A publishing veteran shares how writing books makes money

[@indiegamechris4759]

I've been told so many discouraging things about writing: you can't make money writing, very few writers get published, and so many others. Yet despite all that, I have continued to feel a force inside me driving me to write, to improve my craft, and to reach for the stars. That's how I know I'm meant to be a writer.

[@StoryGrid]

Love it! - Tim

[@paramedicchrisbookseries]

100%

[@garymathe9863]

I just want to add that once one of your books becomes pretty popular, more people will start buying your subsequent books (even if they're not part of a series) but also your older books that they previously ignored. Publishers will take notice and start giving you more work and your books more promotion. It becomes an upward spiral. So just keep at it.

[@JimWeaving-ty6tr]

So, becoming a writer is like becoming a scientist - you have to do it for the love, because it's a hard slog, with overwhelming amounts of competition, high chance of failure, and it's not going to make you rich. (speaking as a molecular biologist)

[@t0dd000]

Heck, most Pulitzer prize winning authors have their bestseller and accolades, but then keep a day job because the writing doesn't pay reliability long term.

[@aaronhunyady]

Thanks for this comment. I'm a former molecular biologist making a go at fiction writing, but for some reason I've never drawn this parallel before. It's simultaneously terrifying and encouraging. Maybe this explains why the scene I wrote yesterday smells bad after a night of incubating....

[@JimWeaving-ty6tr]

@@aaronhunyady 😆😆😆 Gotta love a science in joke!

[@JimWeaving-ty6tr]

@@aaronhunyady Wow! I never suspected that there'd be others out there! Probably because it's rare to find a scientist who likes the writing part of their job. In my experience, anyway.

[@superflysquirrel]

Everything you put out always answers the questions I have about writing, the book industry...just everything. I decided to listen to the podcast start to finish, and Tim is always asking Shawn the questions I have in my mind lol. Thank you for all of the content you guys put out ❤️

[@megwriter3power-gg6ml]

This makes sense, helpful and encouraging. I’m writing a standalone detective series here at the United Kingdom and I’m over fifty 🇺🇸🇬🇧

[@thewriteplace2025]

Great video and nice to see a positive take on things. One of the best pieces of advice I was given was 'the best form of marketing is to write another (good) book' - and that speaks to what you're saying in this video. As with most things in writing . . . JUST. KEEP. GOING.

[@paramedicchrisbookseries]

Really helpful, it is frustrating with sales figures however we must keep going, it is the self satisfaction which is what is counts.

[@AWildBard]

Scary but also really motivating.

[@pscheibmeir]

I think there also exists an economic pattern similar to restaurants. For some reason restaurants do well when they are surrounded my more restaurants (i.e. multiple books by the same author) versus a lone restaurant isolated (an author of one book).

[@BruceWayne15325]

Most authors are lucky to sell 100 copies in their first year. Until you've got 20-30 books out there you aren't likely to make much. I write because I love to do it. I accept the fact that I'm not going to make enough to make it worth my time. As you said, there's much easier ways to make money. If I looked at my income as an hourly wage it'd be laughable. It takes months to write a book from planning, writing, many rounds of editing, setting up ARC readers, and doing more editing based on their feedback, working with artists to create professional covers, etc. If I only make $700 in a year from that book that took me 5 months to produce you can do the math. It's not good. That doesn't deduct the costs you have to spend to publish the book. Artists don't work for free, editors don't accept your firstborn as payment, though they charge enough that you'd think they would. Amazon and other retailers will drain your bank account for advertising fees.

[@kentfaver]

Great video - thanks Tim. Very helpful and insightful. I appreciate you.

[@AngelaWynia]

Oh my God I love your shirt.

[@TampaProductions]

These videos have been so helpful and encouraging. I was tired of hearing advice that focused on gaming bestseller lists/short-term success; this focus on long-term success is really refreshing!

[@keithprice3369]

You may not have touched your books and you may not be advertising them. But you run a successful KZbin channel on the same topic as your books, so that's a very good funnel that not a lot of authors are likely to duplicate. My point is that if an author wants to make money a decade after they published a book, they'll still need to be actively promoting it in some way.

[@StoryGrid]

So you have data and experience to back that up? Because I’ve worked directly with authors that don’t have those things and their books keep selling so…? - Tim

[@keithprice3369]

@@StoryGrid No. I stand corrected. I was only going off what you said in your video. Good to know.

[@emmegrange]

This is my favorite video you’ve ever made. THANK YOU

[@theapavlou3030]

Well, 2 years on I'm nearly done with the 2nd draft of a book I promised to a dearly deceased friend. I see the value of your videos and the improvement in my writing has been one hundred fold but that wont make my book a great story. So, I'm here for the hard work, I'm investing in the social media package and trying to make some author contacts.... but I want to make money too. I'll let you know how it goes 😂

[@Paul-eb2cl]

This is precisely why I am subscribed to this channel, a superb video - thank you

[@elijahn8992]

Thanks again for the great video. Making money writing is terrible motivation for writing. Rather the passion for the subject is key.

[@JuanAguilar-cm6su]

Thank you

[@Pfromm007]

I write because it keeps me stable and together. Living life without writing something just isn't worth it for me. I love writing and getting as good at it as I can. The rest will happen however it happens.

[@Lorna-JWB]

This is such an encouraging and practical video

[@Daraponleu]

Most con artist writers might sell a few motivational books that fade away into the oblivion of time. True writers write from their heart and soul, unleashing an unstoppable stream of passion. Their minds are vast and deep, waiting for someone else to explore. We write to inspire, to effect change, to share our thoughts and connect with others, to communicate our innermost desires. This is more real and fulfilling than any amount of money.

[@dueling_spectra7270]

Books...shelf life!🤣Nice! You do have to keep marketing...but there are also ways to automate the marketing, if you're strategic about it. The really tricky part is getting enough initial sales to cover the initial investment of covers, editing, possibly producing audio books and earn enough to afford to run enough ads and accrue enough data in your ad account so that they are self sustaining and will keep improving as they run. This is where having a series with good read through are our friends. Market book one, some will even do this at a loss, and earn profit from the readers who go onto consume the rest of the series. So...Tim, any advice on writing a damn strong series? One that keeps your readers coming back for more?🙂

[@Free_Range_Female]

Hello. I just subbed to your channel. I'm interested in something you said about royalties being paid to your kids after you're gone. I'm planning to indie publish and I didn't know this was possible. May I have more information about how it would work?

[@5Gburn]

You need to include that in your will.

[@Free_Range_Female]

@@5Gburn Would Amazon or other platforms pay ongoing royalties to a third party by having it in the will, or is it more involved? Have you done it? Thanks.

[@Dani_1012]

What about short stories? I once heard they don’t make much money

[@arne8038]

Writing is a passion,not intentionally making money..

[@MsLesset]

skip to 7:37 to get to the real reason.

[@wonderwomanx1268]

I LOVE BJJ!!! And writing lol. But writing is harder. Thanks for the video 👌🏼

[@stantoncochran536]

Oh wow, didn’t expect to see someone else in here with the same two interests. Osss

[@josephlibrande]

Ok. Tim just said he does jiujitsu. I was already a big fan. Now I'm a superfan.

[@GonzPaoli]

Great advice as always Tim! Would you say this can apply to writing comic books too?

[@StoryGrid]

I know nothing about the comic book industry. You’ll have to look into that yourself. - Tim

[@BookTalksWithMrsThomas]

$7 per book??? I’m getting 10% - 25% per purchase. Which begs the question- what would you recommend as the most profitable way to publish?

[@AshenVoss]

i actually got i contract but didnt accept it

[@billyalarie929]

Why? Can you share?

[@stephenlogsdon8266]

But some of us don’t have KZbin channels.

[@JackMyersPhotography]

Books have a really long shelf life “rim shot!”

[@StoryGrid]

Damn. I’m embarrassed I didn’t even catch that when I said it! - Tim

[@JackMyersPhotography]

@@StoryGrid This is a great video, I appreciate the reminder to keep trying.

[@Grynworzalofficial]

Spotify has suspended payments to any content with less than 1000 plays per audiobook podcast or music Gotta pay sponging Joe Rogan

[@SashaZarustin]

Can you actually make money as a writer? Even a fiction writer? Well, to me, by now, how to rephrase that question is obvious. Can you actually make money by playing the lottery? (Okay, not the same thing, but you get the spirit). 7 bucks seems optimistic to me. Everyone since I published has been telling me to price my ebook between $1 and $3, and paperback shouldn't exceed $10 (which I couldn't do, because Amazon wants their print cost paid by me + their 40%). I didn't follow that advice, or I'd be making mere pennies for each copy of my book. In the end I decided that I want to make $3 as a minimum and, if that doesn't work, so screw them all, my lottery numbers just didn't come up. P.S. I think that there are many books that don't suck, but they are bound to fail simply because authors can't afford the marketing.

[@AtomicElf1]

The question has "ramifications" ? 🤔 I don't think that word means what you think it means. Did you mean nuances? Complexity? Depth? Sorry, I couldn't resist. 😁

[@StoryGrid]

Unfortunately I don't have a proofreader for these things 😀 - Tim

[@innocentchukwu2862]

What's the best platform for Africans to publish and sell their books ?

[@opperman818]

The tortoise and the hare of book sales

[@ElishaJamesIV]

Hey man I have 5 books 3 published I need a little help?? You Busy?? LOL

[@toddboothbee1361]

Yes, I write because I'm going to die.

[@ghg8701]

7$ a book?? BS. Just an example for the amazon program, to make 7$ on a 600 page paper back you'd have to sell it for 25.3$ and that's not before taxes. For the ebook it would be 12$, which is still more than most would pay for a book. I don't know his publishing deal, but the author ususlly get 10-20% of the book price. Does he sell his book for 35-70$? He tries to hide playing on greed by saying that getting rich shouldn't be ghe goal, then proceeds to inflate numbers to get people hooked and maybe buy his collage priced course. If you wznt to know how much it reslly "worth it" if over the next 20 years you'll sell over 100k books that is considered a very successful book that roughly equals 60k$ upfront 100 books a month isn't as easy as it sounds, but would be equal to 15k$ upfront which is not bad, but more realistic

[@StoryGrid]

I don't know where you're publishing, but at KDP you make $6.92 off a $9.99 ebook: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ut4zfcmvo6btv8x902s4w/Screenshot-2024-05-09-at-6.11.57-AM.png?rlkey=k7tmqcac3dlwbtchsdc0br5vv&dl=0 Publishing deals are a rip-off for 99% of new writers _because_ they only get 10-20%. - Tim

[@billyalarie929]

@@StoryGridthis is what I’ve read too. Multiple times, multiple sources, mostly authors who talk candidly about their sales on KZbin