This Author Revealed How Many Books They Sold To Get On The Bestseller List And How Much They Got Paid For It, And It's Eye-Opening
How many books do you think you'd have to sell to get on a bestsellers list? And how much do you think you get paid once your book lands there? Before bestselling author Sim Kern* revealed how much they've made from their book, I would have guessed you'd need to sell at least a million copies, resulting in a Scrooge McDuck–esque pile of money.
*Sim uses they/them pronouns.
Recently, Sim (@simkern) posted a TikTok getting into all the nitty-gritty of what it takes to become a bestseller, and revealed how much they've made — and it was really eye-opening.
The story focuses on a white English teacher, Maddie Ryan, who joins a Black-led group of activists fighting to save their neighborhood from being torn down to make way for a new electromagnetic hyperway. Oh, and she also plays in a queer punk band. (Definitely adding this to my to-be-read list.)
In the video, Sim opens by saying, "So a friend recently was calling me to congratulate me on my book, The Free People's Village, being a bestseller, and she was like, 'Oh my god, you must be making bank now.'" And as Sim immediately bursts into laughter, I had my first inkling that author pay may not be anything like what I had assumed.
Once Sim is done laughing, they answer their friend's observation with a flat "no."
Sim goes on to break down what they've been paid so far, first sharing their advance, which is a payment from the publisher to the author before the book comes out: "I spent a year, an entire year, writing this book, and then sold it to Levine Querido, which is an independent press, for $20,000. Twenty grand for a year's worth of work."
"Now, for an independent press, that's actually pretty good — that's a great advance. I had never made five figures before. My previous three books were sold to independent presses and were all four-figure advances."
And they share that they didn't even get paid the whole $20,000 in full or all at once. Instead, it came as two payments, and part of it went to their agent: "I got paid once upon signing, and then I got paid when they accepted the final manuscript after another year of edits. And then my agent took a 10% cut."
Sim added, "I got nine grand for the first year of work ... actually writing the book, and then I got nine grand for the year's worth of editing we did. Very far from a living wage in terms of what it actually takes to write a book."
Next, they get into the whole bestseller list thing, explaining that their book placed on the USA Today bestseller list. "In the first week that it was available in stores, all the preorders combined, plus all the books that sold that week, made it hit the bestseller list. This was the USA Today bestseller list, which ranks the 150 bestselling books," Sim said.
"New York Times only does 10. USA Today does 150. It's also more based on pure sales, though, because New York Times is more of an editorial list — like, they kind of pick books that they like."
So how many books do you think they sold to hit this list? Sim goes on to reveal that their book sold 650 copies to consumers, leading it to place at No. 86 on USA Today's bestseller list. In a follow-up video, they clarified that bookstores have also purchased a total of 5,000 copies, which means they're about halfway to selling out their first print run of 10,000 books.
They also added that if the book doesn't sell, bookstores can return those copies, which sounds really stressful to me.
Sim also discusses the idea of earning out their advance. Basically, this refers to the point when the book has sold well enough to repay the publisher for the advance that the author received prior to publication. Authors don't get royalties on their book sales until the advance has been paid out.
For this book, Sim says they will need to sell 7,500 copies to earn out their advance and begin to make royalties. As an example, they shared that they will make 10% of each hardcover sale if the advance gets earned out.
Sim closes out the first video by talking about how, although they're grateful to have a bestseller, they have to acknowledge how unsustainable the life of a writer is without support (and certain kinds of privilege): "I could not possibly do this if my spouse wasn't an engineer. We kind of had this little trade-off where I put him through engineering school back when I was a teacher. Now he's an engineer and he's subsidizing my writing career, which is fantastic."
They add, "But this is a huge reason that publishing skews towards more privileged individuals, because to be able to stick it out for years on end, grinding and grinding and hoping you'll have a book that becomes a success, and then you have a bestseller. And you can have a bestseller and still be years away from making any more money on that book."
In the comments, people are loving Sim's transparency.
And book lovers joined the conversation to support a living wage for authors.
Plus, some other authors chimed in to talk about their numbers, and it's really interesting how different they can be depending on what types of books they write.
Also, one of Sim's former students randomly happened upon this video, and I just thought it was a really cute interaction.
The whole video is really worth a watch. Check it out here:
@simkern / Via tiktok.com
Sim has also posted a couple of follow-up videos, talking about why they're glad they didn't self-publish and explaining what happens if they don't earn out their advance, which are also incredibly interesting, whether you're a casual book lover or an aspiring author yourself.
Sim told BuzzFeed that they were really surprised by how much their video blew up: "I guess it goes to show just how much mystery there is around the publishing industry."
They added, "That mystery is doing authors a disservice, because we get into this business with wildly unrealistic expectations, which makes the brutal reality all the more difficult to deal with. It's important for readers to know, as well, just how much their favorite authors are struggling."
Sim continued, "On social media, many authors try to project that they're living this glamorous, successful, jet-setting life — but for most of us, that's pretty far from reality. Hopefully, knowing the truth will inspire more readers to seek out and promote books beyond those that are already runaway bestsellers."
I, for one, certainly feel more inclined to buy books from smaller authors after seeing Sim's TikTok.
And they shared a bit more about what their journey as an author has been like: "I started writing seriously in 2017, and that was the tail end of the heyday of big advances for YA SFF [young adult science fiction/fantasy]."
They added, "So at that time, you were still seeing six-figure deals for YA authors, multi-book deals, as publishers were trying to re-create the success of The Hunger Games, but that was starting to wind down, and advances were already shrinking."
Sim said, "Still, prepandemic, I got the sense that most traditionally published authors, signing with Big Five publishers, were getting mid-five-figure deals."
They explained, "All that has changed dramatically since the pandemic. Advances are way down across the industry, and authors are being paid in more increments, spread out over two to three years."
Sim shared that they were really surprised to learn how few authors can actually make a living on their books: "There's a handful of authors who hit the jackpot and are making six-figure deals, but the vast majority of us are supported by another job, a spouse, or they have intergenerational wealth to fall back on."
They said, "I was shocked that in the comments of that video, there were some authors I look up to as having 'made it' — who've brought out multiple successful, award-winning, sometimes bestselling titles with publishers that are much bigger than mine — and they're saying they've never seen a $20,000 advance. So the further I get into the industry, the more I realize just how much everyone is struggling."
For readers who want to support authors, Sim suggests buying books at local independent bookstores or online at sites like Bookshop that support them. They're also a big library supporter.
"I also love hearing about folks getting their books through libraries," they said. "The more library requests, the more likely that library is to order more copies or licenses for audio and e-books."
In fact, there's just one method of obtaining books that Sim opposes: "Any way people want to read the book is fine by me, unless they're pirating it. Some people online try to justify pirating, saying they're just stealing from Amazon and these big, evil publishing corporations — well, they're stealing from authors, too, and the vast majority of us are making far below a living wage. So cut it out!"
By the way, if you're still following the "read and return" TikTok trend where users return e-books after reading them, please stop, as this hurts writers too.
