Sharing the bits I know about Author Income that eventually becomes a point of discussion in writer circles.
How much do authors earn?
When can I grow enough to become a Rowling or a Stephen King or an Amish?
Coming to Basics+
Traditionally published newbie authors start at around 8% royalty. That is, sale of a book priced Rs. 300 at full price fetches the author Rs. 24
If your monthly sustenance budget is say Rs. 50,000, you need to sell 2084 copies that month (and at full price) ++
Needless to say, selling that many copies needs a marketing investment where the returns are way too iffy. So,
*One book out there cannot sustain an author.*
Even in Self published cases where the royalty is supposedly 70% (Amazon KDP), the competitive pricing and lack of+
Cost effective Print and distribution model works out somewhat the same. Only consolation for the Self unpublished authors is that they did not bother to go through the gruelling wait cycle that their traditionally published peers undergo. That is a different topic. Coming back+
+to how authors can breakeven. Here is the secret.
Royalties form only a small part of an author income. An author's income is what the author chooses to earn. For eg, my income till date includes:
Royalties
Editing
Mentoring fee
Screen adaptation
Ghost/Co-writing
Referrals+
Other income channels include Public speaking, Conducting courses, content writing, etc.
Another important, rather crucial truth.
Royalties increase when you have more books out in the market.
Your profile as subject authority builds with more books out there on shelves.
Sales is a tricky area. More often than not, an 'over night success' author is a consequence of a decade of hard work + a genius brain team of marketing behind.
So a sustainable author income is built by opening up yourself to a couple of non royalty income streams+
+While not sacrificing your core-writing books time.
It is a typical phase every entrepreneur building a product understands. We see them sustaining on a service stream while they slog off to build a product.
Hope the thread was helpful.
For further reading, do refer +
If you found this thread useful or interesting, do please share with your writer friends and click on retweet. Also refer to my last week's thread on Writer's block -
Karna, though 'abandoned', enjoyed the love of his foster household.
The Pandavas lost their father and were in a hostile household where they did not know how and when the next murder attempt will be made on them.
It is natural for Kunti to feel more protective for Pandavas.
On the day of Snatakotsava,
Karna was given full permission to display his skills and was cheered by the public too
He was only questioned when he sought a duel with Arjuna and also declared that he could kill him. That is when he was made the king of Anga by Duryodhana.
Those who decry Goddess worship in the name of crimes against women....
Their real objective is for the worship to stop and crimes to continue.
Otherwise they would take the opportunity to promote Goddess worship in order yo discourage crime. #Navaratri
Remember, India is the only place and Hinduism is the only civilisation that has Devi worship.
It is considered satanical by some misogynist religions. The so called progressives stand with religious misogyny today and are trying to guilt this very population+
+who took to streets after the horrific Norbhaya incident.
They are the same tribe that asks for mercy petition for rapists.
They are those who celebrate Mahishasura as some leader and call our Durga a prostitute.
They celebrate crime in this country. They celebrate peril.
Yesterday, soul sister @DimpleAtra had called for a solution we can come up with to battle the elitist gatekeeping in the publishing industry (Original thread by @sanjeevsanyal ). Here are my two paise +
A. What can the writers do? 1. Write that damn book.
Believe me, in the last six months or so, I encountered at least ten writers with promise who are not motivated to write because of the uncertainty w.r.t publishing.
Any thing can be done only if you have a workable draft.
Worst case (not necessarily, but that is a different topic), you can publish on platforms like Amazon KDP. In my case, the turning around started with KDP.
But WRITE. And WRITE MORE
2. Embrace Technology - Study how social media works and work on building your platform+
The left wing indulgence of 'Savitri shaming' is deeper than we all think. Let me recollect a conversation from past when I was struggling to get my early draft of Abhaya published.
I approached a certain literary agent who tried to influence my book towards 'left'.+
How his left leaning attitude made me dump the plan to traditionally publish it and instead opt for self publishing is a long story.
There is a Savitri episode in this long story 😊.
I had realised that this guy was trying to game my lack of access to publishing world and+
+ use the opportunity to push my story left. So for a few of our sessions, I fought him passively.
In one scene he asked me to think of an 'inspiring' (read rebellious) female character to influence my heroine Abhaya.
I made the father of my heroine tell her story of Savitri+
Shall compile my running thoughts about #Kurukshetra as I compile the numbers in this #thread.
There are three kinds of confrontations - I am terming them 1. duel = One to one 2. general battle = many vs many 3. and cumulative = one against many
Deciding the victor in a duel if the opponent is killed or is forced to flee or is carried away by a friend of his or is spared by the victor. #Kurukshetra
Number crunched #Kurukshetra till Day 11
188 Confrontations of all kinds
46 in favour of Pandavas
28 in favour of Kauravas
Rest are inconclusive
The number of inconclusive confrontations is rather a bit frustrating but natural for the early phase of a war
Have been tagged in multiple discussions related to #Karna in the last couple of days. Will attempt to clarify them in this thread.
Firstly, about the alleged discrimination he faced because of being a SutaPutra and not being admitted into Drona's Gurukula+
Let us first understand the role of a saarathi that a typical Suta was supposed to fill in.
A Sarathi readies the chariot. Makes decisions on the horses to yoke, number of bows and arrows to keep, how many kinds of arrows to keep and how many of each type. A wrong decision+
+can prove fatal to the Rathi, the warrior and the Sarathi too. And to make great decisions, a basic to middle level training in Dhanurvidya is necessary for a Saarathi. He is supposed to train in Dhanurvidya. There is no way Drona would have refused to teach Karna archery.+