Making Money With Self-Published Books: On Royalties

I had to do a bit of searching, but thanks to an email I read, I know a bit more about how you can make money, or more properly royalties, with your self-published books.

For the purposes of this post, I am only going to refer to royalties for paperback books.  I think that most people, can and should have e-books, and they are a bit different. It is similar to the difference between writing a blog or writing on a pay-per article website.

I had to do some Googling because I was not keen on asking a few questions to a vanity press; I was not keen on speaking with a customer service representative. 

So what did I find out about royalties? They ranged, is the answer.  For example, I found that some websites point to Lulu, or Xlibris or AuthorHouse, but when making a comparison, they use different prices (for example Xlibris says a book selling for $24.99 will give me the author 25% royalties if I sell from their online store, 10% if I sell elsewhere.)

To me, it is important to know the percent across the board not the base price.  CreateSpace says that the percentage of the royalties is tiered based upon where I sell my book.  Others simply tell me the precentage of prices based upon where you sell.  This means I have to do a bit of thinking. After all, I like writing. I do not like to think that much!

Royalties are important, and everyone does have to make money, but you also need to be able to make a living on the sales of your books.  This is a big part of why I decided on a place like CreateSpace. I picked the method of distributing and the cost, and also the royalties.  In the end it is my money.