I am trying to find out more facts about publishing a book. Have been told that the author only gets a very small percentage of the selling price per book, is this true and if so are there other more cost effective ways to publish for example Internet publishing.

All Answers To Questions

Yes, mainstream publishing involves a lot of people and so the author has to share the profits with many people. Internet self publishing can be done and you get more but you need to invest money and market the books.

If you are represented by an agent, you share your cut of the book's profits with the agent out of your royalties percentage. If you are not represented by an agent, then you get all of whatever your royalties percentage is. If you only earn 7%, then an agent takes a percentage of that. Otherwise, the 7% is yours. If you self-publish a book, you can go through lulu.com and publish it for free, setting the price you want. Lulu.com takes a small slice of the profits. However, marketing and promoting the book are expenses you will bear alone. Traditional publishing, the publisher bears those expenses, along with the cost of getting the book out, which is why royalties are only a small percentage.