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Have you thought about making
an audio-book?
Follow the process of publishing
in over 60 articles
Some titles in the bookshop
Exchange calculator
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Income
You might find it helpful to treat the publishing of your book as a
business proposition and look at the likely costs and possible income. You could
set up a simple spreadsheet to estimate the income you will receive from sales.
(Pricing)
Replace the letters R and S with the amounts and the put the formula into the
table
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Sales projection spreadsheet |
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| Net receipts from retail sale of one book |
R |
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| Profit on single book from a signing or a direct sale |
S |
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| Estimated sales |
Qty |
100 |
250 |
500 |
1000 |
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Retail sales |
R x 10 |
etc |
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Direct sales |
S x 10 |
etc |
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You could work out the breakeven sales by adding another
line |
sales x quantity - cost of publishing |
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| Net receipts from
retail sales: This is the amount you receive from booksellers selling
your book, after deducting the cost of printing and the retail margins. You
can estimate the possible book cost and the retail margin is between 30% and
40%. |
Selling your book directly is
potentially much more profitable: The net profit is just the cost of the
book minus any overheads, such as the cost of post and packing. |
Expenditure
Don't depress yourself by costing in your time or other costs associated with
writing the book. These are the direct costs of self publishing.
| Publication |
Set up costs with WritersPrintshop -
You can estimate these |
| Marketing costs |
We have some suggestions but every marketing plan is unique |
| Travel |
You need to get out and tell people about your book |
Setting targets is very fashionable in business but if you add up your
costs you can see how many copies you need to sell to cover your costs.
See how much the book is going to cost you to produce and sell, then work
out how many you need to sell to break even.
The other important consideration is cashflow. The expenditures are nearly
all incurred at the start of the project. The income stream might, if you are
lucky, go on for years. The point is - do not rely on your income from writing
to pay the bills!
Price modelling
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Retailing your book through the trade |
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This process happens automatically with the delivery and money collection
handled through the book trade |
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Looking at how income varies with the price of the book with production cost
and shop discount falling with price |
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Cover price |
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£ 6.00 |
£ 7.00 |
£ 8.00 |
£ 9.00 |
£ 10.00 |
£ 11.00 |
£ 12.00 |
£ 13.00 |
£ 14.00 |
£ 15.00 |
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Production cost % |
45 |
43 |
41 |
39 |
37 |
35 |
34 |
33 |
32 |
31 |
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Retail chain discount offered |
55 |
53 |
51 |
49 |
47 |
45 |
43 |
41 |
39 |
37 |
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Writer income |
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£ - |
£ 0.28 |
£ 0.64 |
£ 1.08 |
£ 1.60 |
£ 2.20 |
£ 2.76 |
£ 3.38 |
£ 4.06 |
£ 4.80 |
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Don't underprice your book! |
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You also have control of the retail margin offered but we have set a lower
limit of 35% |
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These figures do not represent a quote but are for guidance although the
figures are modelled on real costing |
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Marketing
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Does your book deserve the attentions of a
professional
copy editor?
Writers Services offers a full
range of editorial services.
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