Is it true that the author barely gets 10% of the book sales?

>>8308724
With traditional publishing, yes. Amazon gives you a 35-70% cut depending on your book's price, whether it's public domain or not and what country it's sold in, but then you'll have to figure out how to advertise it on your own.

>>8308724
Paperback 8%, hardback 15% I think.

When you look at this >>8308739 you can see why self-publishing isn't always the last resort anymore.

>>8308724
Yes, but people who complain about this also tend to assume that the publisher gets a humongous cut when in reality all parties involved from printer to store get roughly the same cut as the author.

>>8308739
>>8308753
>>8308839
I'm not from the US but I'm writing a novel in English and I was hoping to get a publishing deal there.

Is this the best choice or should I just go with Amazon?

>>8308724
They barely do 10% of the work

I get 100% from my publisher. :)

>>8308967

If you actually want to make more than like $20 from your mom/rest of your family being the only ones to buy your book, try to go the traditional route. Amazon will not give you an advance. Amazon will not market the book for you. Unless your book is seriously some transcendental work or the most boring pleb shit that all the retards will suck up and you can market it well, you won't sell shit on Amazon.

>>8308967
Look you can self-publish, but you won't sell any books. Publishers can advertise your books, which is how they get sold.

>>8309350

100% of zero is still zero.

>>8309363
I release everything I write under GFDL.

Think about it:

Nearly every author has an agent who acts as a liaison between them and various publishing houses. They take a piece.

The publishing house themselves does all the work of actually printing the book on paper (average 200 sheets of paper per book + binding + cover art + dustjacket making etc.) which is a significant proportion of the input cost. They get the lion's share of the profits. If they also distribute they get even more, if not a distribution company and all the middle men between get a piece.

The vendors that actually sell the books also retain quite a bit of profit from sales.

Money also goes to the teams that do legal negotiations to obtain the rights to publish in other countries.

Marketing firms also take a chunk

Leaving the author with a small percentage, but given the fact that it cost him nothing but time to produce the book, it makes sense financially why he would not get something ridiculous like 35-50%. Amazon can afford to give authors a higher share of the profits because it is way cheaper for Amazon to digitally publish a text document with no shipping costs than it is to do it the old-fashioned way

>>8308724
>buying books from an author that isn't dead
?

>>8309395
>nothing but time
YEAH TIME SPENT LEARNING HOW TO WRITE AND THEN ALL THAT TIME I WASTED GETTING REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE AND TRAVELLING SO THERE IS ACTUALLY SOMETHING I CAN TAKE FROM AND PUT INTO MY WRITING
LOL U THINK I JUST SIT HERE AND WORDS JUST COME OUT? LMAO

>>8309355
If it's seriously transcendental then it definitely won't sell

>>8309799

No one who is in the position to publish your work gives a shit.

>>8309831
which is why I stick with the artistic endeavor that actually pays me my wage as a DJ/theatre tech is more than enough to give me as much time and money I feel like I need and I can waste all the time I want writing garbage nobody is ever going to read

>>8309799
yes but you didn't seek out life experience for the express purpose of writing a good novel, it was something you wanted because of its intrinsic worth, what you draw from it for inspiration is only incidental.

My point was that economically, it's understandable that the entities that put the most financially into the process get the most financial return

>>8309950
The artist seeks out life experience in order to transform it into art, actually.

File: ancient rome 1.jpg (290KB, 363x500px) Image search: [Google]

290KB, 363x500px

>>8309958
le art from life
*actually

Fuck you, pretentious cunt.

Isn't it true that they don't even get that if the sales are less than the advance?

And that's usually what happens, isn't it. An author's first book usually doesn't even earn out its advance.

>>8309950
>>8310065
le economics

Fuck you, pigfucking shill.

>>8310086
Two different guys.

But seriously guy, don't try to justify your bad life choices and living a bland life in another country rather than a bland life in your own country on ART.

It obviously wasn't economically viable.

>>8309860
if your parents ever stop supporting you you'll have a change of tone