Show Me The Money 2008

It's that time of year--the flowers are blooming, the sun is shining (in between snow storms) and tax day has passed. What could be a more perfect time to report author-earnings?

In the past I have done this according to payment schedules (go HERE and HERE to read previous blogs on this topic), and then realized it would make a lot more sense to report an entire year's worth of royalties, payments, or advances. Since publishers have all kinds of payment schedules, this will help equalize the numbers. The year to report on is 2008.

So, here's what you do. Post to this blog ANONYMOUSLY and tell us the following information:

Type of publication: (traditional or self-published)

# of books you were paid on: (how many books are still selling)

Market: (LDS, National, Christian--you can be more specific if you want to such as National YA, National inspirational--up to you)

Total monies earned:

Type of payment: (how much royalty, how much advance, sell of rights, purchases etc. did you earn in 2008)

You're welcome to include any other comments as well, and feel free to click on the box that will send you any other postings to this blog so you can follow the responses without having to come back here.

Thanks for playing!

Show Me the Money--Again!

Last year I posted about the money published authors really make called Really Show the Money. It was fun to get a cross section of many authors and see the range of spectrum in the financial lucre. Recently, LDSpublisher had a blog post about the LDS market and the comments trailed into the $$ we make in this market. It's a question people ask A LOT, and are often surprised when I answer them without hesitating. I know our society is supposed to be all close mouthed about money issues, but I figure that's only because people are judgemental. You wanna judge me because I make a certain amount of $$, fine with me. If it destracts you from other things like bad hygeine and poor social skills, I'll take judgements over money any day.

Soooooo, being as I'm a total copy cat and since I'm cleaning my stove after canning season and therefore have nothing of interest to post about, I thought I'd ask the same question I did last year--How much money are you authors making?

Here's the format:
What Market are you published in?
Do you have a traditional publisher or are you self-published or both?
How much $$ have you recieved in ROYALTIES or ADVANCES in the last 12 months?
How many books do you have published? 1, 2-6, 6-10, more than 10

What did you do with your last royalty check?

And despite my 'open and free' comments in regard to $$, please post anonymously if you're sharing finances--no need to tempt me since I've recently learned just how easy it can be to hack into bank accounts :-) Also, my answer will be anonymous also, I'm fine having an in depth discussion with anyone on a one on one basis, but would rather not put it out into blogland.

Any other comments along this trail are welcome

Really show the money!

As I explained in a previous post, publishers pay on different schedules. Some pay monthly, some pay quarterly, or bi-annually or even once a year. Many publishers in the LDS market pay twice a year and for many of us, those royalty checks showed up a couple weeks ago.

We all say we don’t write for the money, mostly because the time we put into a book isn’t necessarily equal in our minds to the money we make off of it. However, that does not mean that the money isn’t a really really really nice detail of our writing careers. Many of us hope one day to support our families off of our writing, so, yes, the money matters. But even among other published authors, the money is not something we openly talk about. For one thing, we don’t want to be seen as money-hungry, nor do we want to be seen as bragging, or make anyone feel badly that is not in the same place we are. And, there is also a demographic of readers that don’t think we should make any money off of books that have LDS elements. All of these reasons keep us pretty tight-lipped.

That’s the theory, but that’s not what this blog is about. Rather, this blog is an invitation I’m sending out to all authors—LDS or not—to share what their last royalty check was. I figure if I'm curious about it, other people are too, and, though we might not write FOR the money, up and coming authors ought to know what they can expect--both good and bad.

So, authors, here is the format I’d like you to follow.

Royalty amount: $324.20
Payment for: January 2007 (or whatever time period you are being paid for)
LDS Market (or National)
Multiple titles (or one title if that’s what you’re receiving royalty on)
Yes I had a book published within the last year (or no, I have not had a book published within the last year)


Please do not put your name, publisher, or identifiable information on your royalty information—I don’t want any publishers to be annoyed with me.

Thanks for playing

Pay Day!

The most common question I get after 'How do you find the time?' and 'Why do you write?' is 'How much do you make?'. Some people think it's rude to ask about money, whatever, if you have any specific questions, go ahead and ask. Let's face it, all of us write for the money, at least in part. So, here's a breakdown of how it comes to you.

ADVANCE-- A pre-payment of expected royalties. Obviously, this is great--you get paid when the publisher accepts your book, sweet! It's also a sign of the publishers expectations, they expect to make MUCH more than whatever your advance is which means the pressure's on. If your book doesn't sell enough for you to have earned your advance, you'll be expected to pay it back and you will likely never publish with that publisher again. In the LDS market, advances are rare.

ROYALTIES--This is the standard payment method. It is a percentage of the book price but will vary from one publisher to another. Typically, a traditional publisher will pay 12%, 10% or 8% and it will either be retail or wholesale. All of these factors make a big different. For example if your contract outlines that you receive 10% wholesale and your book's wholesale price is $10 (wholesale equals about 60% of the retail price) then you make $1 a book. It doesn't seem THAT different than if you made 12%, but if you sell 1000 books, the difference is $200 in royalties. If instead you made 8% of retail $16.66 (note to self, do math before you write blog) that's $1.33 per book and $330 dollars more if you sold 1000 books. Keep in mind that the royalty will change in regards to any promotional prices of the books. For instance some publishers have a lower royalty on books sold in the first ninety days, other's will sell at a discount to some buyers and if you make 10% on wholesale, and the wholesale price to a specific buyer is only $6 instead of $10, you'll make 60 cents instead of your dollar. I once showed on my statement that my publisher had sold 200 copies of one of my older books for about $2 each. Since I was paid 10% on wholesale I made about $12.

PAYMENT SCHEDULE--If you receive royalty payments the schedule will vary from one publisher to another. Some pay monthly, some pay quarterly, bi-annually, annually or even every two years for some books. My first five books were published by a publisher that pays every month, but six months in arrears, so I get paid in May for books sold in October and multiple titles are paid in one check. If any of my titles are returned in that same month, it's subtracted out of my royalty. If my royalties are not more than $50, I don't get a check that month and won't get one until the months add up to more than $50.
My two most recent books are paid twice a year based on sales for the first half of the year and the second half of the year. If my book comes out in May (which both have) sometime in August I get paid for the sales between release and June 30, then come February, I get paid for sales between July 1 and December 31.
For me, I get smaller checks every month, and larger checks twice a year--in time to pay off Christmas and summer vacation. However, it was only a year ago that I was breaking even with my editing, paper, ink, conferences, promotion, and postage expenses. For the first six years of my career I had a hobby that paid for itself, and maybe a pair of shoes now and then.

When you get your contract, be sure to study the terms of royalties so you know what to expect. I know several authors read this blog, if you have anything to add/correct please leave it in the comment trail

Have a lovely