If you write fiction, this is the average length you can expect depending on the type of fiction you are writing.
The length of novels usually ranges between 50,000 and 110,000 words. The industry supports longer papers, especially from established and trusted authors, but this is a good average area. Keep in mind that even between novels, genre affects everything.
How many books can a beginning author expect to sell?
A beginning author can expect to sell between 500 and 1000 books. It’s a small amount compared to what established authors can sell, but it’s a good start. Many beginning authors give up after selling a few hundred copies of their book.
Self-published authors appear to have sold around 250 books. A large publisher will usually give a beginning author an advance of $5,000 to $10,000. A best-selling author who sells 40,000 copies a year earns between $60,000 and $180,000 a year, according to estimates. Ordering an average book in the United States costs around $500. The typical self-published author sells between 250 and 300 books. To become the number 1 seller on Amazon, he must sell between 3,500 and 5,000 copies in 24 hours. Only 25,000 books out of 1.2 million sold more than 5,000 copies, or just 2%. Most new authors on traditional publishing deals receive between $5,000 and $10,000 as an advance.
Self-publishing on Amazon is also worth your while if you can benefit from the clicks and views your eBook receives to spark new business ideas.
Introduction
Last year, we looked at authors who earn more than $5,000 per month versus authors with lower incomes to find the differences. This year, we’re comparing authors who earn more than $100,000 in a year with authors who earn less than $500 a month from book sales. Let’s call these two groups 100Kers and Emerging Authors. The following article will explore the differences between these two groups of authors with the goal of helping authors reach that $100,000 goal. About 11% of the authors surveyed fell into the 100K bucket, so it’s a very closed but also a closed club.
100kers = Authors who have made $100,000 or more in a year from book sales
Nothing about your book matters until someone else does.
Neither the cover, nor the title, nor the genre, nor the story, nor the theme.
If nobody sees it, it doesn’t matter. And once you get below 100,000, you’re selling less than one copy a day. If you’re not driving traffic, talking about your book, blogging, promoting or advertising, if you’re not, all the time, you’re invisible.
The part-time writer
If your goal is to supplement your current income and scratch your creativity by telling stories, publishing a book every two years is enough for you.
Even then, it really depends on which side of this equation carries more weight. If creating a great story is the most important thing to you, it doesn’t matter how many books you write. In this situation, I would recommend that you stick with the process and enjoy it for what it is, and avoid confusing it by setting a regular confidentiality goal.