Infographic: Self Publishing By The Numbers
I love Infographics, and this is a particularly interesting one. It's packed with loads of information comparing traditional publishing to the newly emergent self-pub trend, with a couple of "case studies" for good measure. Some of the info is outdated, such as Amanda Hocking turning down a trade pub deal in favor of self-publishing, when she signed a trade deal well over a year ago (March 2011), or providing sales data for January 2010 that are hardly relevant in May 2012.
In addition, while many writers use Lulu for print-on-demand self-publishing, it's far from the cheapest route to go (both CreateSpace and Lightning Source are less expensive and used by far more authors and independent publishers), so using it as a base of comparison is hardly representative. The $300-500 Initial Outlay for POD services, for example, should start at FREE, since Amazon's CreateSpace charges no initial setup fees and provides an ISBN.
And while it's more difficult to establish an account with Lightning Source, it's well worth the effort, since their per-page charges are far less than either CreateSpace or Lulu, at .013 cents per page for 6x9" black & white plus .90 cents for the cover (and from .05 to .10 cents per page for color, depending on the page size). This makes the production cost for a 300 page paperback $4.80 rather than the $10.50 given in the example. Thus, a $15 book sold at 70% royalty returns $5.70 instead of $3.60, a $2.10 increase in profits per sale, which is more by itself than most trade published authors make as their entire royalty. Of course, you could also lower the retail price of your book and sell more copies instead.
But all in all the data provided in this Infographic is valid and provides a generally accurate comparison of the two opposing business models, clearly illustrating why self-publishing has become so popular of late.
Infographic by: Website Creation.com
In addition, while many writers use Lulu for print-on-demand self-publishing, it's far from the cheapest route to go (both CreateSpace and Lightning Source are less expensive and used by far more authors and independent publishers), so using it as a base of comparison is hardly representative. The $300-500 Initial Outlay for POD services, for example, should start at FREE, since Amazon's CreateSpace charges no initial setup fees and provides an ISBN.
And while it's more difficult to establish an account with Lightning Source, it's well worth the effort, since their per-page charges are far less than either CreateSpace or Lulu, at .013 cents per page for 6x9" black & white plus .90 cents for the cover (and from .05 to .10 cents per page for color, depending on the page size). This makes the production cost for a 300 page paperback $4.80 rather than the $10.50 given in the example. Thus, a $15 book sold at 70% royalty returns $5.70 instead of $3.60, a $2.10 increase in profits per sale, which is more by itself than most trade published authors make as their entire royalty. Of course, you could also lower the retail price of your book and sell more copies instead.
But all in all the data provided in this Infographic is valid and provides a generally accurate comparison of the two opposing business models, clearly illustrating why self-publishing has become so popular of late.
Infographic by: Website Creation.com
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