Perceived wisdom states that you cannot make money from writing a book. Sadly, many authors would agree with that!  However, last year in 2024, the UK publishing industry’s total revenue (including all formats—print, digital, and audiobook) reached around £7.2 billion, with print accounting for £3.8 billion and digital formats close behind at £3.5 billion.

In addition, Audiobooks are rapidly growing in popularity, with revenues reaching a record £268 million in 2024, a 31% increase from the previous year. So somebody is making a lot of money out of books, just not the authors!

First-time authors are horrified when they discover that 60% of the revenue from book sales goes to the bookshops and distributors. Out of the remaining 40%,  comes the cost of printing.  You do not need to be a mathematical genius to work out that what’s left over to pay the author, is only a couple of pounds at best. Not enough to justify the hours and months of work necessary to write the book in the first place. It is just not fair!

This situation is far from new and has been going on since Caxton’s first printing press. The author has always been last in the queue when profits are divvied out – and always will be unless something changes.  The good news is that it has!

The fundamental problem has not been the multinational book printers, distributors or retailers. It has not been the fact that paper prices have gone up. Nor can you blame the book trade, self-publishing or traditional publishing. The problem is far closer to home. It starts with the author themselves and the choices they make.

Unless you plan to be profitable, you are planning not to be profitable. It is your choice! But how?

The key is to have a plan – and a strategy to achieve it.  More authors do not! They go with the flow and make decisions on the fly, based on emotions rather than facts.  This is no way to run a business. It is the reason that most authors have an expensive hobby rather than a profitable business.

So what does a plan look like? It is down to what it needs to achieve. Your Objective and your Purpose.  Your Objective might be to simply publish your book, but your Purpose may be much larger. It is your reason WHY.

Your book may be an entertaining novel, and your reason for writing is to simply bring pleasure to other people and be known as an engaging writer and personality. Nothing wrong with that. Providing you have the skills to build a following and give your audience what they are looking for. As Zig Ziglar said “You can get whatever you want by helping enough other people to get what they want”

If you are a non-fiction author and passionate about a particular subject, you can be sure that there are multiple thousands of other people who share that same passion. They are ready and waiting to hear what you have to say. By going after a Niche, you can become a big fish in a  small global pond. Niches may be narrow, but they can be very deep – and very profitable!

Many authors say that money is not their motivation for writing. I am sure that they tell lies about other things as well! There is no better measure of success than selling books and making money.  So why is that not happening for them? Because authors don’t know what to do other than to follow what everyone else is doing. The blind leading the blind.

They listen to the loudest voices from the biggest international players in the market, not remembering that they became the biggest international players on the back of paying authors peanuts. The big players have controlled the business model, set the costs, set the royalties and made sure that the lion’s share of sales income goes to them. This is capitalism!   But there are other options, other routes to market and different choices that authors can make by not doing the obvious. If you know what you are doing, you CAN make money!

But there are traps for the unwary as authors who try and go it completely alone, will testify.

To start with, you need to know which routes to market make you the most money. If you are not careful, some books will cost you more money to print than you get back in sales. You need to fully understand how the industry works. There is a price to be paid for ignorance!

If you are to be a professional author then you need to treat your book as your business. Nobody owes you a living. Every business has both income and expenditure. The biggest investor in your business will receive the biggest profit. That should be you!

Chris Day is the founder of Filament Publishing and is an Author Mentor. You can reach him on chris@filamentpublishing.com   or on +44(0)7802211587

INVITATION

To find out how to make a business out of your book – and your intellectual property, join the FREE AuthorCraft masterclass  on Zoom on Monday15th September at 7pm.

To directly join the event click on https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84466168157