Quote:
Originally Posted by Cinisajoy
Most indies I know do NOT do everything themselves but hire others to do covers, editing etc.
Now if those advances give traditional authors the freedom not to worry about bills, then why do 95% of the big 5 authors have day jobs?
It is a rare author that gets enough of an advance to live on.
I know one author who turned down a 6 figure advance. She self-published and earned the money offered in less than 4 months. That advance would have been paid in 3 increments over 3 years because it was for 3 books. Her name is Breena Aubrey.
So are you telling me that someone that made 3,000,000 for someone else while making 1,000, 000 for themselves is worth more than someone who made 2,800,000 for themselves and 1,200,000 for the distributor.
My math comes up to 4 million either way.
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Yes, I know. A good friend of mine is an indie writer. I got to listen to a year's worth of the process of writing the book, figuring out how to hire a cover artist (note, he thinks that one of the people he interviewed to do the cover work and didn't get the job retaliated by panning his book in the review), hiring the editor, the process of working with the editor, etc..., so yes I do know what is involved and that most indie writers hire someone else to do those pieces. There are, of course, some pretty big issues with hiring an editor.
As far as your math, I suspect the error is in the assumed numbers you are using, rather than the mechanics. Not very many indies pulling in $4 M. Not very many traditional publisher authors pulling in that much either. The major fallacy is that going indie doesn't effect the sales numbers.