How many copies do you think a painting book could sell?

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

I am working on a book about painting WW2 miniatures. There is a thread about it in the WW2 section.

According to the contract from a publisher, I can expect to earn about £1.00 per copy sold (slightly less for PDF sales).
However, I have to provide the text and 250 photos or illustrations. I also have to prove I have copyright permission for the pictures.

If I want to use historical pictures, I have to pay royalties to the picture agency.
Similarly, if I want to use a picture of a uniform from the Imperial War Museum, I need a licence for every picture.
This becomes very expensive very quickly.

I was expecting say 2,000 copies over the first few years so there is no way I can use agency or IWM pictures.

Do any of you have an idea how many copies of hobby books are sold?

This will help me judge the amount I can invest.

Thanks


Mick

[Driscoles]

1Pound per copy does not sound good to me.

[has.been]

Paint up ( or pay someone to paint up) some of the many nice 28mm figures.
Photograph them, lots of nice pictures of nice figures in nice scenery will sell.
You can use the pictures for your work, not actually in the book.
By all means list the original source, if any one wants to do their own research, they can. 

[Cory]

A pound per copy does not sound out of line for an unproven author's earnings on a book - margins are tight. As to how many books. unless you are tied in to a widely distributed game or have some other avenue of marketing it'll probably take you several years to sell that many books.

[Jabba]

Maybe try and find out how many Painting War http://breakingwar.com/store/en/4-paintingwar sells of it's books. They use painted miniatures for illustration purposes, probably for the reasons you noted.

[Ahistorian]

A 1,500 book run will generally take 3 years to sell in this industry, I was told a couple of years ago.

That's if it doesn't go full Frostgrave, of course.

Personally, I really like your painting 

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

Thank-you everybody.

Regards

Mick