Shane Parrish Netted Just Fifty Cents Profit Per Self-Published Hardcover
Shane Parrish · Charlie Hoehn: Write Something People Want to Read · Dec 10, 2024 · at 20:58
Shane Parrish, creator of Farnam Street, discusses the unit economics and thin profit margins of self-publishing his book series, The Great Mental Models.
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“Like, people don't understand the economics of self-publishing from a hardcover perspective. Sort of like audio and Kindle are great because the margins are good, but from a hardcover perspective, we were paying eight dollars U.S., seven dollars U.S., Approximately for printing. We were charging 30 dollars for the great metal models on Amazon, which means we get 15. Then the distributor takes approximately three dollars per book. Then there's shipping costs per books. There's storage costs per book. By the time like the hardcover sort of worked out, I think we made like 50 cents to maybe a dollar a copy from a hardcover point of view.”
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