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> Quoting "J. Ressler" <jressler -at- ewa-denver -dot- com>:
>
> >
> > I don't know much about the world of publishing, but can someone give me
> > some decent profit ranges for a first time author?
>
I'm coming from the angle of writing software books, btw. I know nothing about
fiction books. If you're looking at the fiction angle I do have a friend in Denver
who's started as an agent and is doing pretty well.
Back to the subject of writing software books. The first thing to do is to stop
thinking in terms of it being a money-making venture. ;> 75% of technical books
never make back their advance, i.e. the authors never get more than $2k to $10k
(appr.) for writing them. That's not to say you wouldn't. You might make $2 an
hour or $20 an hour or $500 an hour. So expect very little, at least at first, and
you'll never be disappointed. The most dependable way to make money from having
written a book is the name recognition, resume value, getting interviews and other
projects, possibly subsequent book deals, etc. that come from it.
I'd suggest that you go to www.studiob.com or another professional technical book
authors' group, read the site, sign up for the list, and talk to folks. There's
also the option of getting an agent; the agent's job is to not only get you
authoring jobs but to make sure that you get a good contract. Their take is
typically 15% and they would be able to answer all your questions in detail.
> Do publishers continue to print as long as their is decent demand?
Usually. Nothing is guaranteed.
>> Does the author sign to receive X% of the sales? Is there money up front from
the publisher, then X% of sales?
Usually you get a $2000 to $10,000 advance that you don't have to pay back, then
you get roughly 8% to 14% of the price the publisher sells to wholesalers at, which
is roughly half the retail price of the book. So for a $40 book you would get about
$2 each.
>> If you sign a contract with a publisher for X number of books, does profit
increase?
Not unless you negotiate a contract like that. I believe also that things like that
are usually reserved for the likes of David Pogue and up.
And, having cowritten a couple LARGE books, I can heartily recommend the hourly
rate value of writing SMALL books. ;>
HTH,
Solveig
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
solveig -at- techwriterstuff -dot- com
"R is for Release Date, days count down as bugs amass
We'll hit the date when frozen monkeys fly out of my monitor." http://www.techwriterstuff.com
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