In my last post I shared some brutal income data relevant to us indie writers that was eye opening, to say the least. More like a poke in the vitreous humor! Well, today I want to dig deeper into something that might sound even more discouraging at first: your first book is almost certainly going to lose money.
But before you start updating your resume or googling “how to become a plumber at 50,” let me explain why this isn’t the disaster it sounds like–and why understanding this reality might be the most liberating thing you hear all year.
See, I’ve been down this road before, not just with books but with my natural health website that actually made me some decent money back in the day. And here’s what I learned: sometimes you have to lose money intelligently before you can make money consistently.
The Bootstrap Reality Check
Let’s start with what “losing money” really means for those of us doing this the bootstrap way–no fancy professional services, no big marketing budget, just hard work and creative use of the internet.
Even if you’re doing everything yourself like I am, your first book still represents an investment. Not in cash necessarily, but in something even more valuable: your time.
Here’s what the bootstrap approach actually costs:
Your time learning to self-edit: Plenty of hours reading craft books, studying successful authors in your genre, and ruthlessly revising your own work
Your time mastering AI-assisted cover design: Learning to craft the perfect prompts for ChatGPT that create professional-looking covers that rival anything from the big publishing houses. (Trust me, this works better than you’d think. If you don’t believe me, check out the cover image to the memoir I wrote about my late wife, Ellen. That cover that was created by ChatGPT.)
Your time learning formatting software: Wrestling with tools like Anthemion’s Jutoh until you can compile epub versions as slick as any mainstream designer’s work–there’s a learning curve, but it’s worth it
Your time building an audience: Creating content, engaging on social media, writing blog posts that actually help people instead of just shouting “buy my book”
Now, let’s say you price your ebook at $4.99 and earn about $3.50 per sale after Amazon takes their cut. If you’ve invested 500 hours of your time in that first book, you’d need to sell roughly 200 copies just to earn minimum wage for your effort.
For most first-time authors, that’s about as likely as me winning a marathon at 77.
Why This Isn’t Actually Bad News
Before you start hyperventilating into a paper bag, let me tell you why this is actually good news disguised as a kick in the teeth.
First, it separates the serious authors from the hobbyists. If you’re not willing to invest hundreds of hours learning the craft and business of publishing, you’re probably not willing to do the other hard work required to make it successful. The time investment forces you to take this seriously as a business, not just a creative outlet.
Second, it gives you realistic expectations. Instead of dreaming about retiring on your first book’s royalties, you can focus on what actually matters: learning the business, building an audience, and laying the foundation for long-term success.
Third–and this is the big one–it reframes your first book as what it actually is: tuition for the best business education you’ll ever get.
The Real Business Model Nobody Explains
Here’s what I wish someone had told me when I was starting out: successful indie authors don’t make their money from their first book. They make it from their tenth book selling their entire backlist.
Every book you publish does four things:
- Earns direct royalties (the obvious one)
- Markets every other book you’ve written (the crucial one)
- Teaches you something about your readers (the valuable one)
- Builds your authority in your genre (the long-term one)
When a reader discovers your latest release and loves it, they don’t just recommend that book to friends–they often go back and buy everything else you’ve written. This is called “sell-through,” and it’s where the real money lives.
So your first book isn’t really competing with other books for sales. It’s competing for the chance to introduce readers to your entire catalog. Even if it loses money initially, it might be the marketing tool that drives thousands of dollars in future sales.
The Learning Curve Investment
Think of those hundreds of hours as an investment in learning:
- How to self-edit ruthlessly without losing your voice
- Which AI prompts create covers that actually sell books
- How to format eBooks that look as professional as traditional publishers
- What Amazon’s algorithms actually reward (hint: it’s not what you think)
- How to write book descriptions that convert browsers into buyers
- Which social media platforms actually drive book sales for your genre
- How to build genuine relationships with readers who become fans
This education would cost you tens of thousands if you tried to get it from business school or marketing consultants. And unlike those theoretical approaches, you’re learning by doing–with real books on real platforms getting real feedback from real readers.
I’ve watched too many authors spend years trying to make their first book “perfect” because they can’t bear the thought of it not succeeding immediately. Meanwhile, successful bootstrap authors publish their imperfect first book, learn from the market’s response, and use that knowledge to make their second book better.
The Compound Effect of Consistent Publishing
Here’s where the math starts working in your favor instead of against you. Let’s say you bootstrap one book per year, investing about 500 hours of your time in each one.
- Year 1: Book 1 loses time (sells 50 copies, earns $175)
- Year 2: Book 2 breaks even on time (sells 150 copies–some readers discover your backlist)
- Year 3: Book 3 profits nicely (sells 300 copies–bigger backlist effect)
- Year 4: Book 4 generates real income (sells 500 copies)
- Year 5: Book 5 becomes worthwhile (sells 800 copies)
But here’s the kicker: by Year 5, your backlist is generating additional income. Those early books that barely sold? They’re now moving steadily to new readers who discovered you through Book 5.
The authors making serious money understand this compound effect. They’re not trying to hit a home run with each book–they’re playing a longer game where each book makes every previous book more valuable.
How to Lose Money Intelligently
If you’re going to invest hundreds of hours in your first book anyway, you might as well do it in a way that maximizes your learning and minimizes future regrets.
Focus on systems, not perfection. Develop repeatable processes for editing, cover creation, and formatting that you can improve with each book rather than reinventing the wheel every time.
Document everything. Keep detailed records of what works, what doesn’t, which marketing approaches drive actual sales. This becomes your competitive advantage for future launches.
Study your genre relentlessly. Understand what readers expect, what price points work, what cover styles convert. Your first book is market research disguised as a product.
Build relationships, not just sales. Focus on connecting with readers who might become long-term fans, not just one-time buyers. These relationships compound over time.
Test and measure everything. Try different marketing approaches, track the results, and double down on what works for your particular audience and genre.
The Perspective That Changes Everything
Look, I’m 77 years old and chasing a bestseller dream I’ve had for fifty years. I’ve already “lost money” on more writing projects than I care to count. But every one of those “failures” taught me something that’s helping me now.
My natural health website that eventually made good money? It lost money for the first year while I learned about online marketing, customer psychology, and building trust with an audience. The lessons from that venture are directly applicable to book marketing–the fundamentals of building audience and creating value don’t change much between industries.
The difference between successful authors and unsuccessful ones isn’t that the successful ones never lose money. It’s that they lose money intentionally, strategically, and temporarily.
They understand that in any business with high potential returns, there’s usually a learning curve that costs time and effort up front. The goal isn’t to avoid that cost–it’s to pay it consciously and extract maximum value from the education.
What This Means for Your Bootstrap Publishing Plan
So how do you apply this thinking to your own first book?
- Budget your time realistically. Plan for those 500+ hours and don’t expect immediate payoff. This removes the pressure to rush through the learning process.
- Focus on learning systems. Pay attention to what resonates with readers, which AI prompts work best for covers, what formatting tricks save you time. This knowledge compounds across all future books.
- Think series from day one. If you’re going to invest in building an audience, give yourself multiple books to monetize that audience. Standalone novels work, but series sell better and justify the learning investment. I’m taking the series approach myself with the “Lost Pages” volumes that I’m creating with Claude, my AI writing collaborator.
- Build your platform as you go. Use your first book creation process as content for building your author platform. Document your journey, share your lessons, establish yourself as someone worth following.
- Celebrate the real wins. Your first book’s success isn’t measured just in sales–it’s measured in skills learned, systems developed, and foundation laid for future success.
The Bottom Line
Your first book will probably lose money. Mine did. Most successful bootstrap authors’ first books did too.
But here’s what I wish I’d understood earlier: losing money on your first book isn’t a sign of failure–it’s a sign that you’re investing in learning a business that could eventually change your life.
The authors who succeed are the ones who can stomach that initial investment of time and effort, learn from it systematically, and apply those lessons to build something bigger. The authors who fail are usually the ones who expected immediate profits and quit when the reality didn’t match the dream.
In my next post, I’ll break down the crucial decision between Amazon’s 70% and 35% royalty rates–and why the answer might not be what you think. Because once you understand that investing time intelligently is part of the game, you can start making strategic decisions about pricing that serve your long-term goals rather than your short-term ego.
Want to follow along as I document my own time investments, learning curves, and (hopefully) eventual wins in this crazy bestseller quest? Subscribe to my notification email list for real-time updates on whether an old dog can indeed learn some very profitable new tricks.