What Are the Chances of Becoming a Successful Author?
First, you will need to define the term, “successful.” If you are asking about general statistics, then essentially, once you are published, there is only about a 10 percent chance that your book will “pay off,” and that you will see royalties beyond the advance. In other words, only 1 out of every 10 novels earns enough in sales to pay back the costs of production: editing, marketing, printing, warehousing, distribution, accounting, etc.. Some of those 1-out-of-10 novels break even; and some make enough money that they support the rest of the less-successful ventures. You can think of it like this: .03 percent (3 out of 10,000) of all submissions are accepted for publication. Of those, 9 out of every 10 published novels fails to pay back its own production costs. (Production costs include: advances, rights, editing, cover art, printing, warehousing, distribution, accounting, inventory, and taxes.) If the book fails to earn back its production costs, you will not see royalties beyond t
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