Hey Brandon! I’ve always wondered this, what is the best way to support you as an author? Do you make more money if we buy an ebook, off of amazon, or at Barnes & Nobles? As a fan of yours I want to make sure you’re receiving as much of the money as I can give.
I get this question on occasion, and always feel the best thing for me to do is emphasize that I prefer you to buy the format that makes you the most happy. That way, you are encouraged to keep reading, and that is really what is best for me.
Most authors makes something around the following:
Hardcover, 15% of cover. (Regardless of store, unless it’s a bargain book.)
Paperback, 8% of cover. (Regardless of venue.)
Ebook, 17.5% of the list price. (Unless they are self-published, and then it’s usually 65-70% of list price.)
So, the best way to get money to an author is to buy the hardcover, preferably during launch week. (That influences how high the book gets on bestseller lists and how much in-store support it gets.)
However, I don’t think that is something a reader needs to worry too much about. To be honest, rather than thinking about this, I think most authors would say that the best thing you can do for us is just read the books. Second best is to loan your copies to a friend so they can enjoy the books too.
With these percentages, were you then sharing/splitting it with the Robert Jordan estate for the Wheel of Time books?
Yes.
Can I just send you money?
I suppose you could—but I’d rather you buy a copy of one of my books and give it to someone. If I have you send me money, then we work around all of the people who deserve their share for helping me out. (Like my agent and editor.)
Risky question time! How do you feel about those of us that buy your hardcover, then go and pirate the ebook?
* This comment is not an admission of guilt.
Risky answer time. I’ve got no problem with it. I wish I could actively give away the ebook to everyone who bought the hardcover. I can actually do this on books like Legion and The Emperor’s Soul , where I retain rights to the ebook. (So I do.)
I’m not encouraging this, mind you. But I’m also not going to complain or make anyone feel guilty. If you’ve paid for the content once, I feel you should have access to it into the future, whenever you want, in any format you want. (With the exception being audiobook, where the voice actors deserve to be paid for their work above and beyond me getting paid for the writing.)
What about with audiobooks? I subscribe to Audible and I can’t help notice the price I pay for my subscription makes the books I get a steal compared to buying them without subscription or buying actual discs. How does that work out for the authors?
Audible has done wonderful things for the audiobook market, helping the format gain a lot of popularity. But their prices ARE rock bottom. I don’t know off-hand how much we make. I don’t mind, however, because audiobooks in the past were so horribly expensive.
If you are viewing this on github.io, you can see that this site is open source. Please do not try to improve this page. It is auto-generated by a python script. If you have suggestions for improvements, please start a discussion on the github repo or the Discord.