The honest truth is that most authors don’t make a substantial amount of money selling their book. It’s a crowded marketplace, with lots of choices for readers, and it’s difficult to carve out a niche and promote your work to the extent necessary to make thousands and thousands of dollars in sales returns. This is true of all authors, not just those who publish with us.
The authors who do make money tend to be people with a substantial social media or newsletter following, where they have a pre-existing audience that is eager to buy their book and spread the word; that’s why publishing multiple books helps, because you gain traction over time. Having a highly marketable book obviously helps, as does it being very well-written. But even many writers we now think of as being amazing successes sold few copies during their lifetimes.
The good news is that we can help. We’ll work with you to give you the best possible shot of success. The publicity and marketing we provide is more than that offered by any other hybrid publisher and most every traditional publisher, from getting you blurbs for your book to submitting it to awards to getting professional industry reviews for your book to paying for online advertising for your book on Amazon. We’ll also give you a ton of education on how to build a following and develop a brand for your book and for yourself as an author; that education will start on day one when you sign on to work with us.
And we can show you that it works. Our books have won dozens of awards, and we have had tremendous sales successes, such as Dennis Mathew, who has sold more than 100,000 copies of his Atmosphere books, and Dan Victor, whose book won a $10,000 book prize that led to increased sales. We have other authors who’ve built an author brand and have earned more for themselves through speaking engagements than they did through sales.
At Atmosphere, we value providing you with honest answers, and that culture of truthfulness has made a huge difference to the nearly 2,000 authors we’ve worked with over the last 10+ years. You’ll have dedicated one-on-one meetings with a developmental editor who reads your book closely and wants to help you make your book as good as it can be. This is extremely meaningful, and it changes people’s lives and the way they look at creating. You’ll work with an art team to design a cover that suits your book and an interior that makes it beautiful on the page. You’ll work with professionals up and down the process, from star Production Director Alex Kale to the best Distribution Manager in Elana Sederholm to one of the top voices around nowadays in book publicity in Hayla Alawi—these are respected names in the industry.
In the end, this is about you as a person, and about you as a writer. Writing a book is about the joy of creation, and then about sharing your ideas and vision with your readers, and seeing what doors that can open in your life. That’s what authorhood is, and that’s quite literally something that can lead to lifelong satisfaction. People don’t pay for a Paris vacation or pay for painting classes or golf lessons or tickets to a concert to get a “return on investment.” People invest in themselves to get a “return on life experience,” and publishing a book is like that.
And let’s be honest: writers don’t set out to write because we want to make millions of dollars. We do it because we love to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. Publishing should give you that same kind of joy and excitement. That is what we put first. It’s investing in yourself, in your art, in building relationships, and doing something important that will change your life and your legacy in an amazing way. This is why we have so many authors come back to work with us for a second, third, or fourth book. We’ve even had authors work with us on more than a half-dozen books! Because being an author and working with a great team is part of your life, and once you’re the author of a great and well-done book, that investment in who you are lasts forever.
Atmosphere Press is a selective hybrid publisher founded in 2015 on the principles of Honesty, Transparency, Professionalism, Kindness, and Making Your Book Awesome. Our books have won dozens of awards and sold tens of thousands of copies. If you’re interested in learning more, or seeking publication for your own work, please explore the links below.