Best-selling author Nina Bruhns gets frank about e-book self-publishing – USATODAY.com

Excerpt:

But perhaps more relevant to the everyday life of an author is the huge difference in the paycheck we receive as an indie publisher versus the one we earn as an author contracted to a legacy publisher. The difference is simply staggering. Most of the big print publishers are still paying royalties on e-books that are far lower than e-publishers are, and downright minuscule compared to what an author can earn by simply uploading her own book to the various e-outlets, such as Amazon, B&N, etc.

I did the math on one of my traditionally published books, using the actual sales numbers listed on the royalty statement from my publisher. For the e-book version for that period I received $42.50. If I had sold the same number of e-books on my own, I would have earned just over $1,500. Yeah. That’s not a typo. What it is, is a real wake-up call. And an undeniable reason for going indie.