2oceansvibe News | South African and international news

Sponsored by RSAWeb rss
2ov Radio
  • Home
  • About
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Seth Rotherham
  • du Cap Collection
  • Café du Cap
  • Cabine du Cap
  • Media Packs / Advertising
  • Contact
    • Contact
    • Anonymous Tips
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
Seth Rotherham
  • Ever Wondered How Easy It Is To Make Money As A South African Author?

    24 Aug 2016 by Jasmine Stone in Entertainment, Money, South Africa
    Related Posts
    • Franschhoek Annual Literary Festival Programme Has Been Released
    • Debauchery And Drugs: New Movie Plays With "The Myth Of Emily Brontë” [Trailer]
    • Round-Up: The Biggest Highlights From Prince Harry’s Book, ‘Spare’
    • Prince Harry's Provocative New Book Title And Release Date Revealed
    • Quirky #BookTok Is Breathing New Life Into Bookshops [Videos]

    At one point or another most of us have thought about scribbling down a story on a few napkins, making it Harry Potter big and living a life of leisure and luxury.

    Sure has worked for the likes of Stephen King and James Patterson, the latter continuing to churn out novels and earning $89 million (R1,25 billion) in 2015 alone.

    But what about local authors who publish a book, often the culmination of years of hard work – can they expect to make some proper dough?

    Not if you ask The Good Book Appreciation Society, a ‘secret’ book club on Facebook with around 6 000 members, who have found some rather troubling sales figures for those writing in English.

    Author and columnist Paige Nick started putting the pieces together (HERE), and they don’t paint a pretty picture.

    South Africans bought 10,5 million books last year, but that’s not good news for your everyday rooinek author. From Paige again:

    …local [English] authors are lucky if they sell more than 1,000 copies of a novel…

    80% of that [10.,5 million] figure came from non-fiction sales…

    Adult fiction only makes up 2.5 million of the 10.5 million (20%), and only a fraction of those sales come from SA fiction, the society said. Sales mostly go to the likes of international authors including J.K. Rowling, Lee Childs, John Grisham, and Gillian Flynn.

    South African based fiction sold 525,000 copies in 2015, and 450,000 of those were Afrikaans novels, meaning that only 75,000 English novels left the shelves.

    “And this is where we get to the sad part of the story. Your average SA novelist writing in English, only sells 600 – 1,000 copies of a novel in their lifetime. This in a country with a population of more than 55 million people,” the Appreciation society said.

    There is the odd success stories – take Spud, for example – but just two traditionally published South African English novels sold more than 2 000 copies last year.

    According to PublishSA an author receives around “10 – 12% of net receipts (the amount the publisher sells to the bookseller for, i.e. retail price less VAT less discount)”, so even if the book retails for R200 they will only see a tiny percentage of that money.

    Not meaning to scare anyone off putting pen to paper here, but if you’re hoping to strike gold by doing so you’re in for some hard truths.

    Any local authors feel like sharing their stories with us? We’d be interested to hear from you, so drop us an email at editor@2oceansvibe.com.

    Remember that local is lekker peeps, so let’s try and show a little love for our own authors too.

    [sources:businesstech&paigenick]

    • ← ‘Ghost Employees’ Could Be Killing Your Business – The New Scam Doing The Rounds
    • Thursday Morning Spice →
    • Tweet
    • Tags:
    • author
    • authors
    • books
    • novelist

    Latest News

    • Theta Noir – The Cult That Worships Super-Intelligent AI

      [imagesource:wikicommons] All hail our AI overlord! Well, maybe not just yet, consid...

    • You Can Buy Prince Harry And Meghan Markle’s Netflix Mansion For $33,5 Million

      [imagesource:jimbartsh] The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's Netflix documentary flew total...

    • Porsche Billionaire Is Divorcing His Wife Because She Has Dementia

      [imagesource:wikimediacommons] Looks like billionaire Wolfgang Porsche skipped the "in ...

    • rise siya kolisi story

      SPL!NG Movie Review: Rise – The Siya Kolisi Story

      Watch movies via Labia Home Screen*. It's hard to believe we're already staring down the ...

    • Bad Tourists, Animal Cruelty, Gated Luxury Resorts Alongside Local Poverty: This Doccie Hopes To Change How You Travel [Trailer]

      [imagesource:thelasttourist/hulu] If you book a cruise to ride on a go-kart track in th...


    • 2oceansvibe Partners

    • CONTACT US
    • GOT A HOT STORY?
    • 2oceansvibe Radio
    • 2oceansvibe Media
    • Media Pack
    • Seth Rotherham
    • Café du Cap
    • Cabine du Cap
    • Cape Town City Accommodation
    • Terms & Conditions
    • Business
    • Media
    • Entertainment
    • Tech/Sci
    • World
    • Travel
    • Lifestyle
    • Sport
    • Politics
  • Follow

    2oceansvibe.com is part of the 2oceansVibe Media Group

    DMMA Logo