Subete ga F ni Naru anime may only be the anime that came out years ago. But what makes the anime stick in my mind for the most part isn’t so much to do with the anime itself.

Rather, it’s a lot more to do with this old article on ANN about Subete ga F ni Naru author, Hiroshi Mori, talking about his author earnings.

As a fellow author, what he said about his earnings sure does intrigue me.

Does it mean that the anime isn’t worth watching considering that it’s the only prominent thing I remember about the anime?

Of course, the answer is no.

The anime is indeed a good one since it’s my kind of anime.

So, I highly recommend that you have a look at the anime if the murder mystery anime is your thing.

While I find the article to be insightful, it can be misleading if you don’t understand how publishing industry works.

And worst of all, you may think that he’s the exception to the rule.

Hiroshi Mori’s author earnings breakdown

Before we begin, let’s take a look at his author earnings starting from Subete ga F ni Naru’s novel itself.

According to him, the book alone netted him 61 million yen in royalties. That’s equivalent to $455,921.

As for the total royalties for all of his books, they were 1.2 billion yen which is $8.9 million in total.

Of course, that’s not the only source of income that he has.

The drama version of Subete ga F ni Naru? He gets 5 million yen per hour for the drama. That’s around $37,000 per hour.

Imagine making that much money in an hour once a week.

He even received 10 million yen for the sponsorship for his novel, An Automaton in Long Sleep, from Coca-Cola. That’s equivalent to $74,741.

And he also receives advance payment for the book which is 8.2 million yen. That’s equivalent to $61,287.

If the pachinko version of The Sky Crawlers and a quote from his work in a TV commercial were to proceed as they should, that would also net him another 5 million yen each. That’s another $37,000 for him

Things like writing blurbs on the back cover of the book? He can get paid 100,000 yen per blurb which is around $747.

The same goes for the sash on the book cover. He can get paid around 20,000 to 30,000 yen for that as well. That’s around $149 to $224.

Of course, his work isn’t just limited to entertainment purposes.

He can even license his work in the form of literary excerpts for use in the practice test booklets, textbooks, and in the teacher’s guide.

Keep in mind that the amount in USD is based on the current exchange rate. So, the amount that he gets can be more or less depending on the current exchange rate when you read this post.

But putting that aside, it’s impressive to see how he can make money from his work in many different ways.

Is Subete ga F ni Naru author the exception to the rule?

Well, the answer is no.

Believe it or not, every author can make just as much money as him if they take the time to negotiate their contract.

But most authors never do that simply because they don’t understand the value of their work.

Heck, I can bet that it never crossed their mind that their work has any value at all until it becomes a critical success.

At that point, it’s already too late to negotiate the contract considering that they already invest so much of their money into making the work a huge success.

But that’s not the case with Hiroshi Mori. He knew how valuable his work is.

It’s because of this reason that he’s being proactive with negotiating his royalties and manuscript fees.

And he did it despite not knowing whether his work will become a huge success or not.

That’s what a savvy author should do, whether they’re indie or traditionally published.

The truth about those numbers

If you dive deeper into the number, you realize that the number isn’t as impressive as you thought it would be.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s impressive enough that the novel has sold about 780,000 copies since its initial publication.

Most books barely sold 10,000 copies, let alone hundreds of thousands of copies.

Keep in mind that the novel came out in 1996.

That means it took more than 10 years for the book to accumulate that amount of sales.

And those drama deals that he got paid for? Those deals will only come when the novel reaches a sizeable height of popularity.

It won’t get adapted into drama or even anime if the sales for the book itself are subpar.

The same goes for the advance payment and royalties for his next work.

He’s unlikely to receive a higher advance payment and royalties if his next work is a total flop.

But judging from the total royalties that he receives, you can bet that his next work after Subete ga F ni Naru is still a hit.

Sure, it may not have the same success as Subete ga F ni Naru. But that’s okay since he has so many ways to capitalize his work.

The key to the success of Subete ga F ni Naru novel

While it’s true that it took more than 10 years for the book to garner a huge sale, it’s still impressive considering how many books tend to fall off the bandwagon after a year, let alone after 10 years.

Sure, you probably hear a lot about the book when it first came out.

But after a couple of months? The hype about the book just died down and you’ll never hear about the book and the author again until the next book comes out.

Of course, that is if the author gets to publish another book. Many authors don’t even get the chance to publish another book if their previous one was a total flop.

But that doesn’t seem to be the case with Hiroshi Mori.

Is it because the publisher is doing the hard work all these years to get the book to reach a massive scale?

To be honest, I doubt that. The only prowess publishers have is distributing to bookstores, nothing else.

If the publisher isn’t the one that is doing the hard work, how did the book manage to garner that many sales then?

Well, it’s due to the marketing effort that Hiroshi Mori put in to make the book as successful as it can be.

One of the things that he did was to include a teaser chapter and a list of his other books at the end of Subete ga F Ni Naru.

If you love the book, then you may want to check out his other books.

He also spends his time updating his blog and responding to fan emails.

Yes, those things may seem like a lot of work. But it sure can make a big difference, especially in the long term.

He works hard just as much as everybody else

While it’s true that being savvy can go a long way, he won’t get far if it’s not because of his hard work, determination and patience.

If there’s one thing you can learn from the story is this – value your work and work hard if you want your own creation to make money for you.

Remember that it took more than 10 years for Subete ga F ni Naru to achieve a critical success.

So, don’t feel despair if you’re in the creative field like me and you’re not seeing any significant result with the amount of effort you put.

You will get the success you always yearn for when the time comes.

P.S. If you’re into a murder mystery story like the one in Subete ga F Ni Naru, then you may enjoy reading my Trigger Locked series as well.

Okay, I admit that the Trigger Locked series is more of a thriller genre rather than a murder mystery.

But if you’re looking for a story that can make you think and learn something new in the process, you can get something similar in the Trigger Locked series.

Want to give the Trigger Locked series a try? You can take a look at the first book of the series right here on my Payhip store:

Trigger Locked Book 1: The Mind Control Assassins

Don’t forget to use the coupon code SEKINAMAYUBLOG to receive 25% off on your purchase.

Just to let you know that my book is also available in print and on other retailers such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Apple Books.

But you can only get a discount if you buy the book from my Payhip store, though.