The most popular questions of all - how much money can I actually make writing books or short stories? For the sake of this post, I'll stick to KDP, since every publishing platform has its own rules.

Can you make money? Yes! How much? Well, it depends on multiple factors.

Lucky for you, there is a very useful gadget on this blog that will help you get all of your questions in seconds, no math needed. It's that gadget on the right called 'CALCULATOR', or 'Amazon Royalties Estimator', courtesy of Wordpreneur, and Will Bontrager Software LLC.

To qualify for the 70% royalty option, books must meet these requirements:

• The author or publisher-supplied list price must satisfy list price requirements.
• The list price must be at least 20% below the list price on Amazon for the physical book.
• Titles must be made available for sale in all geographies for which the author or publisher has rights.

Titles must also be enrolled in KDP Select to be eligible for 70% royalty on sales to customers in Brazil, Japan, Mexico, and India.

All books are still eligible for the standard 35% royalty as long as the title meets list price requirements. 

Should I write short stories or novels? The question I like discussing the most. Although I have a strong opinion on this one, I'll give my absolute best to be as objective as possible and share the pros and cons of each side. I'll break this subject down in several major segments.



How choosing one path will affect your strategy?

First, let's start with logistics. Writing a novel takes at least ten times longer than writing a short story. This means that by the time you finish your first novel, you'll have ten stories already published and making you money, with the potential of becoming really popular and helping you take off as an author. It doesn't sound too drastic, but let's look into the future and compare your five novels with fifty short stories. Again, this ratio depends on the length of both novels on the one hand and short stories on another. Realistically though, I would argue that it's more likely you'll write closer to twenty short stories in the same time frame as you would one novel. This is my personal opinion, based on my own experience, so feel free to disagree with me and share your own experience. There is a shift in mentality when you keep publishing very frequently. You don't dwell over every single word repeatedly. On the other hand, when writing a novel, you know that you've just spent six months to a year writing one manuscript, and all you have is one single shot. If people hate it, too bad, that's the only book you have to offer at that moment. Sure, you can spend another six months to a year writing another novel, but even then, there is no guarantee that each one of those books will be popular enough to make you money.

It takes me about six months to write a novel. That would be two novels per year with two chances of making it on the platform. When it comes to short stories, I am a firm advocate of the DWS method, which I personally follow. That means that I can write fifty short stories in a year. Twenty-five short stories or one novel? I choose the former. Some of those stories are a success, some are pretty invisible. But the chances work in my favor when I create fifty different opportunities for my career to take off.

When it comes to business strategies, it's apples and oranges. I have a detailed launching schedule for publishing a novel that takes me roughly one year to accomplish. The actual writing of the book is included in the schedule, but as you can see, the launching strategy is brutal. Some steps do overlap quite a bit, and I try my best to start writing the next novel pretty much after I'm done writing the first one, but it gets so exhausting working on two projects at the same time, especially when there are many steps I have to cover as I go. One of these days, I'll share my ultimate launching schedule with you so you can see what I'm talking about.

Everything I said so far makes me sound like it's a no brainer. But let me share a different perspective. So much effort goes into writing a novel. I take it so seriously as if my life depends on it, which later gives me a better product. Compared to my short stories, books are always more polished, professional, and a better representation of me as a writer. If you're all about the best quality and you don't expect to make a living writing, I would always suggest writing novels. They will most likely be of better quality. If you want this to be your career, I would recommend the quantity strategy that will be your jumping board. Again, feel free to disagree with me.

And before you call me a sellout for even considering this business plan, let me share my views on it. This is a business like any other. If it was a hobby, I wouldn't care about any of this. But people work for money. Somehow, when it comes to writing, people have ridiculous expectations. Anything shorter than genius is mediocre and, therefore, not acceptable. As if most people alive, no matter the profession, aren't mediocre at their job. And I don't mean this as an insult. We should strive for greatness, but let's not have unrealistic expectations from one industry. People cannot afford to spend a year writing full time with no income just so they can publish one novel. Expecting them to do that for the sake of art is unfair because we need money to survive in this world.

I tried to be objective here, but even though I started making the point in favor of novels, I still ended up defending the short story strategy. I guess my bias is showing. Moving on to the short stories strategy, that is so much easier and straightforward. Write - publish - repeat. That's it. The sheer volume of the titles will do the marketing for you. The more stories you have, the more people will find them on their own. They read one story, and if they like it, they will most likely look for your other stories. You'll still have to spend time on social media talking about your books, but it's nothing compared to the business strategy that comes with launching a novel.

This is just an observation with no greater detail to it. I will discuss these strategies more thoroughly in the future, showing you my step-by-step plan for both novels and short stories.

Moving on.



How choosing one path will affect your expenses?

It depends. If you plan on writing several short stories, you could invest money in professional covers, expensive editing, ads, etc. If you want to go crazy and write 50 stories, it wouldn't be financially sustainable. You'll have to work around these issues and learn how to do things yourself. Obviously, covers you make yourself won't be as good, not even close. But who can spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars each week for covers alone? No one, that's who. When writing a novel, I personally wouldn't dare to design my own covers or using Grammarly instead of paying an actual editor. It would be a suicide mission. Think about it, people are more forgiving when it comes to short stories. They won't spend days reading and investing their time in your writing. Also, short stories are cheaper than novels, which means they won't invest as much money either. Therefore they're more likely to be less judgemental. This won't always be the case, obviously. Some people will destroy you with their reviews, even if you give them your book/short story for free. The reality is, humans, enjoy criticizing others and their work. I know, it sucks. You'll grow a thick skin.

So this one is neither here nor there. Do you want to write fewer short stories and invest in them, or do you want to go for volume and do things yourself? If you choose the first option, it will cost you more than it would if you were to write a novel. If you choose the second one, it will save you a bunch of money. Let me tell you the main reason why I would choose the latter. Ads. Marketing is ready expensive if you actually want to see some real results, and it's not a one-time thing. You'll be pouring money regularly, and if you're a beginner, you won't have enough income from your previous books to support those expenses. You know what they say, the best marketing for your book is writing another book. And it's the truth. The more books you have, the more organic readers you'll get without having to spend money on ads. We'll talk more about that some other time.



Which one is better for beginners, and why?

I'll be really blunt here - short stories. I'll assume you are a regular person who doesn't have an unlimited budget. Some of you may not have money to invest at all. I know, I was one of those people. And although I personally wouldn't say that you don't need any money at all to have a fair chance of succeeding,  I would say that you don't need a lot of it. A few hundred dollars will be enough for you to start. As you start making money, you'll invest some of it in certain things that will make your life easier.

Let's forget about the budget for a second. When you first start publishing, you are a no one, an invisible entity on those virtual shelves. If you want to become slightly visible, you'll have to work for it from the grounds up. Having multiple titles helps. You're building your presence and your name. Use pen names if you want, I know I always will, but you get the point. If I have a pen name with more than twenty titles, I am visible. Visibility leads to sales, and after that, your writing skills will take the weel. You have the control in terms of visibility, but you have no control over reviews. Everyone thinks their writing is good, that's why they are publishing it for others to see it. But not everyone is right. Any of us could be that delusional person, there's no way of knowing before you actually publish your work. But chances are if you believe you can do it, something gave you that confidence for a reason. Not many people are completely delusional and oblivious to their abilities. So believe in yourself! You will start on shaky grounds and make mistakes, but you'll improve as you go. That brings me to another reason why I love short stories. You'll gain so much feedback and have countless opportunities to learn from your mistakes. And that's the luxury you won't get if you publish once or twice a year.


In the end, you can always start with short stories and work your way up to writing novels.


Although it's pretty clear by now that I am a fan of short stories, especially for beginners, I'll share my thoughts on some cones that come with it. First of all, it so much easier to think of one story compared to fifty different ones. I can't stress this enough. My brain hurts every time I have to think of yet another story to write, every single week. It's exhausting. Another thing I find excruciating is making my own covers. I am not a designer, and I have zero patience for such tasks. Formatting by myself isn't as huge of a hassle as I thought it would be, but that's only because I don't have paperbacks yet. Formatting ebooks is way easier. The moment I decide to turn some books and collections into paperbacks, I'll be sure to delegate formatting to someone who can do it for me. If I were to write mostly novels, there would be a huge list of tasks I wouldn't have to do myself, and that would make my life so much easier.


And there you have it, that's my honest take on this subject. I tried sharing my experience the best that I could without boring you to death. This is simply my experience, and it doesn't mean that yours would be the same. Do whatever works best for you.

Dean Wesley Smith (DWS) is a famous author who is the mastermind behind this method. Some swear by it, while others don't support what it stands for. Let me explain. His idea of writing 50 stories in a year, which is roughly once a week, means that you will compromise the quality for the sake of quantity. Some people don't support this idea; however, this man is pretty transparent when it comes to the purpose of this method. Making more money and becoming a full-time writer.


I get both sides, but I would have to side with Mr. Smith on this one. Approaching this as a business is not a bad idea. In fact, I would argue that it will make you a better author at the end of the day. Why? Because you'll have more experience in a year, then others would have in 10 years. After writing 50 stories, you can always go back to writing novels and spend months, if not years, on each one.


Now let's talk more about this method and how it works. As you know, each year has 52 weeks. You are supposed to write 50 stories in 50 weeks and have a two-week vacation at some point. The length of each should be around 5,000 words, and you should charge at least $2.99. That's right, let that sink in. Each story should be in at least one five-story collection, priced at $5.99. Also, you should make larger collections with at least ten stories, priced at $7.99. All of these numbers are for ebooks. When it comes to paperbacks, this is what he has to say.

"I also put all my short stories into a stand-alone paper version just for me because there is no extra costs. I sell those paper versions for $4.99 and surprisingly, every-so-often one sells. But they do make my $2.99 price look better for the electronic version."

However, a 5,000-word story will not be eligible for turning it into a paperback version. Amazon makes it very clear, the minimum page count is 24 pages. I suppose Mr. Smith refers to some of his longer stories. Having different formats of your book makes the algorithm work in your favor. For audiobooks, use the Audible and their ACX program, or even do your own audio recordings.


He mentions Kindle, B&N, D2D, Kobo, iBooks, Smashwords, etc. I am currently using Kindle and D2D.


You should write in most main genres and keep your pen names separate.



When it comes to covers, that would be your job. It makes sense because I cannot think of one person who can pay for a professional cover every single week. It makes things that much harder for you, though.


Other than self-publishing, he talks about selling your stories to magazines and to overseas publishers. This is where I get disconnected. Personally, I will not follow this particular advice, but that's just because, to me, it sounds too daunting, and it makes me think it's not worth the trouble. I'm willing to give up on that source of income.


Now let's talk numbers, the most exciting part of all.


His assumption is that after a while, you should be able to sell two copies per title, on average. That includes all platforms, not just Kindle. Now, because I'll skip the part with other sources of income, such as selling stories to magazines, my math will be slightly different.


By the end of year one, you will have 50 stories, $2.99 each.
So, 50 stories x 2 sales per month = 100 sales per month.
Income from sales is $2 per sale.
Next, 100 x $2 = $200 per month.


When it comes to collections, he assumes that you could have five sales per month per collection. As I previously explained, each story should be in at least one five-story collection, priced at $5.99. That means that by the end of the year, you will have 10 five-story collections published. Although the price is $5.99, your profit would be roughly $4 per collection. Math time.


10 five-story collections x 5 sales per month = 50 sales x $4 = $200


Now, 10-story collections. Again, as I said, you should make larger collections with at least ten stories, priced at $7.99. The assumption of five sales per month per collection. With 50 stories, you will have 5 ten-story collections published. For the price of $7.99, your profit would be roughly $5.50. Let's do the math one more time.


5 ten-story collections x 5 sales per month = 25 sales x $5.50 = $137.50


If we combine all thee numbers so far, this is what we get:

$200 + $200 + $137 = $537 per month.



When you first start publishing, you will not see these sales he is talking about. Think of it as an avalanche. The more you publish, the better results you will have. That's the whole point of this method. There is a huge power that comes with quantity. You'll have to experience it to believe it. And although you'll earn maybe $500 a month by the end of the first year, by the end of the third year (if you continue with this method) you will not make three times more money, but rather ten or more. That's the avalanche I mentioned.


You may ask yourself, how come more people aren't doing this and making tons of money? Because it's so freaking hard! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It's a huge commitment, you'll need to find endless ideas really quickly to keep writing new stories every week, and you'll be sick of this tempo quite often. You can forget about having a writer's block because time is running, and you have to keep publishing. You'll have a deadline every single week for a year (or more). Fun, right?


But at the end of the day, chances of making decent money are in your favor. Do you want to make this your career? Think of it as a business. Not everything you'll have to do will be fun, creative, or enjoyable for that matter. Some of the stories you'll love, others will be meh. Reviews will be brutal. But that's where pen names usually come in handy. And after you have enough passive income coming your way every month, you can finally start writing that novel, you always wanted to share with the world. Spend as much time and money as you can perfecting it and slap your name all over those covers. You'll be financially secure no matter what happens with that one title. That's the luxury you'll be able to afford.


In the end, I would suggest reading these two threads on Kboards where people shared their experience (and their income per month) using this method:

54 Titles - My Results

1 Year, 100 Titles = My results

Kindlerella is a blog dedicated to self-publishing and all the growing pains that come with it. Without making it sound too intimidating, I just want to make it very clear that there is a lot to learn here if you really want to make it in this industry. Why? Because you'll be the one doing 99% of the work, if not all of it. Now that I look back, writing takes no more than 40% of my time, and trust me, I'm being generous. Everything else falls under different categories that I don't enjoy doing as much. For example, marketing is one of the things I hate doing. In fact, the only reason I do it every day is that it helps me do what I love the most, which is writing. Not everything that comes with this career is sipping hot tea while looking out your window waiting for inspiration to kick in. This is business and you should treat it as such.

About seven years ago when I first started indulging in this idea of becoming a writer, I used to find information all over the place, writing down bits and pieces of knowledge I thought would be enough to start. Looking back at it, I want to hug my younger naive self. I was a law student, daydreaming about taking a left turn and having enough courage to finally do what I truly wanted. To be honest, other than writing, there is no other job I would enjoy doing every day. Not that I know of anyway. This tells me something very important. Writing is what I truly want to do with my life. Sure, pursuing this dream of mine set me back several years, but I finally graduated, forgot my degree that is just there, chilling, and started building my career from scratch. No prior knowledge, no education in the field, nothing. Luckily, learning about all aspects that come with self-publishing isn't something you learn in school anyway. To this day, I am still learning. To be completely honest, to this day things are still changing.

But here's the thing. I could never find a place where someone would teach me every step of the way. Instead, I would often spiral, finding more and more tutorials and even more contradictory information that made me want to quit more than once. It was too overwhelming, especially that feeling of not even knowing what I don't know. Because let me tell you, you can technically write down anything you want, follow basic instructions on Amazon, upload your work, and call it a day. No knowledge or skills whatsoever. But even then I knew that this way was not an option if I wanted to make it and actually make money. Had I had that someone to walk me through everything that was coming my way, I would save myself years. I'm not exaggerating. I would pay a small fortune to just have a place where I would learn EVERYTHING, or at least be able to find it.

I will give my absolute best to be that person for you. I'll teach you everything that I personally did, including things that may seem like they don't have anything to do with self-publishing. They do. It's up to you to choose what you want to implement in your strategy, but let me first share this one thing with you. Back in the day, I would pick and choose certain tips and ignore the ones that seemed unnecessary. That was a mistake. If you could ignore this beginner mentality where you'll want to find ways to do less, your success will come much, much faster. To put it bluntly, instead of thinking "How can I avoid doing this particular step?" always ask yourself "What else can I do here in order to be even more successful?"

I'll teach you about writing, blogging, YouTube, income, marketing, social media, and everything that you'll face at one point or another. It would be impossible to list everything now. All of these pieces make one huge puzzle. It sounds intimidating but think of it this way. You wouldn't open a coffee shop and skip a bunch of steps in the process. No, you would take it seriously because it's business. Sadly, the reason why so many people fail and give up on writing is that they don't see this as a business when, in reality, there is no other way around it. Knowledge is key. If you really want to make this your career and want to take it seriously, you're immediately in a much better starting position that the vast majority of self-published writers. You may think that all of them are doing everything in their power to make it, everything you'll be doing, but you're wrong. And that's good news for you.

So without further ado, let's start. Brace yourself, this will be the most exciting chapter in your life.