In the article he basically describes how his profits were swallowed up by marketing expenses. I wish he had broken down in more detail the $50,000 in royalties from his other traditionally-published book since it was such a drastically different deal for him
"After selling more than 11,000 copies in its first year, The Heart to Start has earned a little more than $3,000 profit. That’s a barely twenty-nine cents per book.
By comparison, I’ve sold about 16,000 copies of my traditionally-published book, Design for Hackers. That has earned nearly $50,000 in royalties (plus at least twice that in related course sales)."
later:
"Here’s the basic breakdown of my earnings and expenses for the first year of The Heart to Start:
Copies sold: 11,374 (3,099 were free)
Total Royalties: $19,173.31
Fixed Production Costs: $431
Advertising: $15,422.60
Total Profit: $3,319.74
Thanks for reading and commenting. As for breaking down the $50,000, what did you have in mind? It was simply selling 16,000 copies.
I suppose I could break down every foreign rights deal and what was ebooks vs paperback, but given the reporting of my publisher, that would be like reading tea leaves. Would that be helpful in some way?
"After selling more than 11,000 copies in its first year, The Heart to Start has earned a little more than $3,000 profit. That’s a barely twenty-nine cents per book.
By comparison, I’ve sold about 16,000 copies of my traditionally-published book, Design for Hackers. That has earned nearly $50,000 in royalties (plus at least twice that in related course sales)."
later:
"Here’s the basic breakdown of my earnings and expenses for the first year of The Heart to Start:
"