The other day, a wonderful woman emailed me to ask before she bought my book where she should shop to help me the most as an author. If I could have reached through the internet to hug her, I would have. Writing is hard. Selling is harder. Authors need all the help they can get.
Unless you’ve got a runaway bestseller on your hands (I’m talking millions of copies sold) or a huge number of books in your catalog (like 20+), writing barely produces enough income to count as a side hustle for most fiction authors. This includes the vast majority of authors who can claim to be a “bestseller” on some index; the number of sales required to make Amazon bestseller status in any but the most competitive categories is far short of those needed to make any kind of living off of writing. I have a friend whose time travel romance recently topped her category, right above Outlander. This made a great screenshot and a thrilling moment for her, but I guarantee you she is not making Diana Gabaldon’s royalties. (If you are interested though, the book is Through the Veneer of Time by Vera Bell).
Self-published authors who price their books in the mainstream make anywhere from pennies to about $5 per book depending on the length, format, and any promotions they may be running. If they spent a couple thousand on professional editing, a few hundred on a cover, an additional hundred or two on software, subscriptions, paper & ink, notebooks etc, along with a small marketing budget, they would have a minimal outlay of $3000 just bringing that book to market. If they make $3 per book, they have to sell 1000 copies just to recoup their costs. That’s a lot of books. Way more than the most enthusiastic mother is going to buy.
Just for perspective, most traditionally published books are hoping for sales in the neighborhood of 15,000 units in six months to a year. Again excepting runaway bestsellers, most fall far short of this goal. Although traditionally published authors get paid in advance based on this expectation, and they don’t have the same upfront expenses, they only get a tiny fraction of profits after the publisher and agent take their cut. If they don’t sell enough to earn back that advance, they never see any royalties at all. Even with an advance of $10-15,000, that’s not a lot of payback for a book that probably took two or more years to write.
If writing is such a bad living, why do authors do it?
I could say that authors write because they love writing. I could talk about how they can’t think about anything else when they are away from their desks, and how they yearn for that perfect, quiet and productive time to write. That would be true, but it glosses over the crippling self-doubt and anxiety, the tedium of editing, and the extreme procrastination that comes from being utterly unable to form a coherent sentence, let alone paragraphs and plots, when the elusive (mythical?) “time to write” finally presents itself. (As a side note, if an author is overweight, it is not so much because we are sedentary. It is because we know that if we just have a fresh cup of tea and another bit of chocolate the words will finally come.)
Authors write because they can’t not write. It’s a bit like having an itch on the sole of your foot- maddeningly intense and hard to scratch. They also write for the validation of having at least one stranger tell them “I loved your book. Thank you for writing this.”
Most fiction authors do not do it for the money. Still, that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t like to make some. (Okay, secretly we are all hoping to be the next Rowling and score a major movie deal, but realistically it’s not about the money). If authors can’t justify the time financially, or worse, end up losing money, what we get is either a pale version of what that book could have been, or no book at all.
So, what’s a concerned reader to do? What sales channel gives an author the best profit? What is the best way to support your favorite author?
The short answer is this:
- The best profits, particularly for print books and small/self-published authors, come via Amazon*. Sad but true. Their production costs are lower and their print on demand model is less costly to authors.
- The best way to benefit the book industry as a whole is to buy from someone other than Amazon, with bonus points for shopping at locally owned, independent bookstores. This requires that authors make a little less, buyers spend a little more, and maybe sacrifice the convenience of having it delivered before you finish clicking “buy now”, but it gives David a fighting chance against Goliath.
- And…
The number one way to show an author some love
The absolute best way to support your favorite authors has nothing to do with where to buy their books- or even if you buy them at all. Whether you buy it, borrow it, or check it out from the library, the best thing you can do is rate it, review it, and tell anyone you know how much you love it. Not only does a positive review provide the validation that authors dream about, but word of mouth and social proof are the two biggest drivers of book sales.
This makes sense if you think about how you discover new reads and what makes you decide to pick one up. Among my reader groups, the top two ways of discovering books are recommendations, whether from personal friends, social media groups, influencers, or traditional media outlets, and browsing, whether in a bookstore (yes! People still do this!) or online. If the recommendation comes from a trusted source, or is enthusiastic enough, people are likely to buy it without much more thought. (One reader confessed to being “that friend who tries to shove his favorite books down the eyeholes of everyone he knows.” While this is a little violent, I appreciate his energy and authors need more fans like him.)
For those who come across a book in the wild, the decision to buy is dictated by
- the cover,
- ratings and/or reviews and
- the blurb.
In. That. Order.
(Another side note: can we retire the admonition “don’t judge a book by its cover” because we all know we do). Whether we are shopping for a book or a beard trimmer, our tendency is to tame the overwhelm by scanning for high star ratings (but not so high they seem suspicious) and then looking to see how many ratings there are. Three 5-star reviews are less convincing than 3,000 reviews and a 4.3-star rating. Only after the cover image and the ratings have enticed us to learn more do people tend to read the blurb, sample, or the actual reviews. Amazon knows this. That’s why the ratings are at the top of the listing above the actual product info, with the written reviews bringing up the rear to seal the deal if you haven’t been convinced already.
What about physical bookstores where there are no ratings? Consider that the very presence of a book on their precious shelves is itself a result of ratings and reviews. Bookstores rightly stock what they believe will sell and that determination is dictated by predicted or demonstrated popularity. Of course they are going to stock the big releases that are heavily promoted by publishers. That’s a no brainer thanks to a stacked marketing plan which, not coincidentally, amasses ratings and reviews before the book is officially released. But what about the millions of other books that are released with far less fanfare? Store buyers watch for what’s trending: the books with good ratings and swelling reviews, the authors with proven past performance. Even if someone requests that they order a book, a store may decide not to stock it if they don’t see additional social proof. Even librarians sometimes have to justify their purchases by citing positive reviews.
What makes a positive review though?
Does it have to be five stars? Can I just rate it or do I have to review it too?
Some authors get very upset when they get anything less than a five star rating. This is unfortunate and misguided, but emotionally understandable (remember the crippling self-doubt and anxiety? Yeah). Instead of getting defensive, they should grab a comfort object, resist the urge to respond, and realize that a perfect five star track record is utterly unbelievable. No one book is perfect for every reader and some readers are very hard graders. From a more dispassionate perspective, a rating of three stars and up is considered a good review.
(Given that the point of this article is how to show authors your love, I’m assuming you enjoyed the book in question. If you really didn’t like a book, that one or two star rating is fair, but consider the impact before you leave it. If the book just wasn’t a good fit for you, maybe skip it, but if you feel strongly that others could benefit from your criticism, then by all means speak up. But please, whatever you do, do not give a bad rating to a book you have not personally read. Review bombing is literary terrorism.)
No matter what rating you are inclined to give, please do consider leaving a written review as well. Yes, it takes more time and initiative. And yes, it’s the star ratings at the top of the listing that grab the headlines, but reviews are important too. If you thought a book was wonderful, rave about it. If you gave it a lower rating, tell the class why. Thoughtful feedback about what you did (and didn’t) like lets other potential readers determine whether it’s a good fit for them (or if you’re one of those hard graders). These reviews are often the best, and another reason angling for all rave reviews is misguided; the reader who picks up a book after reading honest reviews is more likely to enjoy the read and leave positive reviews of their own.
Every time you review a book an author gets their wings!
-Someone
For most authors, selling is hard: not only are we mostly introverts who have an ironically hard time articulating our complex ideas as marketable blurbs, but it’s also a dense, noisy market. Getting heard over the din can be next to impossible. It could be the most amazing, life altering book, but it will go undiscovered if the people who have read it and loved it don’t shout it from the rooftops. So please, the next time you finish a great book, tell people about it. Go back to where you bought it and review it (the review button on Amazon is down with the written reviews), post about it on social media, tell a friend. Who knows, you could be the spark that ignites the next runaway bestseller!
*If you were surprised that Amazon was the profitability winner, check out this article breaking down the numbers!
Well said. Continue writing, continue painting, continue creating. Looking forward to reading your next book.