How to Make Money as an Author
Some authors I work with make more money from Amazon’s Affiliate program than they do from their royalties. If you have published a book and are not a part of Amazon’s Affiliate program you are missing out. The key is to have your website act as a magnet. Some authors I work with make more money from Amazon’s Affiliate program than they do from their royalties. If you have published a book and are not a part of Amazon’s Affiliate program you are missing out. The key is to have your website act as a magnet. Anyone interested in your book should come to your website first. Figures describing the amount of money authors of books make can be misleading. For every book that becomes a best seller, many more linger on the shelves, making an estimate of how much an author can expect to earn largely guesswork. Typically book authors are paid an advance, or advance against royalties. The amount of this advance varies with the amount publishers can reasonably expect to make back on sales of your book. Royalties. Authors should also be paid a percentage of the money their books make. This percentage, called a royalty, varies with both the type of book published and the number sold. In some nontraditional publishing arrangements, authors are paid only royalties on the books they sell. You make $9.80 per book nearly 13X your profit from a traditional publisher. You could sell fewer books and make the same money, or as many books and make 13x as much. Self-publishing gets you 4x to 13x the profit. Royalties. Authors should also be paid a percentage of the money their books make. This percentage, called a royalty, varies with both the type of book published and the number sold. Authors make: Fee, which is often split 50/50 with the publisher (unless the contract specifies otherwise). Fees can range anywhere from $1500 to five and six figures (but the top end is rare, even for movie options). Sometimes authors get royalties, depending on how contract is written. For every book that becomes a best seller, many more linger on the shelves, making an estimate of how much an author can expect to earn largely guesswork. How Authors Make Money. With a lot going around the net about ebooks, piracy, advances vs. royalties and things of that nature, I thought it would be a good idea to lay out exactly how authors earn money and how much (or little).
From Royalties and Affiliate programs.