For those of you curious about how much money is made on books, I’ve created a spreadsheet which shows exactly how much money is made self-plublishing e-books and print books.
The spreadsheet compares most of the major self publishing services: Lulu, Create Space, Lightning Source, Amazon Digital Text Platform (Kindle), Amazon e-docs, as well as selling directly through the web.
The comparisons shows how much profit can be made selling a self published book using the various companies and various different formats.
As you can see above, the most profitable option for print books is to point your customers to Lulu or CreateSpace Pro store. This option would give you $$5.61 and $6.76 per book on a $14 book. For books that are distributed on Amazon or other retail sites, Lightningsource is the most profitable option followed by CreateSpace Pro. Lightning Source gives flexibility with the discount rate which can increase profitability further as well as opening the doors to websites besides Amazon.com. CreateSpace Pro provides greater ease of use and lower start-up costs.
Tags: Amazon, create space, createspace, lulu, profit spreadsheet, self publishing
Posted
June 20th, 2009
Topic: Book Blog.
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Hi there
Thanks for the great spreadsheet!
This looks great, thanks for the information, but how does this compare to an actual printed book? Also, how do you advertise and promote your book on these sites? How do these sites pay you?
Sorry, lots of questions!
Thanks Michael. They look more or less the same as a printed book depending on how well you design it. I’m using Lulu publisher grade paper at the moment which is a little thin but more profitable. The books are typically printed in 24hrs after ordering and shipped out. They typically pay every 60days to every 90days and usually via ACH account transfer to checking account. The marketing has to be done by you using whatever means possible.