There are a lot of book formats you can choose from. Find out what type of books that make most royalties. Find out the exact book types that you should be doing and where to publish them to make more money off of them.
Today's question has three answers and the third one is a secret that isn't obvious when it comes to royalties. So let's get into this.
The question that was sent to me was, what type of books help an author make most royalties? So, this is a very common question because if you are going to be producing books, you are going to want to know exactly what type of books are the correct books for you.
Is it going to be paperback or maybe it's audiobooks, hardback books, or ebooks? Then, which distribution channels should you use? Bookstores or Amazon, or maybe you should go for other ones?
So there are a lot of questions about what type of books that make most royalties as well as where they should be sold. But they may hang together a little bit on that front.
Before I answer the question, check out my free Checklist that gives you the secrets to making money with Self-Publishing. You are not going to want to miss that.
Let's move on. When I first started self-publishing, I realized that there were an awful lot of options of where to publish and how you would be publishing.
The different options, in terms of would it be a paperback or a Kindle or some of the other available options. The easiest that I found, that often it is best just to start with easiest. So we don't start with the absolute most complicated.
Just as if we were starting with any task, woodworking, or any type of sports. We're going to want to learn the basics first and probably the easiest route to get into it. And in that case, that would be Kindle publishing.
Check out this related article: What Are Reasonable Self Publishing Amazon Royalties?
So I put out my first Kindle book and very shortly after that, I then started moving into learning how to do paperback books and moving along those lines.
I sold it at a certain price and it was maybe making about the same amount of money. Part of it was because I didn't understand the power of pricing when it comes to your Kindle books particularly the paperback versions.
After some time and listening to podcasts and such, I then realized that all of my books should be an audio format as well. But then comes the big question and that is, what type of books that make most royalties? which one of these formats is making the most money? So what is the answer?
Well, the first is that it depends upon the genres. Romance, for example, your ebooks and your audiobooks will make the most money since most people generally don't like going around with paperback versions of romance novels.
People Have Format Preferences
But if we are talking about cookbooks, then that brings a different issue which would be that people like when they are using cookbooks that they will open them up to specific pages or they can follow along with their fingers.
As opposed to having their cellphone or their Kindle out in the kitchen which is a little bit more difficult than just flipping between pages.
The second thing is that some people only like to read specific types of books. So they will only read hardback books or they will only listen to audiobooks.
I have cookbooks of the 170 books that I have out there. I have cookbooks in audiobook format and people regularly purchase those books.
Now, I wasn't even sure whether they would sell or not. But I understood that once you've learned the process of doing audiobooks, it can be very simple.
There is no reason not to have it in the audiobook format and I started seeing sales on those books. Even to this very day, I am selling cookbooks every single day in audio format.
Check out this related article: Are All Kindle Books Audio?
Now, it is not completely clear to me how people are using those audiobooks but they seem happy enough with them. Maybe they listen to it and then pause it, it's hard to tell.
Maybe they just like the voices of the narrators. That is also a possibility, so that's another one there. Some people only like to read the paper and some people like to only read Kindle.
I personally only enjoy reading with my eyes, Kindle books. I don't like reading paper books because it's harder to keep track of where I'm at. Secondly, I have to carry it with me, whereas with my Kindle book I can just pull out my phone.
And I can use this if I wish to see my latest book, the books that I'm currently reading. I'm reading them right off my Kindle app on iPhone which is plenty big enough for me.
iPhone 6 and up to iPhone 11 are perfect for reading ebooks. Some people find that to be annoying but you can control the font size and stuff.
So, if you have difficulty reading books in smaller print, then iPads and larger fonts on the ebook will also be advantageous. So as you can see as we've discussed on the second point, different people will have their preferences, right?
You Should Do Paperbacks
But which one of them? But we still are coming back to the biggest question which is, what type of books that make most royalties? Which type should you produce if you want to make the most money?
That is where the secret comes in. The answer is, you will make the most money if you publish your books in all formats.
So we do not limit what type of books or which formats our ebooks are going to be in. We are going to put them both in hardback, paperback, ebook, and audiobook.
The final question that many people still wonder is, where should I put them on? Is it on Amazon? Is it on these other sites?
Check out this related article: Next Step After First Draft Complete?
The answer is we're going to spread it out. We are going to have all of them initially on Amazon. Since it is the biggest dealer in the world, publisher or a corporation.
In terms of if someone's going to buy a book, they've already got their account and everything registered there. So, Amazon is clearly the first starting place.
But then after you have got your paperback in your print and also on ACX, you'll have your audiobook. Then, our next step is hardback books that will go on to Lulu. That's the easiest place to publish them.
The third option is your other paperbacks will go through Ingram Spark and that gives additional distributions. Now it's a little pricier because they will charge you $50 to review your book unless you're using a promo code. You will need an ISBN with them but that means there's going to be less competition.
So you can see, all the different formats are exactly the best way to make the most amount of money. Though in general, for the books that I have, the money is made through paperbacks.
Most people I know also make the majority of their money through paperbacks. Here is another little tip, another little secret tip for you. Making a minimum of $5 per paperback regardless of how long it is.
$5 per paperback and if it's a bundle, make sure you're making an additional dollar for each additional book. So for example, if it's 2 books that are bundled together, you should be making $6 off of that bundle.
You should never be selling it below that and that will give you your max profits. You are going to raise the rates as you see the sales coming through.
So what have you found? In which format have you made the most money? Has it been the paperbacks or maybe it's the audiobooks?
It varies from person to person but most people I have spoken to have done it through the paperbacks. Now, go ahead and check out my other blogs and videos for answers to questions just like this.