Publishing Entrepreneur

Publishing is a crazy business that few of us would be in if we did not simply love it. Still, even lovers have to put food on the table and buy new school clothes for the kids. So here are some things I have learned about generating income in this business.
1. Never overestimate the number of people who read books. A great chunk of the public never reads anything beyond the grocery ads; another chunk reads only newspapers; another vast number may occasionally read a book but not buy one; and most who would be willing to buy a book just don’t get around to it.
2. You can make money when you sell fewer books at a higher price. I wrote a book on how to start magazines and newspapers. I sold it online for $69. At that price I sold about 300 a year. The net was $17,600. I repackaged it later, got it into bookstores for $24.95 and now sell several thousand a year. I net about $6,000. What does this tell you?
3. You can make money when you sell thousands of books and earn a small profit on each of them. An author does this when he self-publishes a book like Eragon (a self-published fantasy that became a best seller and a movie) and hits the jackpot. But there are not enough jackpots out there to go around, so you have to have a list of twenty or more titles, each selling modestly, to reach a sales goal that will float your business (and your life).
4. You can make money publishing highly targeted books for niche markets if you know how to reach those markets. But items 2 and 3, above, still apply.
5. You can make money by writing a book that enhances your reputation to the point that you become sought after as a speaker or giver of seminars. I don’t know how much John Kremer makes from sales of his 1001 Ways to Market Your Book, but I dare say that it earns nowhere near the money that he makes from giving seminars.
6. You can make money writing and publishing books to order for corporations and other institutions.