Carminica’s Business Model
& why people say writers can’t make money
Our Publication Model
It is commonly said that writers, artists, musicians, and all manner of creative persons cannot make a living off their work. Why? Take writers for an example.
Why can’t writers make a living off their work? To begin, the industry has conditioned them to require an agent to navigate it (and indeed virtually all publishers will not talk to you without one)– an agent that often takes 15% of all revenue. The agent will find a publisher, which takes 20% of revenue. Then the now published material is sent to a distributor, who charges 15%, and finally arrives at a vendor that skims another 15% off the top. What are you left with? 35% of all sales, if that [1]. It doesn’t end there either. The standard practice for publishers to take on a project with no investment, that is to say, at their own cost. Although this may seem like a silver lining, the reality is that publishers will withhold profits until the cost of production has been met, and will attempt to gain the rights to your work in perpetuity. This means that after you’ve spent innumerable hours creating, tweaking, editing, and workshopping your manuscript;
A vast cavalcade of middlemen will take about 65% of all your revenue.
The remaining 35% will be eaten by your publisher until you’ve met the cost of production (usually an arbitrary value with 5 figures) [1].
You almost never even own your work by the end, and may never be able to get out of a bad deal.
In fact, most authors may only make 2$ per book sold [2].
So what would it look like at Carminica?
Carminica Obsidion Collective is committed to ensuring creators make as much as they can.
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To begin, we never claim the rights to your work, and you are permitted to leave and take your work with you if you so desire. (You just can’t sell anymore versions of your work published by us, nor can we.)
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Working with us, you have no need for an agent because you’ve already found a publisher– you’ve skipped the agent step [3]. An agent is supposed to help you make money, but in practice they only add costs. Carminica is collectively led, meaning you have the ability to communicate openly and freely in all matters of business (not just your own work!) and connect with experienced members of the literary community, including such organizations as the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.
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To ensure you start earning as soon as the first book sells, our business model charges upfront to cover the costs of readying media for publishing, then charge a comparatively small percentage of sales.
If you’ve been reading this all so far and wondering where the catch is, this is it. Our prices tend to be around $5,000 (half the cost of other major publishers), but this price is dependent on the amount of work that Carminica has to do. If your manuscript is done and just needs formatting, proofreading, and covers, then it will be a lot cheaper. Carminica tends to take around 30% of sales, meaning you, the author, get 70%, all while we handle the costs and logistics continuously. We will also do a book launch event for you!
Although this model is inaccessible to certain creators, those with quality work will be willing to pay to get low costs later, guaranteed creative control, and a guaranteed seat at the table— getting all of which is impossible with any other publisher (but contact us if you can prove us wrong!).
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Carminica steers clear of physical vendors, circumventing the need for both distributors and vendors. We sell online on our own platform (here on this very website!) and on any platform of your choosing (although it is heavily recommended to avoid platforms such as Amazon that take large portions of your revenue). Brick and mortar bookstores often expect books to be sold to them at 60% of their sale price, which of course reduces the revenue for both us & you.
[1] Information and numbers are averages courtesy of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame [chicagoliteraryhof.org/] Founder and Exec. Dir. Don Evans and may vary. Margins may be as slim as 10% per book. Bookstore and Vendor rates may vary.
[2] Beer, Sarah, et al. “Author Book Royalties: How Much Do Authors Get Paid per Book?” Spines, spines.com, 5 Feb. 2025
[3] “Literary Agent.” Publishers Association, publishers.org.uk, 11 May 2020