I’ve had a ton (ok, 3) of requests for a physical book.  The first Alexia book is $9.99.  Oh! Steep!  Why?

When you self publish, the cost of having kindle print it on demand is higher ($3.65) than a starting digital price ($2.99).

You also must pay Anazon and Kindle for use of their tools (previewer,  publishing guide to check for size, gutters etc) and their servers: 30-65% of your list price.

Let’s have a look at my first paperback book:

List $9.99

Printing: $3.65

Kindle & Amazon cut: $3

Author royalty:$ 3.34 (after 40+ hours of working on a book, I’m making pennies here).

You won’t get rich being an author unless you sell millions or have advances from publishing houses.  Here’s a slippery slope.

Of 1,000,000 books, less than 1% will make it to a physical bookstore, and even then, they may not sell.   And if you’ve followed an author, you may notice that by book 10, they begin to churn out the same story over and over.  Why?  Because the Hotdog books sell.  The authors may have fillet mignon ideas in their heads but the publishing house knows that Hotdogs sell.  So, another Hotdog novel is made each year.

Don’t write for $, write for the fun of it. 🙂