Loading ...Ladies and gentlemen, I have received my very first statement of royalties for words I have written with my very own hands, on my very own computer. This is, I believe, another milestone at which I can be said to have leveled up in Writer.
As expected, the statement is very tiny–it only covers the month of June or so, since Faerie Blood was released over Memorial Day weekend, and this was before I showed up on Fictionwise and Amazon. But that said, it’s also a bit bigger than I was expecting. Its numbers say that 17 of you purchased copies of the book, and that my royalty share comes to $42.18.
I’m sharing the actual number for reference purposes–partly my own, just because I want to commemorate this, and partly for the reference of other aspiring writers out there just so you can know what to expect from a market that operates at Drollerie’s level. Note as well that this does not include numbers from Fictionwise, Mobipocket, or Amazon; these should be showing up hopefully on the next statement, and that number should be a bit more entertaining!
To those of you who fall into that group of 17, many, many thanks, and I hope you found the story well worth the purchase!
September 3, 2009 at 11:07 am
Yay, I was an early adopter! So happy to have been one of the Prime 17!
September 4, 2009 at 9:47 am
Congratulations,
The amount is nearly identical to my own for that period, although I was selling eBooks only that quarter. I feel that the amount is less important the first time than the validation of actually seeing money for it. It ranks up there with your first acceptance letter and the date that your first title goes on sale. The money will matter later in the hope that the amount increases each quarter.
I believe that the approach to success in writing is to either: 1) Have a very successful title; or 2) have a number of moderately successful titles that combine into the equivalent of #1. Of course, the best outcome of all is to combine #1 and #2. :^)
I just had my 11th title go live this last Monday. There will be a long drought (well it seems long to me) of 12 weeks — a full quarter — before #12 and #13 go live a week apart in late November. Those two titles will also be my first print books in addition to eBook releases. Then starting in January my publisher is upping their weekly release from 3 titles every Monday to 6, and I’ll go through a period of having a new title come out every 3 weeks for several months.
I see articles weekly on how the eBook market is poised to explode with new eBook readers arriving (Sony will soon release yet another eBook reader, this time with wireless downloading, Barnes and Noble’s unit that everyone is so excited about from Plastic Logic is due early next year, as well as Apple’s rumored tablet computer as an eBook platform arriving sometime yet to be announced) soon. Once people have their new toys they’ll want to get content for them.
One disappointment to be aware of at Fictionwise is that they take the first $15 of your royalties as the setup fee. But with FB at #9 this morning on the overall Fantasy list you should expect that to easily be covered.
My suggestion to you about this is to get some more titles out there. If you publisher says that they can’t do too many print books at one time then inquire about ePublishing only initially and going to print later. Everything doesn’t have to be in print to be a valid sale these days.
And Great Luck!
–DB_Story
September 4, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Yeah, I’m less focused on the amount than I am on HOLY CRAP this is the first time I’ve ever received a royalty statement. It may be tiny, but it’s MINE. ^_^
I assure you that I am absolutely angling to get more titles out there. Good to know about Fictionwise taking the first $15–I didn’t know that! And yeah, I’ve been pretty happy to be lingering in the top ten in Fantasy for several days now!
Thanks, all around!