What's Your Break-Even Point?

3,000 or 300? Scott Flora, executive director of the Small Publishers Association of North America, was quoted in the Colorado Springs Gazette (July 28, 2005) to the effect that a writer has to sell 3,000 books to break even. Whoa! we said. If you're assuming that you're going to a high-end full service book preparer and that "break even" means recovering the costs of your time as well the direct costs of getting your book into print, this may be true. We think this is unfairly discouraging to people who should be getting their books into print and the market. At The Publishing Pro, LLC, we typically try to help authors develop projects that will "break even" after you sell 200-300 books. And by "break even," we mean that you will recover your cash out of pocket costs for editing, book design, typesetting, and printing. Moreover, we rarely see the necessity to print 3,000 books at a crack. With digital printing available and economical, we usually recommend in the area of 500-1000. The Publishing Pro.