any where he says that 80% of the cost is in printing & distributing a book. I did find (Prime Palaver #7) where he says the author only gets 20% of the sale (paraphrasing here) but his other comments in that article seem to me to support my contention that a substantial portion of the cost of a book goes to the startup expenses. (No, he didn't say 80% goes to startup, only that 80% goes to publishing, distribution, and selling. Which includes editing & proofing the book, as well as promoting it. And other costs as well.)