How many books does a publisher have to sell to breakeven?

You need to sell almost 10,000 copies to just break even on costs. For a 80,000 word book you'd need to sell almost 60,000 copies to make an average amount of money
money
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for the time spent on the book.
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How many copies of a book do you have to sell to be successful?

In the book's lifetime

For a traditional publisher to think of a nonfiction book as a success, it has to sell more like 10,000 copies over its lifetime.
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How many books should an author sell?

There are all kinds of statistics bouncing around out there, but generally speaking, most self-published authors will likely sell around 250 books or less. A few years ago, the industry was buzzing when statistics revealed that the average self-published author earns less than $500 from her books.
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How many published books make a profit?

The true proportion of profitable books may be 1 in 100 or 1 in 1000 , it's unknowable and ultimately depends on your definition of terms like "publisher" and even "book." But it is pretty clear that, taking the long view, book publishing is much more about knowledge and ideas and creativity than it is about profit.
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How many books does a typical bestseller sell?

The average book in America sells about 500 copies. Those blockbusters are a minute anomaly: only 10 books sold more than a million copies last year, and fewer than 500 sold more than 100,000. So are all the rest of the books simply failed blockbusters? Of course not.
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How to Break Even on Book Sales



What is the average length of a best-selling book?

A best seller's average length is 375 pages, but in the last 100 years, the average number of words in a sentence has declined over time, as with the use of the semi-colon.
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How much is the average first book deal?

Most first-time authors with a traditional publishing company will get between $5,000 to $10,000 as an advance. While outliers do make much more, those cases are very far and very few between and their advance is often the result of a “bidding war” between publishers.
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How much did JK Rowling make per book?

CNBC estimates that Rowling has earned well over $1 billion from Harry Potter book sales alone, assuming a standard 15% royalty, as well as another $50 million for her books for adults and several Potter spinoffs.
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How much does the average self-published book make?

According to data from a new survey from Digital Book World and Writer's Digest, the median income range for self-published authors is under $5,000 and nearly 20% of self-published authors report deriving no income from their writing.
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Is it worth publishing a book?

To determine if your book is worth publishing, you should read it over yourself with a critical eye. Note if the plot of the book is strong and engaging. If your book is fiction, you may look at how the plot unfolds in the book and whether it is compelling for a reader.
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How many books does the average self-published book sell?

It's estimated that the average self-published print book sells around 250 copies over its lifetime (for a look at some very old but still meaningful statistics, see here). This may not matter much to self-publishers who are focusing primarily on ebooks, and making print books available only as an adjunct.
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How many book sales make a profit?

Article continues after video. A typical book author barely makes more than minimum wage. You receive an advance and 10% royalties on net profit from each book. If your book retails at $25 per copy, you would need to sell at least 4,000 copies to break even on a $5,000 advance.
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How many books did JK Rowling sell?

J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World

The books have been translated into over 80 languages, won multiple awards, and sold more than 500 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling book series in history..
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How many books sold 1 million?

Of the 500,000+ books that are published each year, less than 20 books sell a million copies (and that includes fiction novels!) Upon hearing that, you might think your odds are 1 in 25,000… But your odds are even lower than that.
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How much do authors get paid for their first book?

As we can see from many authors and agents the average first time author is projected to earn around $10,000 for their new book.
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Can you make millions writing a book?

If done right, writing a book can also generate phenomenal leads and revenue for an entrepreneur. Multimillion-dollar entrepreneur and member of The Oracles Rob Kosberg knows something about using a book to turbocharge your business.
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Did JK Rowling self-publish?

The biggest publishing phenomenon on the planet is now a self-publisher. After a week of heavy speculation, JK Rowling has revealed that she is to self-publish the e-books to her mind-bogglingly successful Harry Potter series through her newly-announced proprietary platform, Pottermore.
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What is the most successful self-published book?

The most successful self-published book to date is E.L. James' 50 Shades of Grey. What started as fan-fiction for Twilight became its own thing, selling over 100 million copies worldwide and holding the record for “fastest-selling paperback.” It stayed on the New York Times Bestseller list for 133 consecutive weeks.
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Can self-published books become bestsellers?

Can a self published book become a bestseller? Bestseller lists have historically favored traditionally published titles. However, self-published books can get on bestseller lists.
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What makes a book best selling?

Steinberg defined a bestseller as a book for which demand, within a short time of that book's initial publication, vastly exceeds what is then considered to be big sales.
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What is a typical advance for a first time author?

Boiling it down, here's a more narrow range I can live with sharing: an average advance for a first-time author would likely fall in a range between $5,000 and $50,000, depending on a whole host of factors, including the size of the publisher, passion of the book editor involved, author's platform, the power of the ...
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Who is the richest author?

FAQs on Richest Writers

J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, is the richest writer in the world with a net worth of $1 billion.
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What percentage of book sales does an author get?

Under standard royalties, an author gets roughly 20 to 30% of the publisher's revenue for a hardcover, 15% for a trade paperback, and 25% for an eBook. So, very roughly, every hardcover release that earns out brings the author something like 25% of all revenue earned by the publisher.
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What is a typical publishing contract?

The path to publication generally requires authors to sign a “publishing contract” that covers such topics as: manuscript delivery and acceptance, copyright ownership and grants; royalty advances, rates and payment; author warranties and indemnities; contract duration and rights reversion (out-of-print); options on new ...
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How much does an author get per book sold?

A traditionally published author makes 5–20% royalties on print books, usually 25% on ebooks (though can be less), and 10–25% on audiobooks.
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