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> After paying taxes, commission to my agent and covering my expenses, my net profit on the book currently stands at $24,517.36

> ...the publisher’s portion of sales on this book has grossed them around $453,839.68. ... If I had to make a guess, I’d say they probably netted around $250K on this one.

Wow.

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The publisher makes more profit than the author, but they also take more risk. The author is guaranteed $50,000, while the publisher could (theoretically) lose $50,000 plus the cost of printing and distributing if the book doesn't sell well.

When publisher's give advance that high it's because they know that the book will sale. So I don't think they are really taking that much of a risk with publishing this book.

this is sad :(. How can this be improved?

Cut the middleman, an author can publish an ebook and sell it through kindle or other online means. Once and if the book is relatively successful he/she can arm-twist a smaller publisher and get higher royalties.

Also, a relatively well known author can directly work with a smaller publisher and get higher royalties.

Or even self publish it.

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