Ask the Author: Lexington Alexander
Answered Questions (3)
Lexington Alexander
From MAD to Madness: Inside Pentagon Nuclear War Planning
Lexington Alexander
In terms of losing money, it kind of depends on what you're doing. If you use print on demand, there really is not much of a risk because you can profit off of selling just one book. However, if you pay money for a cover designer and advertising and consider the hours it took you to write the book, that's a little different obviously in terms of a profit. For example, it might be really easy to make a profit if you pay yourself $1 an hour, but not on selling one book.
If you do your own cover, do not buy stock images, and pay yourself $0 an hour, you can make a few dollars profit on one book. If you choose to print 10,000 books via the traditional self publishing route, it will be a full-time job to sell those books and -- I would guess -- about 97% of people will barely sell any, and you would be out $10,000+.
Hope that helps to answer your question. Most people sell very few books at first. The initial focus should be made on building a fan base that when notified can send your book to the top of the Amazon best-seller list(s).
If you do your own cover, do not buy stock images, and pay yourself $0 an hour, you can make a few dollars profit on one book. If you choose to print 10,000 books via the traditional self publishing route, it will be a full-time job to sell those books and -- I would guess -- about 97% of people will barely sell any, and you would be out $10,000+.
Hope that helps to answer your question. Most people sell very few books at first. The initial focus should be made on building a fan base that when notified can send your book to the top of the Amazon best-seller list(s).
Lexington Alexander
Oh, I just self published the books with CreateSpace. It's more difficult than ever to get published and I didn't even try without an established author platform. I've heard that publishers aren't taking risks with unknown authors anymore.
Thanks for your question!
Thanks for your question!
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