Assuming you or your literary agent can sell your book to a legitimate publisher, which is not easy...
Typical royalties for hardcover editions are 10% on the first 5000 units sold; 12 ½% on the next 5000 units and 15% thereafter. Most first novels by people who are not celebrities sell under the first 5000. If you sold 5000 hardovers retailing for $25, you’d earn $12,500.
Typical trade paperback (the oversized ones) royalties are 7 ½% on all sales. Sell 5000 of those at $15 and you make $5,600.
Mass market royalties are usually 8% for the first 150,000 units sold and 10% thereafter. Sell 5000 at $8 and you earn $3,200.
Advances--up-front payments before a single copy is sold--are not the norm for authors who don't have a records of good sales.
