How Authors Really Make Money: The Rebirth of Seth Godin and Death of Traditional Publishing 262 Comments

Written by Topics: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, The Book - 4HWW, Writing and Blogging


What do the economics of publishing look like… really? (Photo: thinkpanama)

(Special thanks to my agent, Steve Hanselman, and my anonymous sources within the world’s biggest publishing houses)

Print is dead!

This has become a popular headline, and a great way to get quoted, as Nicholas Negroponte has shown. Iconic author Seth Godin, after 12 bestsellers, just announced that he will no longer pursue traditional publishing, and the writing seems to be on the wall: the e-book is the future, plain and simple.

But what are the real concrete numbers? How are established authors actually making money, and what should new authors do? Go straight to e-book?

In this post, I’ll look at real-world numbers to discuss some hard truths of publishing, explain economics and pay-offs, and provide a few suggestions for aspiring authors.

To start, some contrasting numbers…

- The 4-Hour Workweek is one of the top-10 most highlighted Kindle books of all time.

- The 4-Hour Workweek was the #1 business book when Kindle first shipped after November 2007, and is currently around #116 in the Kindle store.

- In my last royalty statement, December 2009, digital book sales (all formats, including Kindle) totaled…. ready?… a mere 1.6% of total units sold.

My own book has been on the bestseller lists for more than three years, and I’ve tracked most multi-month bestsellers for all of those 36+ months using Nielsen Bookscan (among other tools) which covers about 75% of all retail book sales since 2001, including Amazon but excluding discount clubs such as Sam’s Club. Titlez has also been useful for looking at detailed trending on Amazon.

This all gives me a good pool of data, and I feel like I have a good grasp of what authors are selling and… realistically earning directly from books. If you’d like to get a basic idea, just subscribe to Publishers Lunch to see what authors are getting paid as advances. Enjoy.

We’ll come back to the Kindle numbers, but first, here’s a sketch of book economics, incentives and options:

- For a hardcover book, authors typically receive a 10-15% royalty on cover price. This means that for a $20 cover price, the author will receive $2-3. If you have a $50,000 advance, a $20 cover price, and a 10% royalty, you therefore need to sell 25,000 copies (“earn out” the advance) before you receive your first dollar beyond the advance. This is the basic rule, but several quietly aggressive outfits — both Barnes and Noble’s in-house imprint (Sterling, acquired in 2003) and Amazon’s in-house print arms, AmazonEncore and AmazonCrossing — could prove to offer more attractive terms. Then there are the fascinating rogues like Andrew “The Jackal” Wylie.

- For a trade paperback book, authors typically receive around half the royalty of a hard cover. If you are making 15% on your hardcover, you might get 7.5% when it goes to paperback. Guess what? This means you now need to sell twice as many books to break even. I think going to paperback is a bad idea for almost all authors, unless you want to double your work for the same income. Do you really need the people who won’t buy a $20 book hardcover that’s already discounted to $12-14 dollars through Amazon or Barnes and Noble? I don’t think so, yet most authors follow the hardcover-to-paperback progression without question.

- Electronic books, including Kindle, do not count towards the most famous bestseller lists, such as The New York Times bestseller list. I suspect this will change within the next two years, but for now: print is what will make you famous in the mainstream.

- If you choose to self-publish but stick with print format and retail distribution, you might double your royalty earnings. This is based on conversations with friends who own their own boutique publishing houses, all of which have distribution in large chains like Barnes and Noble. It’s fun to imagine that you could print a book with a $20 cover price and pocket $15, but that isn’t how the math works out. Once you factor in retailer discounts and distributor percentages, you might end up netting 30% of cover price vs. 15%, if you’re lucky and have a print run of 20,000+ units (Can you afford the upfront cost, especially if retailers are paying net-30, net-60, or beyond?). Keep in mind you also need to manage things as a publisher, which could make your dollars-per-hour earnings less than with a traditional publisher. There are a few promising companies, like Author Solutions, trying to solve this problem for authors.

- If you choose to go digital only as an e-book, this is where profit rules and amazing numbers can be achieved. How amazing? I know one man who nets between $5,000,000 and $10,000,000 per year with a single e-book and affiliate cross-selling to his customer lists. I’m not kidding. The downside is that you need to be a world-class marketer and understand affiliate and CPA advertising better than anyone else in your niche (since there is little barrier to entry, and therefore plenty of competition). Prepare to be an uber-competent CEO or fail if you choose this option.

The Kindle Phenomenon — How Press Releases Are Misread

Amazon is incredible and I expect nothing but more innovation from them. Putting aside their coming bloodbath with Apple, though…

What of this announcement that Kindle sales have now passed hardcover sales on Amazon? I believe this to be true, but there are a few things I suggest we keep in mind:

1) Kindle books selling well does not mean that print books are selling poorly. In fact, it appears quite the opposite. From the Wall Street Journal coverage of the announcement:

Still, the hardback comparison figure doesn’t necessarily mean the end is near for paper books. Amazon said its hardback book unit sales also continued to increase.

It will be fun to see more precise Kindle sales when they are shown as a separate line item in Nielsen Bookscan, which should happen in the next year.

2) The top-five Kindle selling authors of all-time, over 500,000 copies each, are all fiction writers (including Stieg Larsson, Stephanie Meyer, and others). In the top-50 Kindle bestsellers right now, I counted just three (3!) non-fiction books. If you’re a non-fiction author, I’d think carefully before jumping the gun to all digital. Remember that comment about print being dead? What if we ask a high-level exec at one of the “Big Six” (explained later) about how print sales are declining?

Hardcover trend is mixed and dependent on hot books. If you are wondering about ebooks, commercial fiction is where you’re seeing the erosion. Paperbacks are ok. Mass markets are taking a hit.

What are “mass market” books? The NY Times describes them thus:

Mass-market books are designed to fit into the racks set near the checkout counter at supermarkets, drugstores, hospital gift shops and airport newsstands. They are priced affordably so they can be bought on impulse. There are other production differences in binding and paper quality (historically, paperbacks were printed on “pulp” and could fit in the consumer’s pocket). The format is often used for genre fiction, science fiction, romance, thrillers and mysteries.

Is it a coincidence that print impulse purchases are also the biggest sellers on Kindle? I don’t think so.

3) I believe (conjecture, yes) that the figure we are missing is Books-Per-Person. If you have a Kindle, as I do, how many books did you buy in the first week or two? How many unread books do you have on your Kindle? Unlike with print books, you don’t have to look at a stack of unread material like undone homework. Ergo, you purchase more digital books than you would ever purchase in print. If Amazon is selling 180 Kindle books for every 100 print books, I wouldn’t be surprised if 10-20 people are responsible for the former, whereas 80-100 people are responsible for the latter. This reflects that Kindle owners are buying more books per capita, not that paper purchasers are buying fewer.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There has to be some cannibalization of sales, and much of print will die eventually, but it will take a long time. Print is far from dead… and far from unprofitable. Despite the industry-encouraged myth that print has no margins, a hardcover book sold for $20, assuming no graphics or color, can often be produced for less than $2 a copy. With the proper economies of scale (unavailable to most individuals), the publishing biz can be quite a little cash cow.

Let’s cover some basics of traditional publishing next.

What “Traditional” Publishing Looks Like

Traditional publishing looks something like the following for non-fiction authors. For fiction authors, you need to write the entire manuscript first. Here are the five steps:

Step 1. Get an agent (best done through a referral from one of their authors).

Step 2. Put together a book proposal, which is like a business plan. It will contain marketing plans, your existing “platform” (who you can sell to or reach without publisher help), an executive summary of the book concept, and 1-3 sample chapters, among other things.

Step 3. Pitch to specific editors at different publishers through the agent and schedule meetings.

Step 4. Sell the book. The editor will probably have signing authority up to a certain advance amount, but higher ups will need to sign off on larger advances. If you don’t have a great platform for selling books without publisher help, don’t expect anything more than $50,000, and that’s being optimistic. The $50,000 will not be paid all at once, but in several installments, something like this: 1/4 upon signing the deal, 1/4 upon publisher acceptance of manuscript, 1/4 upon publication, and 1/4 upon paperback publication (assuming you start with hardcover).

Step 5. Write the book. Keep in mind, you’re not getting paid the advance all upfront, and writing a good book will probably take at least a year if you’re hoping to have good word-of-mouth and some longevity. I’ve been working on my new book for more than three years. I’ve spent this time because I want it to sell like mad for no fewer than five years after publication, preferably more than a decade if I update it on an annual or semi-annual basis.

For more detail and recommended books, which I used as guides, read “How to Sell a Book to the World’s Largest Publisher,” which explains exactly what I did.

Below are the “Big Six” publishers — most of the bestsellers you see come out of one of their divisions (called “imprints”). In no particular order:

Lagardere (owns Hachette)
Harper Collins
Macmillan (owns St. Martin’s)
Penguin Group
Random House (the largest, and where my book lives within the “Crown Publishing” imprint)
Simon and Schuster

All of these publishers have iBook agreements with Apple except for one… Random House. Why? Is Random House just unable to see the obvious future? Nah, I don’t think that’s true. There are plenty of smart people working at Random House, and that includes their legal department.

The paragraph that follows is all hypothetical:

What might happen if the iBooks agreements of the other Big Five all have suspiciously similar terms? If there were a federal investigation, might that lead to charges of collusion among the publishers and have terrible financial consequences for an already fragile industry? It certainly would. By distancing themselves and coming in late to the game, Random House — again, hypothetically — would be playing a very smart hand, indeed.

For those of you who are devoted to your iPads (I do like mine), you can always use the Kindle app to read Random House books on them pretty screens.

So What Should Authors Do?

First off, writing books is a terrible revenue model for authors.

Precious few books sell more than 25,000 copies, so it’s unlikely you’ll make even $75,000 a year from book royalties. In rare cases, you might have a perennial bestseller, but this is less than 1% of all books sold and not a good bet to make.

There are still a few reasons you might consider writing a book and going through traditional channels:

- Speaking: Particularly in the business category, if you target your Fortune 500 audience well enough, you can stair-step your way into $20,000 per 60-minute keynote without needing a miracle. Hundreds, if not thousands, of authors earn this kind of money. The higher echelon can make $80,000 or more per speaking engagement. Needless to say, this adds up fast.

- Reputation and audience: Money is a means to something else. Not unlike wampum, income is traded for either a possession or an experience. If you use your book to build a reputation as a thought leader, and if you can establish a direct line of communication to intelligent readers (through a blog, for instance), it is possible to bypass income and get almost any experience for free or next-to-free. The middleman of currency is removed, and you also have access to things money can’t buy, whether it’s interesting people or unusual resources.

Though I have done high-level speaking and enjoy it with the right audience, I typically do fewer than a dozen engagements a year. I prefer to focus on connecting with my readers and having fun with cashless adventures.

How do you build a base of fans or supporters and build a high-traffic blog? Here are two detailed closely related case studies:

How Does a Bestseller Happen? A Case Study in Hitting #1 on the New York Times
How to Create a Global Phenomenon for Less Than $10,000

So what of self-publishing versus the more traditional route?

Reputation, at least in the mainstream and for the next few years, is difficult to build if you self-publish. In the below five-minute discussion, NY Times bestselling author Ramit Sethi and I discuss the pros and cons of self-publishing vs. getting a “real” publisher:

In Closing

For established and successful authors, like Seth Godin or Jim Collins, self-publishing in print or digital is a supremely viable option. Jim Collins self-published his last print book, How the Mighty Fall, and was featured on the cover of BusinessWeek magazine to help push it up the bestseller ranks. Seth could do the same.

Why is this possible?

Because they have incredible reputations that were built, in part, on top of the traditional publishing machine. The Big Six and their close cousins are in real trouble. Some of them might adapt (which will include massive lay-offs), but most will not. In the next few short years, there will also be many interesting publishing alternatives for aspiring authors.

But, all that said, there is still real value in having the rare stamp of approval that a “traditional” publisher provides. I don’t think this will change much in the next 12 months, perhaps even 24 months.

Now, a handful of first-time, self-published authors hit the New York Times list, that’s an entirely different story…

###

Recommended reading – Below are the three books I’ve suggested to a dozen or so aspiring-author friends. Almost half of them later hit the New York Times bestseller list. Reading these doesn’t guarantee that outcome, of course, but it will help:

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (to help you craft the right message and themes)
Bird by Bird (to help you write the damn thing and not shoot yourself)
Author 101: Bestselling Book Publicity (to help you reach and excite big media)

Afterword: Book Format and Multimedia Books, etc.

In the comments below, I was asked the following question:

“Tim, I have a question… Before I decided to self-publish, I got a couple decent offers from traditional publishers, but they all involved 10+ months of lag time between when everything is ready to actually print and when they would actually print. I’m not nearly patient enough for that much delay. Is the world of “real published authors” really limited to people who are comfortable waiting around a year for their book to manifest?”

My answer addresses a few other common questions I get:

Hi Jeff,

With the big boys, yep. That’s the lag time in production. I actually kind of like it. Allow me to explain:

It forces you to think about your material and attempt to make it perennial. Which advice will be obsolete in 12 months? Delete. Which advice would be obsolete in 24 months? That means it will only be good about 12 months after pub date. Delete.

I find that it helps refine your thinking, just as having the content in a fixed form (print) forces you to consider your writing and editing more seriously than if you could change it willy-nilly like a blog post. There are certainly benefits to the multimedia books on the horizon, but I wouldn’t call them “books”, and I think the bells and whistles of video, hyperlinks, etc. will be used to mask sloppy thinking as often, if not more often, than they will be used to create a more compelling argument or presentation. The wordsmithing and precision of the language will suffer with the crutches of embeddable video, etc. Will they make perfect sense for some books? Absolutely. Will they distract and detract from the flow of the prose, story, or argument in most cases? Absolutely.

To me, “timely” books are a bad bet for writers. If the content delivers value based on timing near recent events, other media have it beat. I think long-form books should have a longer shelf life, and therefore require harder thinking throughout the process to ensure the content has value 1 year, 5 years, even 10 years down the line.

Hope that helps!

Tim

Posted on August 23rd, 2010

262 Comments

  • Russ — August 23rd, 2010, 10:59 pm

    Two words: good sh*t

    …

    Reply

  • Shaun — August 23rd, 2010, 10:59 pm

    Fantastic article. I’m writing several short “books” to publish. Since I already have a collection of fairly popular websites, there doesn’t seem to be a reason to not sell them at a profit.

    Do you have any thoughts on pricing for an ebook?

    Reply

  • Brad Olson — August 23rd, 2010, 11:00 pm

    Great information! Once the model for self-produced music took off, it stood to reason that the print industry would follow suit. Bands never made money from records, it was the touring and merch that always made them the most cash! By the time the record company is finished, there isn’t much left for the artist.

    Reply

  • Chad Howse — August 23rd, 2010, 11:01 pm

    Awesome article Tim,

    I still prefer holding book or even a magazine in my hands when I’m reading compared to staring at a screen – I like how you added a few benefits of getting published in there as well…

    I started a blog about a year ago with the intention of eventually coming out with an ebook. I wanted to build a following on the blog then sell the ebook on the blog + on a sales page.

    It just made more sense financially to write an ebook, getting published has always been a dream but financially an ebook made a lot more sense.

    Anyways thanks for the article, you always have great content on here. Excited to read your next publication…

    - Chad

    Reply

  • ExplodingRotatorCuff — August 23rd, 2010, 11:01 pm

    Excellent. The implication is that, over time, if all the profit is in e-books and all the customer acquisition is in blogs, speaking, etc., there is less and less reason to run the print gauntlet.

    Leo Babauta might be an early example of this — he built reputation via blog, and generated revenue via e-book, and published a print book only later.

    Reply

  • x2far — August 23rd, 2010, 11:01 pm

    “I know one man who nets between $5,000,000 and $10,000,000 per month…”

    Whoa… nice numbers.

    Are we talking self-help/business development titles here?

    Almost sounds like ‘The Secret’ sales figures.

    Reply

  • Bradley Gauthier — August 23rd, 2010, 11:04 pm

    This post couldn’t have come at a better time, Tim! Since I am currently outlining my first book, this stuff is gold.

    The thing I find unappealing about electronic books (and I hear this from others), is that a Kindle or iPad doesn’t give you the full experience. There is something magical about buying a new book, feeling the paper as you read it and ultimately spending years afterward glancing at the colorful spine on the bookshelf. Conversely, an e-book sits as a boring digital file in some random computer folder. And once read, never to be enjoyed again.

    I feel that, while print may be dying, it will never be down for the count.

    Thanks for the post Tim, another great one!

    Reply

    • Denise Duffield-Thomas — January 9th, 2012, 10:52 pm

      That’s true Brad, but I only like the experience from older books you find at second hand shops. I hate the paper of the newer books printed in the last couple of years – they fall apart too.

      I was a late Kindle convert, being an obsessive reader my whole life. I will still buy second hand books, but not new ones anymore.

      Reply

  • Josip Barbaric — August 23rd, 2010, 11:08 pm

    Hi Tim,

    Great and detailed post, dude!

    I am in the process of writing a novel which I intend publishing during 2011, so this helped give me a clearer picture of the publishing process. I have written several marketing e-books and they all did very well, especially when you consider how little investment it took to get them out there.

    I really appreciate your post.

    All the best,

    Josip

    Reply

  • David Trotter — August 23rd, 2010, 11:10 pm

    I’ve written several books, and I’ve had no interest from agents or publishers…primarily because of my lack of a strong platform. Rather than becoming frustrated and continuing to hit my head up against a wall, I decided to find a workaround.

    I’m now publishing my own work, and it’s getting a great response.

    “Lost + Found: Finding Myself by Getting Lost in an Affair” [URL removed per comment rules] was launched two weeks ago on Amazon as a paperback (Kindle launches tomorrow), and it’s completely grassroots. It may be slow, but it’s impacting the lives of those who read it…and it’s leading to speaking engagements.

    If you have a message, there are plenty of ways to get it out!

    David Trotter

    Reply

  • teevee — August 23rd, 2010, 11:11 pm

    I suppose it’s a good thing I am a internet marketer(inspired by you originally). Therefore when I write my own book I will be able to make a nice profit via an ebook and affiliates promoting it.

    I’ve always been curious how the book printing business worked. Thank you for the peek in. Don’t worry I won’t tell anyone you let the cat out of the bag

    Reply

  • Tudor Munteanu — August 23rd, 2010, 11:15 pm

    Thank you for the insight. I’m really curious how the landscape will evolve when tablets get more and more mainstream. Even with the iPad and Kindle craze, the amount of people who read from tablets is insignificant compared to how many people can read printed media. From the media buzz, only Apple seems to target every Tom, Dick and Harry.

    Reply

  • Devin Ford — August 23rd, 2010, 11:20 pm

    Woah! Thanks so much for all the info. Book publishing always seemed like some big secret that I just couldn’t seem to learn. Self-publishing seems the most profitable and “automate-able” but hard as hell to market. Would you think that selling an ebook ($20) on a sales copy website to be a good idea? This way it could be automated, and you would retain (almost) full profit? Possibly use adwords and such to generate traffic?

    I have a non-fiction book, been stuck with it for a while as I was unsure what the hell to do, you helped allot tho, thanks!

    Reply

  • Robert Mickalson — August 23rd, 2010, 11:24 pm

    Really interesting post. I’ve always wondered how the book publishing world works, and you gave some great insight into that madness. I’m still not sure which route I’d go, If I were to ever write a book. Traditional, or digital. Hmmm?

    Reply

  • Mike Roberts — August 23rd, 2010, 11:27 pm

    Personally, I’ve lost interest in writing a book. There are so many books (both in print and digital) being released every day and I feel they really cover most topics well enough.

    I’ve instead put my energy into creating life experiences and enjoying that ride. If a book comes of it, I’ll let it happen organically, If no book comes of it, I’m sure the world will go on fine without a book from me. Having said that, the one book I am looking forward to is your book Tim, I think we are just now really tapping in to what we as humans are really capable of and I’m eagerly anticipating reading “How to become Superhuman”. Jan 2011 right?

    Also, I loved this thought:

    “Money is a means to something else. Not unlike wampum, income is traded for either a possession or an experience. If you use your book to build a reputation as a thought leader, and if you can establish a direct line of communication to intelligent readers (through a blog, for instance), it is possible to bypass income and get almost any experience for free or next-to-free. The middleman of currency is removed, and you also have access to things money can’t buy, whether it’s interesting people or unusual resources.”

    Great read man,

    ~Mike

    Reply

  • David Crandall — August 23rd, 2010, 11:32 pm

    I’m so glad to see someone stand up to the hype that Godin’s decision brought. While I think he says some amazing things, I look at the stack of books that I’ve bought just this year (all physical, none electronic) and can’t help but think that I’m not the only one buying. Thank you for taking the time to put together some real numbers and logic to counter what everyone in the online world was saying. I didn’t think it seemed right to just say “print is dead” because of one man’s decisions.

    I agree with the reasons for writing a book. I’ve never actually thought that they were a way to get rich but rather a way to get to getting rich. Speaking engagements are my main reason for wanting to write a book within the next 2 years so I’m excited to see you list that as a viable reason for writing. I think it’s a no-brainer to agree with the reputation reason also.

    I’m curious to see how the printing industry and the book selling industry will adapt (or fail) in the next few years. I think it’s ludicrous that you can buy a book online from Barnes & Noble at almost half the price of what you can from their stores. For example, the expanded 4HWW was $22 in store…but I got it for $12 online (sorry for that cut in your profit).

    I’d be curious as to what your thoughts are on the retail side of printed books. Do you see the mega-bookstores having a bright future or will they have to adapt severely too? What about the price disparity between online and in-store books at the same company?

    Love this article and will be sending it to a number of people!

    Reply

    • Tim Ferriss — August 24th, 2010, 12:48 am

      Hi David,

      Thank you for the comment. I agree that it’s fascinating how many people have — I believe — misread and overhyped what Seth has said. I don’t think Seth actually believes that print is entirely without value. I would agree that “publishing” as we know it will die before print will, however.

      Best,

      Tim

      Reply

  • Erica Douglass — August 23rd, 2010, 11:36 pm

    Yep, I think if you want to go into speaking (as I do), a traditionally-published book is the best way.

    It really helps to have a popular blog first. As my blog has become more popular, I’ve gotten a lot more “So are you writing a book?” type of questions. Now my readers are starting to offer to connect me with agents. It’s an interesting turn of events.

    However, just like how only 1% of authors will get to the “bestseller” stage, 1% or fewer of bloggers will get to the stage where their blog becomes a book. I’m on that path, but it hasn’t been easy.

    -Erica

    Reply

  • Aitor Calero García — August 23rd, 2010, 11:36 pm

    What about the publish by demand model? Do you have any thoughts/experiencies about it? It seems to be a good alternative to new authors.
    Regarding the iPad, I expect a new type of books, mixing videos, more interactive graphics. For students, or college students, it could be great to have access to a biology book, loaded with animations of the DNA, cells, etc… That would move forward the engagements of students and the way of teaching.

    Reply

  • Bevan Bird — August 23rd, 2010, 11:43 pm

    Thank you very much Mr. Ferriss. Tons of great information for authors here! I’ll be coming back. Have an awesome week!

    Reply

  • Michael — August 23rd, 2010, 11:51 pm

    Great content.
    It’s really hard to know how fast the print industry is gonna change. Unlike for the music industry which was using an already digital format, the paper will probably slow their logical destiny.
    I think in 50 years you’ill only have very specific content or rare books on paper, everything else will be digital.

    As you mentionned, you don’t get published for making money but you didn’t talked about lifestyle. What about living like an author ? I know that it can be exciting to live from your writing.

    PS : I’ve adapted Ramit’s book for the french market and that was fun anyway :)

    Reply

  • Benny the Irish polyglot — August 23rd, 2010, 11:53 pm

    Thanks for the detailed post! I was considering the publishing route, but things are working out really well self-publishing for me. I worked to make my blog popular over one year to get the traffic and reputation, then wrote the book and “published” by e-junkie. I am now totally supporting myself from sales of that book (still making the per-day sales to cover my expenses).

    While the extra reputation from being a known printed author would be welcome, I find that it’s easier to work on that reputation online. It definitely wouldn’t be as extensive as Tim’s NYT Best seller list, but I have actually been recognised in the street several times from blog readers – once the reputation goes offline, it doesn’t matter how it’s happening :)

    I was very curious to read these figures (why I @ed you on twitter when you asked if people had queries), and I suspected the advantages would be more reputation based than monetary. As you say, self publishing will be big in a few years, so if you do it right early and focus your energy there you will have authority as a self-publisher when times change to favour them more :)

    Reply

  • @jsto — August 23rd, 2010, 11:55 pm

    Published my first book in ’06. Broke even on the pre-orders while in production, which was a bit of a challenge and a nice surprise because I printed in the USA, custom hardback and a low first run (so no super sweet bulk discounts). Now it’s all profit, save a small % to PayPal. I can’t live on it, but it’s one piece of the puzzle and I don’t have to deal with conglomerate shenanigans and perpetuate the media circus. I find this valuable as both undermine my goals in the long term.

    What I would most like to see is the “different strokes for different folks” mindset put to extreme use, i.e. each author publishing in a unique-yet-sensible manner suited to their position and work.

    So look to your strengths, authors. And good luck! As to readers and audiences, my hope for you is to look beyond the conglom media machine and buy direct from worthy professional artists and authors. The NYT list is hardly an indication of quality, after all! i-D

    Reply

  • Ryan McGary — August 24th, 2010, 12:03 am

    If you’re interested in speaking check out SpeakerWiki — it’s a free/easy way to get in front of lots of event planners.

    Reply

  • Jaya — August 24th, 2010, 12:07 am

    Holy hell, Tim. This article is literally overflowing with one useful fact or resource after another. I’ve gotta echo x2far in how impressive those self-publishing numbers are for your friend’s eBook.

    One of the biggest surprises is the “1.6% of total units sold” return on all digital book sales. We’re talking an incredible decrease in overhead when it comes to storage, shipping and general maintenance. Pirates are handling all this for free at this very moment. Even taking into account the decrease in price for an eBook, the percent-of-return is almost irrational at that low of a number. It’s definitely not inspiring for a new author to go with a major publishing house if they want to go the eBook route.

    At the same time, I love that eBooks have made a big push. The iPad and Kindle 3 are both awesome readers and I can’t wait to get my hands on one. I’ve never liked storing more than a few books and try to give them away once I’ve read, re-read and memorized them. Also, as a traveler, having an entire library on-hand (including the many public domain PDFs) means always having plenty of reading options… no matter what horizon I find myself on.

    Reply

  • Austin Evarts — August 24th, 2010, 12:09 am

    Great post Tim!

    I wanted to let you know that I saw The 4HWW in paperback when I was in Taipei, Taiwan in December of 2008.

    Kicking myself now for not making the purchase :)

    Reply

  • A.H.A. — August 24th, 2010, 12:20 am

    I know one man who nets between $5,000,000 and $10,000,000 per month with a single e-book and affiliate cross-selling to his customer lists.

    Mind telling us more? Is it Eben Pagan?

    Reply

    • Tim Ferriss — August 24th, 2010, 12:42 am

      Hi AHA,

      I hope to have much, much more to say about this, but I can’t disclose his name without his permission. Eben does incredible things and knows how to do this, but I’m not referring to him here.

      Tim

      Reply

  • Kurt Munz — August 24th, 2010, 12:26 am

    So Tim, you’re an established author and world-class marketer. These are the prereq’s for self-publishing. Yet it sounds like you intend to publish traditionally. Why do that when you admit publishers only bring “reputation” to the table?

    Reply

    • Tim Ferriss — August 24th, 2010, 12:42 am

      The distribution piece is also non-trivial. That will shift as more digital (and print via online) move to dominate the sales channel, but retail still moves 50%+ of my books.

      Tim

      Reply

  • Chris — August 24th, 2010, 12:45 am

    Thanks for providing such a detailed and straight-forward post about publishing. As an aspiring author I’ve relished the idea of actually being published, but have never really been able to wrap my mind around how the process actually worked.

    I love you’re posts and am always excited to see what’s next. Keep up the inspiring work!
    -Chris

    Reply

  • JW — August 24th, 2010, 12:51 am

    Yes, I do work at a newspaper (a “withering industry”) and every week or so, the editor walks by to hand off yet another story we need to print on the “death of publishing.”

    Kinda reminds me of an old cartoon from the mid 90′s where an art director walks into his artists’ studio (they’re all working on Macs) and announces that he’s got another layout to be made on the death of the Mac.

    I don’t argue with the figures above. Authors make much more on self published pdf files. But don’t discount paper just yet. I believe their will be a market for books, magazines and (yes) newspapers for some time.

    Reply

  • A.H.A. — August 24th, 2010, 1:04 am

    . If you use your book to build a reputation as a thought leader, and if you can establish a direct line of communication to intelligent readers (through a blog, for instance), it is possible to bypass income and get almost any experience for free or next-to-free. The middleman of currency is removed, and you also have access to things money can’t buy, whether it’s interesting people or unusual resources.

    What kind of cashless adventures has this blog made available to you? Inquiring minds want to know :)

    Reply

  • Cecilia Tom — August 24th, 2010, 1:09 am

    I would like print publishers to consider paperback-only releases, but charging close to traditional hardcover prices and paying authors hardcover percentages. As a reader, I’m happy to pay for content and to support the authors, and have books that are less bulky, easier to carry around, and require less natural resources to produce. It’s an all-win situation, IMO. (I’d buy a paperback over a hardcover book even if they cost the same, and I suspect I’m not alone.)

    Reply

  • Michal Ksiadzyna — August 24th, 2010, 1:10 am

    I admire time and effort you put in every article. This stuff is great. I can see a big shift coming, and authors like Seth Godin are even accelerating it.

    I’m starting an e-book publishing company in Poland (problably first one without the option of buying print version in the country), and will be lunching soon. I can already see the trend and I’m willing to push it, co it comes sooner.

    The real threat to print version is publishing e-books yourself (what can be faster and easier?) and earning up to 70-80% on every sale by powerful authors like you Tim or Seth Godin. I can already see more will follow and the change will accelerate.

    Reply

  • Owen — August 24th, 2010, 1:23 am

    Any comments on how self publishing fares on Amazon, etc?

    Reply

  • John Romaniello — August 24th, 2010, 1:28 am

    Tim,

    Excellent–and timely!–post; I really got a lot out of this.

    As a writer/publisher of only e-books, it certainly is without the hassle of traditional publishing, but also without the prestige.

    I would venture to say that, for the time being, the point you made about fame coming easier via “real” publishing is quite true. It’s harder, certainly, but also comes with greater prestige; and for me, that is something to be valued, and something worth working for.

    There’s a difference in the feeling, as well, I think. Writing for Men’s Health/Men’s Fitness and writing for my blog are very different, and *feel* very different; notwithstanding that I might cover similar content and–lacking an editor’s word limit–I might go into greater depth on the blog.

    “Real” publishing is a nice feather in the cap, I feel.

    Great job, and thank you for this piece.

    Reply

  • Joseph Buchignani — August 24th, 2010, 1:42 am

    Hi Tim,

    I want to run a different model of publishing by you. I read the Godin piece, and had a completely different reaction. It’s not just the publishing industry that’s become obsolete, but books themselves.

    A book is a static snapshot with a predetermined beginning and end. We can do much better these days.

    Here is how I imagine next generation publishing: The author continuously streams content, recombining it into larger, more comprehensive chunks, eventually building into a fully interlinked wiki. He thus gains rapid feedback, spaced repetition for his audience, and a complete non-redundant gestalt of his work.

    For example, twitter=>posterous=>email newsletters=>blog posts=>wiki.

    I imagine that all this content will be Uncopyrighted, permitting maximum dissemination and encouraging attribution. See what happened to Steve Pavlina – the Secret took his ideas but didn’t attribute, and might have if he hadn’t used a copyright.

    I think advertising and partnerships makes more sense as a revenue model than an attempt to charge for publicly disseminated information.

    I don’t think I’m wrong about ebooks, but maybe print is an exception. How do you think Uncopyright affects the marketability of a book to traditional publishers? Will they refuse your book, or will someone else publish it and take the profit, or can you negotiate a promotion partnership with the publisher in which your only benefit is fame from gaining more readers?

    Best regards,
    JB

    Reply

  • Jake — August 24th, 2010, 2:28 am

    Charles Stross recently did a 9-part write up about the publishing industry from his perspective of the SFF market. Really insightful and touches on digital publishing.

    Starts here: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/02/common-misconceptions-about-pu.html

    Reply

  • Chris C. Ducker — August 24th, 2010, 2:43 am

    Incredibly interesting read, Tim.

    I believe you’re right when you say that the self-publishing route is the way that most established authors should / will go. For example, Seth could release self-published eBook’s until the (purple) cows came home and make excellent money from it, I am sure.

    But, as someone that is actually writing his first book right now, I have to say that there is something that appeals to having your first ‘work’ in that hard back version. The feel, touch and smell of it…

    Either way, a great piece and I am sure the comments will light up on this one.

    All the best,
    Chris

    Reply

  • Sven Duplic — August 24th, 2010, 3:05 am

    Tim,

    Great and thoughtful article!
    I think that classical books will reign for quite a while, but in the near future we’ll see some great things achieved by people with no publishing background, but with great social media influence (example popular vloggers and bloggers). Web 2.0 ftw! :D

    Sven

    Reply

  • Tony K — August 24th, 2010, 3:14 am

    Hi Tim,

    I own a Kindle and will regularly buy both the electronic and paper version of books that I thoroughly enjoy and would put on my bookshelf to share. Most of my friends who own e-book readers are the same way. But I have a bone to pick with you- your florescent orange book cover is throwing off my furniture colors. tsk tsk

    T

    Reply

  • Nico — August 24th, 2010, 3:15 am

    Tim, thanks for all the pointers to ressources. Just yesterday I was thinking that I should maybe write a book about all the stuff that flies around in my head…

    Reply

  • Darko Rakovic — August 24th, 2010, 3:22 am

    Thank you! ‘Coz I was really fed up with all this hype around the web about printed books disappearing in a matter of years, and nobody giving us some real numbers on that statement, just their “unbiased” opinion.

    In response to CrunchGear’s article from 23 august I say that user experience of reading a real book is engaging a lot more senses like tactile, smell, hearing, sight (compared to digital print tickling only one sense ) and therefore there should be a demand/market for paper-books many years to come. Sure digital is changing the market, and will continue changing it, but come on, easy on the drama please. Thanx again for this article. :)

    Reply

  • Ian Waring — August 24th, 2010, 3:52 am

    Two questions – if the author gets 15% of the cover price for a hard back, is that 15% of the price printed on the cover, or what the retailer sells it for?

    Secondly, Kindle/iBooks. Is the margin for an author like a hardback, paperback or something different?

    Just curious on what the economic model is evolving toward (as the true distribution and stock holding costs start to ebb away for eBooks).

    Ian W.

    Reply

  • Patrick Seabird — August 24th, 2010, 3:54 am

    Thanks Tim for this usefull information!

    I think, that the print-on-demand technology is going to have a big impact on the industry. The traditional work of publishers, namely to produce 1000 books at once and then try to sell them, which swallowed a lot of capital, is going to disapear. Instead, books are going to be produced just-in-time. This is also going to be a great opportunity for authors, as they are not as dependent on big publishing houses.
    …

    Take care!

    Reply

  • Carrie Linn — August 24th, 2010, 4:14 am

    I find that every person I’ve spoken with who claims an e-reader could never replace the “feel” of a real book in their hands or the “experience” of turning a page has never actually spent a weekend with a Kindle or any other e-reader. When I ask why haven’t they tried it, they screw up their noses and simply repeat what they assume the e-reader can’t do. They never give it a chance. If they did, they’d find out what the rest of us found out – the delivery disappears; it’s just the story and you.

    ” ultimately spending years afterward glancing at the colorful spine on the bookshelf. Conversely, an e-book sits as a boring digital file in some random computer folder. And once read, never to be enjoyed again.”

    This is so untrue. I’ve re-read my digital books many times. I highlight them, bookmark certain sections, and refer back to passages just as I would do with a traditional book.

    The difference? I can own a few thousand books without actually dedicating most of the walls of my house to doing so. I don’t have to worry about dust, moths, mice, or unexpected tragedies like fire or floods destroying my precious collection. I don’t waste one single second of my time and effort keeping those books clean and dust-free – time that I truly *need* to spend elsewhere and now can, thanks to ebooks. I never again have to try to squeeze enough books for a vacation into a suitcase or weekend bag, nor do I have to lug the heavy things around. When I need to get to a particular quote I remember, there’s no flipping endlessly through pages looking for it – I simply type in a word or two and search. 20 seconds to find the quote versus up to ten minutes finding it in a “real” book. I don’t have to pay extra money to box them up and break some mover’s back anytime I change homes.

    I’m not a print-book hater. I’ve been a voracious reader all of my life and have surrounded myself with books in every room. I love the feel of a book in my hands. I love the smell of the paper.

    And without a doubt, I cannot wait to get rid of the 1,000+ books that I own and get them all in digital format. So an e-reader doesn’t smell like a print book. So what? That’s not worth the absolute freedom that an e-reader gives me, and the incredible amount of space, time, and peace that will be given back to me once the collection is replaced in bits and bytes.

    Reply

  • miltownkid — August 24th, 2010, 4:19 am

    A have a few comments. First off, the “Print is Dead” headline is a funny one because it’s (obviously) far from true. Just finished Seth’s post and he didn’t mention anything about print being dead. He’s just pointed out that the traditional publishing route isn’t necessary for HIS message to reach HIS audience.

    Second, I bought a Nook (eBook reader) last month and went on a bought 2 “real” books from Amazon this month… Even I was shocked. lol There are still a ton of books that aren’t available via eBook and books you’d rather have in your hands.

    Third, Seth’s situation is awesome, but not really applicable to anyone else. It’s like when Prince gave away a new CD in a London newspaper. It was a very interesting example of the change in the times but… Practically no one else can get away with that.

    Forth:
    If you choose to go digital only as an e-book, this is where profit rules and amazing numbers can be achieved.

    This kind of stuff is what interests me the most. Not just that huge number either. List building, cross-promoting, affiliate marketing, digital product selling, etc. A very nice existence can be created around stuff you’re truly passionate about once things are setup right.

    Fifth, a question. I understand that you have the blog and there’s email form on the front page, but… How come there isn’t a Tim Ferriss email list which… OK, scratch that question. :) Like Seth, you already know how to reach your readers. OK, a different question. Why not setup some kind of 4HWWcon? It could be the SXSW of lifestyle design. :D

    Finally, awesome post. I want to “write a book” but it really isn’t about writing a book. What I really want to say is I want to “spread an idea” and if traditionally printing a book is an efficient was of spreading that idea, then I’m all for it.

    Reply

    • Tim Ferriss — August 24th, 2010, 12:32 pm

      Hey MK!

      Agreed that Seth never said print is dead, though he implied the format was hard to spread. Physically, true, but I don’t think the content need to start digital to spread digitally.

      For email and conference ideas, keep an eye out in the next year :)

      Pura vida,

      Tim

      Reply

  • Jonny — August 24th, 2010, 4:36 am

    Cheers Tim, an incredible resource for people interested in the publishing game. This has saved me many hours of work so my thanks.

    Out of interest, your new book, I guess it is the health one on being superhuman, three years seems an incredibly long time to spend on it even though I understand you want it to sell like crazy. Would it not just have been better to launch it a few years earlier, create two years worth of revenue and then update it over the duration?

    Either way, looking forward to it.

    Reply

  • Preeta — August 24th, 2010, 4:45 am

    Timster, have u seen this site: http://www.blurb.com

    Reply

  • Tracy Cooper-Posey — August 24th, 2010, 5:15 am

    Your headline caught me and I was excited (as usual) until I realized that (as usual) you had failed to take popular fiction into accout.

    These models can’t work with genre fiction. Public speaking to build your platform, for instance, isn’t a viable option. Speak about what and to whom? There’s no platform there. In genre fiction you’re putting out (for some authors) a book a month. The platform is constantly shifting.

    As a fiction author who worked up to full time writing via the ebook industry (which, for the last ten years, was where the former New York mid-list relocated to), wrote full time for 14 months, then just had to take a crappy $9/hr day job because stupid long tail economics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Tail) just killed off my monthly royalties again, I find your post completely unrealistic as far as fiction is concerned and have a hard time even finishing reading it. I think you need to put a proviso in the front end of it. NOT FOR FICTION AUTHORS. We have a whole different set of problems to deal with.

    Cheers,

    Tracy

    Reply

    • Tim Ferriss — August 24th, 2010, 12:30 pm

      I’m a non-fiction author and know very little about fiction. If you’re a fiction writer, your options seem to be:

      1) make money from book royalties
      2) make money teaching at a writing program
      3) selling a movie option
      4) writing and selling a screenplay
      5) creating a muse of some type

      Tim

      Reply

  • Nick — August 24th, 2010, 5:33 am

    Very interesting post, thanks from a fellow japanophile.

    Reply

  • Jon Myers — August 24th, 2010, 6:09 am

    An additional revenue opportunity for authors with a following are paid membership websites. These sites are an opportunity for authors to create recurring income, build a captive audience around their expertise, provide more in-depth interactive content and lastly facilitate connections.

    Though not solely operated by Chris Brogan, the Third Tribe is a membership site he’s involved in, which got immediate traction and converted into paid members from his passionate following.

    It’s likely you’ll see more and more paid membership websites from authors and publishers if the technology can be sorted out and simplified.

    Reply

  • Greg Rollett — August 24th, 2010, 6:27 am

    Hey Tim – great piece. One thing that may help the transition from print to digital and digital back to print is something the music industry is sometimes good at.

    Buy the physical, get the digital.

    When you buy a physical CD, you can rip it into iTunes, thus having the piece of plastic and the music on your all encompassing iPod. I love heading into a big bookstore and getting the physical copy, but I wouldn’t mind having it on my Nook or iPad for travel or convenience.

    Could help explode digital even further and help get physical copies off the shelf.

    Reply

  • [company name removed] — August 24th, 2010, 6:29 am

    Tim,

    Thanks for the post. As an author with a relatively small niche audience I have found success by simply self-publishing and using my blog/website as a means of promotion/sales. With a limited audience (studentst seeking employment with the Big 4 accounting firms) traditional publishing did not make sense. I am not SEO-savvy and spend zero on advertising. However, I’ve spent the time establishing my brand as a thought leader in my niche market and have used every free resource available to provide value (i.e. online article repositories, industry message boards).

    I was working on the original manuscript when I first read 4HWW in 2008. It inspired me to just get it done on my own. I don’t live off book sales, but it has certainly helped my income, and I’ve sold thousands of copies. Now, I hope to duplicate the formula for a couple other works.

    Thanks again.

    [company]

    Reply

    • Tim Ferriss — August 24th, 2010, 12:02 pm

      Congratulations on your muse success! There is no reason to start with a wide market, and — as you’ve noted — there are many reasons to do the opposite and go highly niche.

      Best of luck!

      Tim

      Reply

  • Randi — August 24th, 2010, 6:30 am

    Fabulous post…for the nth time. Straight-forward, no-hype and well-rounded. (That sounds like some lame attempt at complimenting your genius….but can’t find more suitable words at the moment – my coffee hasn’t hit yet.) LOVE this blog.

    Reply

  • John Prendergast — August 24th, 2010, 6:31 am

    Thanks for a fascinating insight into the world of publishing. Great to get some hard facts on figures.

    Do you have any tips on DVD publishing? (or know anyone who might be able to help…)

    Reply

  • Braden Kelley — August 24th, 2010, 6:32 am

    Not sure if it was the first time Seth Godin mentioned that he wasn’t going the traditional publishing route, but watch him talk about this topic and more with my interview with Seth back at the World Innovation Forum in June 2010 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1Xr8Sxcj00

    Cheers

    Reply

  • Steve — August 24th, 2010, 7:24 am

    Tim – Love this article and such great timing with it as I just started pushing an eBook. This will be my second attempt but also a real chance to learn how to automate income while providing a helpful product.

    Not only is traditional print media on it’s way out, but because of that it also proves a point that anyone who is an ‘expert’ on their subject can start to build a personal brand and share their knowledge. This is a scary thing but it’s also an enormous opportunity.

    I’d be willing to bet your next royalty statement for your book shows higher earnings from digital mediums.

    Reply

  • Ki'une — August 24th, 2010, 7:24 am

    The Kindle is one luxury I like taking on my travels, because I don’t have to settle for the meager and expensive books in international book stores and can just try and buy over my Kindle almost anywhere for free.

    And yeah, I overbought books. Thanks for gathering the facts, and the e-encouragement since I plan on releasing e-Books soon!

    Reply

  • Jeff 'SKI' Kinsey — August 24th, 2010, 7:31 am

    Yep. Those that cry “traditional publishing is dead” are clueless.

    I thought I alone had to champion this message: most people want to own real hard copy books.

    Those in tech (like Seth) forget that most business is still done in the physical not virtual world. My advice: do both. I call it uncommon common sense.

    -ski

    Reply

  • John Bardos — August 24th, 2010, 7:32 am

    You are still talking of books as written text, don’t you think that there are going to be completely new markets and opportunities as books naturally evolve into more multi-media experiences?

    A book should be a community including forums, video, images, user-generated content, updated case-studies etc. I don’t think publishers or brick and mortar book stores are in a good position to shape the future of books or profit from them.

    Reply

  • Seth M. Baker — August 24th, 2010, 7:35 am

    I spent about a year working with a tiny book publisher. They put out several business titles. Most didn’t sell anywhere near what people had hoped, but the authors didn’t mind. Why? Because they used these books as marketing and promotional tools, a way to establish credibility and authority.

    Used like this, ebooks just don’t have the same punch. The barriers to entry are lower…and they’re harder to give away at speaking engagements and conferences.

    Perhaps ebooks will remain the domain of fiction writers.

    Reply

  • RhondaL — August 24th, 2010, 7:39 am

    Thank you for such a thorough post. And for doing that pesky math. That said, obviously, I’m not the CEO/CFO/producer mix necessary for self-publishing.

    However, I like to think I’m a good creator/huckster mix. So, maybe that’s not such a bad combo to start?

    Despite all the “books are dead” headlines, I had a suspicion that a writer’s career is best started out along the traditional publishing path.

    Anyway, thanks again for a great post that I’ll spread around my writer’s groups.

    Reply

  • Enrico — August 24th, 2010, 7:40 am

    You’re crazy man! This article is unvaluable! It’s clear as a blueprint. I’m not planning to write a book or a ebook anytime soon, but what you wrote is indeed fascinating.
    Thanks very much for your constant effort to improve our way to look at the world around us. Life is really full of opportunities!
    Enrico (tango dancer)

    Reply

  • Brandon Eley — August 24th, 2010, 7:58 am

    Wow, excellent and well articulated points. I think Seth Godin can make this statement and quit the print publishing industry for 2 reasons. 1 – He’s Seth Godin, and he’s already got an audience to market to no matter how he chooses to do so. 2 – He’s still going to be making royalties from his 12 books forever, so he’s most likely not NEEDING to increase his income. He also has consulting, speaking, Squidoo, etc.

    For the vast majority of published authors (including myself), the traditional publishing industry will still be the primary way to build a name for ourselves and make the best money we can through publishing.

    Reply

  • Anthony — August 24th, 2010, 7:59 am

    Best post in a while, two thumbs up.

    Reply

  • Flavio — August 24th, 2010, 8:06 am

    I’ve only read one e-book in my life, in my smartphone, and I think I won’t do it again until buying and ipad or kindle, which I am not much into unless they solve some several issues they’ve got with their platforms. The books aren’t that cheaper neither *vs. print*

    Also, just a comment, for the spanish speaking world this is very unlikely to happen (shift from print to digital) in the near future, for economic reasons, not much of the population is able to grab an ebook reader…

    Reply

  • Tim Cohn — August 24th, 2010, 8:10 am

    Robert Ringer wrote and self published three #1 NY Times best sellers in the 1970s.

    Reply

    • Tim Ferriss — August 24th, 2010, 11:57 am

      Hi Tim,

      Can you please tell me more? If you know of any links, that’d be great. I ask because his Wikipedia page is lacking and it appears at least one of his most famous books was published through Fawcett, which is now owned by Hachette.

      Cheers,

      Tim

      Reply

  • Head Geek — August 24th, 2010, 8:16 am

    Where was this post a year ago when I was struggling getting “Financial Mistakes of New College Grads” created? I guess when the student is ready the master appears…
    As to the Kindle economics, I agree with the paucity of them. FMNCG has popped into the top ten in niche several times, yet my royalty checks have had the same number of digits on either side of the decimal point. Yet the potential is there for books with legs to achieve something significant.

    Reply

  • Jennifer — August 24th, 2010, 8:20 am

    Tim,
    I enjoy reading what you write – I find it informative and engaging. I have your book and read your blog regularly. I also buy books compulsively. However, in this case, I am also in agreement with Cecilia Tom’s comment. The statement “Do you really need the people who won’t buy a $20 book hardcover that’s already discounted to $12-14 dollars through Amazon or Barnes and Noble?” seems arrogant. Doesn’t every author need every reader they can get? I find it hard to believe that a person that put all their effort and time over months (or years), into writing a book, wouldn’t want the largest auidence possible. Not every author’s book becomes a instant bestseller.

    Reply

    • Tim Ferriss — August 24th, 2010, 11:51 am

      @Cecilia Tom and @Jennifer,

      I understand how you would feel that way, namely that it sounds arrogant if I say “Do you really need the people who won’t buy a $20 book hardcover that’s already discounted to $12-14 dollars through Amazon or Barnes and Noble?”

      This isn’t an issue of having or not having money. Anyone who can afford an $8 or $9 book can afford a $12 book. In my experience, the people who nickle and dime on price and complain about such a small difference and the same people who add little to the conversation other than headache.

      Again, it’s not a money thing. I’d love nothing more than for people to read my books in libraries if that’s all they can do, or if it’s what they prefer to do. I’ve given my book to libraries specifically for that purpose.

      Best,

      Tim

      Reply

  • Rhea Zimmerman — August 24th, 2010, 8:26 am

    Tim! Great post thank you for breaking this down so well with so many jumping off points/references. -Rhea

    Reply

  • Stephen Denny — August 24th, 2010, 8:36 am

    Tim:

    First, I try never to take the advice of someone who has no skin in the game – and Seth is playing by different rules than virtually everyone else – so his decision/manifesto that he’s post-print is a personal realization. He’s got the illusive platform to make a go of things. For almost everyone else, this isn’t a great idea for the reasons you’ve clearly laid out above.

    Second, much like the “death of retail” when superstores (and then warehouse clubs and then e-commerce) arrived on the scene, I’m guessing that hardcover books will outlive those who predict its demise.

    I’m in the very early stages of this process of discovery – my book is coming out in March (one of the ‘Big Six,’ happy to say), am working feverishly to build the right platform and looking at the ways you’ve listed above to monetize the event outside of royalties. One additional corrollary is workshops and seminars – I think Michael Port has done a good job in turning his “Book Yourself Solid” property into a veritable franchise and his is a good model to follow if you’re looking to turn your book into an ecosystem.

    Thanks for posting this – all very solid stuff and helpful.

    Reply

  • Charlie — August 24th, 2010, 8:55 am

    I’d like to move more towards ebooks. We have so many paper books that they’ve devoured one room. Going digital sounds so much cleaner. Your “undone homework” remark is right on target.

    Two things have limited my family’s use of ebooks. First, they charge too much per book. Typically close to full hardcover price even after the paperback is out. This for a file that’s locked to my account so it has no pass-around value. Lovely. Note that this is starting to change a little. It makes more sense to have ebook prices track whatever stage (hardcover, paperback, mass market, etc) the paper version is in.

    Second, the lock-down (also called “DRM”) is a big mess. If I want to buy a book from one store and then read it on another’s preferred hardware, I might have to break the digital lock (illegal in some places) and probably convert the format too. Same for the ebook system that most public libraries in the USA have chosen. It seems to be useful only on computer screens and a few low-end reader models.

    Even worse, ebooks tend to be in formats that will be obsolete and unreadable eventually. Imagine having a century of literature just vanish into the void. At least with unlocked books in a documented format there’s some hope. If anyone cares enough about a title to try to preserve it.

    Those new $139 kindles are starting to look good though…

    Reply

  • Darya — August 24th, 2010, 9:05 am

    I think you’ve added at least a year to my life in time saved. Thanks as always for the excellent information :)

    Reply

  • Books are dead | WERNER — August 24th, 2010, 9:09 am

    [...] Ferris (The 4-hour work week) refuerza este punto en un post exhaustivo. Si ya tenés millones de seguidores es fácil prescindir del marketing que [...]

  • Jeff Nabers — August 24th, 2010, 9:28 am

    Great post.

    I self-published a book in 2009. It was a great experience, but I don’t see myself doing it again soon.

    My goal in writing is to help people learn and then take action to get positive results.

    I’m finding that educating people through online video is much more effective than delivering a book, electronic or physical.

    If I had to do it all over again, I’d do the same thing: Write & publish a physical book, then focus on achieving the stated goal of helping people take action and get results through video-based education.

    ** Tim, I have a question… Before I decided to self-publish I got a couple decent offers from traditional publishers, but they all involved 10+ months of lag time between when everything is ready to actually print and when they would actually print. I’m not nearly patient enough for that much delay. Is the world of “real published authors” really limited to people who are comfortable waiting around a year for their book to manifest?

    Jeff

    Reply

    • Tim Ferriss — August 24th, 2010, 12:48 pm

      ** Tim, I have a question… Before I decided to self-publish I got a couple decent offers from traditional publishers, but they all involved 10+ months of lag time between when everything is ready to actually print and when they would actually print. I’m not nearly patient enough for that much delay. Is the world of “real published authors” really limited to people who are comfortable waiting around a year for their book to manifest?

      Jeff

      Hi Jeff,

      With the big boys, yep. That’s the lag time. I actually kind of like it. Allow me to explain:

      It forces you to think about your material and attempt to make it perennial. Which advice will be obsolete in 12 months? Delete. Which advice would be obsolete in 24 months? That means it will only be good about 12 months after pub date. Delete. I find that it helps refine your thinking, just as having the content in a fixed form (print) forces you to consider your writing and editing more seriously than if you could change it willy-nilly like a blog post. There are certainly benefits to multi-media books on the horizon, but I wouldn’t call them “books”, and I think the bells and whistles of video, hyperlinks, etc. will be used to mask sloppy thinking more than to create a more compelling argument or presentation.

      I think “timely” books are kind of ridiculous. If the content delivers value based on timing near recent events, other media have it beat. I think long-form books should have a longer shelf life, and therefore require harder thinking throughout the process to ensure the content has value 1 year, 5 years, even 10 years down the line.

      Hope that helps!

      Tim

      Reply

  • Anthony Mychal — August 24th, 2010, 9:35 am

    Wow, this is a tremendous post. I can’t really comment on anything specific since it is more of an eye opener than anything else. I’ve been wanting to get into writing more and more which is why I’ve opened up numerous blogs. I’ll definitely re-read this numerous times and check out the book suggestions. What a life saver, couldn’t thank you more.

    Reply

  • mr stephen — August 24th, 2010, 9:36 am

    i’m a seth fan. i own all of his books. i’ve attending his live events in new york. but i think seth is wrong. traditional book publishing has been dead for some time. but the traditional book format is alive and well. The solution is to self-publish your books and sell direct. the second part is to recognize how to use bookstores differently. there are many advantages to being in bookstores and on amazon.com. but you can’t give up complete control. we just finished a years worth of testing this ourselves. my niche still prefers books. we pulled all of my books from bookstores in early 2008. now sell only direct. early next year we begin our new online strategy that will compliment our direct strategy. our direct book sales only account for a half million a year per title. so its certainly not a way to make a lot of money. we do it for other reasons. selling books in and of itself has never been about the money.

    Reply

  • Michael — August 24th, 2010, 9:39 am

    Hi Tim,

    Do you have any preference to which form your book sells? Are you concerned that you may sell more digital copies, but they may not actually be read by the customer. As you said, it’s much easier to overbuy on the Kindle, when you’re not looking at a stack of unread books.

    When you’re looking at your sales metrics, are you concerned more with % of sales you net personally, or the format that is most likely to be consumed. Is there even a way to measure which format is more likely to be read/consumed?

    Reply

    • Tim Ferriss — August 24th, 2010, 11:44 am

      Hi Michael,

      For spreading the ideas, I have no preference. Audiobooks seem to have the highest completion rate, followed by hardcover, followed by digital. For hitting lists, at this time, I prefer hardcover because that’s what counts.

      Tim

      Reply

  • Robert — August 24th, 2010, 9:45 am

    Hey Tim,

    Great article.

    Can you elaborate a little more on your friend doing 5,000,000 +/mo?

    I understand if you can’t mention the book or site however, perhaps the niche and/or price of the ebook?

    Cheers,
    Robert

    Reply

  • Rob — August 24th, 2010, 9:47 am

    Fascinating post. Even if sell publishing takes off with more of a reputation I still see new authors struggling without their own publisher first time when going for a print book anyway.

    Reply

  • Rich — August 24th, 2010, 9:55 am

    We self-published our 407 page soft-cover book with a 2500 copy initial printing which has subsequently sold out. The bill from the printer and incidental costs set the cost per copy for that first printing at $2.47. Cover price is $18.95.

    The profit was phenomenal when we sold directly to the public through our website or direct sales. It diminished significantly through Amazon, Baker & Taylor and bookstores.

    The largest problem with this approach was the fact that it was not automated income. We had to be here to ship the books and keep track of Baker & Taylor invoices – an absolute nightmare!

    On the other hand we loved the challenge those stacked boxes of books presented. They took up an entire wall in our living room and their existence in our home forced us to find creative ways to sell them. We were willing to try virtually anything to promote the book:

    -Farmers markets proved to be an excellent venue. We met three local newspaper editors at our local markets and the exposure resulted in excellent feature articles in the three larger newspapers in our city.

    -Art Walk: Once a month the local galleries in our town serve free wine to promote their new exhibits. While our book has absolutely nothing to do with art we would sell boxes full by setting up on the sidewalk and telling our story to the half-drunk gawkers who couldn’t afford the expensive art but wanted to buy something interesting.

    -Car Shows: Our book is somewhat related to automobiles so we asked the local car show if we could set up a table and promote the book. They allowed us to do it for free. Sales were slow but we met two people influential in their non-car-related fields. This was the foot in the door for one local television interview and a 15 minute segment on our local NPR station.

    We alway asked the buyer if they would like us to sign their
    copy. It’s amazing how the simple act of signing a book causes others
    to think, “I’ve got to get one too.” We would go for an hour without
    selling a book then suddenly someone would purchase one, we’d make a
    spectacle of signing it, and the frenzy was on. We’d sell a pile in 10
    minutes.

    When the first printing sold out we decided to upload the .pdf version to Amazon’s Createspace (www.createspace.com). This is essentially Amazon’s version of print-on-demand and it is exceptional.

    Our book earns $6.83 in royalties (36% of cover price) when sold through Amazon.com and $10.62 (56%) when sold through the our createspace page. Amazon prints individual copies when they are ordered, offers their standard discount and lists them as “Sold by Amazon”.

    Now we’ve got to go out and have some more interesting experiences so we have something to write about in the next book.

    Reply

  • LARISA — August 24th, 2010, 10:05 am

    I think the death of print is horrible. I guess I am one of those people who grew up in the traditional household with shelves of books in almost every room. I like the feel and the smell of books. They are immortal. What is going to happen to Kindle when the power runs out? How our descendants are going to study about our culture if there are no print books? Maybe I’m crazy, but print should be kept alive.

    Reply

  • baahar — August 24th, 2010, 10:09 am

    Another thing that makes self-publishing so appealing is the ownership issue … you don’t sign documents that restrict your rights on your own book and contain things you don’t understand yet and can’t judge properly (as a first time author).

    *side note* At least that was what I thought when a publishing company contacted me to publish my thesis. The main issue was that I didn’t grade them as a good company … after all they picked my thesis which is frankly speaking not good at all :( And I didn’t like the idea to inflict the world with yet another book that adds no real value, but students (poor, poor students) have to read for the completeness of their literature recherché. *end of side note*

    I clearly prefer paperbacks … they cost less (I’m cheap), take up less space (I don’t want to collect stuff) and smell way better (more bookish that is).

    I will hopefully get the new Kindle though. It will certainly be more comfortable to read ‘thick books’ on it. World & Peace is not good for your wrists, I’m telling you.

    Reply

  • baahar — August 24th, 2010, 10:12 am

    did I just write world & peace? :) I meant War & Peace of course

    Reply

  • James McLaughlin — August 24th, 2010, 10:33 am

    Thanks for this great post.

    My one comment is that I was a bit taken back by your reference to ebooks, “Prepare to be an uber-competent CEO or fail if you choose this option.”

    I have read your book twice and I know that in the “Muse” section you discuss the viability of Information Marketing to automate income. I just attended the Affiliate Summit East last week in New York and had met with Click Bank and heard some inspiring stories about Information Marketing products people are using to generate income.

    I know this post is really about the changes in the publishing industry and it’s a very strong analysis at that. But I would like to hear your opinion of Information Marketing products being used as Muses as a way to automate income. How do you see the future of these types of Muses developing?

    Reply

    • Tim Ferriss — August 24th, 2010, 11:42 am

      Hi James,

      I should qualify my statement. An e-book could be used as a muse without any problem. To get to 5 mill or 10 mill a month, however, you’d need to be best of class, of course. I’ll edit, perhaps just removing “uber.” If you have a muse, you do need to be an effective CEO, but not in the traditional sense of the word.

      Tim

      Reply

  • Steven Sisler — August 24th, 2010, 10:43 am

    Tim,

    I just completed a manuscript that according to the CEO’s I’ve allowed to read it may be a huge hit for mid-level management… wanna takes a looksie? Could be a great possible investment for us…

    Stevo

    Reply

  • Al L. — August 24th, 2010, 11:35 am

    Your post is spot-on, Tim. I have my fourth book coming out next month and can personally attest that it is VERY HARD to get even well off, never mind rich, by writing books. My first book was a Golden Dove nominee and earned out its advance in under 3 months. Since then, each title has succeeded in making my royalties be roughly about the same as a (decent-to-well-paying) part-time job – except that I don’t have to do the work to get it. I usually do ever-green books that will be relevant for a minimum of five years. My first title was still in the top 4000 on Amazon four years after it hit the shelves. But it still never amounted to more than the pay of a part-time job, and I was with the top publisher in my niche. My fourth book (see the link) may do as well; I am not sure. However, the amount of credibility these books have given me in their respective spheres is incredible and simply cannot be overstated. As Tim has outlined, writing probably won’t make you rich but it is an excellent way of positioning yourself for other things.

    Reply

  • kiara ashanti — August 24th, 2010, 11:47 am

    I have personally interviewed a number of speakers, and thought leaders for news articles that make good income from selling ebooks, and using either self-published physical books or ebooks as a platform for other income generating activities.

    In the context of what I think would love to do here, kick back and travel the world, it is the natural think for us to do. Hell, if you do it right, you can sell the ebook and then use the sales as a way to go a traditional publisher with a track record. I think a book called the Christmas story did that. I know a number of other authors have as well.

    Reply

  • Mike — August 24th, 2010, 12:10 pm

    Good article. Print has been dying for a while. People just like saying “print is dead” because it makes them sound like they are ahead of the curve by thinking “digitally” or “technologically.” But just because a book is in a different format, doesn’t mean success. Successful authors can actually sell less units and make more digitally. Godin can live off 10% cuz 10% of a million is still a lot. Godin is fortunate because he has over 1million people reading his work and is his own PR & Marketing Machine. But someone with 1000 readers and if only 10% have an e-reader, they still won’t be able to afford their own e-reader. New authors will still have a hard time making money until people know who they are. Book stores have to die before books do. Digital distribution is definitely taking over, but people are still buying actual books, as far as I know Amazon is still making money. Print isn’t dead…yet ;) When there is an e-reader in every home there will be no need for books, but for now, how many families outside of silicon valley are dropping $400 on a reading device in this “recession?” Not enough to deliver the final blow.

    Reply

  • Josh Bulloc — August 24th, 2010, 12:29 pm

    Making money is awesome and I will support anybody doing it but I think a book is also an art form and if it is important enough to you it should be written regardless whether or not you have a contract. The point should be to share the art not just make money with it. Now once you have written the book how can you make money from it directly or indirectly?

    Josh Bulloc
    Kansas City, MO

    Reply

  • Helen — August 24th, 2010, 12:58 pm

    Tim,

    What makes you choose to buy a book digitally now vs via Amazon or in a book store? Is it down to where you are located globally? Do you still by print copies of books? I’m sure you must! :)

    Why can’t I bring myself to buy a book digitally then? I just like owning them too much! So much for minimalism :o ) .

    Yet, I have no issue with owning music digitally and don’t miss owning physical CD’s. I wonder why that is?

    Is there maybe any correlation with the uptake of mp3′s vs the decline of CD sales over the past 10 years compared with the sales figures to date of kindle and print books? Is it a total opposite effect?

    It seems strange that print book sales are increasing along with kindle book sales.

    Maybe it’s just people are starting to read more and more regardless of format. Perhaps the new format re-kindles (pun intended ;P), peoples interest in reading full stop.

    I think currently, we are in a position in history where ‘ownership’ of items is changing completely over to subscription based services.

    Same as netflix and the like, will there soon be a service where you can read as many books as you like on the Kindle for a flat ‘per month’ fee? Unless there is already and I’ve missed it (Obviously libraries let you do that now but that I’m a slow reader and I can’t afford the fines :o ) )

    I’d like to see how many authors go back to print then when there is a fraction of money to be made for their book digitally because people expect access to everything at one price. I believe this would level out the playing field in terms of authors earnings for digital books. Authors would have to write more and more books or go back to print.

    Print isn’t dead, it has just got a competitor.

    Reply

  • Ethan Bishop — August 24th, 2010, 1:31 pm

    Tim,
    This article was excellent and very helpful. As someone who wants to publish my blog, your “So What Should Authors do” and “Recommend Reading” Section is invaluable. Hopefully our paths will cross again soon. Hope you and Amy are doing well!

    Cheers,
    Ethan

    Reply

  • Ben — August 24th, 2010, 2:27 pm

    YES! this post perfectly aligns with my current muse: Finishing my non-fiction ebook. It just got a million times easier when I decided to record Skype interviews and embed the audio into the PDF. Everything is transcribed and readable. Of course, the embedded audio content is flash, which means no ipad, but it looks like the Kindle may support it -.then you have Blackberry and Android tablets coming soon as well – we are already living in the future!

    one book I can recommend is “The E-Code” by Joe Vitale/Jo Han Mok – brilliant ideas and inspiration for anyone trying to sell a book online

    Awesome post Tim! – see you at BM

    Reply

  • Josh Crocker — August 24th, 2010, 2:39 pm

    Excellent post yet again!

    You’ve mentioned before that income is not the only currency that you (we) possess in life. I like how this was reflected when you talked about taking “cashless” adventures. I’m curious also, what types of opportunities/experiences have you had using this “other” types of currencies?

    - Josh

    p.s. – Still spreading the message of your book and getting the word out to new people almost every week!

    Reply

  • Margaret Agard — August 24th, 2010, 2:45 pm

    Hi Tim: If you’re going the traditional bookstore route, you’re correct. But if you’re making a book for a niche that you can reach outside of bookstores – self-publishing works. Here are the numbers: assume you make 7.5% on a paperback that sells for $12.00 Money to you 90 cents. 15% goes to your agent. Bottom line to you 76 cents.

    Now assume you self-publish and even pay a higher cost for short-run books. A $12.00 book costs you $2.20 After distribution, you make say 45% of the $12 or $5.4. Subtract the $2.20 leaving you $3.20 or 4x as much as you would make from a traditional publisher. (If you’re able to finance and sell over 5000 books the costs drops to under a dollar per book leaving you with 4.50 or almost 6X as much)

    Assume though that you sell the majority of your books back of the room or as part of your speaking fee. You make $9.80 per book nearly 13X your profit from a traditional publisher. You could sell fewer books and make the same money, or as many books and make 13x as much.

    Self-publishing gets you 4x to 13x the profit. It’s the difference between making a living as an author or squeaking by. You’re going to be doing all the marketing and sales anyway. Might as well get paid for it.

    I agree 100% on the media rich e-books. 10 years ago encyclopedia cd’s were coming out with media rich content. It seemed like such a great idea but they didn’t do well.

    I think it’s because reading is a different experience from watching video or listening to audio. It’s almost like meditating. It involves quiet thinking, not external noise.

    Reply

  • Colin Kingston — August 24th, 2010, 3:01 pm

    Great info, Tim. Do you have any figures for audio books?
    I found your book because I had an extra credit at Audible.com. I listen to it all the time and have now purchased the hardcover edition so I could easily refer to the various websites and companies mentioned in your book.

    I’m just getting started, but thank you for giving me the tools to change my life!
    Colin Kingston

    Reply

  • Brendon b Clark — August 24th, 2010, 3:01 pm

    Awesome work. Loads of stuff, good thinking out into words.

    Cheers

    Reply

  • Tim Leffel — August 24th, 2010, 3:16 pm

    This is a fantastic look at the economics of publishing, which most aspiring authors have no sense of at all. The only reasons to publish a book through the tradition route these days are a) You’re a big name and will get a fat advance b) You need retail browsers to buy your books, or c) You’re not requiring or expecting income from the book—-it’s a marketing tool for speaking/consulting/etc.

    Those are all valid reasons though, plus there’s the issue that more than a few people still like to buy a physical book from a store, read it without recharging anything, and put it on a shelf/loan it out/sell it used. That percentage may decline, but right now e-books are still a tiny niche for the majority of authors and they don’t have nearly the same cachet for impressing clients or journalists who are looking for a quote. Handing out an e-book or e-mailing one just doesn’t have the same impact as handing someone the real thing with a nice cover.

    Reply

  • Laura Knepper — August 24th, 2010, 4:07 pm

    Tim–

    Stop being so good at everything!! I actually sat down w/ a boutique publisher a few weeks ago regarding a photo-book I am considering for the open market. Any thoughts/comments on the non-text world? It seems photo-books would still sell best in hardcover before eBook format…as they’re much more likely to be gifts or coffeetable books; but perhaps I am not seeing the optimization of photobooks online??

    Thanks,
    Laura

    Reply

  • Dan Cugliari — August 24th, 2010, 4:19 pm

    Great read

    e-books are the way to go. In Australia book prices are getting ridiculous

    I’ll look at the USD on the back cover and it’ll say ‘$15′ -$25 and then the australian book stores (at least where i live) mark books up to a minimum of $30 for a paperback and anywhere from $35-$50

    When i can buy a kindle book for $11.99usd which converts to about 13AUD it’s a no brainer (unless the book is so awesome that i want a hard copy forever, which only happens with Dawkins and the 4HWW)

    Reply

  • PPC4 — August 24th, 2010, 4:20 pm

    Tim and all-

    Seth Godin said (prior to the recent blog post) that he thought that traditional books were souvenirs. People would continue to pay for them as memorabilia of the experience of the book. There will, therefore, always be a market for the “traditional” reading experience, but it will be more a niche. This speaks volumes to the paradigm shift in the industry.

    Best,

    Paul

    Reply

  • John — August 24th, 2010, 4:29 pm

    Got to love this, gives the little guy the chance. First newspapers now publishers the world is changing!!

    Reply

  • Liam — August 24th, 2010, 5:14 pm

    I definitely buy a lot more Kindle books that I was buying dead tree books.
    Thing is Kindle books are half the price of dead tree books so I’m still coming out ahead – enough to more than pay for my Kindle.

    Question. Suppose you have a successful self published ebook selling a few thousand copies. Does this provide a significant help to getting a mainstream publisher? I’m considering going this route. Ideally keeping the digital rights for myself (where the profit is) and having a published dead tree book as a promotional tool.

    Reply

  • Andy — August 24th, 2010, 5:42 pm

    Tim,

    Do you have any thoughts on manga or graphic novels?

    Is the model still the same for these types of books?

    I’ve read that the popularity of manga continues to rise at a rate faster than the rest of the publishing industry. Also, I know there are independent publishers of comics.

    I thought it might be a way for a friend of mine who writes thrillers to find an audience beyond the traditional publishing model.

    ??????????

    Reply

  • Mark Kelly — August 24th, 2010, 6:42 pm

    Great read as always Tim. I love how you break out from conventional blog wisdom and have long detailed posts vs. shorter ones. I am sure time spent on your site reflects the effort you put into creating a quality product.

    Regarding your theory about Kindle counting soon I tend to agree as it is clearly a big market they will need to account for much like TV Ratings needing to count TIVO’d/DVR’d and On Demand views.

    Reply

  • JW — August 24th, 2010, 6:56 pm

    I’ll add one more post to this discussion (as I posted one yesterday)…

    Two questions:

    Question: Does anyone think the general populous holds printed books in higher esteem than an ebook?

    Question: Am I the only one that finds it odd that people will spend up to $800 on a reader to read a $4 book?

    Reply

  • James McLaughlin — August 24th, 2010, 7:03 pm

    Tim (or Tim’s VA),

    Thanks so much for responding to my post. In my attempt to quickly scan this I misinterpreted the dollar values for 5k or 10k not mill, haha! I have a sense of relief as my info marketing plans are full steam ahead.

    My dreamline was not that complex to require 5 mill or 10 mill a month, haha.

    Can’t wait for the new book! When can we expect it?

    James

    Reply

  • Schmidty - Man Vs. Style — August 24th, 2010, 7:54 pm

    Awsome Tim.

    Puts everything in perspective, and really (as with everything you do) pushes the boundries of what everyone traditionally things.

    Reply

  • Elevic Pernis — August 24th, 2010, 8:21 pm

    Awesome post. Although it appears that more and more people will move away from traditional publishing, does this really mean that printed books will soon be extinct?

    Reply

  • Aaron Shepard — August 24th, 2010, 8:24 pm

    Oddly, you’ve completely missed the self publishing plan that yields the highest profit per copy. If you’re interested, I’d be happy to send you review copies of my books “Aiming at Amazon” and “POD for Profit,” which describe this plan in detail.

    Also, I should point out that the kind of experience with traditional publishing — as well as the royalty level — that you describe is rare. And that’s assuming you can get published traditionally at all.

    Reply

    • Tim Ferriss — August 25th, 2010, 3:37 am

      Hi Aaron,

      Thanks for the comment. Actually, the royalty levels (percentages) I mentioned are quite standard. On the other points, I cannot speak, as you have more experience with self-publishing than I do.

      Best,

      Tim

      Reply

  • J. H. — August 24th, 2010, 8:30 pm

    Here’s some fiction for you…
    In order to save the trees the government requires all books to be digital. In the digital form they can regulate content. Censorship. Farenheit 451 becomes a reality.
    Sometimes I look negatively on things, but it is so hard to after reading another of these great posts. Anytime I need to feel like the sky is the limit I come here.

    Reply

  • Jan — August 24th, 2010, 9:41 pm

    Hi Tim,

    thanks for recommending “the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing”. They seem to be really usfull – not just for publishing books ;-) .

    Jan

    Reply

  • Tom Middleton — August 24th, 2010, 9:56 pm

    Hi Tim,

    I would love to hear more on this (similar to what John Bardos was talking about)

    I know you have a lot of info on your site and I have gone through a lot of it, but what about a similar article about becoming a market leader in an area. Using all the above tools to promote yourself as, say a consultant (im looking at Health Risk Assessments in particular) seems like the way to go, when starting out.

    Reply

  • Ken Fees — August 24th, 2010, 11:20 pm

    Great post, as always. Just finished Seth’s latest book, and it was awesome. Required reading for everybody trying to make it today. Everyone’s talking about the Kindle, because it was first, but we should also start talking about the Nook, because it’s coming on strong, and selling very well. Barnes and Noble has something like 800 actual stores, and they all seem to be selling the Nook quite well.
    Thanks to both of you guys for the great free content. You are really leading the way, and I’m happy to be following your lead!

    Reply

  • Judith Harvey — August 25th, 2010, 2:02 am

    The huge danger in articles like this is that you are selling a fantasy to many authors who will believe that they can make money simply by publishing an ebook. Most books published will only sell a few hundred copies and nothing like 25,000 copies and most authors only make a living by having lots of books published. Of course there are few examples of huge successes but these are either established authors or public speakers who have a ready-made audience for their work. The truth is that the majority of authors will not make a profit and profit is the only valid way of comparing a traditionally published book with a self-published book. The majority of authors are not skilled business people and do not have the first idea of how to market their books. Publishing companies have a vast wealth of experience in all aspects of publishing profitable books, they benefit from economies of scale, big investment in new technologies and international deals that can improve profit margins dramatically. I have done the sums and the bottom-line profit margins on ebooks are almost exactly the same as on print books if you take into account the set-up costs, distributor discounts, download payments, VAT which is charged on ebooks at 17.5% here in the UK and all the pre-publication work (research, editing, design and typesetting, proofreading, artwork, etc.) that still has to be done to produce a quality product.

    Your discussions about royalties completely misses the point of the mutual risk nature of the publishing contract. Authors are not employees of publishing companies. They enter into a mutual risk arrangement where the author risks her time/reputation and the publisher risks the upfront investment. If the book is a success both the publisher and the author win and the publisher recoups the upfront cost and makes a profit (which they must do as a commercial company). If the book fails the author doesn’t make money but they don’t lose any money either, whereas the publisher loses out financially – but may still continue to invest in the author if they think that there is potential there.

    Your article only really applies to certain market segments – some fiction and a few areas of trade non-fiction. There are many publishing markets (educational, academic, STM, highly ilustrated books, co-editions, etc.) where none of what you say applies. I have always worked in educational publishing where the publisher commissions authors to write their books and then works closely with them to develop the book so that it meets market needs. This also happen with fiction (though a lot of people claim it doesn’t anymore, which is not true) and many published authors greatly value the input of an experienced and market-savvy editor.

    Self-published ebooks are ephemeral. Publishers will continue to invest in traditionally published successful books because they have a vested interest in doing so. Self-published ebooks will die on the death of the author as there will be no-one to continue to invest the time and money to keep them in the public eye.

    Finally, print publishing will never die because most of the book readers I know, who spend a great deal of money on books, don’t want to read on screen. Also, I have calculated that I will only read another 3-400 books (leisure reading that is ) in my lifetime. What is the point in having a device that holds 1000s of books that I will never read and why would I be dumb enough to pay for these books? I think ebooks should be free and that publishers should and will invest more in well-edited high quality and high price print books for the discerning reader who likes to take time over their reading, who probably re-reads some books several times, who takes pleasure in good design and quality editing and who appreciates the added value that the best publishers can offer. In my own business I have discovered that publishing ebooks has actually increased the number of print books that I sell and that they are little more than a marketing tool. The ebooks themselves have made very little money but the print books continue to be profitable.

    Reply

    • Tim Ferriss — August 25th, 2010, 3:35 am

      Hi Judith,

      Thank you for the comment. However, I find — in this context — the claim that I “missed the point” to be a bit strong. I actually disagree with almost all of your points, but we’re all entitled to our opinions, and I’ve been wrong before.

      Thank you for contributing to the conversation and dialogue.

      Best,

      Tim

      Reply

  • Michael T. Hanley, CPA — August 25th, 2010, 6:08 am

    Great points about the publishing industry (I’m an author of three small business accounting books myself), but what about the oddball contrarians out there like me who prefer reading a paperback to a hardcover? And it has nothing to do with the price of a paperback vs. the price of a hardcover…I would actually pay more for a paperback than I would pay for a hardcover b/c I find them easier to carry, easier to store, and easier to read (but, I’m the same guy who would pay more for fabric seats than leather seats in a car and more for lunch sushi than for dinner sushi b/c I enjoy a bigger rice-to-fish ratio).

    I’m not sure how many others out there feel the same way, but I assume quite a few. I think there are more reasons than just the price as to why more people buy paperbacks.

    Reply

  • Kim — August 25th, 2010, 6:11 am

    Great post. As a young writer who is (very slowly) working on material for a book, it’s nice to see the intimidating process broken down a little further and see some emerging options!

    Reply

  • Akshay — August 25th, 2010, 8:06 am

    Don’t have much to add but just wanted to drop in and say great article as usual !! … didn’t know much about the publishing world but this article was a great intro/primer. Thx!

    Reply

  • Mitch Fanning — August 25th, 2010, 8:20 am

    Tim,

    Your ability to break-down a situation continues to amaze me.

    I’m just glad you use it for “good” instead of “evil”. The last thing we need is someone like you building a giant #$@# laser beam, holding the world hostage, and asking for a “billion” dollars in ransom.

    Cheers,

    Mitch Fanning

    Reply

  • Ronn Sieber — August 25th, 2010, 8:41 am

    E-publishing will find its niche and its audience, but I doubt that it will totally supplant hard material publishing, much like paperback has not yet conquered hardcover.

    Hardcover will always have its place. I can pull down my copy of Ferdinand Porsche: Genesis of Genius and read it in any light, study its photos, randomly access any of its pages with a flick of a well-placed finger. I will pass this on to a fellow enthusiast when my time comes.

    My children will pause a moment and glance at my Kindle as they clean out the house after my death, then add it to the pile of Dad’s useless junk.

    Consumable literature will find its place and Kindles their market. There will always remain a market for high quality hard copy.

    Reply

  • Somone — August 25th, 2010, 9:08 am

    This post is jam-packed with inspiration for the budding (never before but planning) published author. My husband was just saying the other day, what should he do first, electronic or hard copy. I think we will run the hard copy and give it a go.

    You shared a lot of insight. Thanks for a great article as always.

    Reply

  • Dylan — August 25th, 2010, 9:44 am

    Hi AHA,

    I hope to have much, much more to say about this, but I can’t disclose his name without his permission. Eben does incredible things and knows how to do this, but I’m not referring to him here.

    Tim

    ————————————–

    I like the guessing game. I think it’s Joe Polish.

    Reply

  • Moneymonk — August 25th, 2010, 11:23 am

    My book should be out this Fall. I do agree Self publishing is the way to go if you want higher royalties.

    But the real money is in Speaking engagments. Most authors make more doing that than actually seeling the book

    Reply

  • Wesley Verhoeve — August 25th, 2010, 11:41 am

    Many similarities to when Radiohead made the step to self-release (at least initially) In Rainbows, digitally in the pay-what-you-want set up. Radiohead is one of the world’s biggest bands, built up by the major label machine over a decade. They are the Seth Godin of music, if you will. The model worked for them, but how many little indie rock bands in Brooklyn will this work for? I have a rule in life that I’d like to mention here: There are no short cuts. Authors, and bands alike, will have to keep putting in tons and tons of time and work before they can expect to become an “overnight success”.

    Reply

  • james glasscock — August 25th, 2010, 11:57 am

    Great thoughtful post. The breakdown of the economics will be helpful to many. This is also relevant to the film business. Similar inefficiences in the value chain, lots of players taking from the revenue pie. Creators getting laughable particpations. A few companies addressing DIY for film: Neoflix, Indieflix, CreateSpace (Amazon) and MagNET. Of course enablement of commerce is one thing, getting consumers to find you in the long tail is another. This latter problem also getting bombarded with attempted solutions, will be interesting to see how it pans out. The world is changing and possibly many old school value chain players will follow the trajectory described in Jim Collins “How The Mighty Fall.”

    Reply

  • Gk Parish-Philp — August 25th, 2010, 1:23 pm

    Great post and fantastic insider insight into the rapidly changing publishing world.

    As it turns out, I am particularly interested in this subject since after reading your book three years ago, I quit my job and started my own Muse in this same arena. It’s called backmybook.com and it is a platform designed to help aspiring authors (self-published and otherwise) effectively promote and market their work.

    I agree with you that in the near term (12-24 months), reporting around self-publishing and ebooks in particular are fairly exaggerated. What’s very interesting to me, however, is the broader long-term trend that is clearly evolving. It is very clear that in 5-10 years, we will not be consuming books the way we did 10 years ago, and that the publishing industry will be radically different than it is today.

    Authors will need to adapt their strategies as well, and I’m excited to be helping as best I can through my Muse.

    Reply

  • Kyle Corley — August 25th, 2010, 1:57 pm

    Tim,

    Thanks for writing such an informative article. It answered many questions for me, and gave me many others to ponder.

    One channel you did not discuss, which I would like to know your thoughts on, is that of “on-demand” printing and publishing through providers like Lulu.com (I know there are several others as well). As I understand the process:

    1. The author writes the book and uploads it in a printable file (PDF, etc.) along with cover art.
    2. The per-unit manufacturing cost of the book is determined by the number of pages in the book, the type, size, and quality of the paper and binding, and the volume of the books sold during a period of time (usually a month).
    3. You establish the selling price for your book, and then (through your own marketing efforts) direct customers to buy it through your “store” on the on-demand publisher’s (POD) web site.
    4. The POD handles payment processing, printing, and shipping, and you earn the net of your selling prices less the manufacturing cost and any other associated fees or commissions that may apply.

    What are your thoughts/opinions on this channel?

    Reply

  • DeLana Honaker, PhD, OTR — August 25th, 2010, 2:45 pm

    Great timing for this blog post, Tim, as I’m in the midst of writing 2 books for niche markets (I was motivated by my reading of the 4 Hour Workweek, of course!) ;) Intriguing analysis of print vs electronic publishing and I see your point about boutique publishing; however, you did not address print-on-demand publishing (via Amazon’s CreateSpace or directly via Lightning Source). Based on my readings, it appears that these are viable avenues along with self-initiated and vigorous social network marketing to niche market authors. Your thoughts?

    Reply

  • Tim Cohn — August 25th, 2010, 3:47 pm

    Hi Tim,

    Thanks for asking…

    Robert Ringer is probably best known for writing Winning Through Intimidation.

    Ringer’s website is: http://www.robertringer.com

    From his website: “As the only person in history to write, self-publish, and market three #1 bestsellers, Robert Ringer is in a unique position to teach you how to convert your book idea into a bestseller that brings you fame and fortune.”

    I learned a lot from Robert in the short amount of time I spent with him.

    I quite certain you and your readers could too.

    I sent him an email offering an “introduction” but haven’t yet heard back from him.

    No surprise there – Ringer long ago adopted the Tortoise as his alter ego.

    If I don’t hear back from him this week, I will post or forward his contact details here with your permission.

    Cheers,

    Tim Cohn

    Reply

  • Bruce — August 25th, 2010, 5:32 pm

    Tim,

    I find it interesting that Seth doesn’t include you in his writings. I may have missed a reference, but I don’t believe so. Do you believe it has anything to do with the same reason he uses the pronoun “she” when referring to what he calls “linchpins”?

    Reply

  • Meredith — August 25th, 2010, 6:54 pm

    Hey Tim, I don’t know if anyone else is having the same problem but that Mazda pop-up ad is messing stuff up. When I X out of it, I lose the ability to scroll until I switch to another tab and switch back. Not a big deal except that I have to do it after loading every single page on your blog. Maybe it’s just my Firefox, but I thought I’d let you know. I’d hate to have you lose stickiness for something like that.

    Reply

  • Florian Komm — August 26th, 2010, 3:40 am

    Great post!! Thanks for sharing so many insights.

    Reply

  • Dan — August 26th, 2010, 6:29 am

    Tim

    I just bought 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing on audiobook on your recommendation… listened to the whole thing. What a PERFECT example of a timeless book! That was a great comment about dealing with the wait time in publishing – it’s good reminding to step back and think about the big picture.

    A bit off point, but something I’d noticed which I wanted to comment on for some time. There’s a Rails Conference interview you do from a few years ago… for the entire hour interview you sit with your leg crossed and completely parallel to the floor!

    Was this intentional? Just wanted to point out that I noticed and found it somewhat fascinating – since starting yoga and pilates in the past year things like this catch my eye. I’ve tried sitting like that for longer than a few minutes and it’s a bit of a challenge.

    Reply

  • Ethan Bishop — August 26th, 2010, 6:36 am

    To go off of Dan’s statement, I ALSO bought 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing and listened to the entire Audiobook and it certainly was a great listen. What I found interesting was that several of their examples, notably the tablet computer did indeed “flop” according to their prediction in the 90s, although you might consider the iPad and so forth a distant and completely revised cousin with genetic enhancement.

    I also searched for the “Bird by Bird” on iTunes and did not see any, but I DID find an hour long documentary that the author has done that you can rent. It seems to be along the same lines and she seems like a fascinating person.

    I certainly appreciate the additional resources that you provided. Thank you!

    Reply

  • Jeremy Nichele — August 26th, 2010, 6:47 am

    Tim

    I am an affiliate marketer with a few simple “muses” that have worked in different media channels in the CPA world with our own email lists.

    We have an interest to use ebooks to develop new revenue models that would use the ebooks as giveaways and free downloads to qualify leads and produce what we would see as excellence value to our potential clients.

    Where are a few places to learn how the most successful are doing this and to uncover the best revenue models.

    Best,

    Jeremy Nichele

    Reply

  • Fher Cors — August 26th, 2010, 7:53 am

    Hi Tim, Im a guy from Mexico.. and i want to know if you have the book 4hourworkweek on spanish becuase i want to read it.. thank you and im your Fan!!!

    Reply

  • David Wisehart — August 26th, 2010, 9:01 am

    “I know one man who nets between $5,000,000 and $10,000,000 per month with a single e-book and affiliate cross-selling to his customer lists.”

    There are quite a few self-published novelists making more than $5,000 per month publishing on Kindle (though typically with more than one novel). Some, like Joe Konrath, established themselves first through traditional publishing, but others, like Amanda Hocking, had no platform before putting their novels on Kindle.

    Nonfiction is still a harder sell on Kindle, but that wave is coming.

    David

    Reply

  • Ryan E. — August 26th, 2010, 11:45 am

    A downside to the digital format is sharing. This is an upside to the author. I believe, at least for the short term, digital buyers will actual sell more books both digital and traditional. I get together with a business group once a month and one of the topics we discuss is great books we have read. In many cases we would bring the book to share with the group. Now most of us have an Ipad or Kindle. Instead of borrowing the book we write it down, or buy it right there on the spot.

    Reply

  • Flora — August 26th, 2010, 12:47 pm

    Let’s face it: you’re still a total honey ?

    Reply

  • Garreth Wilcock — August 26th, 2010, 2:01 pm

    I like the concept of removing the middle-man – currency, not agents. If you can trade in labour for something that you want without trading currency, you don’t pay taxes on earned income, right?

    So does that mean that governments will fail and we’ll all be anarchists?

    Reply

  • James St. James — August 26th, 2010, 9:50 pm

    Thanks for writing on this- I write articles, and my wife is a Poet – and we had a conversation tonight just before reading this about how best we should prepare for publishing in the future. Thanks Tim, I’m a huge fan – and am really excited to see your new book!

    Side note of contacting celebs: I met a semi-famous guy who is a regular “consultant” on a TV show – we hit it off and I asked if he knew your book – he said no, and I told him he should check it out. THEN I decided that night to buy him a copy, figure our his office address, and send it to him in the mail for next day delivery. HE WAS BLOWN AWAY, and it gave me a certain stickiness that he keeps wanting to meet up for coffee and talk about 4HWW ideas.

    Reply

  • Lupercalia — August 26th, 2010, 11:08 pm

    Tim, is your 4HWW tale of writing your best college research paper in an insanely small 24 hour window and your now spending three years to write your next book contradictory? (You might be interested that I whipped open repeatedly for motivation that Parkinson’s Law section of your book when I had to write a not-short “idea palette”–I’m being vague on purpose–for a multibillion dollar project for which a 6 month deadline would have been reasonable, but my deadline was, instead, four–sleepless!–days. And after I turned it in on time I got thumbs up all around.) Because I’ve more than once faced insanely tight deadlines for insanely expensive projects, I’m very alert to who did what in what amount of time, such as, to cite an extreme comparison that comes immediately to mind: Axl Rose took 15 years to record the last underwhelming Guns N Roses album CHINESE DEMOCRACY, whereas the the Doors recorded their first and (to many) greatest album–titled THE DOORS–in six days. Anyway, do YOU think you’re “experiencing” Parkinson’s Law to any degree with your next book?

    Reply

    • Tim Ferriss — August 28th, 2010, 12:29 am

      Hi Lupercalia,

      Good comment and good question. No, I don’t think I’m inflating to Parkinson’s Law, and I’ll tell you why: I had to do 100s of experiments on myself for the new book! No joke. Literally. So, “writing” the book took at least two years of doing crazy mad-scientist stuff to myself. No Parkinson’s Law at work here. I’m a fast worker and like fast deadlines. This one really had to take this long (or close to it).

      Cheers,

      Tim

      Reply

  • brandon bandhauer — August 27th, 2010, 6:42 am

    what types of books do you see eminating to which form? will children’s books gain ecommerce traction, or will the need to protect artrist copyritghts maintain hardcopy? as the youngest generations mature, generations that are entirely comfortable living digitally (too comfortabl?) will we see less hardcopy, or will the need for tactile solidity remain in reference? will any forms of fiction maintain validity in the hardcopy world, or will pulp die with the boomers, and take the classics with it? would authors such as salinger, whose work was largley successful due to traditional serial publishing to pulp conversion to large scale success, will those authors survive and emerge in an era when controversy will be minimalized? will “FOX News” style publishing–stuff where fact check isn’t so important, but buzz is–become the prevelant form in non-fiction?

    so may questions….

    Reply

  • Love Danielson — August 27th, 2010, 7:03 am

    Hey what’s up, i just wanted to ask you if you’d ever publish a fictional book? thanks for including fictional data in the topic also btw

    Reply

  • gmoke — August 27th, 2010, 12:29 pm

    Saw a panel on CSPANII on electronic books recently and the authors on the panel were quite adamant about the small royalties offered on e-books and the fact that the publishers won’t release the percentages that they were offering (that’s how I heard it but I may be wrong).

    Reply

  • Anne — August 27th, 2010, 2:40 pm

    Tim,

    First of all, thank you for your work. You have been a huge inspiration in my life.

    I recall reading something about a book you started but never finished about writing while working full time. Any chance you would be willing to share that content with us on your blog?

    Thank you!

    Anne

    Reply

  • Christopher Philip — August 27th, 2010, 4:17 pm

    Any ideas for increasing sales? I’ve found that my ebook is getting tossed around a lot on torrents. Should I be concerned about this? Do you think I’m targeting the wrong demographic and maybe should switch altogether? I also need some web-help. I can write and research, but my web expertise is almost zip. I’ve had a few partners give up due to lack of time so right now the project is at a stalemate.

    Reply

  • Dan Jaffe — August 27th, 2010, 5:09 pm

    Tim,

    Have you seen any data on the number of readers per printed book vs number of readers for any pay per download electronic format?

    I bought your original book shortly after it first came out, and loaned it to several people over a couple of years before losing track of it. When I went to reference it again and couldn’t find it, I went out and bought the updated edition. So for the price of buying your book twice, at least 4 people that I know of have read it. Don’t know if I’m a typical customer in that regard, but I imagine a printed book only gets loaned a few times on average before the original owner no longer knows where it’s at and never sees it again.

    I recently started getting my books through Kindle and reading them on my iPad. I have bought more than one Kindle book because a bibliographic reference in the book I was reading sounded good. With the ability to link out from ebooks, it seems to me that there is a superior opportunity for cross promotions and for revenue/benefits that are not immediately reflected in the royalty.

    No way I’m lending my iPad to somebody so they can “borrow” my book.

    To me, it was never a matter of trying to save a friend 10-20 bucks to when I loaned a book, but rather a knowing on my part that the person would be unlikely to take the effort to actually buy the book themselves and read it, and I wanted to have a better quality of conversation with them. With the ease of getting Kindle books, however, I now feel perfectly comfortable emailing a link to the Kindle store, and if they don’t want to read what I’m recommending, or they are too cheap to download it… their loss.

    Thanks for making me think today.

    Dan

    Reply

  • Jack Komputery — August 28th, 2010, 8:45 am

    If someone write books, must thinking if he only want to sell this book and make money. Or if he want builid herself value.
    If only make some money probalby writing only e-book and don`t printing book is ok. But if he want make seminar, or want to show people that he is very important person, he should print book.
    For most people book in hand means: it`s a writer, very inteligent person, he can write this, this is his book… etc.

    Reply

  • Madeline — August 28th, 2010, 10:59 am

    Hi Tim,

    I’ve learned so much here, today. Thank you for this supremely useful information and analysis. You are a wise and generous human being and have, in a single post, achieved “hero” status with me. Very pleased to meet you, sir.

    Now I’m off to read everything you’ve ever written. ;-)

    Cheers!

    Reply

  • Charlie — August 28th, 2010, 1:40 pm

    Quote from the post: “I prefer to focus on connecting with my readers and having fun with cashless adventures.”

    Have you read “Accelerando” by Charles Stross? (Same author linked to in another comment.) I’m not very far into it yet, but early in the book there’s a character who lives in much that way. He gives away ideas that make other people very rich, and in return they give him drinks / meals / hotel rooms / clothes / plane tix / robot cats / whatever. Very little cash is involved. It’s an interesting idea.

    Full book for free at the author’s web site: http://bit.ly/5saUpU

    Reply

  • Stephen Carter — August 28th, 2010, 2:33 pm

    I expect text-books (heavy, bulky, expensive) to be one area where Kindle et al will soon shine. As a teacher, I am encouraging students to buy their books this way because they will get better long-term use out of them. After all, how many text-books (even the best ones) are either resold, or never unpacked after college is over?

    Reply

  • Joel — August 28th, 2010, 7:43 pm

    For a while, people liked owning real Compact Discs when they bought music. They’ve since gotten over it.

    Go, go, gadget change.

    Reply

  • Kevin — August 29th, 2010, 5:21 pm

    Hey Tim, today I bought your book The Four Hour Work Week (Expanded And Updated). I’ve already gotten to the end of Step 1. It’s a pretty clever book. Indeed I’ve found that when something questions my basic assumptions, whether these assumptions are concious or not, it tends to lead to the most profound learning.

    I’ve got a problem though. You see, I’ve done a lot of hard and frusterating work with self-development and goal setting before. I’ve tried following The Success Principles by Jack Canfield. I wrote a long list of affirmations and goals, said it to myself three times a day, and attempted to visualize. I had no fun, made no progress, and got pretty tired of it.

    I also tried following Bob Proctor’s method. He said to come up with one breakthough goal and repeat it to myself three times a day, with genuine emotion, and take any actions you can come up with to complete the goal. I decided to make $5154 in two months. (I wanted to get into Bob’s intensive coaching program, and buy a really expensive electric violin) I then called up Bob’s sidekick for help, and he made me shorten the deadline to three weeks. During these three weeks I tried really hard to come up with ideas, but it just wouldn’t work. The frustration was making me depressed.

    This brings me to why I commented. The dreamline you’ve designed is clever, but I need to either find a reason why it’s more practical and enjoyable than what I did before, or a reason why I failed before that I can correct this time. To repeat the same exact mistakes again would surely SUCK, but to succeed at something genuinely worth succeeding, or at least “fail better,” would not.

    I’d like for us to get in contact via email or phone so we can talk about this. Would you please suggest a way to do that that would keep my contact info private?

    Reply

  • Michael Tergerson — August 29th, 2010, 9:27 pm

    Outstanding article with tons of information and insight into the world of publishing in so many formats! I thorougly enjoy the information you put out, and would love one day to meet you in person. Please continue the great work!

    Reply

  • Peggy — August 29th, 2010, 10:12 pm

    I’m going to force every new client to read this post before I take them on. Thanks!!!

    Reply

  • Dave Ridarelli — August 30th, 2010, 3:16 am

    Early 2011 For The Superhuman Book? All Those Resolutions Are Gonna Have It Selling Like Hotcakes. Hope You Hit 500 Lbs. On The DL Before It Drops…

    Reply

  • Vickie Motter — August 30th, 2010, 9:55 am

    This makes me feel so much better! Thank you for putting this into perspective for us!

    Reply

  • Ransom Stephens — August 30th, 2010, 3:08 pm

    Thanks for the insight Tim!
    My first novel came out in print 8 months ago from a small publisher that plays by different rules. They acquired my book after it did quite well as an ebook in the Scridb store. Anyway, I’ve been building my platform by giving speeches on subjects related to (sometimes barely related, other times right on top of) my novel’s subject matter.
    So I think you’re just a bit off the mark when you suggest (in one of the comments above) that speaking doesn’t work as well for fiction. My novel, The God Patent, for example has three major themes that translate will into topical and focused speeches. First, it has a lot of science content – authentic and accessible quantum physics which goes over nicely in speeches at “science cafes,” Mensa clubs, university colloquia, etc. I based a character on a should-be-famous turn-of-the-century mathematician Emmy Noether and developed a speech that’s half biography and half popular science. The women in mathematics angle has generated a dozen speeches, one at the top of a mountain.
    Second, the book is set in the science-religion culture clash and everyone seems to love to get into that, so the speech was trivial to formulate and usually amounts to me being more referee than speaker.
    The God Patent concludes with a concept of the soul inspired by several different ideas from physics – this is a great speech for spiritualists and new-agey types. I’ve given this one at the Institute of Noetic Science and a few Unitarian churches.
    Finally, and this is an example of how pretty much any novelist can formulate a speech to promote their book, The God Patent is centered around the mentoring relationship between a man trying to rebuild his life after making a ton of mistakes and a teenage girl struggling to recover from the death of her father ==> I’m speaking at Mentoring organizations, Big Brother/Sister groups and so forth. In fact, half the royalties for October will be donated to the Mentoring organization here in town.
    So, dude, you’re right as usual, but your wisdom extends farther than you give yourself credit for.

    Reply

    • Tim Ferriss — August 30th, 2010, 11:49 pm

      Hi Ransom,

      Thanks so much for this comment. It’s well thought-out and I stand corrected. I’m not as familiar with fiction, but I shouldn’t make assumptions in that case! Really well done. Keep it up, and congrats on jumping from Scribd to publisher! That’s awesome. You earned it.

      Best,

      Tim

      Reply

  • Michelle Cottrell — August 31st, 2010, 3:57 pm

    Tim- Thank you for all of the extremely helpful information! I am an author for John Wiley & Sons with my first of SEVEN books to be released October 4th. I had a different experience than what is posted as I was approached by my publisher, instead of the other way around. I got the publisher, then wrote the book(s) and now trying to find an agent! So when a friend sent me this link, it just could not have been more timely! THANK YOU! :)

    Reply

  • Sascha Illyvich — September 1st, 2010, 12:31 pm

    I would NEVER waste my time as a self published author. E-books are the future and this information is definitely gold. Self published authors are regarded as trash and most writers do NOT have the necessary drive to do the things required of them to get such income.

    Reply

  • Mary Tod — September 1st, 2010, 2:23 pm

    Hi Tim – my first exposure to your blog and a great post. As a fiction writer (not yet published but getting there) I think your analysis is very helpful. I’m working with literary agent, Chris Bucci, on a series of posts called The Business of Writing which is an attempt to (a) understand how the writing industry is changing and (b) help authors figure out what to do. We have published four posts to date with several more in the pipeline.

    I used to make a living as a management consultant and it’s clear that the power dynamic in the writing/publishing industry is fundamentally changing. Authors who develop an effective strategy for this ‘new world’ will operate very differently from the old world where control rested with publishers and agents. Even calling it the writing industry is a start.

    I look forward to reading more of your posts.
    Best,
    Mary Tod

    Reply

  • Bernd Blume — September 1st, 2010, 4:25 pm

    “I know one man who nets between $5,000,000 and $10,000,000 per month with a single e-book and affiliate cross-selling to his customer lists.”

    Can’t get that one out of my mind ;-)

    I’m curious in what kind of industry / subject matter things like these are possible. Please give us just a bit more insight without disclosing any secrets…

    PS: I read 4HWW, found my muse and self-pblished a book+ (book with add-ons to cross the 50$ boundary as you recommend). Works quite well and is growing… :-) Going eBook (plus e-PDF for self-printing the add-ons) as well very soon.

    Reply

  • Steve L — September 1st, 2010, 5:54 pm

    Great post Tim. I’m dying to to know who the “one man who nets between $5,000,000 and $10,000,000 per month with a single e-book and affiliate cross-selling to his customer lists,” is.

    It couldn’t be Leo Babauta could it? or the Stop Your Divorce Now guy? Two shots in the dark (Eben Pagan was my first guess).

    Also,
    Where did you train in San Shou? I’m looking at schools in the bay area. So far EBM [kungfu.net] seems off the chains. Any recommendations?

    Reply

  • Timothy Morris — September 2nd, 2010, 5:44 pm

    Tim,
    Thanks for the post, I just signed a contract with a publishing house to print my book. It will be coming out next spring. This whole post is really helpful to me, I am looking for opportunities to speak and sell some books.

    Thanks again.
    Tim

    Reply

  • aroy — September 2nd, 2010, 9:59 pm

    Tim and/or anyone else who can provide feedback

    Thanks for the great Economic analysis.

    I just read 4HWW and I was most interested in the Auto Income chapters, as those chapters really focuses on the revenue model.

    I’m just getting started on PPC / niche online marketing. In one example in the book (page 204, “Chapter 11, Step 3: Splitting the Pie”) you estimated that a business model with $1000 Advetising for every 50 sales. That comes out to $20 per item PPC costs. You also advise not pricing under $50 (range of 50 to 200). At $20 per item, and pricing at 50, means the gross margins drop to 30$ right from the start, even before other expenses. Furthermore, if we are producing an “information product”, is it realistic to price at $50, or even 30$, assuming an “information product” is the same as in E-book? What is the realistic price for an E-Book? At $20 per item PPC cost, it seems your lowest break-even price puts you at about $30

    Reply

  • Andrew Davis — September 3rd, 2010, 11:08 am

    Thanks so much for taking the time to explain how the publishing industry works. This is really helpful to someone like me that’s working hard to help the publishing world embrace a rapidly evolving marketplace.

    I believe in the power of print and have successfully proven a tie between offline print publications (magazines) and the online world. I preach media modality to the people I speak to – meaning various media is consumed in a variety of ways just putting all your stuff everywhere splits your audience, it doesn’t build it.

    I recently wrote about the evolving media landscape and Seth Godin too. Thanks again!
    - Andrew

    Reply

  • seks izle — September 3rd, 2010, 12:01 pm

    This makes me feel so much better! Thank you for putting this into perspective for us!

    Reply

  • Mark Levine — September 3rd, 2010, 3:06 pm

    Great article, but…stating that Author Solutions is a “promising” company “looking to solve this” can not be accurate. Author Solutions owns a bunch of the giant self-publishing companies. One is Trafford. These companies mark up printing so high, that it causes the wholesale (and retail) price of the books to be so artificially inflated that no retailers would ever think of buying the books.

    Take a typical 200 page, 6×9, paperback. Trafford authors get a discount when ordering copies of their own books. Here is how much the markup is

    Number of books Discount Author Price Markup
    1–24 30% $10.53 170%
    25–49 35% $9.78 151%
    50–99 40% $9.02 131%
    100–249 45% $8.27 112%
    250–499 50% $7.52 92%
    500–999 55% $6.77 74%

    Don’t take my word for this. Just go to http://www.trafford.com/FAQ/BookSalesOrdering.aspx#Discount

    So, Author Solutions isn’t really making this better for those self-publishing. If it was, it wouldn’t be marking up printing so much.

    Reply

  • Why Seth Godin doesn’t need traditional publishers — September 3rd, 2010, 6:35 pm

    [...] Ferriss did an excellent writeup in response to Seth but more so to others who might consider following Seth’s example. It’s a good read if [...]

  • David Klein — September 4th, 2010, 12:04 pm

    Hello Tim,

    I’m a book lover, I like the object itself and the touch, the smell or it.
    For now Kindle and other devices don’t have those features :-)

    About affiliate marketing, I hope future authors will not only write books around the idea to place their affiliate links.

    A book is really valuable, it allow to transmit knowledge between generations, and it often happen that I find it’s content valuable 10 years after. But if it’s full of “blablablabla and if you want to know more go visit http://myaffiliatelink/johndoe” I won’t value it anymore.

    I’m also curious to know who’s making millions with an affiliate marketing book? David Allen?

    Reply

  • A.C — September 5th, 2010, 4:58 pm

    I am writing a book aimed at MMORPG game players – one major game (World of Warcraft) which i guess has about 6~7 million english speaking subscribers.

    I do wonder if this is too ‘niche’ to get it published in paper.

    Also, when you were searching for publisher for your first book, did you go at it alone or did you have an agent?

    Reply

  • [personal name] — September 6th, 2010, 12:36 pm

    Awesome info Tim. I’m just a couple of weeks away from releasing my first book, Do Over. I was 90% finished with my book for almost two years. I saw you speak at USC approximately a year ago and I was inspired to get back on it and complete the book. I’m happy to say, it’s done! Thanks for sharing, via your words and actions, what’s possible.

    Cheers, peace and blessings…

    Reply

  • [use personal name] — September 6th, 2010, 1:01 pm

    Excellent post; very detailed and very informative. I always wanted to write a book but I didn’t know exactly where to start. This post outlines each step, thanks for writing it.

    Reply

  • Joe Deltona — September 13th, 2010, 5:45 am

    This article good be a tipping point for many aspiring authors. I wonder if this applies to fiction as well as non-fiction.

    Reply

  • Griffin Boyce — September 13th, 2010, 6:32 pm

    I remember very distinctly Frank Warren (of Postsecret fame) discussing why he uses Amazon affiliate links for his own books. Basically the $1-2 he makes on every book is almost as much as his royalties, and his website is of course a major promotional tool for them.

    Lots of money to be made on the back-end of things, with everything from speaking tours to better-paying writing gigs, to connecting with startups in Tim’s case. Whatever you want, you can parley your writing or entrepreneurship into an opportunity for that.

    Reply

  • Rai Aren — September 13th, 2010, 11:05 pm

    Great article Tim! I found this to be a very informative, well-presented article. This issue is being debated all over the place, and one thing I’ve noticed is that people are choosing the paths that best suit them at the moment, from their personal perspectives. There certainly isn’t a one-size fits all option, pros & cons abound, and the landscape is evolving. As with any of life’s decisions, it’s vital to gather all the info one can before jumping in – this article certainly helps in that regard, so thanks!!

    Best of luck with your new book!

    Rai Aren, co-author of Secret of the Sands

    P.S. – I also got a lot of value out of reading the comments – lots of good opinions & debates. As a bonus, I found a new book I’m intrigued by – Ransom Stephens’ ‘The God Patent’ – I’ve added it to my Amazon & Goodreads wish/tbr lists! Sounds great!

    Reply

  • Rob O'Keefe — September 14th, 2010, 9:47 am

    Tim,

    How much does Amazon cut into your earnings? It seems that most people (myself included would much rather pick up your book used with a significant discount as opposed to picking up a new copy).

    My family works in the retail business and it’s getting creamed because everyone can buy things cheaper online.

    Do you see a parallel between the retail business and the publishing business?

    Do you think that this is going to get worse for authors as internet commerce continues to grow?

    Reply

  • [personal name] — September 14th, 2010, 11:59 pm

    Hi Timothy,

    First of all. 4 hour workweek is great book!
    You gave me lots of ideas.

    I have to agree with Judith that not many authors can make that huge money. Actually majority of the authors are not even earning their living expenses.

    80/20 RULE
    According to 80/20 rule 80 per cent of the world income is owned by 20 percent of the world population (the rich guys)

    That means 80 percent of the best selling books are owned by 20 (even less) of the best writers.

    Hey, the 80/20 principle is in your book!

    Getting rich selling Books?
    To make money with books, you need three things:
    - Good writer
    - Good marketer
    - Good business person

    Missing one of these skills, you will fail.

    Getting rich selling E-Books?
    To make that huge amount of money with Ebooks you need more:

    - Good writer
    - Good marketer
    - Good SEO / Social Media marketer
    - Good business person

    One tip, you can outsource the SEO and buy some copyright software to prevent your Ebook being copied. But how many authors have that money to do outsourcing?

    I also agree with Judith, printing will not be dead. If that will happen, what’s Amazon going to do? I don’t see Amazon starting to sell a lot of Ebooks yet

    How many people will read these Ebooks from the computer or E-reader?
    Maybe it will start picking up after I see everybody walking around with that Ipad

    Well, I don’t. I prefer to buy a printed copy.
    Your 4-hour work is sitting at my desk right now. Bought it from Amazon. Nice hard-cover.

    Reply

  • Endy Daniyanto — September 15th, 2010, 2:58 am

    Thanks for the article Tim,

    Somehow even though this is food for thought for authors, I’m thinking it could also apply to aspiring musicians working on the release of their debut album (physical CD/vinyl versus digital-only release). Plus, the lesson I’m really taking in here is your thoughts about working on a product for years because you want it to sell like mad after publication. Wicked.

    Cheers,

    Reply

  • Fiction Writers Review » Blog Archive » (How) Do Authors Make Money? — September 15th, 2010, 6:01 am

    [...] Ferriss, author of the Kindle-published The 4-Hour Work Week, has an interesting look at the economics of how writers get paid: – For a hardcover book, authors typically receive [...]

  • Scott Dinsmore — September 15th, 2010, 10:02 am

    You no doubt nailed the ‘timeless’ aspect in the 4HWW. I read it each year with new insight and inspiration. All still seems super relavent. You knocked it out Tim!

    Scott

    Reply

  • Darryl — September 15th, 2010, 1:03 pm

    Nice overview of the industry. I think there are some unidentified gaps in the whole self-publishing process for budding authors. Most important that new authors represent the quickest way to change the whole pricing model given that new authors primarily look for just a way to get their books into people’s hands. As someone looking to publish my first book, I don’t want to rely on a publisher or agent to get my message out or market for me. I just want a cheap, on-demand way to digitally distribute my book through channels that people can access easily.

    Undoubtedly the traditional and existing ebook publication and distribution process is limiting the creativity and range of books making it to people’s hands.

    And though I don’t believe print or today’s ebook publishing and distribution channels will be overthrown soon, a sea-change will happen much the same way print news is being hurt by online content providers.

    And for those who think every author wants to be an immediate best seller, of course we’d all like that but are reasonable enough to know that it probably won’t happen. We just want to be able to take a shot now that production costs should be drastically lower.

    To his credit though, Godin’s just the beginning of a wave. Big-time authors soon will realize they don’t need to rely on the traditional models either.

    If they realized those of us with Kindles, Nooks, and other e-readers would be just as satisfied buying directly from the authors as existing channels, they’ll push for change themselves too.

    Reply

  • Stephen Martin — September 17th, 2010, 7:17 am

    Another great book is the 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, also by Al Ries, together with Laura Ries. The book has a whole section on the 11 immutable laws of internet branding. A great read.

    Reply

  • Loreen Leedy — September 17th, 2010, 10:37 am

    “What might happen if the iBooks agreements of the other Big Five all have suspiciously similar terms?”

    Hi Tim, I may have missed it, but I couldn’t find a mention of an ebook royalty rate. I’m a children’s book author-illustrator, and my understanding from colleagues is there is a uniform ebook royalty rate being offered from the Big Six for new and backlist books. They call it the “standard” ebook royalty and unlike print royalty rates it is NOT based on the retail price.

    Instead, it is 25% of publisher’s net (for author-illustrators of picture books, can’t speak to other genres). Translated for comparison purposes, that *may end up being 12.5% of retail. The hardback royalty on paper picture books is typically 10%, so for a digital product with no paper, no ink, no warehouse or shipping costs, OR returns, authors/illustrators get a 2.5% “raise.” *It is hard to say now what the actual dollars will turn out to be in practice.

    Included with the backlist “offers” is a zero advance, and no publication date requirement. So far I have not heard of any children’s book publisher offering better terms (of course, they may be keeping it quiet.) Publishers have recently sent out thousands of agreement letters to authors to attempt to lock in ebook rates for their entire backlist, wherein primary ebook publishing rights were NOT included, only subsidiary rights which often called for a 50/50 split with the author (obviously a better deal for authors.) The publishers seem to be in a big hurry to get signatures on these deals… why? Because it may soon become super obvious how easy it is to make ebooks? Just a theory. ; )

    Another hard-to-justify component is that apparently the distributors expect to get the same percentage as with paper books even though they don’t have to unpack, store, pack, or ship ebooks. Perhaps the big distributors are holding the publishers hostage… “We want the same terms on ebooks or we won’t carry your print books.” I don’t know but it seems like there should soon be some major price competition coming from upstarts in the ebook aggregator business. Distributors are supposedly needed so a buyer can place one order for a bunch of ebooks by many publishers. This may be another outmoded 19th century concept, though. There should be some way of compiling orders in the cloud or something, right?

    Reply

  • Dave Bricker — September 19th, 2010, 6:22 am

    Great post and excellent commentary following.

    I’d like to differ with one perspective. You make conclusions about the fiction vs. non-fiction eBook markets based on statistics for the top 50 books. These are likely to be driven mostly by outside sources such as book reviews. You suggest that since only two non-fiction books are in that top 50, fiction is the better market.

    But like local bands who never sign with a record label but bring in the dancers and drinkers night after night, there are excellent opportunities for writers to make decent income well below the #50 slot on the list. It’s not a get rich game, but it can mean decent money and indy writers don’t have to set their sites on the top of a pyramid controlled by mega-industry.

    Many eBook selections are made after people search for specific topics, and in these cases, success has to do mostly with your findability on Amazon. My novel is a needle in the fiction haystack, but my One Hour Guide to Self-Publishing shows up near the top on a kindle book search two weeks after being published.

    Consider sampling the top 5,000-10,000 books before directing writers towards fiction as their best opportunity. I’m a novelist at heart, but I’m betting my publishing business on nonfiction. Fiction is an art product, while nonfiction provides a solution to a need recognized by a reader in search of an answer. That sounds like a sounder business proposition to me.

    All the best and thank you,

    Dave Bricker

    Reply

  • elsa — September 20th, 2010, 5:34 am

    I believe that your friend makes a lot of money
    because e-books sold online are mostly focusing
    on giving solutions that deliver fast results.

    For example like “how to lose weight in 14 days”,
    “how to get flat abs fast” etc.

    It is different from the majority of physical books
    that do not deliver fast results.

    Reply

  • Charlie — September 20th, 2010, 8:04 am

    @Loreen Leedy: “25% of publisher’s net”

    Danger! Danger! If this is true, it’ll be very risky for authors and illustrators. Movie studios routinely offer a percentage of “net” rather than “gross”. Guess what, they’re notorious for fudging the numbers so every runaway blockbuster turns out to lose money on paper. They can be very creative trying to cause a “loss”. Thus the studio and the more famous actors make big bucks while the original writer gets almost nothing – or even somehow ends up in debt to the studio.

    Beware of inevitable misbehavior if book publishers push for a move to the same model… Remember, your cut needs to come off the top, not off the bottom.

    Reply

  • Loreen Leedy — September 20th, 2010, 3:09 pm

    @Charlie re “25% of publisher’s net”

    It’s true all right, but presumably pubs wouldn’t use Hollywood accounting… mainly because their authors would jump ship. In Hollywood there are “writers” (as opposed to authors) because there are so many other people that contribute to a film. With book publishing, the content is provided by authors (and with picture books, illustrators/photographers)… there isn’t anyone else.

    On the other hand, it may be that the software developers are hoping to get a big piece of the ebook pie, and pubs are trying to allow for that. My theory is, what’s the rush to sign a contract when nobody knows what form the ebooks are going to take, what the retail cost will be, and when they’ll be “published” and on and on?

    Reply

  • Fredrik Gyllensten — September 22nd, 2010, 12:01 am

    Like your afterwords..

    I have just gone from e-books to paperbooks! I have to say I enjoy reading real books much more then e-books. I spend enough time on the computer already, and reading a book in a paper format seems much easier on the eyes then reading on a computer.

    Reply

  • Josh — September 23rd, 2010, 7:58 pm

    Tim, do you have any recommendations on books or any other resources for a new author writing non-fiction?

    Reply

  • Jeremy Day — September 28th, 2010, 7:37 pm

    Hi Tim,

    Ive read your blog and followed your blog for awhile. Truly some great food for thought here.

    Your recommendations are great. Produce great content and build your tribe around it. Publish a book only if and when you are ready. Speak only when you have the desire to do so.

    If you have a large enough tribe, and that may only be 1,000 fans, you will be able to make money in one form or another, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be a book.

    Cheers,
    Jeremy

    Reply

  • John Lehman — September 29th, 2010, 10:20 am

    Jim, I have a electronic newsletter I send to about 200 people I know who are interested in writing. I would like to excerpt part of this excellent post in the next one. I will certainly give you credit. I don’t charge those receiving it for this so there is no money involved. Let me know if that’s OK. John

    Reply

  • John Lehman — September 29th, 2010, 10:21 am

    Sorry, I know your name is “Tim” not “Jim”. Just typing too fast. John

    Reply

  • David Kadavy — September 29th, 2010, 3:37 pm

    Hi Tim, I’ve been looking into an agent, for a book title that a few publishers have expressed interest in. What I don’t understand is the fee structures of agents, for which 15% seems to be standard.

    My thinking is this: I could get a 10% royalty *myself* – don’t I need an agent to go above and beyond that? I would rather do something like pay an agent 15% of up to a target $ amount, and 30% for every $ above that. Here’s hypothetical numbers on $100,000 worth of books.

    STANDARD COMMISSION OF 15%
    Your royalty of 10%: $10,000
    Your agent’s 15% cut: $1,500
    You get: $8,500

    15% COMMISSION UP TO $10K, 30% ABOVE $10K (assuming your agent gets you a 20%
    Your royalties of 20%: $20,000
    Your agent’s 15% on first $10k: $1,500
    Your agent’s 30% bonus for above $10k: $3,000
    TOTAL FOR AGENT: $4,500 ($1,500 more than they would have gotten with standard 15%)
    You get: $15,500

    It seems like with a commission structure like this, a publisher would be better incentivized to actually get you a better deal. Any experience with, or thoughts about, this? Thanks.

    Reply

  • JaneyD — October 5th, 2010, 7:57 am

    Could you please correct this obvious typo–it’s over-exciting the kids.

    “$5,000,000 and $10,000,000 per month”

    If any writer is pulling in 7-8 figures a month on a self-pub, then we’d have heard about it before now. CNN would be all over that one like a cheap suit.

    The royalties for the vast majority of e-pub writers is more like $5.00-$10.00 per month–if they have a large family and lots of friends.

    I see too many of them on CreateSpace with their 50-page Twilight and Eregon-inspired epics hoping to make it big.

    Or the adults blow money on a vanity house or worse, PublishAmerica, thinking their books will get into stores.

    Yes, some of the numbers are impressive, but the money tends to be mostly for writers who have made a ton of print published sales and have a solid platform of readers to support them.

    But please–fix that typo.

    Reply

    • Tim Ferriss — October 5th, 2010, 5:34 pm

      It’s not a typo. The biggest players don’t care about public recognition; they care about their revenues. They view themselves as product sellers, not authors.

      Tim

      Reply

  • Wynelle Burns — October 16th, 2010, 11:15 pm

    Hi Tim,

    I just recently found your blog via reading your book excerpts on the web while actually looking at another book! LOL. I have been very impressed at reading all of your different articles, advice and amazing tips and help sites for so many different interesting subjects.

    I was intrigued about this particular one regarding publishing as my husband and I are missionaries in Colombia, South America and we work with youth in education. I have actually written two books and have been looking for the opportunity to get them published.

    Recently I found a website on the Barnes and Noble site called Pubit…not sure if you have heard of it? I just signed up and it is strictly for authors who would like to publish their books as an Ebook, it does not cost to join and you only have to have a SS# or TAX ID # if you have your own company and then you can publish.

    The cool thing is that they publish it on their BN website and is also available through NOOK via your phone, android, IPAD or PC. The publisher is allowed to set their own price from $2.99 to $199.99 and depending on the price set, royalties can be either 40 or 60%. It seems to be an awesome alternative for people like me who want to get started right away.

    I want to publish and see what happens so I can at least get started but was also wondering…..IF you might have some thoughts or insights on this website?

    I look forward to hearing from you!

    Blessings,
    Youthmissionary

    Reply

  • James Elmer — October 19th, 2010, 7:23 pm

    Traditional books contrast to its competitors should be stay in the trend. You can say it is very risky as compared to the technology today but still for me traditional reading take out more impact compare to others………….

    Reply

  • James Elmer — October 19th, 2010, 7:27 pm

    Traditional books contrast to its competitors should be stay in the trend. You can say it is very risky as compared to the technology today but still for me traditional reading take out more impact compare to others. We must keep what me have in practice is stay on it traditional reading is the best way to touch more lives and must be enjoy by the next generation that will follow.

    Reply

  • Dirago — October 22nd, 2010, 7:30 pm

    Forgive me for possibly coming from left field, but books, like art, take a set of ideas and permanently affix them in our world whether significantly or hardly at all. it’s hard to take back ideas in a printed book like images on a painted canvas. they exist. with that said, Van Gough as most of us know is rumored to have only sold only 1 piece his whole life – The Red Vineyard. Right wrong or indifferent, the point is he didn’t sell many.

    then he died and paintings like Portrait de l’Artiste sans Barbe sold for $71m making it one of the 10 most expensive paintings ever sold.

    The question I ponder is; are you making art, or are you writing books? Tim refers to high level writers as “product sellers, not authors” – so I guess we all have to pick our poison as far as semantics are concerned.

    I’m writing a non-fiction piece to ‘sell product’ and build social capital more than real money. others are writing to be permanently affixed in a world where words are art and books are top selling paintings even if it takes 10 years after you die to accomplish.

    so with my limited experience on the topic, i think we need to determine as perspective writers our purpose in publishing before we can dissect and appreciate the myriad of publishing methods.

    best of luck to all those who are not afraid of the challenge of publishing

    Reply

  • Sean — October 27th, 2010, 8:37 pm

    Great article! I second the fact that AuthorSolutions is not a great self-publishing solution.

    I recently published my book “Naked Lens: Video Blogging & Video Journaling to Reclaim the YouTube” via Lightning Source. With this model, you need to form a publishing company and learn the ropes (no hand holding). But I’m earning the maximum possible $ per book sold. Now that I’m all set-up a second title is on the way.

    I’m happy to share more on my experience with LSI if anyone is interested.

    Tim – thanks for keeping this blog and writing your book. My biggest challenge is marketing and you make it look easy (and fun!)

    Reply

  • Brad Smith — October 28th, 2010, 2:19 pm

    Tim – thanks for the post. As an author of two books myself, I could not agree more with your post. Most people expect when the pop something on Amazon they will rapidly make a fortune – but few sell more than a few thousand copies. Even if you do hit it big, the money is not in the book itself – its the total package that sells.

    Reply

  • Steve — October 29th, 2010, 7:10 pm

    Hey Tim I’m an aspiring fiction writer and was wondering how alot of the principle’s involved in building a comunity of fans applies to fiction writing. Could you point me in the direction of someone who could help me out?

    Reply

  • Scott — November 10th, 2010, 11:45 pm

    Hi Tim,

    I recently finished my first book on your suggestion I tried out Authorhouse. I signed up with them and then reviewed their publishing material and discovered it was going to end up being really expensive for what I needed. I have tried to contact Authorhouse numerous times by email and phone and they have agreed to refund my money but no one is actually refunding me my money. It is great that they agreed but it is very disappointing the service I am getting. I hate to post this on here, but I started this ocher a month ago and no one is making any attempt to help. My advice is to stay away from Authorhouse.

    Reply

  • Mike — December 10th, 2010, 6:28 pm

    Tim –
    I have been working the past year on a fitness book. Right now, it’s about 400 pages. The research I’ve put into it is top of the line.
    Despite all this work, I am leaning toward releasing it as an ebook on my own website. My projected price point is $37. Does this sound like a viable business model assuming my book is high quality? thx

    Reply

  • John — January 5th, 2011, 8:48 pm

    “$5,000,000 and $10,000,000 per month” INSANE!!! Great post Tim.

    Reply

  • Relentless Aaron — January 6th, 2011, 9:20 pm

    Tim, love your work. This blog is VERY on point, except for isolated circumstances like me. I ROBBED one of the big 6! They gave me a QUARTERMILLION DOLLAR ADVANCE (basically at gunpoint). I should thank them for the iPad I’m typing this on, the car I’m driving, the RV I just bought, and my legend as (what publisher’s weekly calls me) the self publishing phenomenon. I’d love to collaborate with you on speaking engagements and other profitable projects. meanwhile, to all who aspire to win with books, Fcuk traditional publishing. Print and sell your own.

    Reply

  • Aaron — January 9th, 2011, 9:52 am

    To Steve. re: your question about “how al ot of the principle’s involved in building a community of fans applies to fiction writing”… The two things (Writing & Building a community of fans), while important for the success of your brand, have nothing to do with one another. Writers are not supposed to be marketeers; that is, until the paradigm shift. Now, artists must also shamelessly market their wares, no matter HOW the old school did it. This may not apply to ALL situations, but it sure applies to writing and authoring books.

    Now, with the advent of social media, yes, you can weave the two together. On my FB page, I sometimes get “fictional,” even adopting character dialog into my status updates. Certainly, if someone within your social media reach sees this they will want to connect with you. Some will want to jump right in and buy. Others fall into one of the “zones” that you must institute when establishing long-term branding.

    Why limit yourself to blogging and community-building thru the written word? VIDEO IS HERE! OBAMA had over 2,000 vids to help him get into office. Tim likely has a lot thanks to all the press and news shows. I have a few hundred myself, tho I am a video producer, so that comes natural. But if you, the layman-author (just taking the lowest denominator/nothing personal) has a voice and if that voice has been called “important & relevant” by a number of people, you cannot help but to expand on your brand and your craft using the massively available vehicle we know as viral Internet Video.

    Relentless Godspeed

    Reply

  • RelentlessAaron — January 15th, 2011, 2:12 pm

    @ Scott , I’m sorry about your dilemma at Authorhouse. I am NOT an advocate of P.O.D. “Print On Demand” and if you google me “Relentless Aaron” and “Self-Publishing” I write about this in my blogs. This advice I give to everyone, speaking or writing, and that is: expect to pay when you go POD. Pay to keep your rights; never pay AND give up your rights. That’s RAPE. You want a book published so you can say you’re an author? Go for it. Just expect to PAY. Now, if you do all the research and you’re ready to publish yourself, you can just get the pdf file to Jim @ ghsoho and they can print 50 copies for you. I’m sure you can move 50 copies easy. From there, print 50 more, or even 300. But, you will save a LOT of money doing it this way. To everyone going into the publishing game, print small quantities, sell them and establish an audience. THEN approach the PRESS/MEDIA. THEN get some video to support everything, THEN build MORE of an audience…all of this B4 you contact a publisher. I PROMISE YOU a publisher who’s hungry to make money will approach you. The Authorhouse way is slow, and costly. @Scott you will get your money back. Be aggressive, like your life depended on it. The energy you spent venting on this blog could’ve gone to better use. Don’t mean to be mean, but thats the truth.

    Peace

    Reply

  • Sean Keefer — January 17th, 2011, 4:04 pm

    Great article! Though I have both books in ebook format. The next few years for traditional publishing will be interesting. With this advent and acceptance of the ebooks, Im sure we will be privy to some incredible new talent!

    Reply

    • Sean — January 17th, 2011, 9:52 pm

      I don’t know much about authorhouse but I do know I’d pick POD over having hundreds of books sitting in my garage any day.:) you will NOT get burned if you do it right, cut out the middleman and go with a vendor such as lightning source. not to mention they take care of fulfillment as well and most books nowadays are bought online.

      Reply

  • Alex — January 28th, 2011, 3:57 am

    Oh… Yeah… I think it is the best post on the blog to comment about how lively traditional publishing still is :)

    I represent those not yet 1.6%, who try to increase the number, but can’t.

    Just imagine, that you are sitting in your chair somewhere in perfect place, enjoying all positive sides of mobility and thinking how to change things (sure, for better). You come across one perfect in all aspects and fitting desired lifestyle book. E-book. For example, “The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated” (Format: eBook, 352 pages; ISBN: 978-0-307-59116-6 (0-307-59116-6))

    Sure, you are not pirate and go to Amazon to buy it (though it is much slower than thepiratebay or rapidshare). Stupid Amazon says “This title is not available for customers from your location in: Europe”. “Damn…” – you think – “Again this Amazon restrictions, but surely, there is normal place to buy books, apart from Amazon”.

    You go to Barnes & Noble, and there is no restriction. Great! But “This title is unavailable to download.” message appears and then you receive e-mail message “If you received this email regarding your order for a Barnes & Noble eBook, please be advised that these purchases are limited to those customers physically located in the United States and Canada.” OK. Barnes & Noble loose my miserable $9 too…

    May be ebooks.com? Yes, I have $22 to pay! Please give me a book! Easily. But “This book is only available to customers in the following countries: …” List includes Afghanistan and Western Sahara. But I can’t go (at the moment) to Western Sahara to buy a book. I want it here, in forgotten by gods land of Central Europe. And I’m not sure, whether I can download it in W.Sahara. It used to be desert at my school time …

    So, if you want opinion, not story: remove these “old school” copyright restrictions, make it available everywhere and at least one person would be thankful :)

    Reply

  • Marco Lee — February 2nd, 2011, 3:32 pm

    I was actually thinking of writing a hardcopy book just for authority and credibility. Who or where else can I go for than consult your blog.

    I really find your reply on the last words of your post interesting and beautiful;

    “Which advice will be obsolete in 12 months? Delete. Which advice would be obsolete in 24 months? That means it will only be good about 12 months after pub date. Delete.”

    These little advices can sometimes really are helpful.

    Reply

  • Sergio Rodriguez — February 8th, 2011, 9:22 am

    Thanks Tim. This is a great post. I have been working on a book myself for quite a while. You answered most of my questions and concerns about which way to go once its complete.

    Reply

  • adamsmithalevel — April 3rd, 2011, 4:55 pm

    Hi Tim, I fully agree that with you that traditional publishing is diminishing fast, although it may not totally disappear.

    Just like the telegraph, pagers and CDs, the publishing firms have to redefine themselves.

    If they say: “I’m in the publishing business, they will be extinct soon.

    If they say: “I’m in the information business, they will remain relevant.

    Such is the Economics of the world right now, shaped by the internet, Google and telecommunications technology.

    Cheers.

    Jack

    Reply

  • Robin Colucci Hoffman — June 5th, 2011, 9:23 am

    Excellent article! Such a terrific overview and the links/resources you provide will help any aspiring author who is serious about being successful. I am recommending it to all of my clients and followers!

    Reply

  • Tom Owen — June 14th, 2011, 11:05 pm

    Tim, I see that Borders has filed for bankruptcy and the New York Times now includes e-books on its bestseller list. Do these two changes since your original post make you recommend self-publishing now, or would you still recommend the publisher route for first-time authors who can obtain a respectable publisher?

    Reply

  • dave lee — June 24th, 2011, 1:56 pm

    Good stuff… what’s the best way to market a book that’s been self published? for a no name, our book has done well, but hasn’t really hit the area of go the f to sleep money….

    Reply

  • Mark — July 28th, 2011, 2:34 am

    Wow Tim I had no idea that authors received such a small percentage of the book sales. That is why you need to have a bestselling book like you to make in money via traditional publishing.

    Reply

  • Great post & clientele, Tim! — August 10th, 2011, 2:44 am

    GREAT ARTICLE, TIM!
    It seemed very balanced to me. And I noticed you didn’t bash either publishing method.

    Btw, look at all these hot guys on here o:O If I’d known you had this kind of clientele I would’ve come here sooner, Tim.

    Reply

  • Arnaud Piscine — August 31st, 2011, 1:40 am

    Very interesting piece. Truly inspiring for any wanna be author. I’m in Europe and it’s nice to get some advice from the US since you guys are always a step ahead of us.
    Keep up the good work!

    Reply

  • alex d — September 21st, 2011, 9:13 am

    I have been writing for many years now, and have had several of my works published. However the hardest part I always come to when I am writing, is getting it published. Most would say writers block, but I have had the hardest time getting my work published until I started self publishing my own work through a great resource I found. I found that their unique transfer software allows just about any body submit their books from any manuscript layout software they use. Soon enough they will then publish a book in trade quality from as many copies as you desire. It even takes only a week to get the published copies. Instantpublisher has saved me so many different troubles when it comes to writing.

    Reply

  • Kenedy — September 24th, 2011, 9:07 pm

    I really have to say that I felt very overwhelmed for that hardcover books statistics, I’ll always rely on kindle and ebooks…
    In my opinions hardcover are almost gone, just more
    place for dust in my house.

    And that sucks every time I have to clean it…

    Thankyou for this Awesome post!

    Reply

  • Ryan — October 1st, 2011, 10:19 am

    Killer as always! Thanks Tim.

    Reply

  • Bob Walker — October 10th, 2011, 8:16 am

    Great post! “The middleman of currency is removed, and you also have access to things money can’t buy, whether it’s interesting people or unusual resources.” – this is true! My wife started a blog and it got us a house to live in two years on an island – FREE!

    Reply

  • Linda Parkinson-Hardman — November 14th, 2011, 9:19 am

    I’ve been writing for several years now and have only ever self published, in both paperback and eBook formats. I have to say that Tim has it pretty much about right. Whilst I wouldn’t stop selling eBooks, the paperbacks outsell them by 1000′s of % all the time. All five so far are non-fiction though and I do have a pretty good marketing mechanism for the health books as well as the online bookstores, in fact one of them is a best seller on both sides of the Atlantic. My next book though, will be fiction and I am in a dilemma about whether to see if I can find an agent and a publisher or whether to stick with self publishing. The market for the novel is the same as for the health books and therefore there is a certain sort of logic that might mean it would be better for me to self publish. Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

    Reply

  • Brianna — November 18th, 2011, 10:19 pm

    Hi Mr. Ferriss,

    I know you don’t write fiction books, but can you offer a conjecture on what the “new market” means for novelists and short-story writers? Also, it’s so much harder for story writers to put up a so-called “platform.” Can you give an aspiring fiction author some hints and description of what this means, and how to alleviate the anxiety that comes with it?

    I don’t think I’d be comfortable as a public speaker. In fact, I know I wouldn’t. I hope that as a fiction writer I wouldn’t have to give speeches, because I am very shy and not comfortable with face-to-face conversation. I have about half of a draft completed (not enough to sell yet, of course!), and I am only 15 :) Can you give some tips on what fiction writers can/should do with regards to (what is still the standard for us) traditional publishing, which still requires a lot of self-promotion and “Platform”?

    Thanks :)

    Reply

  • Mel Ulle — November 21st, 2011, 9:10 pm

    Outstanding information, Tim. I read your book 4.5 years ago when I was preggo with my first kid and it was life-changing. Keep rocking the great karma. You deserve it!

    Reply

  • Lenia — December 16th, 2011, 8:21 am

    Hi Tim,

    I am a Greek that is trying to keep thinking positively and your book plays an important role on that.

    I just wanted to tell you that your book provides great information and it actually changed my life. I know it seems to be a common comment but I wanted to thank you.

    I read your book on September 2010. Since then my life changed radically: On Mars 2011, I started traveling around the world, discovering new cultures and thinking about my future.
    My travel finished on September 2011 and then I decided to quit my high salary job in Paris, follow my passions and my dreams. I know, that also looks a little bit common but for me it was a real revolution. I was like the person you describe in your book but not anymore.

    I decided to apply a new life philosophy. My current project is the following: Working on line, build my life on Chios, a Greek island, travel and be free to dream.

    I am positive and I keep thinking positively even if Greece is in a big mess. I apply the low-information diet and I feel released because all other Greek people around me are sick but not me!

    So thank you for the book and for the great information you provide through this blog.

    Lenia

    Reply

  • ugg — January 7th, 2012, 4:03 am

    I precisely desired to say thanks once again. I am not sure what I could possibly have tried within the absence of those ideas contributed by you relating to such a subject. It had become a distressing condition in my view, even so , being able to view the well-written tactic you processed it produced me to weep over joy. Very grateful for your guidance and believe you realize what an wonderful job you are doing instructing others with the aid of a internet web site. Most likely you haven’t come across any of us.

    Reply

  • Denise Duffield-Thomas — January 9th, 2012, 11:01 pm

    About six months ago I decided to experiment with online publishing using Kindle and Createspace (which distributes to B&N, Diesel, Kobi, iBooks, all those other e-readers).

    I put up some old ebooks I wrote ages ago, got a cheap covers made for them and literally forgot about them. I had no interest in building a brand or a business around them (anymore), but they were good little ebooks.

    Just got a cheque from Amazon for $102 (a hundred bucks is their min payment threshold) and my Smashwords balance is $165.

    OBVIOUSLY not a fortune, but for ebooks that I did zero promotion for, didn’t build a platform for or do anything else except write and forget – that’s not bad.

    Rinse and repeat…

    Obviously for my own book (Lucky Bitch), I’m basing it on a brand and a platform as well as having higher priced back end services. At this stage, I’m not interested in investing the time in writing a book proposal – but I’m building my platform so I could possibly interest someone in the future.

    I’ll check in in another six months to see if I’ve been able to grow that Kindle balance exponentially with more books.

    Reply

  • BrittanyKaye — March 14th, 2012, 9:02 am

    Hi Tim,

    Just read an interview with Seth Godin dated 03/2012 about the future of published. He alludes to several points you made in this post.

    Do you have any follow-up thoughts on this subject, 18+ months later?

    Thanks for all you do,

    BK

    (I found the interview here: http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2012/interview-seth-godin-on-libraries-literary-agents-and-the-future-of-book-publishing-as-we-know-it/)

    Reply

  • Paul — April 17th, 2012, 2:32 am

    Completely agree that print publishing is on the decline.

    I hope we’ll have both digital and print publishing side on side. Both are useful, just for different situations.

    Thanks for a nice article.

    Reply

  • Cody — May 4th, 2012, 10:08 am

    Glad to hear it come from the mouth of two of the most influential people in the online game. I continue to learn something with every post and video and I thank you for that

    Reply

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