Here's the problem, in the outdoor writing business: Books don't do that much for you financially, and that was true even before things went downhill. What they do, mostly, is allow you to put "book author" on your business card. In Ed's case, his "Old Reliable" has sold very well, comparatively speaking, for a book in that niche market. But then there's a pretty solid group of Parker fans, which helps a bunch.
I recall another writer, who shall remain nameless, who wrote a hunting book and complained in print that it hadn't even sold 1,000 copies. While that's not good, it's also true that many will only sell 2-4,000 or so, even by pretty well-known outdoor writers.
So let's do a little math: If you also write magazine articles, you can make from maybe $300-1,000 for an article averaging around 2,000 words. If your book is 50-60,000 words, that means you've got to make the equivalent of 25-30 magazine articles in order to make "bottom line" sense. If you average $700/article, which is pretty good in the outdoor business, you need to make something like $17,000 off your book. If your book wholesales for $20 and you're getting 10-15% of wholesale . . . let's say $2.50/book, which is on the high side . . . it has to sell 7,000 copies minimum to be worth your while, economically. And most do not come close to that.
What I did to boost my income on my pheasant book, both editions, was to strike an agreement with the publisher that I could buy X number of them at wholesale (or maybe slightly below, not positive). I then turned around and sold those, signed, for the jacket price (plus shipping costs, if I had to mail them). What that meant, on my $27 2nd edition, was that I was making about $10/book I sold, in addition to the royalty percentage. If you can sell a couple thousand copies that way, it's a different situation. I've sold a few hundred, which is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. But I'm still better off writing magazine articles.
