I've published one book. Bernie is right, you probably aren't going to make a lot of money at it. Unless of course you write the next Harry Potter. Trapping books or hunting books are a niche audience. On the plus side, nowadays you can self publish both ebooks and print on demand, so you can write a book with almost no overhead. Like Jack I have never advertised or anything, never took books to show or expo, just have it on Amazon. I get a check for a hundred bucks or two from them every year. Not much, but no hassle either, once it was published I have never had to do another thing.

I basically lived off the proceeds of the books I wrote through the 1990's, and made a good living at that. Wrote a ton of magazine articles as well, which put my name in front of a lot of people, and helped sell the books. I set up booths at sports shows and trapper's conventions, bought advertising, did sports show seminars, and promoted the heck out of them. I have always self-published my books and done everything but the printing myself. Sold the rights to all my trapping and fishing books in 2001. Some of them are still being reprinted and sold to this day. My best book I made about $100,000 on over 7 years.

In 2013 I wrote my first bear hunting book and printed 5,000 copies. I have 6 copies left on the shelf and will not be printing more. Wrote the Freelance Bowhunter DIY deer hunting book in 2015, I think I have about 100 of them left. Will not be printing any of them either. Printing for 5,000 copies of each these books with full color and 200-plus pages were around $2.25 each if I remember right. That's an investment of $22,000 so it takes a long time to recoup the investment in printing not to mention the hundreds of hours it takes to produce and lay out a quality book of 100,000+ words and 50-100 quality photos. Carrying inventory, storage of pallets full of books, buying padded envelopes by the thousands and shipping the books is a headache and the costs have skyrocketed.

In 2019, I was about half way through writing yet another bowhunting book called Bowhunting Farmland Whitetails, when I just abandoned the project because I didn't feel confident I could recoup my investment in today's climate where so few people buy books anymore. YouTube has taken the place of books to the tune of about 90%. I am a book lover, but also a realist, and it would be hard for anyone to sell the first 50 books for any trapper who doesn't have a huge name recognition and respect in the industry. Seriously, your mother and friends are your only customers and they will expect a free autographed copy.

Hate to be negative, but instructional books are about as popular as phone booths and floppy discs these days. Here's a copy of the cover of the book I quit on, and it's kinda sad, but I am glad I didn't invest the money in printing it.

Excellent overview from bearcat2. I've had about the same experience. My books are self-published, and I've never had to do another thing. I'm not making a lot of money either. Publish-on-demand so I don't have a storage problem at all. For all four books, I've used Trafford Press and am satisfied with their service.

Jack