Do Romance Authors Make On Amazon Make This Much Money?
In the last few articles we have discussed how authors can self publish their books. We have discussed some stories and gone through the process of pricing your ebooks. But one question that is repeated again and again is how much can authors really make through their books on Amazon?
How Much Can Authors Make?
This has been discussed earlier, you cannot define the amount of money an author can make on Amazon. It all depends on a number of factors. The simplest way to explain this is that the more you work for your book, the more you will earn through it. This makes publishing books like any other job.
So if you are a part time author and you write as a hobby. Then firstly this means that it is going to take you quite a while to complete a single book. Most authors who are earning over six figures on Amazon, are full time writers who churn out multiple books in a single year. So if you are a part timer and thinking about publishing books on Amazon, you should keep the expectation of your royalty earnings quite low.
The secret to earning above six figures in royalty is simply to keep writing as many books as possible. The more books you publish, the more sources you will have of earning royalty. It is as simple as that.
If you are a new author, about to write or publish your first book on KDP then it will help to keep your expectations low. Aim for three figure earnings first, then four, then five and so on. But unless you are consistently earning three figures, don`t raise your expectations instead work on improving your writing and adding more books to your portfolio.
We had to repeat these points because it is very important for writers to understand that increasing your royalty income on Amazon takes time and persistence. You need to follow the strategy that dozens and hundreds of other successful authors have followed before you, to make it to six figures.
Also See: How To Price Your ebook and Paperback Book On Amazon?
Genres That Make the Most
How much you earn through your books on KDP will also depend on your genre. There are some genres where making money is easier than others. The top grossing genres are as follows.
- Romance and erotica ($1.44 billion).
- Mystery, thriller and crime ($728.2 million).
- Religious, spiritual and inspirational ($720 million).
- Science fiction and fantasy ($590.2 million).
- Horror ($79.6 million).
Romance is right at the top of the genres where a lot of authors have the opportunity of earning a good income. There is a lot of consumer demand for this genre and the readers are always looking for something fresh to read.
Let us now look at the story of a young author, who prefers to keep her identity a secret but you can follow her twitter account, which for the sake of privacy is run anonymously. Her twitter name is Money Penny, so we will use this very apt name to address her in this article, it also sounds quite cool to be honest.
Ms. Money Penny started her journey as an author not as a hobby but out of necessity to become financially independent. She got the idea of trying out the romance and erotica genre from reddit where a lot of new authors were suggesting people to start with this genre, as it has a lot of demand. Well they weren`t wrong. This was four years ago and in 2021, the romance and erotica genre is still on top.
Ms. Money Penny has a decent day job in New York and she writes in the evenings. For her, writing is a side hustle, not a full time job. She is following her goal to save up $1 million before 2022, you will have to follow her to see how close she is to her goal. So for her writing is a part time job, she has no intention yet of retiring from her day job.
Ms. Money Penny says that the earnings from her first couple of books were just good enough to fund a few extra drinks. But as her books gained traction and as she wrote more books, her earnings began to increase. She is now four years into her side hustle as an author and has published six books in the romance and erotica genre to date and she is earning four figure returns from her books.
Ms. Money Penny says that her last book, managed to earn her almost $6000 in the first month of being published. She says that for any self published author on Amazon KDP, the key is to be consistent and keep adding books to your portfolio. The more books you have in circulation, the more they will earn.
Ms. Money Penny says that to start off you don`t really need any investment. All you need is a laptop, a word software and internet. But to create quality books with good cover art and possibly some illustrations and good formatting, you need to spend around $500 annually on softwares whether you do it on your own or outsource some of the tasks such as cover designing, editing and proofreading.
Also See: How Much Does it Cost to Publish a Book?
Takeaway
The key takeaway from this interview of Ms. Money Penny is that being a part time author with a demanding day job, she has been able to write 6 books in almost four to five years. That is roughly a book every 10 months and her six books in the romance genre have allowed her to easily earn four figure royalty each month.
So if you are looking to start your self publishing career in the romance genre, this is an example that you need to keep in mind. If you go over and above what Ms. Money Penny has done as an author, you can possibly earn more and if you do less then what she has done, your income will be lower.
We hope that this story will help you chalk out your plan and help you achieve your goals better.
Main Image Source: Pixabay
Also See: Mobile Automation Testing — What Are the Steps to Perform it?
