Sadly, a first book, however good, rarely becomes a best seller attracting screen deals. To just break even on the cost of publishing is a more realistic goal, but even this may not be achieved. Markets are fickle, public trends change faster than any writer can write. Sometimes it takes a second or third book to make the grade, at which point the first one will gain more notice.
Look on the publishing cost as an investment. The hours you spent writing the book represents hundreds, possibly thousands, of pounds if you were being paid by the hour. But you know art does not work like that. You just do it. And finish it. Publishing is the last bit of your investment.
Except it is also the start. Time investment starts again. Once that book is out there and on our website, the marketing has already begun. There is a world of events and talks and interviews. Of social media expansion. Alongside writing your next book while you watch what the first one does.
Your book in a public library is something else again. A popular book which is borrowed time and time again can earn the author a maximum of £6,600 a year. Not every book will achieve this, in fact relatively few do. But the possibility for this lucrative income stream is there and we explain on this site how you go about it.