Wink Lorch explores the economics of wine books and ways in which to publish them, by drawing on her own experiences and interviewing Circle members who’ve authored according to different models. While being anything but a licence to print money, books do nevertheless remain a valuable asset for wine writers, she finds.
“I think if you write a book expecting to make money you will come back to earth with a nasty bump,” responded author Elizabeth (Liz) Gabay MW to a series of questions I sent to several of CWW’s published authors. She went on to say that they (Liz has written three of her four books on rosés and one on Provence with her son, Ben Bernheim) “have not made much money from the books but have made money on the back of books.” Liz does think it is worthwhile, if hard work: “for better or for worse, I do get called the ‘Rosé Queen’, or the world expert. A book carries a much bigger reputation than many articles.”
This piece is aimed at those who have never written/published a wine book but are considering it, and at those who have done so, but might like to weigh up the financial options of a different way of publishing. In writing this, I am assuming that you do have an original idea and the competence to put that idea into enough words to make a book, and that you feel convinced that there is an audience out there. Although alluded to, this is not a piece about how to market your books.
My experience and some historical context
In the early 1990s as a freelance, I mainly worked as a wine educator and I was often urged by students or well-meaning friends: “you should write a book, put all your enthusiasm into print.” After all, I was building writing experience too with a local newspaper column and a few wine articles for wine trade publications. But there were so many wine books out there already that I wondered what exactly did I have to add? Disillusionment increased after I took on part-time work as an editorial assistant for Webster’s – then Oz Clarke’s book publishers. There I learned two surprising things:
Firstly, being paid an hourly rate a couple of days a week over an 18 months’ book project, I earned considerably more than Oz (the author) did as an advance. Secondly, according to publisher Adrian Webster, at that time the only successful wine books selling more than 2,000 copies worldwide were Hugh Johnson’s World Atlas of Wine and his annual Pocket Book… there was no real money to be made. However, in their current forms both remain highly successful.
From the early 2000s, as I developed a unique speciality on Jura and on the French Alps, initially contributing to other peoples’ books, many readers will know that I caved in and have since written and self-published three books on these subjects. For each one I ran a successful Kickstarter online fundraising campaign to support the costs of publication, effectively by selling the book in advance. This process in not for everyone as to be successful it requires a prior following of potential book buyers, a willingness to self-promote plus an ability to handle a large amount of tedious admin, all while researching, writing and project-managing the book.
Between them my three books have now sold over 12,000 copies, with several reprints. As a self-publisher, and until three years ago, handling most of the distribution (aided by my generous, retired brother), even after hefty production and printing costs, I have earned considerably more than I would have through a publisher. However, if I began to add up the expenses and years spent on research and writing; the weeks of self-marketing; the days dealing with orders and despatch; plus, hours organising logistics of reprints, it would be simply too scary to see the real hourly rate I’ve earned.
Undoubtedly, I have gained credibility and recognition through my books. Promoting them has enabled me to travel more and meet readers worldwide, and to an extent the books have indirectly given me more income through delivering masterclasses and writing the occasional article. For my situation, it worked out, partly due to the subject matter attracting a hugely interesting bunch of worldwide fans.
Would I recommend doing it my way? Mainly no, but if you have a strong specialist subject, an active following worldwide that recognises your expertise, flexible time and another source of income, then sure, go ahead.
Conventional publishing or self-publishing?
Per and Britt Karlsson have written in Swedish and had published in Sweden a dozen wine books, some with a regional or country focus, and others focussed on viticulture and organics, several winning wine book awards; two have been translated into English. Per states that their books have only directly contributed a little to their income, and that indirect income is hard to measure, “but to a quite significant extent yes [they have contributed] as a tool to gain credibility for our other activities as an organiser of wine tours and as wine writers.”
Britt and Per have worked with two established publishing houses mainly because “self-publishing requires a lot of time and we don’t have that.” Per also cited their lack of competence on designing books, and the problem of logistics and distribution. He says: “working with an established publisher adds to the credibility and authoritativeness. But perhaps just as important as direct pecuniary benefits is that [a book] gives you an immense satisfaction when you see the result, as well as being a fantastic learning tool for yourself when you make it.”
US-based writer Katherine Cole has written and published five books, on topics ranging from biodynamics to her most recent book on sparkling wines. She says: “I always worked with publishers, [but] it seems as if, in this day and age, that’s not the best option financially. But I do hear that self-published authors can have great success in this climate.” Katherine reached out to Christina Henry de Tessan of Girl Friday Productions, someone who ushers self-publishing authors through the process to produce high-quality books.
Christina responded to Katherine: “It’s so important for people to go into this process understanding the realities of today’s hyper-competitive and crowded marketplace. Publishing a book, whether self or traditional, is rarely a money-maker through sales alone. Authors should get really clear on what a book could do for their brand/visibility/credibility and how they want to leverage it as a marketing tool to create income in other ways, such as invitations to speak; consulting, etc. That’s where the real opportunity is for most authors these days. Regardless of how they publish, they’re going to be on the hook for reaching readers if they want to move books. So having a rock-solid marketing strategy is essential. And high-quality self-publishing is not free.”
New to being an author, US-based Kevin Day is a wine writer and professional photographer. He writes: “I am marking the one-year anniversary of the publication of Opening a Bottle: Italy this week. And it is all met with mixed feelings. My book was very expensive to produce because it has 169 colour photos across 236 pages. As a photojournalist, the imagery became equally important, and so I refused to compromise on print quality to showcase the imagery. I would likely have the same philosophy on print quality if I were to publish my images in a future book, but frankly, I failed to accurately plan for this reality on a financial level when I conceived and created the book. Ultimately, I broke even and made a few thousand dollars, but the time investment was where I really lost money.”
On the practicalities of self-publishing, Kevin had decided he wanted to have 500 books to sell at events and to his online subscribers, at the same time as using POD (Print on Demand) to sell through online outlets. After trying various methods, he commented: “For a $50 photo-intensive book, these online retailers are not a method that works very well. People need to see it, hold it and flip through it. And it helps if they hear me speak or are familiar with my work. In the end, for my unique project, the best-looking books were from OnPress Publishing, and when I can sell them in person, they sell remarkably well and have helped elevate my standing locally.”
Kevin concluded on a moderately positive note: “There is a slight financial advantage to becoming a published author, in terms of elevating your personal brand and getting paid speaking gigs and other offers. It is slight, but people seem to respect the work that goes into a book implicitly.”
One of our UK members, who prefers to remain anonymous, bucks the trend. He wrote that his wine books about a niche wine region have contributed significantly to his income, otherwise he wouldn’t do it. Almost all of them have been self-published using POD. In early years, he earned £5,000 net income per year after advertising costs rose to £24,500 at their peak, now settling down to about £10,000 per annum, having given up Google advertising.
He writes: “I use a proofreader, an indexer and a book designer and depending on the length of the book, this can cost at least £2,500. I use three POD publishers: KDP (Amazon), Lulu and Ingram-Spark. KDP is by far and away the best for sales. I haven’t had any issues with their production quality – and that’s over 30,000 books – their prices are good and their discounts acceptable. For a £30 book, I currently receive £13.50 into my account. For the £40 book, I get £20.13.”
Amanda Barnes MW, self-published author of the acclaimed tome The South America Wine Guide (and several other books on the region), admitted that the guide does not make her much money. “With the high print costs, the inevitable problems in distribution and lost or damaged copies, and not to mention all the time and effort in writing and researching the book, and paying designers and cartographers, it makes no financial sense at all.” However, as others have commented, it does create other work opportunities: “Jamie Goode advised me before I published my book that it was ‘the best business card you will ever have’, and that is very much how I see it.” She added: “The reason I self-published was not financial. The opposite. The reason I self-published was for full creative and intellectual control and, at least for me, that was far more important.”
This is something that writer Alder Yarrow would agree with. He has not written/published a book since Essence of Wine, a joint venture with a photographer and a food-stylist, which he self-published in 2014 after a Kickstarter campaign. He may well write another book in the future with more time available, but he says: “I’m pretty sure I’d never consider going the traditional publishing route purely from a practical and economic point of view. If you want to make any money from writing a book, self-publishing is the only way to do it, not to mention the fact that you can be sure it turns out the way you want it to.”
The view from the other side
I asked Hermione Ireland, managing director and publisher of Academie du Vin Library, for her thoughts on authors’ expectations and the reality. “I would say that authors either have realistic/pessimistic expectations of their returns which tend to be accurate or they are more optimistic and are usually disappointed. There are more and more publishers who don’t pay an advance and even if they do, [the advance] is often under £2k and the books may not earn much more than that in the first couple of years. It never represents the value of the work put in, sadly.”
Hermione pointed out that books differ so much from each other that it’s hard to give concrete answers regarding self-publishing versus traditional publishing. However, she continued: “I would suggest that if you can get an advance from a publisher, it would be worth taking it and going down the publisher route. If you can’t, decide how much you can afford to spend on your book costs. But I don’t think the financial decision can be made in isolation. There’s a lot of work putting a book together and then, separately, selling it. You have to cost your time for this work which you could use for other activity [including earning money] if you worked with a publisher. She added: “There are plenty of non-financial advantages of working with a publisher, but I understand you’re not covering that.”
Other considerations
Probably CWW’s most successful, prolific and enduring wine book author is Jancis Robinson MW, who says that her books have contributed significantly to her income. She comments: “I think a good first book can certainly help to put relatively unknown wine writers on the map, even if – as I understand it – very little money might be made from them.”
All Jancis’s books have been published with conventional publishers, and although she is particularly proud of those books that have gone into several editions and been translated into several languages, she did warn: “you never get as much for a work in a foreign language as translation costs have to be covered.” I would add that for a self-publisher it is much more difficult to organise foreign-language editions.
Jancis went on to recommend something that no-one else mentioned: “I had the advantage of an exceptionally good literary agent, Caradoc King, now retired. He always seemed to be on the side of the author, not the publisher, which I don’t think is necessarily the case. He was very insistent on getting an advance against royalties and negotiating as high a percentage royalty as possible rather than a single buyout. This pays off if you are confident of the quality of what you produce. I’d highly recommend persuading a reputable literary agent to act for you, maybe a young one who is keen to make their way.”
The bottom line
I have not met any wine book author, who regrets writing one or more books, even if the book sales have contributed little to their income. There is huge satisfaction in seeing your own name on a book, especially if it is well reviewed by your peers.
Amanda Barnes MW noted that “Articles pay a lot more income based on your time investment. Yet writing a book is probably one of the most painful but also beautiful creative processes you can put yourself through. I’m writing/have written three books this year, so either I’m a glutton for punishment or I find something rewarding in the process – very likely both!”
It seems obvious from my own experiences and the answers/comments I received from others that any preconception of how much time a book takes to produce needs to be doubled and you also to adopt a realistic attitude about how little money you will earn, certainly in the short-term. However, our successful authors show it is possible to make money, especially if you plan other activities on the back of your book(s) that provide more income. And our books certainly give us all a much-needed sense of pride.
I would like to thank those members who answered my questions. Most did so in much greater detail than the quotes above reflect. I feel sure that as fellow CWW members they would be pleased to elaborate if you contact them. I can put you in touch if needed.
Finally, for those considering self-publishing, note that in 2020, fellow member Stephen Quinn and I presented ‘Let’s Talk about Self-Publishing’ with extra input from Stephen Skelton MW and Simon Woolf. The YouTube video of this webinar is not publicly accessible as it included some confidential financial information, but please do contact me for the link if you are interested.
