Before we attempt to understand how much money does an author make in India, let us take a quick look at how does an author make money in India.
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An author, with a published book, must be making some money. That’s an easy assumption, right? But the process of making money by writing books (fiction and non-fiction) has always been shrouded in unnecessary mystery. Not just an author who has merely started writing, but even the ones with a publishing deal in hand might not always be aware of how they’re going to earn money with their book(s) out in the world.
So, let us try to understand this process, step-by-step.
First and foremost, you write a book. Then, you re-write it. Edit it. Multiple times. Give it to beta-readers. Daydream about how much money does an author make in India. Take feedback positively. Edit your book again. Sorry, but if you thought you could write a first draft and publish it, then consider me popping your bubble right here. There’s only one person who should read a first draft and that’s you. So, once you’ve done the revisions quite a few times and you’re convinced that you cannot make it better, it’s time to find a literary agent or a professional editor. By this time, you must make peace with the fact that your book will be viewed as a product (preferably marketable and readable) by the publishing houses, traditional and otherwise. After all, they will package your manuscript and try to sell it like a product.
Next you get a publishing deal with either a traditional publishing house or maybe decide to self-publish. And there you are, an author of a published book.
{Ever wondered how much it would cost to print your own book? We have a guide on Cost of publishing a book in India that you should check out.}
How can you publish a book in India?
Like almost every other thing in life, even publishing a book can be done in more than one way. There are two broad routes of publishing a book – traditional and self-publishing. Self-publishing further branches out to several pathways such as hybrid publishing or direct publishing on self-publishing writing platforms like Kindle and Wattpad.
Self-Publishing
In all honesty, how much money does an author make becomes a lot clear if the author chooses to self-publish their books. Since the author is the publisher as well, there’s a lot more transparency and clarity on how the entire thing works. Not only the clear vision, but the author will be making a lot of decisions themselves such as hiring an editor, a book cover designer, a type-setter, a distributor, and so on. Money-wise, the author will have a much higher margin on royalties as well.
However, as mentioned earlier, self-publishing a book will require you (the author) to invest a certain amount of money to get all the above things done. Not only that, after the book is published, you will have to invest in marketing the book as well. Even the traditionally published authors will have to spend from their pockets to do the kind of marketing they want for their books.
{We have a A Beginner’s Guide to Self Publishing in India that can guide you.}
In the case of Hybrid Publishing, where you take the help of a publishing company to get the manuscript turned into a book, they will be offering the services based on what package you decide to buy from them. These companies will make money off you and other authors working with them and not through the books they publish. Because if you remember, the authors get the maximum share of the money earned through the sales of their book if they choose to publish this way.
There’s a way to directly publish your book on a self-publishing platform as well such as Kindle Direct Publishing. A well-known example from India is the author, Sundari Venkatraman, who has self-published about 70 books using Kindle Direct Publishing and made lakhs out of writing books. Many such authors made a living and a career by writing fiction books and publishing them directly on Amazon KDP.
{Our blogpost on Kindle Direct Publishing Royalties: How Much Money Authors Can Make from KDP? Is a must read for some extra information.}
Traditional Publishing
The pathway to traditionally publish a book is considerably longer and difficult to navigate no matter how simple it might sound. But the biggest difference between traditional publishing and self-publishing is that in the traditional publishing route, you do not have to pay the publishing house in order to publish your book. Whereas if you decide to self-publish, you are the publisher and you would have to invest a certain amount in order to see your manuscript as a final book.
In case you have decided to go the traditional route, you will have to find a way to reach literary agents. Because most traditional publishing houses take submissions through literary agents only. Once you find a literary agent, you work on even more edits, if required. Your literary agent is supposed to find you an editor from a traditional publishing house. This is a much more difficult experience since it takes years to get a deal through this route because the rejection rate is higher than 95% via traditional publishing.
In some other scenarios, if you manage to contact an editor working for a traditional publishing house, sending a part of your manuscript directly to the editor might work. However, the chances are that you might be having a referral for this entry.
If the editor and the publishing house agree to publish your book, you have a deal. In your publishing contract, the details related to how much advance, royalties, and other miscellaneous bonuses you’re supposed to receive will be mentioned in jargon you might not be completely aware of. It is recommended that you go through the contract carefully with your literary agent as well as a lawyer to understand how much you will be paid as part of the deal.
How much money does an author make through the traditional publishing of a book is not something we can put an exact finger on due to confidentiality clauses in the contracts and the vast range scale on which these advances play around. However, we can try to come up with a range by being aware of the major sources of income for an author.
{If you are wondering Traditional or Self Publishing – in India, which is better for the first-time author? Our blogpost should help.}
Major Sources of Income for an author in India
- Advance – The signing advance is an amount paid to authors only by traditional publishers. It might vary from a few thousand rupees to lakhs, based on several factors such as the author’s previous publication history, genre of the book, editor and publishing house’s confidence in selling the book, etc. Debut authors are largely not expected to have a huge online presence or previous proof of writing and hence, it is a known fact that the publishing houses are taking a risk by agreeing to publish their first book. Therefore, debut authors usually get a lower amount in advance whereas established authors will be offered more. This advance is usually paid in phases. In self-publishing, there’s no advance since the author is the publisher.
- Royalties – This is the payment you will receive per book sold across all platforms, online and through bookstores. However, the royalties trickle down to you after the publishing house has earned back the advance amount they had paid you initially. In India, the average range of royalties if traditionally published, is around 7% to 10% on the paperback’s retail price and 10% to 15% on the hardback copy’s retail price. Kindly note that if you have a literary agent, they typically charge around 15-20% of commissions on your advance and a share of royalty as well. Whereas in self-publishing, the royalty percentages are comparatively much higher – 50 to 70%. (Source: Karan Bajaj’s Blog)
- Translation Bonus – If your book snags a translation deal, a certain amount can be expected for each language into which your book will get translated. To acquire a translation deal, it is expected that the book is doing well sales-wise and that there is an expected readership for the subject matter or the genre of the book in those particular languages. It should be kept in mind that not every book gets a translation deal, so this is definitely a bonus like all the other ones mentioned below.
- Screen Adaptations – Usually, a lot of books do get optioned for film, TV, or web-series adaptations. So, you would usually get an amount when the book is optioned for an adaptation by the filmmaker and later on if the film or the series gets made, you’ll probably receive less than 5% of the film’s production costs. If your book gets adapted, you’re likely to make more money out of the adaptation than from the books sold. However, the adaptations do affect your book sales as well because a wider audience is becoming aware of your book and might end up buying a copy.
- Audiobook Adaptation – With the increase in the number of people listening to audiobooks in the last few years, this is another sort of possibility for every author out there. When your book gets adapted for an audiobook, you’ll be getting a bonus and/or royalties against each audiobook sold.
{Audiobooks in India – A Guide for Authors has some relevant information.}
- Overseas Publication – In case you and your literary agent become a fantastic combo and grab a publishing deal outside India, then you’ll have another publishing contract and more income sources from your book. It works pretty much the same with an advance (usually much higher than what you’ll get in India) and royalties on the number of books sold.
{We also have a detailed post on How can Indian writers publish a book in UK/USA? That you should check out.}
- Speaking Gigs – When you become a published author, you might start getting requests for interviews, guest lectures, motivational and such speaking gigs from small book clubs to large organizations and especially from universities and even schools. This is completely up to you to decide how much you want to charge for each gig and on what basis. Or if you even want to charge money or not. However, the chances of this happening are based on your popularity in reading and writing circles (or on social media).
- Writing for Newspapers, Magazines, and Online Portals – Once your book is published and starts grabbing the attention of more and more readers, you will come across opportunities to write for well-known newspapers, magazines, and online portals. One might also get an opportunity to write regular columns (typically in the case of non-fiction topics) and thus, earn a steady bonus on the side.
- Coaching Gigs and Masterclasses – With more and more people wanting to learn the entire process of not just writing a book, but also how to publish, how to market it to the world, and how to make money out of it, there has been quite an increase in the number of masterclasses and writing workshops all over India. While the published authors can take up such gigs, there are also possibilities of offering mentorship and coaching deals to a handful of authors, getting deep into the process of helping a new author to write their book and sell it eventually.
Hopefully, now you are a bit more aware of how much money an author makes in India via either traditional publishing or self-publishing. Let’s try to understand with an example.
Let’s assume Jaya is a new author of her contemporary fiction novel set in India. She has no previous publication history but manages to get a publishing deal from a traditional publisher XYZ via a literary agent. She receives an advance of Rs. 75,000 with a deal of 8% royalties. Her literary agent charges her 15% of the advance she made, i.e., the literary agent earns Rs. 11,250 and Jaya earns Rs. 63,750. We need to note here that Jaya did not have to pay any money to the publishers. She will start earning royalty money off her book only when the publisher XYZ has surpassed the advance amount of Rs. 75,000 by selling her books across all platforms. Since this book was traditionally published, it is not always easy to get a clear picture of how many books were printed, distributed to which places, and how many copies were actually sold. Some publishers might provide the details but that also happens rarely and after months of the book launch.
In another scenario, if Jaya decides to self-publish her book, she would have to spend somewhere around the range of Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 1.5 lakhs to get her book published. Based on a few factors we’ve discussed below, her income through this book can either surpass the amount she spent or not even reach the minimum margin.
Factors that may impact how much money does an author make in India
- Genre/Subject Matter of the book – In India, the top genres that sell pretty well are romance, mythological fiction, mystery & crime thrillers, and self-help. Although there’s no guarantee that your book is bound to sell thousands of copies if it falls under these genres, it is often agreed upon that a literary fiction novel will sell much fewer copies than a romance novel. There are always exceptions when a novel from an obscure genre tops the charts once in a while.
{Here’s a comprehensive guide to How to write a romance novel.}
- Publication House – The amount of advance and royalties agreed in a publishing contract differs based on the scale of the publisher as well. It is safe to accept that the amount offered by a big publication house like Harper Collins will be different than what is being offered by a small publication house like Rupa Books or Aleph Book Company. Again, the exact figures are very hard to come by as it depends on a combination of several factors.
- Author’s or Literary Agent’s Negotiating Skills – This might seem very obvious but just like in a job interview, the author can negotiate their advance amount in a publishing deal. If a literary agent is doing that job for the author, then they have the power to negotiate for a better deal with other publishers based on acceptance of the manuscript.
- Author’s Popularity – In this age of social media, an author’s online presence plays a huge role in the visibility of their book. Believe it or not, their follower count does impact the amount of advance offered by the publishing house. An author’s ability to market oneself projects a lot of confidence in their ability to market their book as well. Hence, publishers do not hesitate to take a risk on authors with a huge follower count. However, the author’s popularity is not limited to their social media following. If the author has won awards and is well-connected to major literary communities, that acts as proof of their popularity in relevant circles as well.
- Marketing Efforts – Time to swallow a bitter pill. Maximum efforts for marketing your book have to be done by you – the author. Even if your book is getting traditionally published, you would have to make a visible effort to be able to spread the word about your book as much as possible. As a self-publisher of your book, this is a must anyway. Again, the number of copies of your book that gets sold is not under your control but putting some effort into marketing will definitely push the numbers to go higher. No matter how difficult this is to accept, it is the current reality of the situation.
- Trends – Like in social media platforms, trends in reading and publishing space also keep going up and down like a rollercoaster. And it’s next to impossible to predict which genre or topic will be trending when you plan to launch your book. For example, in the last couple of years, in the subset of fantasy fiction, romantasy and cosy fantasy books have been trending. But based on this trend, if you start writing a book today, it will take at least a year (and more) to complete the book, another couple of years to edit it, and pitch it to agents and editors, and it might’ve already been four to five years when you get the deal. By then, the trend might have become ancient history.
These are a few of the several factors that might affect your book sales and consequently, the money you make as an author. But these factors should not affect the story you want to write. Remember, the goal is to find a way to effectively tell your story and not to become the next bestseller. Now, let’s try to understand what a bestseller means and how much money does an author make if their book becomes a bestseller.
{Why I self published after traditionally publishing a dozen books? Bhaskar Chattopadhyay tells us.}
How does a book become a bestseller in India?
We understand that the term bestseller brings a lot of confusion on the plate of a reader and an author. But it’s very simple really. Bestseller is a marker of the book’s sales. That’s all. For example, if the imaginary Jaya’s contemporary fiction novel becomes a bestseller, it doesn’t mean it is being read widely by people all over India. It doesn’t even mean that it is a must-read book and should win literary awards. All it means is that the book has crossed a mark of sales count on a bestseller list.
Also, a bestseller is not a universal marker. There are multiple bestseller lists, like Amazon Bestseller, The Hindustan Times Bestseller, The Sunday Times Bestseller, the New York Times Bestseller and so on. Each of these lists is curated based on their specific strategies and dataset. This is how one book can be a bestseller on Amazon but not on the Sunday Times newspaper list. Apart from this fact, bestsellers are usually considered based on a particular timeframe, which is mostly short like a week.
In India, the current average for book sales, especially for a debut author is less than 2000 copies. It’s considered doing pretty well if more than 5000 copies are sold. However, if the book sales cross the 10,000 mark in one year, it enters the league of bestsellers. So, the common quip of these days ‘Every book is now a bestseller’ is entirely untrue.
One more misconception about bestsellers is that every bestseller book earns lakhs for the author. The statement, while not entirely wrong, is just a giant exaggeration of the ground reality. The bestseller lists are dynamic and keep changing over time. It might help push the sales of the book, for sure. But it doesn’t guarantee a steady flow of income for the author.
How much money should an author in India expect to earn?
In the end, we need to accept the reality of the “author life” in India. Writing a book, publishing it, and expecting to make a living out of that is not enough. While it isn’t impossible, the probability of it happening is less than 1 per cent. As you might have understood by now, it is very difficult to predict how much money an author makes in India. However, when you set out to write and publish a book, you must have your goals clear. For some authors, it is impossible to spend lakhs on self-publishing and hence, they spend years in the query trenches in the hopes of a publishing deal (meanwhile working on their writing and multiple WIPs). While some authors cannot wait for years and want to publish it within a specific time, they end up choosing a self-publishing route even if it means spending from their own pockets.
Publishing a book means a lot of different things for different authors. It is important to find out what it means to you, and accordingly prioritize your writing goals to achieve them.
Several popular authors still stand by the age-old advice of “Keep your job while you keep writing your books.” While the job can take care of your living, you can take care of your dreams of writing a book (or more).
One Response
This is an insightful article. Thank you for writing this.
I have a query. How much royalties in percentage should an author expect on ebooks and audiobooks, if they go through traditional publishing and the publisher has the rights to these two?