And the reason I haven't made a million dollars is...

This is a good article, direct and simple, about the two types of royalties authors can earn from book sales.

http://jerrodbalzer.com/?page_id=23

This is good for authors as a warning, to educate them about what royalties mean when they're looking to be published. It's also good to show readers that books sales don't make authors rich - ever.

The real money is not in book sales, it's in endorsements. Movie rights, TV rights, t-shirts, posters, hell, even dolls based on the characters. When you pay x amount of money at a bookstore, the majority of that money goes to the booksellers. Eventually, after covering costs, etc, the money is filtered down to the author who gets a percentage of whatever is left over.

Authors get crumbs from booksales, nothing more.

As far as I'm concerned, this article only proves once again that an author writing stictly for money is doomed to fail. You don't write for money, because creative writing is not a job. It's a craft. If an audience also happens to enjoy my craft, that would be lovely, but it doesn't equal money. Those who want to commercialize a craft, ie make a movie based on a book, might make some real money but there's no guarantee.

The bottom line is authors should always write for themselves and readers should always know authors are merely sharing their craft. Readers, we don't work for you and you don't work for us. But we certainly hope you enjoy what we have to offer and we're always grateful when our craft is appreciated :)