Promise keeping

[rolanni]

Back in, oh...October, I guess, 2012, a couple folks who are interested in the nittier-grittier part of our careers asked me to let them know if Dragon Ship earned out.  I agreed to do that, though they may have thought I'd forgotten about them by now.

In point of fact, Dragon Ship, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, published in two hardcover editions in September 2012, has earned out.  I know this because we have received the royalty reports for January-June 2013, covering sales made during the six months prior to that period, aka July-December 2012.

Y'all didn't believe me when I told you that the Wheels of Publishing Grind Slow, did you?

While I'm here, let me address a couple of other frequent questions.

A question that we're asked frequently, with regard to all of our books, is "Where do you make the most money, from paper sales or from esales?"

Based on this batch of royalty statements, it looks like print still has a slim sales edge, for new books.  Books that have been out for awhile (I give you Mouse and Dragon, the gift that keeps on giving) seem to have stronger esales.

The third frequent question has to do with how well our indie ebooks, offered through Pinbeam Books, sell.  This is often part of a conversation about how it's no longer in the best interest of authors to be yoked to a trad publisher.

So, the indie sales more than pay the mortgage every month, which is pretty good for something that's a sideline, which we don't promote, and only update the inventory sporadically.  We have seen sales fall off since early 2011, when we first started making the chapbooks available electronically.

I think there are two reasons for that.  One is that when the Kindles and the Nooks were Hot Items that everybody had to have, all those people with their new toys tried to make sure that all their favorite books were on the toys.  There was, in a word, a Great eBook Rush.

The second reason is that Steve and I are simply not bearing down and making new eChapbooks available every month or two.  See "sideline," above.

Regarding the larger discussion of Trad Publishing vs. Total Author Control. . .our experience has shown -- since 1995, when SRM Publisher published it's first paper chapbook, Two Tales of Korval by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller -- that a hybrid approach to publishing -- some trad, some self-publishing -- is the path that produces the greater rewards.

Anybody have any other nitty-gritty publish-y type questions?  Now's the time to ask.

EDITED TO ADD:  This just in, from Forbes:  How Much Money Do Self-Published Authors Make?

Comments

[reedrover]

We have seen sales fall off since early 2011, when we first started making the chapbooks available electronically.

Publishing rate aside, has the change of chapbooks from hardcopy to e-publishing been a gross profit win and has it been a net profit win? I'm curious about the breakdown of purchase gross profits before/after the switch to electronic (not including the Great eBook Rush), and then the fully-loaded profit once you add in the extra time/expense in building physical books vs. formatting e-books.

Thanks!

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

In general -- we're not making as much money from eChapbooks as we did from paper books specifically because we sold paper chapbooks in bulk to SF bookstores across the country.

While I appreciate your passion for REALLY gritty deails, I'm going to decline this chance to give myself a headache by doing a breakdown and detailed comparison of profits before and after.

[reedrover]

::laugh:: Well, you invited questions...

I would speculate from your answer that you may have made more money from paper books, but it was a lot more work to bundle and ship those books out to bookstores. So in terms of time=money, you might have come out closer to even.

Double dip sales

[gareth griffiths (from livejournal.com)]

Ya know there are a few of us out there that now end up buying things twice. We buy the eArc then we buy the paper. Of course if we didn't like the arc we'd stop there but we DO like them so go on to get the paper as well. Call me old fashioned but I still like the paper to thumb thru and treasure and it's fun to spot the odd changes from eArc to paper.

I wonder if anyone has tried to measure the double dip sales. - To some extent they are the reverse of the great eBook rush you mentioned.,

[margotinez.livejournal.com]

I'm happy to hear that print is still doing well, as I am not an e-reader, nor do I expect to be. I bought all your chap books and printed them out for reading, as I spend way too much time already at my computer and my sciatic nerve won't take any more. Of course, I've bought your Compilation Constellation (two copies), and look forward to Volume 2. I'd beg for more Splinter/chap book items, but I can only offer support and encouragement as you explore 1 of 5 forthcoming! I have been meaning to tell you that I've enjoyed your old offerings from file-cleanout. And I do believe the old back-brains are working properly as the final versions are so much more "right"! Thank you.