Publishing and Money

Second Wednesday is for Indie Author stuffs...

I ran across an article last week that was a fabulous dose of reality about which kind of authors made how much money. Not that money is the be all and end all, but it is nice to know what we are in for...

http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2013/self-publishing-debate-part3/

See here is my thing...

I have a day job. I will HAVE TO have a day job until I make enough writing to make up for NOT having said day job... because my retirement and insurance are really good, this is quite a LOT of writing income I have to make, or I really CAN'T quit... And not just once, but a good guess it will continue in the foreseeable future. That means I really need to be in that LAST, six-figure group to quit the day job. (not my income, but my income plus insurance for my family plus retirement put me very close—close enough that when I start TAXING the money that buys insurance, it would push the need over)

[now I LOVE my dayjob in a lot of ways, I'd just really prefer to do it maybe half time—the content is great, the people are great, the cause is great... but it just ISN'T writing fiction to my heart...]


So I need to keep the income in mind... do I write a little and not worry about it, or do I try to write enough to cross over and be a WRITER?

That's why I'm talking about the money.


See, the OTHER thing about the money (and time and jobs)... When I have so little writing time, I REALLY only have WRITING time... and I have some projects I'd like to commit to as an INDIE publisher... An Indie person needs to be a jack of all trades, but with a JOB, I just don't have time for that—not even to DO it, but REALLY not to LEARN IT. Does that make sense?

I didn't really get it until I started publishing my serial, which I can only do Indie, there being no formal serial mechanism annallat... but there is a LOT of time involved (and money)--covers and editing—I am paying for these, but it means thus far I've lost money. I KNOW this will be worth it—to not have a sub-par product out there, but time and money... time and money... time and money... neither of which I have.


So back to the graph... did you know I am a number nerd by day?

These are all percentages, so it gets a little hard to know what is what in real numbers... I assume there are MANY more aspiring writers than published writers, though self-publishing makes crossing that bridge a lot easier... so N for aspiring is biggest, followed by self... but I have NO CLUE how traditional and hybrid categories compare.

Comes out March 4--my 3rd Cozy

What I KNOW is I fell into the $1-$4,999 category this year... and last year... and the year before that. In 2010 I was the next category up because a three book contract with an advance meant I got a portion (40% of the advance for all three books) at signing. But in 2011 and 2012, I would have fallen in that 'traditional' $1-$4,999 category... this year I became purple... me and my $30 of Indie income *rolls eyes * Actually I've lost money on that so far, because I am paying for covers and editing, but I have hopes now that I am bundling it will get better, and once it is DONE, it will improve even more.

What gives me HOPE though, is that distribution of purple... hybids. That's me.

I sent a book that would be first in a second cozy series to my agent this week. I think it will sell. I'd frankly like to ALWAYS have a traditional series going. It gets me invited places. (is that shallow?) I think breaking out is easier with an icebreaker... and my personality just is NOT charming enough to break out otherwise. I am awkward.

And while hybrids have about 26% of us sitting here where I am ($1-$4,999) the next bump is at the $20K-$40K slot and 14% of us are making over $100K... I can be top 14%!


I will believe forever that publishing route should be a match of goals, genre and personality, but I am SO RELIEVED to see I am not dooming myself going about this sort of willy-nilly as I am... I'd felt very uncommitted...but I'm NOT uncommitted! I am a THING! A HYBRID!

Following the Money

Whereby I debate the definition of selling out.

Not my Cat but like the pic...

Yibus know I'm broke, right? That almost three years ago HWMNBMOTI got laid off, and we moped for 4 months and then he admitted he might be ready to train for a real job... so he has been a STUDENT since then, and we've been pretending I make enough for our family of four to live on, but I don't... That is where this story begins... The money is gone... Oh, some comes in every month... about a thousand dollars LESS than I need to break even if there is no water bill (which comes quarterly) or insurance (in February)...


I have a Cozy Mystery contract which provided a SIGNING advance, and then pays a little when I turn it in (got first one in Feb) and when it is published (first of those will be a year from now)... it's a trickle... on the month I GET one, I am okay for the month (except that whole February is insurance month detail), but writing isn't currently making up the difference between my (very good, mind you) day job and what it costs to live in Ann Arbor.

I have my young adult Kahlotus begging for a rewrite (which I will do this summer). And I have my Conspiracy Trilogy from which LEGACY needs just ONE MORE round before trying it out out there... I have Confluence which needs a rewrite... But the problem with ALL these books is they go on the slow road... long meandering sales track...


One of my BuNoWriMo ideas is ALSO that... Medium Wrong is the name (the talk to the dead one I mentioned yesterday)... and it is a lesson in be careful what you pretend to be... one of those cosmic justice teaches us a lesson things... and it is a GREAT story, as I see it... but it ALSO goes on that slow road... and it is ALSO one I really want to get RIGHT and I think it could use a few more months to stew...

If you can see through, why bother?

Because I have an idea that I KNOW I can sell, and sell sooner than later... There is a HEAVY market for trade mystery... my sassy Microbrew based, not-quite-cozy... my agent has expressed interest in the idea... she wants to see it when I have it... and SHE KNOWS editors who do this, who will contract not on the WHOLE POLISHED BOOK, but on a synopsis or outline and three BANG UP chapters (or so—50 pages). Now being ME, I really don't want to shop it until I have the first draft done, but if I could sell something right away that in the immediate term only had to be polished through the first quarter... that would REALLY help my cash flow...

And I have wanted to WRITE this series ANYWAY... I'm excited about it.

The premise: McKenzie MacIntyre (Kenny) tried the real world. She wore a suit, marketed for a software company, married a finance banker and had a son. But when the bottom fell out of the NASDAQ and her marriage fell apart, she decided she wanted a life with more tangibles... she opened a Microbrewery.

I am setting the brewery in Old Town Portland (the old industrial district, where warehouses are now lofts and art galleries mingle with Portland's remaining underbelly). She has an easy friendship (and not a little sexual tension) with her (currently attached) brewer; employees are made up of the Portland standard pierced and painted young artist types, and she has a teenage son whose (uptight but quickly going broke) father thinks a brewery is no place for a boy.


I hate to have money drive decisions I make... I WILL write the other... but I am just thinking it would be nice to have the bread and butter on the table while I wait for the main meal to come... (because the YA WILL pay more in the end... These mysteries sell so easily because people devour them, but they can devour them because each one doesn't cost a fortune (or pay the author a fortune)... and honestly... they are easier for a writer to get right—the audience reads fast and is forgiving... they are still a LOT of work, but the easy spot they fill makes it easier to get it 'right'.

This and Kahlotus by Joris Ammerlaan

Another Though Milling Around

(much more fuzzy) I am flirting vaguely with self-publishing my trilogy that won't fall neatly into YA or adult because of the MC age problem... I am WAITING a bit... If my current agent wants my YA stuff, then I think she will want to take on my full career and she may have strong opinions there—I don't want to burn any bridges and she deserves a conversation. If I end up with a DIFFERENT agent for Kahlotus, I think I will keep the three strands of career separate... Mystery with my current agent, YA published traditionally and this funny, hard to genrify batch I will do independently. I intend to formally edit (I have it on good authority one of my Burrow peeps has her eye on an editing career and I'm willing to bet she'd let me pay her a percentage of what I earn until she's paid). I would also want to pay my buddy Joris, who did my FABULOUS book covers gratis, but if I actually make MONEY using the covers, he deserves to be paid.

I want to do my rewrites though, before publishing the first, so the second and 3rd could be up with just a couple months between...I even have my pricing strategy figured out... I think I could do pretty decent with them.  They are good stories. They just don't FIT easily anywhere.

None of THIS is a sure thing... I'd prefer to sell traditionally... Heck, maybe I will submit Legacy to ABNA next year instead... if only the hook for it was easier... but then there is a lot of help on that front.


The PLAN (evil cackle)

By May 31: Finish first draft of Cozy 2
June: Write Microbrewery Sassy
July 1-21: rewrite Cozy 2
July 22-August 7: Cozy 2 to peer reviewers. Edit Kahlotus.
Aug 8-21: edit Cozy 2, send to agent
Aug 22- Sept 15: edit Microbrew beginning. Send to agent when she returns Cozy 2
Sept 16-30: final polish Cozy 2 (turn in Sept 30)
Oct. One of rewrites
Nov. Medium Wrong
December Start Cozy #3

Now all this could change. So far this year on plans, I have missed an editing month (well, 2 really) because this Cozy has taken a lot longer to write than I thought, but I've done okay... Other goals all met.

And if ANYWHERE along this line someone who might lead me to money makes a request, I will jump... because while I dislike hoops or being told what to do, writing for a living is MUCH less of that than anything else I've ever done, so I will take it until I make it...