Which Royalty is Appropriate?

Traditional publishing houses pay unknown authors approximately 4% of the sales price. A paperback priced at £9.99 thus generates £0.40 per sold copy. Self-publishing via tredition yields much higher royalties. On average, authors receive more than 20% of the sales price for printed editions and 40% for e-books. Royalties are even higher for sales made via our own store; here, authors receive 75% of the e-book sales price. However you should not only consider the mere percentages, but your total earnings overall. Accurately predicting how many copies might be sold depends on how many retailers sell your book. tredition titles are available from all wholesalers, bookstores and online shops and are usually in stock! The sales price determines the royalty. At tredition, authors are able to set their book’s price and decide their own royalties. However, recommending a good retail price for a book is difficult. New authors, particularly of fiction, tend to think that their sales will go up if their book is comparatively cheap. We disagree with this assessment as it doesn’t maximize author income. The more unique a book is, the higher its price should be. After the recent influx of seemingly interchangeable Scandinavian crime novels, pricing a new release at £19.99 would be optimistic. However, for a regional crime novel, especially one with an interesting spin on the genre,  the same price is justified. When considering the sales price, authors should be aware of what they are selling: entertainment, education, etc. This added value comes at a price! For this reason academic and non-fiction books often carry a higher price tag. Also keep in mind that retailers are more interested in selling more expensive books to maximize their own profits.