My self-published book: 11,000 copies, $19,000 royalties, only $3,000 profit!? (opens in new tab)

“Advertising: $15,422.60”

I think I’ve found your problem.

Your reviews are great. The endorsements are fantastic.

I’ve sold over 250,000 self-published books on Amazon and as many traditionally published. However I’ve never paid more than $1,000 to promote a book.

Buying ads is a way to bring readers to a book that is getting ignored, but in my experience it’s not going to drive sales. Every book is different. I’ve serialized them in podcasts, spent day-after-day livestreaming and done everything else I could think of.

If I had to guess why it hasn’t been getting traction it might partially be the page count. 138 pages for an ebook feels steep to me. I’d also keep playing with the description. That is extremely key. I had one novel go from well-reviewed but modest-selling to a 100,000 in sales (and getting me in an Amazon press release as one of the top 10 selling indie authors that year) after I changed my cover and description to better represent the book.

Side note: The title sounds a lot like Guy Kawasaki’s Art of the Start and may confuse people. I’d hate for what sounds like a wonderful book to get looked over.

The author starts with 'David Kadavy is bestselling author of The Heart to Start'. I find this odd, because he only managed to sell 11,000 copies. Don't get me wrong, 11k is nothing to be ashamed and 11k more than me, but surely that does not constitute bestselling, does it?

Then I read on and 'Selling more than 11,000 copies in the first year is great (okay, 8,000 if you don’t count the 3,000 I gave away)'. Wow, so actually you sold 8,000 and not 11,000. Apart from this one line the author repeats over and over again about selling 11,000. But he didn't be sold 8,000 but constantly misrepresents that number everywhere.

I don't know if his books are great or not but the hyped headline, inflated numbers and spammy feel of the blog post make me unwilling to try it.

The steep marketing spend ("more than $15,000") may have something to do with the title/subtitle. Specifically, it doesn't say anything to me at least:

The Heart to Start: Win the Inner War & Let Your Art Shine

This is a book for procrastinators then? For people who doubt themselves? For the timid? Artists only? Start what?

Assuming the book is for me, it's not clear how actionable the advice it contains will be given the lack of specificity.

I would consider re-titling the book with a clear message for a specific group of people. I think it's even possible to A/B test this on Amazon, but I'm not sure.

What process did the author use to choose the title? Control-f on "title" gives no hits.

Compare this with the author's previous book, Design for Hackers. Are you a hacker? Do you need help with design? This book is for you. Sold!

In the article he basically describes how his profits were swallowed up by marketing expenses. I wish he had broken down in more detail the $50,000 in royalties from his other traditionally-published book since it was such a drastically different deal for him

"After selling more than 11,000 copies in its first year, The Heart to Start has earned a little more than $3,000 profit. That’s a barely twenty-nine cents per book.

By comparison, I’ve sold about 16,000 copies of my traditionally-published book, Design for Hackers. That has earned nearly $50,000 in royalties (plus at least twice that in related course sales)."

later:

"Here’s the basic breakdown of my earnings and expenses for the first year of The Heart to Start:

    Copies sold: 11,374 (3,099 were free)
    Total Royalties: $19,173.31
    Fixed Production Costs: $431
    Advertising: $15,422.60
    Total Profit: $3,319.74

"

Fixed title: Author sells 11k books for 19k after 15k in ad spending via self publishing.

There is absolutely nothing else to the entire long article.