You will get loads from reading Russell's stuff. I had my first 6figure year last year from books. writing, affiliates and mentoring. You might also like to read Amie McNee's post on her 6 figure book deal. xx
Russell… speak to me as someone in traditional publishing with over 100 books to promote. First thing I notice is prices way below cost. How does that work? Massive up front print runs in China?
I don't know what you mean by massive. Sometimes it means 1-2k runs, but not usually. There are many different models. One is that you act like a pulp author and you release a book ever 6-8 weeks. If you do that then you release 9 books a year, and each one has to make $10k.
Another is going direct to customer, where you make 90%+ of the money instead of 40-60%.
I do a lot of Kickstarter, 4-6 a year, and I've had multiple years where I make $100k on just Kickstarter, with a 70% profit margin on those.
Another is releasing a subscription type product, and releasing books into it while you sell online.
Another is going to conferences and conventions and selling to people there.
Another is driving sales to their website with direct offer bundles. If you have a $50 bundle, then you have to sell 2,000 in a year to make $100k, and then probably like 4,000 since it will cost you $25 or so to make a sale.
Traditional publishers only play ONE game. They ship to a distributor, and they sell to book stores and libraries.
Indie authors play many different games, usually at the same time. If you make $25k on profit from Kickstarters, $20k on a subscription, $20k on conventions, $25k on your direct store, and $10k on retailers, then you have made $100k on books. If you can layer on courses, teaching, speaking fees, etc, then you make more not from books.
It's actually not super hard to make $100k as an author when you have multiple things working, especially if you can add some higher end things like signing events, a year.
Our production costs are also considerably less than most traditional publishers. So it costs us less to produce a book and you make more from each book.
I don’t know how you can think it’s fiction. Authors do it all the time. I have 1000+ posts on my publication with methodology. I have a whole podcast about it, and my coauthor is a 7-figure author. Most of my friends are at least 6-figure authors, if not seven figure, we interview people who have done it.
Most authors that do those numbers are writing genre fiction, but not all. LIterary, high-brow books don’t have a huge market, even award winning ones, so it would be harder.
I want to learn. I run a traditional publishing company and have been for a long time. Have never seen the sort of numbers you describe.
You will get loads from reading Russell's stuff. I had my first 6figure year last year from books. writing, affiliates and mentoring. You might also like to read Amie McNee's post on her 6 figure book deal. xx
This is not the only method, but it is the one I teach that lets you do it every year without ads.
https://www.sixfigureauthorexperiment.com/p/episode-31
Russell… speak to me as someone in traditional publishing with over 100 books to promote. First thing I notice is prices way below cost. How does that work? Massive up front print runs in China?
I don't know what you mean by massive. Sometimes it means 1-2k runs, but not usually. There are many different models. One is that you act like a pulp author and you release a book ever 6-8 weeks. If you do that then you release 9 books a year, and each one has to make $10k.
Another is going direct to customer, where you make 90%+ of the money instead of 40-60%.
I do a lot of Kickstarter, 4-6 a year, and I've had multiple years where I make $100k on just Kickstarter, with a 70% profit margin on those.
Another is releasing a subscription type product, and releasing books into it while you sell online.
Another is going to conferences and conventions and selling to people there.
Another is driving sales to their website with direct offer bundles. If you have a $50 bundle, then you have to sell 2,000 in a year to make $100k, and then probably like 4,000 since it will cost you $25 or so to make a sale.
Traditional publishers only play ONE game. They ship to a distributor, and they sell to book stores and libraries.
Indie authors play many different games, usually at the same time. If you make $25k on profit from Kickstarters, $20k on a subscription, $20k on conventions, $25k on your direct store, and $10k on retailers, then you have made $100k on books. If you can layer on courses, teaching, speaking fees, etc, then you make more not from books.
It's actually not super hard to make $100k as an author when you have multiple things working, especially if you can add some higher end things like signing events, a year.
Our production costs are also considerably less than most traditional publishers. So it costs us less to produce a book and you make more from each book.
I have a whole publication built around it. So, if you want to learn, you can.
http://theauthorstack.com/
Six figures sounds like fiction to me. On books? How?
I don’t know how you can think it’s fiction. Authors do it all the time. I have 1000+ posts on my publication with methodology. I have a whole podcast about it, and my coauthor is a 7-figure author. Most of my friends are at least 6-figure authors, if not seven figure, we interview people who have done it.
https://www.sixfigureauthorexperiment.com/
I’m not going to give you the methodology here, in a comment, that would be crazy. You certainly can find that information, though.
I’ve been a publisher for 10 years… literary, high brow. And we just don’t see those numbers.
Most authors that do those numbers are writing genre fiction, but not all. LIterary, high-brow books don’t have a huge market, even award winning ones, so it would be harder.