Fiction vs. Nonfiction: Volume IV-Book Sales
Do Fiction or Nonfiction Authors care more about book sales?
Short version:
Fiction Authors care more about book sales than Nonfiction Authors. ⬇️
Medium version:
When it comes to book sales, everyone wants to be a bestseller (whatever that even means, nowadays).
But in general, Fiction and Nonfiction Authors tend to look at book sales a bit differently.
Fiction authors tend to make book sales a primary goal.
Nonfiction authors tend to make book sales a secondary goal.
This starts to make sense when you know a little about how the industry works. So let’s dive in…
An Inconvenient Unfortunate Truth
A recent court case exposed some unfortunate truths about the world of traditional publishing, in particular that less than 1% of all published books ever sell more than 5,000 copies. Which means, even if you’re getting $3/book for royalty, you’re still probably only making $15K (or frankly, less) off of your book. You’re not exactly rolling in dough. And whatever you make is probably going to go towards getting the next book done.
Granted, I’m being a little facetious here. There are still unknown fiction authors who land an agent and can score a six-figure deal on their debut novel. I actually know someone with this exact situation.
For fiction authors, sales have to matter most because that’s what will keep them getting published again. Publishers and agents aren’t going to keep working with an author whose work doesn’t sell, period. It’s just business.
It’s difficult enough to go the traditional route as it is, so you start to see why so many fiction authors are choosing self-pub instead. They can earn higher royalties and develop a fanbase who buy book after book, without having to share a piece of the pie. But they definitely earn what they make because this is a TON of work.
Still, if you’re a self-published author and you’re wondering why sales aren’t just rolling in magically when you hit “upload,” well, this is why. You gotta put the work in or no one will know about your book.
Meanwhile, with nonfiction authors, the end goal is not typically book sales, but some other achievement they can leverage. I know this sounds backwards because business leaders make up the bulk of nonfiction books these days. Surely these are the people who are driven by sales numbers, right?
Wrong. Usually their ROI for the book looks quite different. Some examples I see among my nonfiction clients:
Positioning themselves as an authority
Scaling their business by attracting new clients
As a business card that doesn’t get tossed in the trash bin
Transitioning their career
Attracting speaking gigs
Improving the world
Don’t get me wrong, if they can also get book sales and bestseller status, then great. One of my recent authors who did hybrid publishing had to tell people to go buy the ebook because the publisher didn’t order enough print copies and they sold out of the first print run in a week! But even in his case, the book sales were the icing on the cake, not the cake itself.
Some nonfiction authors only have one book in them. They want to get it done, out in the world, and use it as professional leverage, period. They know that book sales will not sustain them and is a poor metric for their personal success.
It’s okay—even encouraged—to want your book to be a bestseller. I hope to achieve it for myself after years of helping other authors do so. But if you’re a nonfiction author, recognize that sales success should come second to another goal. Time after time, these are the authors who I see are the happiest with their outcomes and the ROI they get from their book.
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