How much money does my book make?
In October, I wrote, illustrated and published a children’s book. Are you curious how much money 
such an endeavor makes?
Here’s a post about the money and publishing parts of the process—things I think are interesting to read. Maybe I’m crazy for sharing all of this information… but, like I said, I think it’s interesting.
If you don’t think they’re interesting, you can go buy some pickles.
Q: “How much money do you make?”
Millions.
Okay, not millions, but I’ll tell you (down below). Before releasing my book on the world, I asked Jake Parker why one would choose to use a publisher over self-publishing. His answer: “So you can actually make some money.” He’s right :)
Pricing
I’m using CreateSpace and IngramSpark for the paperbacks and hardcovers respectively. Here’s the breakdown for both:
| Online orders | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Channel | Sticker price | Publisher's cut | My cut | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Paperback sold on Amazon | $8.99 | $7.25 | $1.74 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Paperback sold on CreateSpace | $8.99 | $5.45 | $3.54 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hardcover | $14.99 | $13.47 | $1.52 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
If I wanted to make no money on paperbacks, then I could sell them for as little as $6.09. On CreateSpace, you use this tool to adjust the price:
As the author, I can order copies directly for a wholesale amount:
| Author orders | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source | My price | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CreateSpace | $3.65 + shipping | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| IngramSpark | $8.97 + shipping and fees, fees, fees | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
(I wish there were no fees. Fees make doing any kind of predictive math impossible.) Those of you who paid $7 or $13 for your in-person-delivered books might be thinking I made a killing off of you. Not really…
How much I’ve made so far
Here’s all my costs and revenue as of this writing:
| Thing | Income | Expense | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paint, paper, pens | -15 | ||
| Publishing paperback | -14.48 | ||
| Publishing hardcover | -156.67 | ||
| 22 online paperbacks orders | 46.68 | ||
| 5 online hardcover orders | 7.60 | ||
| 30 paperbacks ordered by me for in-person delivery | -127.50 | ||
| 30 hardcovers ordered by me for in-person delivery | -288.88 | ||
| In-person purchases | 374 | ||
| Total | 428.28 | -602.53 | = -174.25 |
Since I gave a few books away as gifts, the amount of income from the in-person purchases isn’t quite 30 paperbacks/30 hardcovers.
Conclusion
So, I’ve made -$174.25 publishing my book
Would I do it again? Absolutely. There’s definitely more expensive hobbies than book-writing. And I had way too much fun doing it.
Would I self-publish again? I think I’d skip the hardcover unless it was an above-average book.
Would I consider a publisher? Yep. It’s more a question of if they’d consider me :)
Stay tuned!