Quote:
Originally Posted by golfbum983
I’m guessing something like , “ tell everyone it’s all good now , and get rid of those negative book reviews so I can make $ off the books to pay you back. You will be the first to get any money “
Ever since Cole's first post in the AMA, this keeps coming up—the idea that book sales could somehow make everything right in this scenario. People seem to have a very unrealistic view of the economics of book publishing. Yes, someone like Michelle Obama can write an autobiography that sells millions of copies and earns millions of dollars in royalties. But the average book sells only 3,000 copies in its lifetime in print and only 250-300 copies in its first year.
As I'm writing this, Eli Elezra's book is ranked #68,960 on Amazon. That number changes daily, but it's been bouncing around between 40,000 and 80,000 or so since his AMA thread started. This suggests that Amazon might be selling only a handful of copies each week. Is it also available in brick-and-mortar bookstores? I don't know. But I couldn't even find it listed for sale at
https://www.twoplustwo.com/books/, which I find very curious.
A friend of mine self-published an e-book on Amazon. He sold fewer than 100 copies, but he got nine 5-star reviews. Eli's book has gotten three 5-star reviews and three 1-star reviews. That does not bode well, neither for Amazon sales nor for sales through other venues.
Where are Eli's friends and fans? Why aren't they helping to promote his book by writing positive reviews on Amazon?
Gus Hansen's
Every Hand Revealed from 2008 (aka "Full Tilt Days") has 321 customer reviews on Amazon, for an average rating of 4.5 stars. And even though it came out over a decade ago, it's currently selling about as many if not more copies than Eli's book, with an Amazon sales rank of #42,126.
Mason has already said he expects to lose $18,000 of his $20,000 investment in this title. That means he expects to get $2,000 in revenue. What do people think Eli's royalties will be if Mason gets only $2,000? That depends on what his contract stipulates, but typical royalty rates for paperback books are only 5% to 7.5%. Let's say it's double that. So Mason sells $2,200 or $2,400 worth of books, he gets to keep $2,000, and the author gets $200 to $400.
But wait: there are actually three coauthors and a translator. Again, I don't know what their specific contractual arrangements are—maybe Eli has paid them already; maybe they all get a share of the royalties. If he paid the translator out of pocket, then Eli is losing money too.
Maybe the Hebrew version sold well in Israel; maybe Eli is more of a celebrity there than he is in America (not that it's a huge market; there are more people in New Jersey than in Israel).
But no one is making any money off the English version of this book; that seems quite clear. And I guarantee there will never be a sequel or a revised edition or a movie or TV series made from this book.