Hello creatives,

Today we’ll be discussing the economics of selling ebooks and print in the digital age. Especially for indie authors, ebooks have been the lifeblood of the industry for more than a decade now. While still a young aspect of book publishing, it has become the bread and butter of most authors’ sales.

The Indie Publishing Landscape

Most publishing industry stats are a few years behind because it takes al long time to aggregate and analyze the data. With that said, there have been a number of reports that indicate the ebook market in the US was valued at around $4.23 billion in 2023. In 2020, the self-publishing ebook industry share in the U.S. was around 42%. So, projecting that onto 2023 means that there was possibly $1.7 billion dollars of revenue from independently published books.

That’s a lot of revenue pie to go around.

There are many platforms available for indie authors to sell their books: Ingramspark (which is what I use), Kindle Direct Publishing, Blurb, Bookbaby and more. Essentially, these platforms enable authors to upload the formatted files of their books and distribute them onto various online retailers who sell ebooks or print books.

Amazon of course is the biggest player, for better or worse. As of 2023, Amazon represents 60% of all books sold in the US market.

Now, it should be noted that outside the US, Amazon has less of a footing so if you opt to make your book available in other markets, that can help increase sales opportunities that you wouldn’t otherwise have. Worldwide, the US only accounts for about a quarter of book sales in the world with the global ebook market projected to be $17.2 billion in 2024 and growing to $21.73 billion by 2029.

The subject of targeting non-US countries is probably something I’ll discuss in later blog posts.

The Economics of eBooks for Indie Authors

Some online “gurus” like to tout ebooks as a get rich quick scheme but that’s far from he truth. Selling ebooks is not for the faint of heart. It’s not as easy as posting it on the platform and suddenly you start building a readership.

For example, let’s say you have a 70,000 word novel that you’d like to sell on KDP. This is the most common route indie authors go for.

• Retail Price: $4.99 (Romance, science fiction, and thrillers often perform well at $2.99–$4.99)

• Royalty Rate: 70% (available for ebooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99 on KDP)

• File Delivery Fee: $0.10 per MB (Amazon charges this for each ebook sold; assume your ebook is 1 MB)

This means that for every ebook sale:

• $4.99 x .7 = $3.49

• $3.49 - $.10 = $3.39 (author compensation)

This means that for every ebook you sell, you’ll earn $3.39. Let’s say you want to make a part-time income from this so your goal is to make $2,000 per month in sales.

• $2,000 / $3.39 = 589.97

You’ll need to sell 590 ebooks each month to earn a part time income. For some people this still sounds relatively easy. Many traditionally published authors struggle to earn part time income from their books. It’s not uncommon for authors to never be able to sell more than 100 copies of a book. This is because of the level of marketing needed to build a fandom around the story.

How to Successfully Sell eBooks

With all of this said, it is still possible for authors to make a living writing books. Books plural. Here are some tried and true tips for successfully selling ebooks:

• Target Audience: Make sure your pricing reflects the purchasing habits of your readers. Different genres may have different expectations on what the cost should be.

• Marketing Efforts: Build an author platform that supports your work as an author and create a community around your books.

• Keep Writing: Having a solid backlist of quality stories is key to success in this space. Readers tend to become attached to an author’s writing style and series are easier to sell than one-off books.

I hope this all has proved some food for thought as you think about your ebook strategy. What has worked for you in the past?

Until Next Time,

Rochele