The Publishing Scene isn't Fair

The publishing scene isn't fair.

Let's talk about why that is.

Romance novels typically sell for $4.99 through a traditional publisher and $2.99 through indie publishing - however $3.99, across the board, shows to be the sweet spot for sales.

Now let's compare that to fantasy novels.

Fantasy novels typically sell for $18.99 through a traditional publisher and $9.99 through indie publishing - however $14.99, across the board, shows to be the sweet spot for sales.

Let's get real nit-picky and brake it down beyond vague averages and look at how much each they make per word on average for those genres -

A 40k word fantasy novel would retail for around $12.80.

While a 40k word romance novel would retail for around $8.00.

Now a $4.80 difference might not seem like a huge deal to some, but when this is your livelihood it means a world of difference. Think of it this way -

On average, an author will make 50% profit depending on who they sign with or where they publish.

So let's create a hypothetical situation. Let's say each author is writing fulltime and each month they manage to sell 200 books.

The fantasy author would be making a profit of $1280.00 monthly.

Meanwhile the romance author would only be making a profit of $800.00 monthly.

That's a HUGE difference! It's the difference between making rent or not. Choosing which bills to pay instead of not having to worry. It's the difference between doing this as a career and doing it as a part time job because you'd need another part time job to help pay the rest of your bills.

But why is the publishing industry like this?

Well, it comes back to stigmas, stereotypes, and target audiences.

Since romance novels were originally mass produced and targeted to women instead of men, they were seen (and still are seen in some cases) as lesser novels.

Many assume that since there isn't necessarily dramatic world building in a romance novel that it must be easier to write and thus it deserves less recognition and less pay per word.

But we at Novella Live beg to differ. Plotbunny is a master craftsmen in world building and includes such details in her novels DESPITE them being romance. And we'd even go as far to argue that romance requires a more in depth development of character arcs which is arguably a lot harder than simply describing a place since as a writer you must grow that character throughout that novel to make the love arc believable.

In fantasy you can just say "because of magic" and not really explain the technicalities of anything. But you don't get that luxury in romance. If the audience doesn't believe the romance arc would happen organically - your books won't sell.

So how do we combat the stigmas and stereotypes?

We stop playing their games.

You will never see a novel from Plotbunny sell for $2.99 and you shouldn't sell yours at that price either.

Price your work for what it's worth.

You spent time and money bringing that book to life and you deserve the proper compensation for it. No genre is lesser than another. No genre should be struggling while others thrive. 40k words is 40k words. End of discussion.

The way we change the writing world and make it fair is by not selling our work and ourselves short.

So what are we going to discuss next week?

Well, we are going to teach you how to promote your work in an over saturated market so you can get the recognition you deserve.

I hope you enjoyed this Workshop Wednesday post and keep your eyes peeled for our Follow-up Friday post where Plotbunny will go into detail about how the stigmas and stereotypes around the romance genre have affected her and her writing.

Love always,

Novella & Plotbunny