Here's the problem, in the outdoor writing business: Books don't do that much for you financially...
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.
You have a good grip on the numbers. I have often quipped that if I had only spent my writing time behind the counter at McDonalds, I'd of made more money and got free French fries.
As to having a conventional publishing contract and selling one's own books: Getting into it in 1995, I never expected to sell my own books. But so many prospective buyers contacted me to the effect that if they sent me a copy with return postage, "...would I sign it?" that the path of least resistance was to buy
Parker Guns: The "Old Reliable" at the usual quantity discount from Safari Press in order to save triple postage. Thus I'd buy 100 of my then $40 cover-price trade editions at 50% off, incur about $1.00 each for shipping, and sell them signed for the $40 plus $5.00 S&H (media mail about $4.00 plus a 50 cents box). I sold about 500 of the trade edition through my d/b/a Old Reliable Publishing (which reprinted Parker catalogs).
ORP also sold signed Trade Copies of my
When Ducks Were Plenty and ORP published--which is to say that I self-published--my
Parker Brothers: Knight of the Trigger (fact based historical novel based on the life and times of Parker Bro's sales agent Capt. A. W. du Bray).
My deal with Collector Books is a conventional royalty contract for the Trade Edition (cover price $49.95 but discounted all over the Internet, Amazon, eBay, etc.). I don't sell the trade edition. However, when I cut my deal with CB, the owner told me that their sales format did not provide for Signed Limited Editions...but they'd do it for me on special order. I had already received about 140 pre-publication "true-believer" orders for a $100 Signed Ltd. Ed. so I ordered a 500 run and have sold about 400 so far.
I expect to wind up the Old Reliable Publishing business at the end of 2010, call it quits, put the un-sold books and catalogs on the burn pile, and head south with my fishing rods. It's been fun these past 15 years...and now it's time for something new and different. EDM
