Can I upload my book to Amazon and just get sales? Amazon reaches millions of buyers, right? How many sales can I expect per day?

Well, I'm not sure if you should "expect" a certain number of sales. Publishing is a crapshoot, and self-publishing even more so.

The average self-published book sells less than 200 copies. In fact, the "average" is probably much lower, because there is a small percentage of self-published books that do well, and the rest do not. The majority of the good sellers are non-fiction, and they are marketed intelligently to the public.

Every now and then, a lucky fiction breakout makes big money. Christopher Paolini's fantasy-fiction series is an exception. He was originally self-published with the help of his parents and his books have become wildly successful, spawning a movie deal and a multitude of books, games, and other fan-stuffs.

It's very important to have a platform, website, blog, etc-- a combination of these things can help you succeed, even if you have very little money you can still publish and market your book, but it better be good-- well-written and edited, and you need to be prepared to market it. Writing is fun, but marketing is hard work.

And yes, I do spend a lot of money AND precious time marketing my books. Hours and hours each day. I currently have FIVE websites (yes, count 'em)...

1. My publishing company website

2. My author's website (which has a blog that I maintain)

3. My tax marketing newsletter website; I just launched this sucker last week (I use Constant Contact)

4. My self-publishing information website (with a giant list of free book review sources-- just because I love you guys)

5. My two blogs (The Publishing Maven) and my author's blog.

Okay, that's six websites, I guess. And I now publish a monthly newsletter (for tax professionals). I was thinking about publishing a monthly newsletter on self-publishing, too... but there just aren't enough hours in the day, honestly. I still have a publishing company to run (just opened a new business account with Wells Fargo last week-- I hope they don't suck).

All of this marketing takes time and money. But mostly time. And the more time you spend marketing, the less time you have to write. It's a vicious cycle. I know why people love to publish with a traditional publisher, because they (theoretically) don't have to deal with as much of this crap as self-published authors do.

Now, I'm not trying to discourage you. It isn't easy, but that doesn't mean you can't do it. Just be prepared to work hard. Take the time to really understand the business, so you can be set up for success instead of failure.

I've posted about Joe Konrath before, but there's been a lot of news to share. Joe Konrath is testing his "Piracy Doesn't Affect Sales" theory. He's taken one of his moderate selling books and he has put the links up on his website, and ENCOURAGED people to pirate the book.

To tell you the truth, I'm fascinated by this.

I'm not sure what the outcome will be, and I hope Joe's right. If he is, and his sales stay steady, or if they INCREASE, it will be a fantastic win for him, and it may affect the way I promote some of my own books in the future.

And, another question about CreateSpace:

Comment: OK, I have a question. If you sell your book through CreateSpace are you not giving CS a percentage of your sales, based on their terms for percentages? If so, wouldn't that put CreateSpace in the "subsidy" category? I know that I do not have to give LSI any percentage of my sales. They simply print my book and send it through the distribution channels.

Well, the argument is that a "subsidy" publisher shouldn't be cheaper than LSI, right? But CreateSpace's printing costs are comprable, if not cheaper, than LSI.

KL Brady, bestselling author of The Bum Magnet, uses LSI and CreateSpace, and she says this:

"I use both Lightning Source and Creatspace. Lightning Source for book store sales, B&N, Booksamillion etc. and Createspace for Amazon sales. Createspace is not a subsidy publisher. To order author copies of my book, CS is roughly $1 cheaper per book. Your numbers in terms of royalties depend on what you set your wholesale discount. With an equal discount, CS provides a higher royalty because the printing costs are lower."

I only use CreateSpace, and I don't sell direct, so I don't order very many wholesale copies. So if you sell direct on your website, or at book shows, etc, CreateSpace is cheaper in many cases.

LSI offers better binding options, such as hardcover books, which CreateSpace does NOT offer.

As for the "subsidy" issue, I think that you are confusing what is considered a traditional "subsidy press" with CreateSpace. Subsidy publishers used to share printing costs (back when everyone used offset printing), and they would charge the author a portion.

Now, you can't really compare CreateSpace to subsidy publishing because an author's upfront costs are minimal-- basically the cost of a proof (less than $20) and the ISBN. CreateSpace even offers free ISBNs for authors who don't want to spend the money to buy their own.

By the way, Amazon has discounted my books almost 30% since two weeks after the release date, and that is the price they have stayed. I still make the SAME royalty percentage, so any money that CreateSpace might have earned is effectively "removed" by the insane discount that Amazon is offering on the books.