John Price Art: April 2014

Monday, April 21, 2014

My Book

This morning, at approximately 7:05 a.m. I finished writing my book. I had originally given myself until June/July to have it completed, but I was able to put aside time every single day and make it happen. 250 pages of something I wrote well over a decade ago and put aside because of my religious beliefs at the time, now rewritten and worded.

Some days I'd do 15 minutes, other days, I'd do an entire hour, but I made myself do it. There is some editing I need to do on it, and I'll give myself until June 1 to have that done. In the meantime, I'll most likely begin working on a book cover and deciding if I'd like to self publish or publish traditionally. That's going to be the hardest part - self publishing over traditional publishing.

In the traditional publishing market, the publisher keeps 85-92% of the money, and the author gets between 8-15%. So if a book sells at $10 and a thousand books are sold, if the amount agreed on is 10%, the author gets $100. They don't handle all of your marketing either, and when it comes to e-books, the publisher still retains 70% of the sales, even though it costs virtually nothing - no paper costs, etc. There's a greater possibility of fame with traditional publishing, and usually the author will generate more sales.

However, with self publishing, the author keeps 70-90% of the money, so if a book sells at $10 and 1000 are sold, if the the author keeps 85% of the money, he will get $850. The problem with self publishing is that unless the author has a marketing plan - which I do not - the most he or she will probably make is around $500. Many authors have obtained fame from self publishing (something I care absolutely nothing about) one of the most famous being L. Frank Baum, the author of The Wizard of Oz.

Regardless, 50% of my earnings have to go to my best friend, who co-authored the book. He and I have about 10 story lines written out. We've been thinking about doing traditional publishing for the first book, just to see how things work out, and then take it from there and self publish after that. Who knows? We have until June 1 to figure it out - I'm torn on the whole thing. Quite frankly, I'd almost prefer to self publish and keep most of the money, than give it to a publisher who will only do 30% of the work on it.