Many years ago, I taught music for a living. I was constantly trying to fill my schedule with enough students to make a good living. The standard thought was, “if I could just get 50 students a week, I could make some money.”
The other teachers all told me, “it’ll never happen.”
For three months, it did happen – but it couldn’t be maintained. The economy tipped, and we lost that momentum, never to be regained. Ultimately, I moved on. Satisfying job, but I had an obligation to my family to make more money than a pittance.
This brings us to The Self Publishing Trap
This is the glittering bait proffered to writers – just sign with HuHu or BookGnome or CreateWorld, and you stand to gain $18 per novel. If you sell 50,000 novels, you’ll be stuffing money in the trunk of your Lamborghini!
Take out a calculator and do the math. Literally, you’d make 900,000 a year. Yup. Sure sounds too good to be true.
Self publishing is like teaching music for a living. You have the potential to make a lot of money.
But it’ll never happen. Like signing 50 students a week for music lessons. A few have made it happen for a short time.
Here’s the reality. Most self published authors sell books to family and friends. Well, sort of. It’s just you, so it’s not like it’s a book by a real writer. That’s how they see it.
In addition, some self publish outlets charge far more for novels than the market bears. You might pay the money for Stephen King or Clancy, but you’ll never pay that much for a self published author you;ve never heard of.
Have I bought self published books? You better believe it. “Small Dojo Big Profits” by Mike Massey, about teaching Karate. Most of his books are really inexpensive. And I looked at his ads over and over again before I bought. Really good, and I’m glad I bought them.
Have In bought any self published fiction by unknown authors?
No.
Ask your co-workers. How many self published books have they paid top dollar for? Ignore the success of one or two authors. I mean, as a music teacher I was apparently abnormally successful to get 54 students a week for 3 months, then back to 45 students a week. I wasn’t the average.
What is the average number of books you should expect to sell as a self published author?
Eight.
That’s fifty dollars you wouldn’t have otherwise, so not bad. But self publishing is a terrible way to try to get your hard, hard work into the hands of readers.
Conclusion
Is it hard to get your novel published traditionally? Absolutely. Is it hard to get your book onto brick and mortar book shelves? Absolutely. Will you mkae 900,000 a year selling books, wither traditionally published or self? Probably not.
But there’s a reason there are publishers. It lends authenticity to your work. It tells the reader your writing has passed several crucial tests before it ends up in their hands!
Don’t sell yourself short. Don’t take the easy way out. Go traditional. You’ll be glad you did in the long run.
