A few months back, I wrote an article looking at what percentage of authors make a full-time living from it. This post is to elaborate on the expenses I paid out versus royalties received in 2022, to give a balanced view of what the reality is like being an Indie author. I don’t have much basis for comparison as my fellow Indie authors have not disclosed their own data to me, but I assume I’m fairly typical for a one-woman promotional machine. So here goes:
Expenses in 2022 (paid out for advertising, writing competition fees, ARC distribution) = £617.88
Royalties in 2022 (from Amazon KDP, Ingramspark, Waterstones, publisher royalties for my traditionally published books and sales at author events = £809.38
Net profit = 191.50
425 books sold (excluding free ebook promotions). £809 ÷ 425 = approximately £1.90 royalties per book sold.
Well, that’s a bit sobering in the grey light of day, isn’t it? No giving up the day job anytime soon. Let me have a moment to go into a corner and cry.
Alright, so now that I have got that out of my system, it’s good to acknowledge that luckily for me, I’m not motivated by trying to make money from my writing. Sure, it would be nice to make a full-time living from it and admittedly I do dare to dream of such a thing, but I am motivated by the desire to have people read my books, not to crank out a book I don’t believe in just because I think it might become a bestseller. I sold 425 books in 2022, so I’ll focus on that. That’s a lot of readers, and an audience for my writing is what I’m after.
Getting token royalties for my books is great, but I know it doesn’t keep a roof over my head. In other words, my expectations are realistic. I know I will always need a day job of some kind. In my view being an Indie author represents freedom for me to write what I want, free of any need to produce a commercial story that would limit me artistically, and so despite the paltry payments (or lack thereof, after expenses come into play), I continue to feel motivated to write more books.
Leilanie Stewart 
Selling $800 in book royalties would be amazing! I tend to make around $200 max! You are doing great.
Thanks for sharing your stats, Sara. ☺️ My royalties and expenses are lower this year since I’m now only paying for sponsored ads, so I’ll see what the balance is like at the end of 2023. It would be lovely if us authors could earn a living wage from our writing instead of having to do regular jobs too, but I don’t know any full-time authors, sadly!
So true! Some trad. Publishers can do it but some don’t even if they’re with a publishing house too. Imagine making money off our art. Would be cool!
That would be lovely, and well deserved for us all. Writing is so hard, and takes so long!
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