{"id":582,"date":"2010-10-15T18:18:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-15T18:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bestfantasynovel.com\/2010\/10\/15\/balance-sheet-for-conmergence\/"},"modified":"2010-10-15T18:18:00","modified_gmt":"2010-10-15T18:18:00","slug":"balance-sheet-for-conmergence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/2010\/10\/15\/balance-sheet-for-conmergence\/","title":{"rendered":"Balance Sheet for Conmergence"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m hoping to have the ebook edition of Conmergence<\/a> up by Monday. I was going to bring the POD and ebook out at the same time, but I decided it’s less stress to do it this way.<\/p>\n

I promised I would log the steps of my journey for those interested. The big step I took this week was setting up a business account so I can keep my writing expenses and income separate from my personal accounts. It’s too expensive to incorporate yet, although that is safer, so I have a sole-proprietorship. However, having a separate account should help me out at tax-time. I deposited $150 to maintain the account. Good practice would have been to deposit the money I needed in the account, then draw out my expenses. I haven’t done that. I won’t take any money for expenses out of the account until I see money actually going in.<\/p>\n

I registered on Amazon’s CreateSpace program under my business name and linked the royalties to directly deposit in the account.<\/p>\n

I have kept an ongoing balance sheet:

Production<\/p>\n

Cover Art: $15
Interior Design: $10
Editing: $175<\/p>\n

Subtotal: $200<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Publishing and Distribution<\/p>\n

Amazon Pro: $40<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Promotion<\/p>\n

Webpage: $100 (one year at Wix)
Booktrailers: $0 (so far)<\/p>\n

Subtotal: $140<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Total: $340
<\/b>
I budgeted a maximum of $1000 and there are still some expenses I haven’t had to pay for yet, but probably will. However, I originally thought editing would be $400. I was delighted when it was less. (Probably because a lot of these stories have been published before and needed minimum editing.)<\/p>\n

Now, how much do I expect to make? The real answer is I HAVE NO CLUE. But that’s not business-like, so I’ll give you an OMAF (Out of My Arse Fact). <\/p>\n

I read that one can expect a sell-through rate of about 3% on an average list. I have a list of about 1000 people — that is how many people I can reasonably and reliably expect to tell about my book. If three out of every hundred who hear about it actually buy the book, I will sell thirty books.<\/p>\n

Yes. Thirty. That’s how many books I expect to sell.<\/p>\n

I will be making $2 (net) on each ebook. So I expect to make $60.<\/p>\n

Hm.<\/p>\n

60 – 340 = -280<\/p>\n

That leaves me in the red to the tune of $280. This may be why my husband objects to my business plan.<\/p>\n

I need to sell 170 books to break even.<\/b><\/p>\n

Certain factors could improve this picture. I will do a blog tour, to try to tell more people about the book. And if readers like the book and start telling friends about it, that would be wonderful. I have no way of controlling word-of-mouth, besides trying to write as compelling fiction as I can, and packaging it as beautifully as I can afford. Even if I never earn out my advance (so to speak) I hope to give those who do<\/i> read the book an enjoyable experience and a lovely object of art.<\/p>\n

Another way I could do better is if I had a higher buy-in from my list. If out of my 1000 something internet buddies, there was buy-in rate of 20%, I could sell 200 copies, make $400 net, cover my costs and make $60 profit. <\/p>\n

Bottom line, I don’t expect I can make much more than lunch money on one book. That’s why I already have plans to bring out more ebooks.<\/p>\n

Of course, I hope<\/i> my sales of Conmergence<\/a> will be better than I’ve estimated. With ebook sales increasing by 193%, from $89.8 million for 2009 to $263 million in 2010<\/a> this is a great time to publish an ebook. But other people’s success doesn’t guarantee mine. Conmergence might do worse. I imagine it’s possible a month could go by and find me selling only 3 or 4 copies. If that happens, I will cry. But I won’t give up. <\/p>\n

I am trying hard to behave like a grown-up and approach writing as a business venture, and I hope one day it will help me support my family. But I am still an artist, one with more hope than financial sense, and I’ll keep trying even when a realistic look at the numbers dictates quitting now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m hoping to have the ebook edition of Conmergence up by Monday. I was going to bring the POD and ebook out at the same time, but I decided it’s less stress to do it this way. I promised I would log the steps of my journey for those interested. The big step I took […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}