Quote:
Originally Posted by darryl
. I find it quite surprising that none of the Big 5 have themselves got into self-publishing on a similar basis to Amazon.
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Well, they sort of did: they all have deals to front for (scam artists) AUTHOR SOLUTIONS. Of course, their idea of "supporting" self-publishers is making money off the writers instead of helping the writers make money.
All you need to know about Author Solutions is they have "helped" ~200,000 authors publish slightly more than 200,000 books. In other words, no repeat business.
Data guy looked into their "success":
http://www.thepassivevoice.com/2016/...comment-346529
Quote:
Author Solutions boasts 200,000 authors to date on their website.
Out of curiosity, I took a look at how well books by ASI imprints are selling on Amazon — the largest bookstore in the world.
In total, including print and digital books, all 200,000 authors put together are selling roughly 614 books a day and making less than $8,000.
In other words, the daily sales of all 200,000 ASI authors put together don’t add up to the cost of a single ASI “publishing package”.
Caveat emptor.
+——————————–+————+—————-+———–+————-+————-+—————+
| publisher | book_count | best_salesrank | max_sales | max_dollars | total_sales | total_dollars |
+——————————–+————+—————-+———–+————-+————-+—————+
| Archway Publishing | 2 | 1090440 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| ArchwayPublishing | 1 | 219137 | 1 | 18.50 | 1 | 18.50 |
| Author Solutions | 1 | 439187 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| AuthorHouse | 291 | 6723 | 18 | 145.64 | 112 | 970.84 |
| AuthorHouse Pub | 1 | 1574496 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| AuthorHouse Publishing | 2 | 374267 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| AuthorHouse UK | 7 | 637766 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Authorhouse.com | 1 | 500360 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| AuthorHouseUK | 5 | 2146548 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Balboa Press | 30 | 292063 | 1 | 4.99 | 3 | 8.98 |
| BalboaPress | 44 | 26614 | 5 | 44.95 | 25 | 200.64 |
| BalboaPressAU | 3 | 187773 | 1 | 28.81 | 1 | 28.81 |
| Booktango | 6 | 744579 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| iUniverse | 331 | 12906 | 9 | 161.64 | 95 | 1085.03 |
| iUniverse Publishing | 2 | 3456362 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| iUniverse Star | 5 | 212037 | 1 | 25.76 | 1 | 25.76 |
| iUniverse, Inc. | 90 | 113275 | 1 | 23.95 | 8 | 122.96 |
| iUniverse-Indigo | 2 | 1126454 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| iUniverse.com | 1 | 4775017 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| iUniverse.com – Hardbound & Pa | 1 | 549708 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| LifeWay Christian Resources | 2 | 8094 | 14 | 279.72 | 22 | 423.48 |
| Lifeway Church Resources | 1 | 8565 | 13 | 129.87 | 13 | 129.87 |
| LifeWay Press | 32 | 1313 | 56 | 1161.44 | 242 | 4160.84 |
| Palibrio | 71 | 146203 | 1 | 16.95 | 4 | 21.98 |
| PalibrioSpain | 1 | 6011206 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Partridge Publishing India | 3 | 313020 | 1 | 1.91 | 1 | 1.91 |
| Partridge Publishing Singapore | 5 | 169012 | 1 | 2.00 | 1 | 2.00 |
| PartridgeIndia | 2 | 819409 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| PartridgeSingapore | 3 | 2117076 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Trafford | 36 | 44393 | 3 | 25.12 | 14 | 105.61 |
| Trafford Press | 1 | 2108758 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Trafford Publishing | 83 | 148286 | 1 | 39.95 | 10 | 112.86 |
| Trafford Publishing P.O.D. | 1 | 4219817 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| TraffordSG | 1 | 4755480 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| WestBow Press | 14 | 131923 | 1 | 4.99 | 2 | 5.48 |
| WestBowPress | 6 | 202771 | 1 | 1.91 | 1 | 1.91 |
| Xlibris | 241 | 45041 | 3 | 59.94 | 32 | 261.70 |
| Xlibris AU | 2 | 199120 | 1 | 4.99 | 1 | 4.99 |
| Xlibris Corp | 2 | 4737243 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Xlibris Corporation | 7 | 292397 | 1 | 14.01 | 1 | 14.01 |
| Xlibris NZ | 1 | 56581 | 2 | 7.64 | 2 | 7.64 |
| Xlibris UK | 1 | 1551784 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Xlibris US | 32 | 137681 | 1 | 15.99 | 10 | 46.98 |
| Xlibris, Corp. | 34 | 28490 | 5 | 107.95 | 11 | 231.85 |
| XlibrisUS | 1 | 1673384 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
+——————————–+————+—————-+———–+———
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Put another way: it will take 225 years for ASI customers to break even on their "support" packages. Of course, copyright only covers about half that span...
Note, btw, all the tradpub partner imprints fronting Author Solutions.
It is a fairly profitable business for Author Solutions and their front end partners. For the Authors? Not so much.
By now no knowledgeable author will touch any BPH self-publishing operation: that well is good and poisoned.