Question: Money earnt by authors?

[ChrisV]

Hi Books/Publications,

What could first time poker authors (of the not-a-high-profile-pro variety) expect to earn for their efforts? And is payment made as a single agreed payment, or commission on sales?

Examples that come to mind would be Ed Miller for SSHE or Russell Fox for MNLHE.

[dragon14]

I believe the standard royalty rate is 15%, Mason has posted that 2+2 authors can get up to 50% but I believe that's only if the author writes the book by themselves. Otherwise I believe that the 50% total would be spread between the authors.

[Mason Malmuth]

Hi dragon14:

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I believe the standard royalty rate is 15%

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Just to clarify, the 15 percent is a typical rate for many publishers and that's based on the wholesale price. Some publishers tag the roaylty to the retail price, then the equivalent would be 7 1/2 percent.

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Mason has posted that 2+2 authors can get up to 50% but I believe that's only if the author writes the book by themselves. Otherwise I believe that the 50% total would be spread between the authors.

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I don't want to be specific here since if I do you might be able to figure out exactly what a particular author makes and they might not want that as public knowledge. But we do pay royalties that are much higher than the typical rate I just quoted above, but the exact amount varies from book to book.

Best wishes,
Mason

[dragon14]

In my experience from working at bookstores and now selling our company's books to bookstores and distributors, the retail price is discounted 40% to bookstores and 55% to distributors such as Amazon.com.

A weighted average would probably show that most books are sold from a publisher at a 50% discount. For a $30 2+2 title I would estimate that Mason sells them to for an average of around $15 per book wholesale. Somewhere from $5.00 to $7.50 would be distributed to the author(s) (this is from Mason's own post where he stated that 2+2 pays up to 50% royalties) and Mason would collect the remaining $7.50.

I would estimate a production cost per book of $3.00 or so. I have recently (last month) ordered two books to be printed; both 8.5 X 11 paperbacks so I have a pretty good idea of what a book costs to manufacture. The initial print run is more expensive, while the later runs are much cheaper. Mason should show a profit per book of around $4 to $5 I would imagine. Of course if he writes the book himself profits should run around $12 per book.

For a standard royalty rate of 15% the numbers above should be multiplied by 30% showing a royalty of $2.25 or so per book for the author(s) assuming a retail price of $30.00.

[Mason Malmuth]

Hi dragon14:

A couple of points. First, most paperback books do not sell for $30. Thus those authors make less than the $2.25 you mention.

Second, we do very high quality printing and use paper far superior than anyone else in our field. So depending on the length of the print run, our costs can go over $3.00 a book on some titles.

Finally, we do not use any distributors since our books don't need any additional marketing. We do use wholesalers (who do not do additional marketing) so we do a little better than 55 percent off or we sell directly to the major chains (including Amazon) and thus also do a little better than 55 percent off. So your 50 percent figure is accurate for us, but it would be too high for many other publishers.

Two other points: The first is that we have approximately 400,000 books in inventory. And the second, is that our biggest competitor pays a standard royalty rate on almost all of his books of 6 percent of retail. So our authors, in general, make about five times as much as his.

Best wishes,
Mason

[AaronBrown]

For authors in general, not just poker, it makes more sense to think of career earnings than money from your first book.

One rule of thumb in publishing is you have to sell the first 1,000 books yourself. Since you're a first time author, no one knows anything about the book. So why will they buy? Maybe:

- It comes from a publisher known for high quality books in this subject, and there is a demand for this subject (like 2+2)

- You are a celebrity or just did something big in the news like won the WSOP main event

- You have a bunch of friends who are college professors who will assign it in their courses

There are other ways as well, but all depend on who you are (except the publisher, then who the publisher selects depends on who you are, because they haven't seen the book when they make the deal). So for most people, it doesn't make sense to start by writing a book, it makes sense to do something so 1,000 people (or one good publisher) have heard of you in a manner that makes them likely to buy your book.

If you sell 1,000 books based on your name, then there is a chance for word of mouth to spread. You're also more likely to get reviews and blog mentions. Your publisher might spend some money advertising it. As sales increase it can come out in paperback or audio book, it will get translated into foreign languages and so on.

If you get sales up high enough, you're no longer a first-time author. Now people will buy your second book based on the first one. You are much more attractive to a publisher because they can count on more sales, so they can do a larger initial print run. Your second book is likely to be reviewed right away, and get better display in bookstores. If that does well, you are an established author.

Very few authors make more than the advance on their first book. The advance is whatever you can convince a publisher to pay you, again it depends on who you are, not how good your book is. But if you can make the first book a success, you have a decent chance of being able to make a living, or a significant part of a living, at it.

[King Yao]

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Two other points: ......And the second, is that our biggest competitor pays a standard royalty rate on almost all of his books of 6 percent of retail. So our authors, in general, make about five times as much as his.

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Maybe I am misreading this...does this mean your normal or average royalty rate is 30% of retail?

[Russ Fox]

That's between the publisher and the authors. Like most things in the world, it's negotiable.

I have been paid with royalties on an ongoing basis by my publisher. That's likely how most poker authors are paid.

[Jim C]

My guess would be that they eventually go on to make more if they use words like "earned". [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[ChrisV]

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My guess would be that they eventually go on to make more if they use words like "earned". [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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Huh? Is this some kind of attempted dig at me? My grammar in the OP is completely correct.