The SFF All-Time Sales List

[David Selig]

1 million books sold and still whining about low sales. Kind of hilarious.

[TheRevanchist]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royalties#Book_publishing_royalties

Looks like 15% is actually on the high side of things and 10-12.5% for hardback and 7.5-10% for paperback is much more common. So basically authors can sell a million paper backs at $15 a book and will be lucky to crack $1 million (and for someone like Bakker whose been writing over 10+ years, that's less than $100,000 a year).

It is really low, especially for e-books where the publisher doesn't have any risk.

Which brings the question: why the authors who have a fanbase don't go independent?

[SkynJay]

It is really low, especially for e-books where the publisher doesn't have any risk.

Which brings the question: why the authors who have a fanbase don't go independent?

Goodkind did and went back. Rachael Aaron released one series that way but I haven't heard anything about here results.

I have to assume it is hard to get book store shelf space as an Indie and there is some indication that as a percentage e-books may be at near peak saturation. Physical books still sell and viability is still important.

[David Selig]

It is really low, especially for e-books where the publisher doesn't have any risk.

There is a risk with ebooks too. The publisher pays the advance of the writer, for editing, cover art, proofreading, etc. If the book doesn't sell enough to cover this costs, he makes a loss.

[Jussi]

Kim Harrison

With more than 2.5 million “Hollows” books in print

[Werthead]

1 million books sold and still whining about low sales. Kind of hilarious.

1 million books sold in a year is huge.

1 million copies spread over seven books sold over 13 years, not so much. I mean, it's decent, but I suspect that the figures may not be evenly distributed (the rapid release of the original trilogy probably concentrated sales in that period, and the long, drawn-out publication of the AE trilogy - over seven years! - has not helped at all).

Depending on your lifestyle and commitments, it's certainly not in the "Give up your day job" territory.

Compare to Joe Abercrombie who sold 3 million copies of his books within five or so years of starting out and was able to quit the day job, focus on the writing and up his production rate by switching to shorter novels, which has paid back handsomely.

[David Selig]

But compared to 99,999% of other writers Bakker is doing great. And it's not like his books are of the type that usually sells well.

[Darth Richard II]

Yeah but if they did sell billions what would his fans complain about?

[TheRevanchist]

There is a risk with ebooks too. The publisher pays the advance of the writer, for editing, cover art, proofreading, etc. If the book doesn't sell enough to cover this costs, he makes a loss.

How much would all those cost? And I said those who already have a fanbase, people who won't need an advance to live comfortably.

Basically the likes of Rothfuss, Abercrombie, Sanderson etc of this world (or even some others who haven't sold that much compared to the three I mentioned, the likes of Hobb, Lawrence, Bakker etc). I don't have any idea how much they sell in e-books, but if they sell like 50% of books as e-books then surely it would be more profitable for them to go independent (considering that the costs of e-book, after you finish writting are very low).

Anyway, I haven't studied the market so likely I am completely wrong but still it looks to me very bad how authors get only 7-15% of the book profit. Basically an author who sells a half a million or even a million books (like Bakker or Lawrence) won't be able to leave their daily jobs, while other people get millions from their work.

[Darth Richard II]

Ebooks are not as cheap to produces as people think.

[Hello World]

Mark Lawrence had an interesting post on the subject.

http://mark---lawrence.blogspot.com/2014/05/225.html

[Larry of the Lawn]

Yeah but if they did sell billions what would his fans complain about?

The poor sales numbers in Canada, but who really has time to read when your lands are overrun with sranc. #obligatorybakkake

[Darth Richard II]

Well now I want to know what book he co authored under a differnt name.

[TheRevanchist]

Mark Lawrence had an interesting post on the subject.

http://mark---lawrence.blogspot.com/2014/05/225.html

Good informative post. Reading the comments, I found this post from Michael J. Sullivan:

I have a slightly different perspective....but not that far off. In many ways publishing is a venture capital game. Publisher's take huge risks, and more often than not the horse they pick fails (stat's I've seen is somewhere between 10% and 20% of books earn out their advance). Because it is so high risk, they have to take a very high % of the profits...basically the successful authors are subsidizing the failures because if we were all pulling our weight then the shares to the author could be higher.

Yes, there are a lot of people who are getting slices of the pie. The publisher, distributors, bookstores, agents, I could go on and on...and I think they provide valuable service that I appreciate and think they should be compensated for their efforts. But....what is the fair amount of sharing?

I'm working on a contract for the audio rights of my next series, and as such I've done some analysis on the income from my first series. Here is what I discovered. In about a year my three Riyria books generated $1,310,655 worth of income to various parties (Audible, Recorded Books, Orbit, Myself, my agent). My cut? $47,090. Do I think that is fair? No, sorry I don't.

What I would like to see is a sliding scale. Once the author earns out and the risk by the publisher has been recouped than more should start shifting to the author. The publisher is still going to be making a big profit but in some cases they are earning $12 to each $1 I make. I have no problem with that kind of split when they are earning back their investment. But the more I make, the greater the disparity between my income and theirs.

Completely agree with it.

[mgambino]

Well now I want to know what book he co authored under a differnt name.

Wasn't he Mazarkis Williams?

[Darth Richard II]

Wasn't he Mazarkis Williams?

I have thought that before, but who was the other author then? MYSTERY!

[mgambino]

I have thought that before, but who was the other author then? MYSTERY!

When in doubt, assume K.J. Parker. That's what I do.

[RedEyedGhost]

Good informative post. Reading the comments, I found this post from Michael J. Sullivan:

Completely agree with it.

Wha... the... I mean... I don't even understand. That's disturbing and disgusting.

[Werthead]

Sales of A Song of Ice and Fire hit 58 million.

[TerokNor]

Hi everyone,

I have been collecting some sales data over the past weeks and months. I registered just to post it here - didn't want to dump it all into a comment over at Werthead's blog. Data on more than 20 authors follows.

First, two old-school tie-in numbers:

Brian Daley had two million copies of his Han Solo Adventures in print by 1992 as stated on the cover of the omnibus edition.

James Blish's Star Trek episode adaptations had 12 million copies in print by 1979. My 1979 printing of Star Trek 2 states: "Explore the bold new worlds of tomorrow in Star Trek 1 through 12. Over 12 million copies in print".

Next, several German authors. First, two heavy hitters:

Wolfgang Hohlbein. Basically the only name in German fantasy and horror throughout most of the 1980s and 1990s, he has sold 44 million books according to his official site. One of his publishers is a bit more conservative and just claims "more than 40 million" (Piper Fantasy Catalog Autumn 2014, p. 27). 150+ books in ~30 years. This puts him in the Top 20, which is crazy considering none of his books were translated into English until 2006 - the first two books of his Märchenmond/Magic Moon series. His best-selling book seems to be the first in that series, with 4 million copies sold. Since that was co-written with his wife Heike (the first of many collaborations), that also puts her at 4 million plus.

Cornelia Funke has sold more than 20 million books, mostly children's fantasy. Several movies have been based on her works.

Andreas Eschbach seems to be the only SF writer to regularly appear in German hardcover bestseller lists. He has won the prestigious Kurd-Lawßwitz-Award for best SF novel eight times. Not all of his books are strictly SF, but his single best seller, Das Jesus-Video, is about time travel and has sold 2.5 million copies.

Kai Meyer has "several million" copies of his fantasy novels in print worldwide (including English translations) according to his official site.

Walter Moers' debut novel Die 13½ Leben des Käpt’n Blaubär (English title The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear), the first in his Zamonia sequence, has sold more than 1 million copies.

The next few authors are all part of a post-LOTR-film-trilogy boom in German fantasy publishing, with their bestsellers mostly about Orcs, Elves, Dwarves, etc. and the books often advertised more or less as tie-ins.

Markus Heitz is already on the list. Updated numbers are 2.5 million total (Heyne Autumn 2014 catalog, p. 174), at least 2 million of which are for his Dwarves series (Piper Fantasy Spring 2015 catalog, p. 9).

Bernhard Hennen had sold "almost 3 million" of his Elves series worldwide by late 2014. An English translation of the first book is upcoming.

Michael Peinkofer has more than 600.000 books in print (Piper Fantasy Spring 2015 catalog, p. 33). Sales of at least 500.000 are for his Orcs series, according to the blurb on the omnibus.

Christoph Hardebusch has sold 350.000 copies of his Trolls series (Heyne Autumn 2013 catalog, p. 61).

Richard Schwartz (a pseudonym, real name unknown) has 320.000 of his various fantasy novels in print (Piper Fantasy Catalog Autumn 2014, p. 59).

Next, two interesting authors, both East German SF writers.

Alexander Kröger (the pseudonym of Helmut Routschek) has sold 1.65 million books and Carlos Rasch has sold 1.5 million books.

The following numbers are for international authors, but taken from various German publisher's catalogs and mostly are only their German sales numbers, with their worldwide numbers almost certainly much higher.

J.R. Ward has sold 2.6 million of her paranormal romances in Germany alone (Heyne Autumn 2014 catalog, p. 140).

French fantasy writer Pierre Grimbert has sold 260.000 books in Germany (Heyne Spring 2015 catalog, p. 156).

Royce Buckingham has sold 250.000 books in Germany (Blanvalet Autumn 2014 catalog, p. 26). This is interesting, because many of his books exist only in translations and have not been published in his native US, including the last two books in his Demonkeeper series and the entirety of his Mapper series, which so far has only been published in Germany.

Jeaniene Frost has sold 500.000 books in Germany (Blanvalet Autumn 2014 catalog, p. 79).

Jennifer Estep has sold 160.000 books of her Mythos Academy series in Germany (Piper Fantasy Spring 2015 catalog, p. 24).

G.A. Aiken has sold 350.000 books - no mention of whether only in Germany or worldwide, but probably the former (Piper Fantasy Spring 2015 catalog, p. 31) - an earlier source says 250.000 in print in Germany.

There are various numbers for Russian fantasy writer Alexey Pehov. He is said to have sold 200.000 books (Piper Fantasy Catalog Autumn 2014, p. 21) and have 250.000 in print (Piper Fantasy Catalog Autumn 2014, p. 27), both probably German numbers. A later source claims at least a million sales for his Chronicles of Siala series (Piper Fantasy Spring 2015 catalog, p. 16), probably worldwide.

Lissa Price has sold 50.000 copies of her Starters/Enders duology in Germany (Piper Fantasy Catalog Autumn 2014, p. 55).

And finally, I found this article on 2010 US hardcover sales, which has Patricia Briggs' Silver Borne with 100.000 copies sold. Since that book is the fifth in her Mercy Thompson series, she is probably at at least half a million in total.