"My Amazon bestseller made me nothing"

Well, it's really impossible to gauge that $12,000 figure without knowing how many copies were sold -- but between the publisher, the distributor, and Amazon, and possibly even a few more hands, like the editor and the author's agent, at $14.95 a copy, he's probably getting literally pennies per copy sold, so he might need to sell in the hundreds of thousands of copies to make more than the $12K. He might have been better off self-publishing and self-listing.
 
David Jimerson said:
Well, it's really impossible to gauge that $12,000 figure without knowing how many copies were sold -- but between the publisher, the distributor, and Amazon, and possibly even a few more hands, like the editor and the author's agent, at $14.95 a copy, he's probably getting literally pennies per copy sold, so he might need to sell in the hundreds of thousands of copies to make more than the $12K. He might have been better off self-publishing and self-listing.
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Absolutely. I think this is so relevant to filmmakers as we all have heard how nefarious Hollywood accounting can be. Kind of links into the discussion of the new Vimeo VOD introduction. Self promoting creative works is very, very hard, but with self publishing, and maybe the new Vimeo sevice, at least the split of the money at the point of sale has fewer hands, as you put it, to grease.
 
It also means lower sales, a more saturated and fragmented market and lower prices. So the percentages may be in the filmmakers favor, but the totals won't be all that different, or if they are it may be in the wrong direction.

I don't think it's shocking that authors aren't getting rich off of these things, especially with the millions of books people have to choose from. $12,000 for 4,000 books sold seems pretty reasonable to me. That's over a 20% margin on gross sales, which is huge in most industries.

[edited] Just found the part where he says how many sold.

[added] Also, apparently being a 'best seller' on Amazon just means you have to sell really fast in a small window, and it has no relationship to total numbers sold. That means he sold more than Hunger Games in one week (as mentioned in the article), which would make sense since most everyone who wanted to read that already bought a copy.
 
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I somehow missed that he said he sold 4,000 copies. If that's the case, at $3 per copy, he was doing extremely well. (It only takes 4,000 copies to be a "best-seller" on Amazon?)

If he self-published, using only Amazon here, he could have set the price at whatever he wanted. He probably would have had lower sales, but even if he chose Fulfillment by Amazon, at the same price he would have pocketed about $11 per book, so he'd have made the same at about 1/4 of the sales, and he would have had the money directly instead of whenever the publisher sent him the royalty check. Plus, he'd still have the copyright.

So, choose your poison, I guess. It depends on how much hustling you want to do for yourself. More work, but higher potential rewards.
 
Yeah, the math is tough. I checked Amazon and the book is going for $14.95. 4,000 copies, at that price, is $59,800.00. He got a 50/50 split, after expenses. So, expenses were $35,800.00. If he self published the pricing would have been different, probably and your right, he probably would not have gotten as many sales.

It looks like he actually got one of those "Struck by lightning" boosts in notoriety for the book when the Jack Daniels company sent a cease and desist letter to him to have the cover design for the book reprints changed because the original cover too closely resembled the Jack Daniels Ol' Number 7 label design. That got picked up by the internet and went viral. Even with that, the number of books sold only came to 4,000... hmmm.

http://brokenpianoforpresident.com/2012/07/19/jack-daniels-lawsuit-the-full-scoop/

Yep, this business of selling creative product is a tough one, huh?... I should have listened to my momma David and been a plumber!!!
 
Cassius said:
I don't think it's shocking that authors aren't getting rich off of these things, especially with the millions of books people have to choose from. $12,000 for 4,000 books sold seems pretty reasonable to me. That's over a 20% margin on gross sales, which is huge in most industries.
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I was thinking the same thing. Given the headline I figured the book was selling in the hundreds of thousands and the author was only getting 25 cents per sale or something like that. $3 for every book sold sounds decent to me for an indie.

There's a really good article over at The Verge called Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and other digital pioneers sour on 'pay what you want' music that talks about how the digital race to the bottom is impacting artists. It hits on a number of points but the quote bellow is probably most relevant to this thread:

Linda Perry, who penned the song "Beautiful," a hit for singer Christina Aguilera, said that between January and March last year, "Beautiful" was played more than 12.7 million times on Pandora and for that many plays Perry earned $349.16.
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Pandora is currently lobbying for an act of Congress so it can *lower* its royalty payments to artists and labels.

Yes the democratization of music, movies, games etc. has lead to content getting out there that wouldn't have in the past but they all fighting over a piece of the pie that's not getting any bigger.
 
I've spent the last several weeks dealing with six different DVD distributors, and have learned a LOT. Don't know if the publishing world is this way, but in the direct to video world, most distributors will offer the choice of a percentage with expenses deducted, or a lower percentage with you getting that cut on EVERY sale. If the film is extremely successful, you make less this way, but if it is moderately or not very successful, you make something instead of nothing. I chose to make something.
 
I find this whole thing very misleading. In my book, selling 4,000 copies does not make you a "bestseller". Why would anyone expect to be rich after selling only 4,000 copies of a book? Sure, 4,000 is a good number, and more than most people would ever reach, but it's nothing to get all up in arms about.

And I really don't think self publishing would help any of this, for books or films. Self publishing just means there is more competition, and the money is spread more thinly. Plus there is still a stigma towards self published work. People like that a label is attached to published works, as it is sort of a de facto "this is good" sign that lends credibility.
 
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