Sell through

This post is part of a series I've been doing on the Business of Writing. Today we're talking about that all-elusive sell-through.

Sell through is publishing jargon that came into being when authors started getting advances. The publishing house would upfront the author a royalty payment of an agreed-upon amount (big name authors got big name advances, most authors got a couple of thousand as an advance). There would be no more money for the author, however, until the royalties reached the same amount as the advance. The "sell through" point.

In other words, if an author received an advance of $5000 on her book, she wouldn't see another penny until she'd sold enough copies that her part of the price totaled five thousand dollars. The book would have "sold through" (or past) her advance and her publisher would be happy. She would be too, because now she'd start receiving royalties again.

In self-publishing, though, sell through is probably more accurately called a profit/loss statement.

It is how you determine if a book has actually made you money...or not. It's another data point you can use to make decisions about promotional efforts, cover art...a whole host of business decisions! Remember, as a writer you are running a business. Whether or not you are self-pubbed, knowing your data is the best way to keep your career moving forward.

This is a spreadsheet for Tied to Home. As you can see, the book is a slow starter, but I've already earned a profit. Between the cover art and an ad I bought, I spent $80; the book has earned me a total of $152.56. This gives me a profit of $119.84. 

(And yes, these are actual numbers. I truly believe we do newbie authors a disservice by hiding what we make on a book. Most books I publish have a stronger start, but some don't even do this well. Be honest about what you do or don't make. How else will others learn?)

What these numbers for this book tell me is that I can afford to do more paid ads. The one I ran appeared in January (although I bought it in November - that's a fault with this spreadsheet that needs fixing. I want a better way of knowing when the ad ran to see if it made an impact on sales. A comment in the January box will probably be sufficient).

This spreadsheet also makes me feel good. Okay, so the book isn't taking off and selling a ton of books every month. But it is selling and I've made money.

It also tells me I might want to look at some externals. Although I've made a profit, the book isn't selling as well as I think it should. Knowing this, last week I changed the blurb in all listings to working that linked it to the rest of the books in the series. I also updated the title on Amazon to reflect that it is part of a series so that, if someone searches for "The Sweet Spot series" it will come up. Tied to Home is one of several stories written by the members of the Sizzling Scribes. All the books are set in Port Clef, Connecticut and explore love and romance--and sex, of course! Making sure all the books in the series point to all the other books in the series should boost sales for all of us.

(Working with a group of authors for promotional purposes is the topic of an upcoming post. :) )

The bottom of the page is cut off, but I have a separate page for each of my books. It helps me to keep track of what ads I've bought and where they are; for my older books I can tell if there's a pattern to the sales (again, another blog post for another day: looking for patterns).

Data is your friend. The spreadsheet above is one data point. You can use your sales records to see what platform it's selling best on as another. Each piece of information helps you inform your decisions, helps you run your writing business.

Activity

Set yourself up a profit/loss statement for each book. If it is a newly-published book, setting this up and keeping track will be easy.

If the book has been out a while, use your sales records and your account information to help you re-create the records. And if you haven't set those up...what are you waiting for? {g}

Play safe! If you find this useful, please pay what you can for the ideas.

Diana

Superman our Savior?

I went to see the new Superman movie, Man of Steel, under a little duress yesterday. Don't get me wrong. I love superhero movies, they really appeal to the fantasy lover in me and some manage to transcend the usual, let's-blow-up-everything-in-sight philosophy (see my review of Ironman here).

But really, how many re-boots of a story do we need? The Hulk got a TV series and two movies, Batman got a TV series and two re-starts. Spiderman's on his second recent restart (after a TV series as well). Then here comes Superman, having to prove he's superior with several TV series and THREE movie reboots!

To be fair, the second restart wasn't very good. There were plot holes wide enough to drive a train through and incredible leaps of logic. So I can understand the movie producers wanting to just forget that one and move on.

But the key words here are "move on." Don't tell me the same story all over again. Give me an episode. Not the same old story we've seen before.

WARNING: the rest of the post contains spoilers, so stop reading here if you don't want them.

So I went, expecting little that was new and much that was familiar: Jor-El sending his son to Earth as his planet imploded; the spacecraft and little boy being found by Midwestern parents who will raise him, his eventual move to Metropolis and the development of his alter-ego Clark Kent who gets a job at the Daily Planet.

All that was there, as expected. What was unexpected was the incredible backstory they filmed on Krypton. I suppose the producers wanted to get their money's worth out of Russell Crowe, an actor I don't really care much for. But, I have to admit, he was a powerful Jor-El. I found myself looking forward to each of his appearances as Superman's guiding force, once Clark accepts that he is not human.

The structure of the movie begins in a usual manner: on Krypton, filling us in on exposition. But once Krypton implodes, the movie's timeline shifts to an adult Clark Kent who moves from job to job, helping people and leaving as soon as people begin to suspect he's different. He's a man in hiding.

From there, the story alternates between present time and flashbacks to his childhood in Kansas. At first I was concerned. I tend to lose the main storyline if there are too many interruptions. But Zack Snyder, the director, handled them well and the story flowed seamlessly to get in all the story points. In fact, on retrospect, I think I preferred this structure to the straight, chronological storytelling that's usually used. Made this reboot something new.

But what I really wanted to talk about in my review were the incredible number of Christ references in the film. I noted the first one and thought, "Ah! An allusion. Nice touch." Then there was another...and another...and by the time he said his age (33) it was pretty obvious this remake wasn't just "truth, justice, and the American way." There is another, not-so-subtle subtext going on, from the way Superman hangs in the air, the dust haloing his body when he meets the US Army for the first time, to the wrestling with who he is (the "running away" section equals the 40 days in the desert Jesus took early in his career. And it is no accident that Superman comes out of the desert to meet with the Army - and the men who become his followers).

A good movie stays with you a while, and Superman did that last night, the Christ images weaving in and out of my consciousness as I toyed with this post in my head. Then, this morning I awoke my computer to check the headlines (my usual routine) and came across this story on CNN. I am not the only one to be hit over the head with the Christ references.

Now, to be fair, the article states that studios providing movie guidelines to churches is a regular practice. I know from experience the studios often put together study guides for schools, too. I have no problem with that. I just find it interesting that this movie has such an obvious parallel when I didn't see it in any of the other movie or TV incarnations that dealt with the man in the cape.

Not that it wasn't there. Heck, most superhero movies have savoir themes. Ironman does. So does the Odyssey if you really want to go there. Heroes are saviors. That's what they do. That's what we want them to do. People are in a jam and they need someone to help them out. Enter the hero.

But while Ironman had Biblical allusions, Jon Favreau (the director) didn't hit the audience over the head with them. They were subtle and you had to watch a few times to catch them. In Man of Steel, Snyder uses such a heavy hand that the allusions threatened to pull me out of the movie. And that's the objection I have. Let me find them, don't tell them to me outright. There's no art in that. And I like art in my movies (as well as a couple of well-done explosions).

All that said, it was a good movie and Henry Cavill is a good Superman (and, as one of the characters admits, "He's hot." I agree!). Amy Adams as Lois Lane is fun and I believe her every moment, even if she is in on his secret identity from the start (a story change I'm not sure I like). Kevin Costner has several wonderful moments as a dad trying to raise a special child and Diane Lane as Superman's mom has just the right balance of love and practicality. And yes, even Russell Crowe gave a good performance. :)

There is a great deal more to be said of this film, but I've only seen it once. I will watch this movie again and then I'll come back to discuss some of the other aspects of the film (the change in Superman's costume, a missed opportunity, the Colonel's sacrifice...among other things).

Yes,  in spite of the heavy-handed allusions, there were some levels to this film that are worth exploring deeper. Till then,

Play safe!
Diana

Workshop change-up

When I first started providing these workshops back on October 4, 2011, I never thought I'd still be going strong a year and eight months later. My initial plan was to post a pre-written set of workshops that had been honed over years of teaching them in real time as well as giving them in Second Life with an eye toward collecting them into a single volume that I'd offer for sale.

Then the publishing world imploded - or exploded, depending on where you're sitting - and I just kept offering new ideas, different ways of looking at the world and providing the occasional prompt (or two, or three) to help both beginning writers and those with more experience. Maybe someday I'll figure out how to put these in a book, but that's no longer my focus.

Over the past year and a half (plus some), my focus has become more on the reflective writer, on the whys and wherefores (a redundant phrase if ever there was one!) rather than on the how to's. Although I've done workshops on grammar, you really can learn that better from a site dedicated to the structure of language. There have been workshops on the business side of writing, the editing process, lots of workshops on characters and plot and theme. You can find the entire list of them here.

You might not comment, but I know you're attending to these workshops because my website hits double every Tuesday. I like to imagine you eagerly coming to the workshop, reading through it and then taking time to do the activity and finding out something new about your own writing. If'n you wanted to drop me a line (email or in the comments), and let me know what's worked for you, I'd love it. My ego is small, but it does need a sop now and again. :)

So what's the change-up the title of this post refers to? I think it's time to get some other writers in here to share their expertise, don't you? Guest lecturers, as it were. No one wants to listen to the same person over and over and over.

The first guest blogger will be Cynthia Sax. She'll be here Tuesday, June 25th to talk about "Billionaires, Vampires, and Reader Expectations." She has some great tips!

Next on the schedule is Shelly Munro on the naming of characters. Shelly is a long-time Ellora's Cave author who writes very hot love scenes! Her post is coming July 16th and I'm looking forward to learning a lot from her.

More guests will be coming on board in the next few weeks. If you are a writer and would like to see a particular topic covered or if you have a topic you'd like to write about, email me at diana@dianahunter.net and put BLOG PROPOSAL in the subject line. Include a brief outline of your post and we'll go from there!

Activity

I know I missed last week's workshop entirely and this week's is really an announcement, so I hope you're spending this time writing on your current work in progress! How many words per week are you getting done? See if you can up that by 10% this week. Write fast, write hard, write lots! I'll post my word count at the end of the week - see if you can beat me!

Play safe everyone, and welcome aboard Cynthia and Shelley!

Diana

over at the Scribes

My turn at the Scribes this week. Head on over and be sure to read the post very, very carefully! :)

If you haven't seen my guest spot at Susana's Morning Room, be sure to stop over there as well. It's not too late!

Diana

Giveaway

Apologies for missing this week's workshop, but I have something to make up for it: I'm a guest over at Susana's Morning Room. Read my post and leave a comment to enter her giveaway.

See you there!
Diana

Oh, my glory, it's Tuesday!

My apologies, everyone. The weekend totally got away from me and I have no workshop for today. By this point, you've probably already figured that out.

You have two options: wait until next week to write anything (bad option...don't do this one), or you can visit the Workshop page and revisit an old workshop to hone a skill you want to improve (good option...do this!).

Have fun and I'll see you next week with something new. Honest!
Diana

Prompting 1...2...3...4...

Every once in a while you need to walk away from your current work-in-progress and write something different. Different genre, different story, different something.

Today's your day to do just that. Set your timer for a time between 15 and 30 minutes, then choose a prompt from those given below and do something different. If you normally write romance, try turning the prompt into a mystery. If you normally write thrillers, write science fiction. If you normally write fantasy, try noir. Seriously. Write like Raymond Chandler -- it's a lot of fun and can loosen up your brain for your more serious writing later.

Pick a prompt and have fun!

Diana

Prompt 1 - Old lady on the beach finds a walking silver Liberty half-dollar in the sand. What does she do with her find? Choose your point of view: the old lady or a person who sees her pick it up. (Link provided for you young-uns who don't know what that is. Also for those not familiar with old American coins).

Prompt 2 - Man comes running out of a bank with a canvas bag in his hand. Why? Choose your point of view: the man with the bag, a teller inside the bank or a person on the street who sees him come out.

Prompt 3 - Person (you determine gender) trying to buy fruit from outdoor vendor drops a wad of cash in the process and doesn't notice. Choose your point of view: the person who drops the cash, the vendor or a person who witness the money drop.

Writing these workshops is fun but they need to make me money in order for me to continue. Please consider making a PayPal donation to keep them coming!