First Royalty Statement

[dr_pretentious]

Thirty-one dollars and seventy-two cents. It doesn't sound like a whole lot, but that's the first quarter's royalties for a book that was only available for sale for one month of the quarter in question, and that hasn't had much time to earn back the publisher's expenses from producing it. If I had sold a novel to a major print publisher, even a relatively successful novel, many quarters might have gone by before any royalties arrived. In its proper context, this number is excellent news.

Someday I might make enough from my fiction to support my Starbucks habit. A girl's gotta have a dream.

Comments

Congratulations

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Hey, any royalty at all is an accomplishment, and getting paid extra for work already done is always great.

My nonfiction book Composing Magic hasn't earned out yet, but is getting only 10% returns and made the publisher's bestseller list for its category. I'm pleased so far.

Re: Congratulations

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

I took a six month vow at Beltane that I'd read at least one Craft book every lunar cycle until Samhain. Your book is on my short list. I'm looking forward to it.

Re: Congratulations

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thanks for thinking of me, and I hope you enjoy the book. I'd love to hear feedback after you finish it, if you have the time.

[dthon.livejournal.com]

Dude! You can buy socks!

That's great news, and seeing actual cash from any publishing endeavor is a very cool thing.

As soon as I have my next job, I know where I'm going to go to buy a bit of fiction for the bus... :) -Scott

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

And where would we be without socks?

Long, long ago I read some of the correspondence between Edith Wharton and Henry James. Wharton tells James how pleased she is with the sales for her latest book, and that she's made some enormous purchase with the proceeds--I think it was a piece of French real estate. James writes back to congratulate her and say that the proceeds from his last book allowed him to buy a wheelbarrow to trundle his firewood around in, and maybe if the next book does well, he'll be able to afford to paint the wheelbarrow. Wharton gets so sick of his complaining, she sends his publisher a huge chunk of money with instructions to send it to him and claim it's his royalties. It's fraud, yeah, but back then it was gentlemanly fraud.

If only a year of my Starbucks habit cost as little as a wheelbarrow. What can I say? My goals are ambitious.

Here's hoping I can make that bus commute a little happier.

[wayzgoose.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! It is so good to hear that the eBook is out and that there is income (no matter how slight) from it. Hope you will also take a look at http://www.longtalepress.com as you think about placing your next book!

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

They've got an interesting idea there--and congratulations on being one of their debut authors. It's such a new model, though, I'm going to wait to see how they treat their authors before I consider submitting.

[citabria]

Congratulations! A check's a check!

Way to GO! (Now on with the torture...)

[kistha.livejournal.com]

Re: Way to GO! (Now on with the torture...)

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Thanks? I've...never seen anything like that.

Ah, YouTube, repository of humanity's repressed memories.

[jeneralist.livejournal.com]

...And this is before it's available thru Amazon, yes?

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Yes. It also doesn't yet count sales through Fictionwise and Mobipocket--those will always be a quarter behind, because the third party guys are only notifying my publisher now of how last quarter went.

[evaelisabeth.livejournal.com]

I just bought it it's great, don't tell anyone I read it at work ;-)

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Thanks! You're not the first person who took a look at it at the office and then couldn't put it down. Whenever I wonder if I'm the Ed Wood of contemporary fantasy, I think of the people who've told me they imperiled their livelihoods rather than stop before the end.

[laradionne.livejournal.com]

Congrats! Don't just shoot for the Starbucks habit... go for the scones!

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Much to Dan's dismay, my Starbucks habit already includes the occasional scone. I'm going to have to sell a lot of books.

[tyellas.livejournal.com]

31.72 is far more than I've ever made from my fiction writing. And why spend it on Starbucks? You could buy something more enduring - a cute woodcut from Etsy, a small gemstone - and think, "I bought that with MY ROYALTIES. Oh yeah."

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Ah, but you're a World Famous Authority on Tolkien Elf Sex. That's a reputation money can't buy.

I like the idea of a durable memento to my royalties, but my house is so crammed with stuff, I try not to acquire more of anything, with the exception of books. We were living in cluttered conditions before, but with the addition of baby gear, which tends to be bulky, we're positively cramped.

Thanks for mentioning Etsy, though. I'd never heard of it before. It looks like a great source for gifts.

I did it!

[amushink.livejournal.com]

I have your book in my pocket! I bought it last night off of the web in isilo format. I am so proud. Sadly, it doesn't come with the cool cover art. But happily, I got a couple of free books thrown in for lagniappe. (Jekyll n' Hyde, Oliver Twist).

Can't wait for the next one to come out.

Re: I did it!

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

I'm really looking forward to getting the next one out. For one thing, I had a lot of fun writing it, and I think it will amuse people. For another, promoting the first one takes so much time, I figure promoting two related works can't be that much more work, and it would be nice to have the work go further.

The third one keeps surprising me. I had no idea how many secrets Ria was keeping. She started out as comic relief, but she turns out to have a bizarre, desperate sort of dignity in her inner life that I never would have guessed at while I was writing Jane's story.

Re: I did it!

[violet-moon25.livejournal.com]

I am looking forward to reading Ria's story. I am also still lobbying for Susan to eventually get her own story.

Re: I did it!

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Susan's story is in the long-term plan for the Rugosa series. I don't know what all it entails yet, or where it'll fall in the chronology, but it'll come.