Category: Business of writing

A Sunday Morning Essay

On By ronsonbeckIn Analysis, Business of writingLeave a comment

Settling down for a writing day, but first, let’s go over why the concept of “go woke and go broke” is so fucking asinine. A tip of the hat to the meatballs on social media whining about — gasp! — diversity in popular entertainment media, again, for inspiring this little diatribe.

1: It assumes that the best, if not sole metric for determining artistic success is how well it does financially. This is, of course, nonsense.

This notion is entirely rooted in capitalism, which cannot fathom the idea of success being measured in artistic merit, positive audience response, the artist’s personal satisfaction, or anything non-transactional. No money = no success.

2: It’s a privileged attitude that assumes only certain audiences merit seeing themselves reflected in popular media, and TV, movies, books, music, art, etc., that caters to anything other than straight, white, cis people is “pandering.”

3: It’s inherently bigoted. It expresses utter contempt for diversity and representation, and by extension, the marginalized people being presented in the art. Their very presence is offensive to the “get woke, go broke” crowd and must be openly mocked.

I’ve said repeatedly that it’s pure bigotry to declare where and when marginalized people are allowed to exist in public spaces, and that’s what’s happening when privileged people object to marginalized people showing up in their entertainment.

We need to push back against the “get woke, go broke” attitude not only to be good allies, not only to maintain — or better yet, expand — representation in art now, but to send a message to young, impressionable creators that their art is not just about money.

It’s about personal artistic expression for the sake of it. It’s about sending a message to the world. It’s about making people think and feel in ways they might not normally think and feel, and in doing so, expand their horizons and change their perspectives.

“Go woke and go broke” is the enemy of art. It’s selfish, privileged, bigoted, myopic, and toxic. Refuse to let it go unchecked. Push back. Smother it.

Art is for EVERYONE. Fight to keep it that way.

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A Tale of Two Anthologies

On By ronsonbeckIn Business of writing, Writing processLeave a comment

The following is likely to be of interest more to writers, especially those interested in having their work included in an anthology, but here we go anyway.

During the second half of 2020, I had two anthology projects on my to-do list — one of which ended successfully, the other, not so much — and it’s that second one that was truly disappointing, because it was an anthology I was going to edit.

A bit of backstory: due to the pandemic, renaissance faires across the country — including the one I’m involved with as fight director, the Connecticut Renaissance Faire — had to cancel their seasons. Beyond the disappointment felt by many patrons and participants, this was a huge blow to artisans and performers who make their living at these shows — and as self-employed artists, their financial safety net options were even scarcer than for a lot of folks with “regular” jobs.*

(* = I say “regular” rather than “real” because working in the performing arts is as legitimate a field of employment as any, but it can be unsteady and irregular in terms of consistency of schedule and income. But I digress…)

Around the time the CTRF producers were debating whether to attempt opening in the fall, I was working on a submission for an upcoming anthology of superhero romance stories. On a bit of a whim, I decided to put together an anthology myself, the proceeds for which would be donated to the RESCU (Renaissance Entertainers Services and Crafters United) Foundation, which provides financial aid to faire participants in need.

I went with fantasy for the genre and submissions would be open to anyone who in any way participated in a renaissance faire, both of which I felt best reflected the faire community’s typical interests and sensibilities. To tie the stories together, I required that they take place in a fair or festival setting.

As a point of interest, this is all typical for anthologies; they frequently have some sort of unifying theme or concept, and submissions are open only to a specific demographic. These criteria may seem like they’d be limiting, but they’re there for good reasons.

On the former point: without a core concept, or at the very least a primary genre to tie the stories together somehow, an anthology is tough to market. It may sound counterintuitive, but trying to be all things to all people doesn’t necessarily net you a wider audience. If you’re a fan of horror stories, how inclined would you be to spend good money on an anthology with only one horror story?

As for opening submissions only to the rennie crowd: I wanted this anthology to be by those within the community to give it extra meaning. When that decision was questioned, I put it this way: if someone was publishing a collection of stories about the musical Hamilton, would you rather read stories by the cast and crew who worked on the show, or by some random audience member?

Besides, the national rennie community was huge, and full of creative energy looking for an outlet. I figured the response would be pretty strong, and at first, I seemed to be right. I worked up the submission guidelines, posted them on my website and posted an announcement on several faire-oriented Facebook pages. Within two weeks, more than 300 people had viewed the submission guidelines.

I thought I was all set. I assumed — based on nothing, admittedly — that half of those people would never submit anything. Of the remainder, half of them would be rejected instantly for failing to follow submission guidelines or submitting a manuscript riddled with errors — the two big reasons for immediately rejecting a manuscript, regardless of the publisher — leaving me with 75 submissions worth reading. I reckoned the odds of finding ten to twelve quality stories from that were fairly high.

Between the time submissions officially opened on September 1 and when they closed on December 31, I received eight submissions.

Of those, half were insta-rejections for failing to follow the submission guidelines — specifically, the criterion that the story had to offer a fair or festival as its primary setting. Two stories had no such setting whatsoever, and the other two used a modern renaissance faire as its setting, which I specifically ruled out because I felt it limited the anthology’s appeal to a too-select audience — and, frankly, because it felt cheesy as hell.

Three stories had potential, but also had some issues that needed to be resolved before they were ready for publication. To be blunt, under different circumstances, two of the stories also would have been rejected out-of-hand because they read like first drafts. There were typos galore, egregious formatting errors, glaring continuity glitches, redundant word choices — issues typical of any first draft.

But I wasn’t exactly experiencing an embarrassment of riches for submissions, so I decided to see if these stories could be polished to professional quality. I asked my friend and fellow indie author Lyndsey Luther (Greencloak) to serve as my co-curator and co-editor, and together we reviewed the stories that had cleared the first hurdle, wrote up our respective notes, and sent the manuscripts back for revisions.

One author sent back a new draft. The other two fell off the face of the earth, neither returning revised stories nor formally withdrawing their submissions.

The eighth story we never read because it came in at the end of December, by which point it had become clear this anthology was DOA. On December 31, I sent emails out to everyone who had submitted but not been formally rejected announcing the project’s cancelation.

Naturally I was disappointed by this, but I consoled myself with the fact that the time I’d mentally blocked off for the next steps in the project — editing and formatting the manuscript, sending out contracts, prepping the Kickstarter campaign to fund everything, etc. — was available to me again and I could focus more on my own writing.

And on the other anthology, which I’ll tell you about now. Don’t worry, this part is much shorter.

Some of the folks behind the website superhero-fiction.com decided to put together an anthology of superhero romance stories. As it happened, I had the skeleton for a story in the back of my mind — a concept for another superhero anthology of pulp hero-style stories, which I never pursued because the anthology was not paying its contributors; the publisher was going to keep all sales revenue for its own purposes, so I tucked the idea away for possible later use.

When the call for submissions for Beneath the Mask – A Superhero Romance Anthology went out, I pulled the concept out of mothballs and got to work. Within a few days, I had a finished first draft of Like a Knife in the Heart featuring a brand-new character, the Sapphire Silhouette. After sending it out to some beta readers for feedback, I reworked it a little, got the word count down to where it needed to be — barely, but I made it work — gave it a few coats of polish, and sent it off.

And then I waited.

Several weeks later, I heard back from the curators, who loved the story but wanted the romance elements to be front-loaded a little more, which I didn’t entirely agree with from a structure perspective. I felt the culmination of the romantic tension between the Sapphire Silhouette and her love interest was just that, a character arc reaching a climax, needed to follow the climax of the plot, but the curators wanted the romance to be up front and center. It was a romance anthology, after all, they reasoned, so I spent a day juggling story points around to give them what they wanted and sent it off again.

And then I waited some more.

Near the end of the year, I got word that my story was good to go, pending a final editorial review — which for me involved one extremely minor note that didn’t even require a fix.

More waiting.

But worth it in the end, because the anthology is locked for a Valentine’s Day release.

I realize I’ve thrown a lot at you, so let me summarize the big takeaways for me, which I hope you aspiring writers might find useful should you decide to submit to an anthology:

  • Pay attention to an anthology’s chosen genre and theme, and craft your story to meet those criteria.
  • Also, pay attention to who is welcome to submit stories. If the criteria don’t apply to you, don’t submit.
  • Anthologies, even from small presses, can receive hundreds of submissions, so patience is not only a virtue, it’s necessary.
  • Follow the submission guidelines, to the letter.
  • Make sure your submission is as polished as possible.
  • It’s in your best interests to submit as early as possible and not at the last minute. It takes pressure off the curator, and it gives you time to submit a new story if your first one is rejected.
  • If the curator contacts you for any reason, respond immediately. Don’t procrastinate, or worse, ghost them.
  • Respect word count limits. Don’t under- or overwrite and assume the curators will give it a pass.
  • Don’t submit to anthologies that don’t pay the author. Your time, effort, and art have value. Don’t give them away for free — or worse, to enrich a publisher who won’t share the wealth.
  • Remember what I said about patience. It takes time to read and review submissions, so don’t contact the curator to ask how things are going. It’s a “don’t call us, we’ll call you” situation.
  • The curator might ask for changes to your story. That’s normal. It’s on you to decide whether to stick to your guns or make the changes, but if you stand firm and refuse to alter your submission, don’t be surprised if that earns you a rejection.

Now, get writing, and good luck!

A Guide to Professional Aspiring Authors

On By ronsonbeckIn Analysis, Business of writing, Event, Writing processLeave a comment

I recently wrapped my winter show schedule (Arisia and Boskone), and while neither show was a big moneymaker, alas, I got to meet and chat with other writers, which is always fun.

It’s also a little frustrating at times, because so many aspiring authors fall under a category I’ve come to refer to as the Professional Aspiring Author. These are writers who say they have a solid idea for a novel, but haven’t finished it yet — and in many cases, haven’t even begun working on it yet, and they have a million reasons why this is.

These reasons often suck. They’re flat excuses not to do the hard work of writing their novel. Sometimes people are simply more in love with the idea of writing a novel than the actual writing, but sometimes it’s how their own fear of failure manifests. If they never release their creation into the world, they can always fantasize about what might have been rather than face the possible cold, reality of being rejected by readers.

Now, let me clarify that my sense of frustration isn’t selfish in nature. I don’t secretly roll my eyes at these people and bemoan my fate at getting cornered by another big-talking, big-planning wannabe; I’m saddened that there are so many people with a lot of enthusiasm and often great ideas, but somehow wind up so stuck in their own heads that it would be a miracle if they ever get a word down on paper.

Below are some of the most common Professional Aspiring Authors I encounter, and my purpose in identifying these types is not to mock or ridicule, but to give readers of this post who may themselves be Professional Aspiring Authors a kick in the pants, shake off their excuses for not doing the work, and finally strike that “Aspiring” label.

The Over-Planner

This is the author who excitedly tells me about their 30-page plot outline, now in its fifth draft, or how they’re busy creating their fantasy world’s monetary exchange system, or how they’ve worked up exhaustive backstories for every primary, secondary, and tertiary character in the cast.

Whenever I ask how much of the actual novel they’ve written, I usually get a moment of awkward silence followed by, “I’m almost ready to start writing, but first I have to finish [plotting, worldbuilding, writing character bios, etc.].”

These people will never actually write the story — and if they do, they run the risk of writing a stiff, lifeless story because they’re so married to all the plans they laid out (go read Why Your Fantasy Novel Sucks by Professor Awesome for a more detailed analysis of this problem).

Quick aside: I say as a Pantser — someone who does little to no pre-planning before writing — that this is not meant as a slam against Planners, that kind of writer who maps everything out before writing. Neither approach is “the right one” in an objective sense; Planners create great stuff because as a writer, that’s the approach that works best for them, but over-planning is an easy trap for amateur authors to fall into.

The Overworked and Over-committed

The number one excuse I hear among Professional Aspiring Authors is, “I don’t have time to write.”

Short answer: bullshit. Yes they do.

Longer answer: I’m going to bet that they do indeed have time to wrote, but they’re choosing to spend that time on other activities — watching TV, going to the gym, a weekly bowling league, some other creative hobby — and they’re unwilling to sacrifice any of those things to give themselves writing time.

In other words, what they’re really saying is, “I don’t have time to write and still do all the other fun stuff I like to do,” and that is more likely the truth of the matter.

But here’s another truth: that extra time won’t magically appear. You want to write a novel? You have to make time, and that might mean making sacrifices. And if you’re not willing to make those sacrifices, then maybe it’s time for another hard truth and admit that you don’t really want to write a novel, you just want to talk about it.

The Temporarily Inconvenienced Bestselling Author

This Professional Aspiring Author has a website and a regular blog, social media accounts everywhere, and is constantly posting articles on writing, reviews of other authors’ work, their own helpful writing tips, and occasionally mentions the novel they’re allegedly working on.

I’ll admit, this type I find particularly grating, because the TIBA often embodies the worst form of the old axiom, “those who can’t do, teach.” They’re quick to offer writing advice and tell others what they’re doing wrong, but have never actually written anything of their own — but oh, they’re working on it.

The Invisible Author

This is the Professional Aspiring Author I have the most sympathy for. They’ve finished a project, sometimes multiple projects, and they could release them at any time, but they can’t get over that massive final hurdle that is the fear of failure.

I get it. All authors get it. Mustering the courage to pull the trigger and release your work out into the world, which has no obligation to be kind in its opinions (indeed, too many people revel in the opportunity to be cruel to complete strangers) is a huge accomplishment. I’ve heard from many more experienced authors than me that simply bringing a novel to completion is a major achievement, perhaps the most important achievement in the process, but personally, I’d put releasing the novel as a close second.

If this is you, there’s nothing wrong with dipping your toe in the water; you don’t have to dive in head-first. Post stuff online. Try releasing a short story. If you haven’t shown your work to anyone, find people to test-read for you. There are ways to ease into it.

The One-Hit Wonder

I encountered a couple of these types at Arisia, people who have actually released a novel, but only the one…several years ago…and haven’t released anything since and have turned into one of the other aforementioned Professional Aspiring Authors, or some combination thereof.

For whatever reason, these individuals tend to be rather pompous and self-important, as if their single accomplishment grants them the right — nay the obligation to share their (often unsolicited) advice with everybody. I overheard one gent regaling my neighbors at Arisia at length about the craft of writing, and I Googled him to see if he actually knew what he was talking about. The dude had one self-published book — not terribly successful, judging by the scant Amazon reviews it had — from nearly ten years ago and hadn’t done anything since then, but he deemed himself fit to lecture a small group of more accomplished and prolific authors on how to write.

(FYI, he was a man and the people he was lecturing were all women, so of course he felt compelled to mansplain writing to them.)

Folks, if this is you: don’t be this person. You want to talk shop with a fellow author? Great, but ask first, just don’t start pontificating. Your listener might well be far more knowledgeable than you, and for writers, nothing is a greater turnoff than being told how to do your job.

Show Me the Money! The Financial Realities of Traditional Publishing

On By ronsonbeckIn Analysis, Business of writing, NovelsLeave a comment

During a recent discussion with an aspiring author, who’d met with repeated rejection from publishers and agents, I suggested that he explore the self-publishing route. I told him how well it’s worked for me and for many of the authors I know — the majority of the writers I’m friendly with are self-published — but the idea was firmly rejected because he believed that independent authorship wasn’t where “the real money” was.

It would have been easy to name several indie authors who are making an enviable living off their book sales, but I decided to dive down the rabbit hole of trad-pub author finances instead. Not like I had anything better to do that day…

What follows is the result of some quick-and-dirty research and number crunching, so take what you’re about to read with a generous grain of salt. I checked multiple sources, which of course all had slightly different data to report, and went with what seemed to be the most common figures or, failing that, an average of the averages, so I wouldn’t regard any of these numbers as authoritative.

Also, I’m not great at math. I became a writer to avoid math.

However, in my defense, the numbers support something career authors and all-around good guys James A. Moore and Christopher Golden said once during one of their roaming author coffeehouses: a tiny, tiny percentage of trad-pubbed authors make a living solely off their book sales — maybe three percent of such authors, with an emphasis on the “maybe.”

Suffice it to say, traditional publishing is not necessarily where the “real money” is.

One important caveat before I get into it: the overall point of this analysis is not to deter anyone from pursuing traditional publishing. This is strictly an examination of the earnings potential, so aspiring authors can pursue that path with their eyes open and expectations reasonable.

First, let’s start with the advance, which is typical when selling a novel to a major publisher. The average advance from a big publishing house is $10,000, which is a nice chunk of change, right?

Except that chunk is going to get smaller if you have an agent — which, if you’re getting a five-figure advance, is likely. An agent’s cut is typically 15 percent, so right off the bat your advance just shrank to $8,500.

After Uncle Sam takes his cut, which would be 10 percent on $10,000, your advance is now down to $7,650 — and I say that assuming the taxes are collected on the advance alone. If that amount pushes your overall income into a higher bracket, say goodbye to a larger piece of the advance.

But hey, $7,650 is still a pretty sweet payday — and the good news is, that money is all yours to keep. The advance is essentially the publisher paying you in anticipation of recouping that money through future book sales (more on that later), and if your book happens to tank? Not your problem anymore; the publisher took a chance on you and it didn’t pay off for them, but they’re not going to ask you for their money back.

Of course, the chances of the publisher asking you to write another book for them would be slim to none, but one hurdle at a time, yes?

The bad news (part one) is that you’re not necessarily getting that entire advance in one payment. Many publishers dole it out in phases as you meet certain milestones, like signing your contract and turning in your finished manuscript, so dismiss the idea that you can give up your day job and live off your advance while you finish your book.

The bad news (part two): the advance will be the only money you see for a while. Royalties — your cut of the book sales — don’t kick in until the advance has been “earned out,” meaning that the advance has been recouped by the publisher through sales.

(Told you I’d get back to that.)

How long does it take a book to earn its advance back? Nine months on average — less if your book really takes off, but if you’re not a runaway success right out of the gate, it might take a year or more before you start seeing royalties.

Now let’s talk about royalties, shall we? This is when you start making the big bucks, right?

Short answer: probably not.

Royalties are a percentage of the sales as determined by three main factors: the book’s retail price, how many copies have been sold, and format. Here’s the basic breakdown:

  • Hardcover books: 10 percent of the retail price for the first 5,000 copies sold, 12.5 percent of the retail price for the next 5,000 copies sold, 15 percent of the retail price for every copy sold after the first 10,000
  • Paperback (trade or mass market) books: 8 percent of the retail price for the first 150,000 copies sold, 10 percent of the retail price for every copy sold after the first 150,000
  • Ebooks: 25 percent of the retail price

Quick aside: in the above examples, “retail price” assumes that the books are being sold at full cover price. Publishers are increasingly basing royalties not on the full listed retail price (“list royalties”) but on how much the book actually sold for (“net royalties”), so if your book goes on sale or ends up in the bargain bin, your royalties adjust accordingly.

The average retail prices for hardcover, trade paperback, mass market paperback, and ebook formats are, respectively, $25.99, $15.99, $8.99, and $12.99. Using those figures, the first tier of royalty payments for each format you’d receive, again respectively, are $2.59, $1.28, $.72, and $3.25.

That sounds like it could add up — and it could, if you happen to be wildly successful. To be fair, you could indeed be that one in a million author who hits it big, but you’re more likely to be an average author, so we’re going to base your income off your averageness.

And how many books does an average author sell? The range is 3,000 on the low end to 10,000 on the high end, and it’s important to note that that is over the course of the book’s lifetime — not weekly, not monthly, not annually, but from the day it drops to the day its publisher decides it’s not worth printing anymore.

For argument’s sake, let’s assume you’re on the high end of that scale, which means 10,000 hardcover copies sold will earn you $29,200, 10,000 paperbacks will earn you $20,000, and 10,000 ebooks will earn you $32,500.

Reminder: these figures do not factor in your advance, your agent’s fee, or taxes. A $10,000 advance alone chops these numbers down by one-third to one-half.

In any event, don’t count on this money as steady income like a weekly paycheck. Depending on the publisher and the contract you’ve signed, you would get your money at best on a quarterly basis, at worst annually.

Of course, an author’s book sales are a mix of hardcovers, paperbacks, and ebooks. It was tough to pin down solid figures, but as best as I could determine, 81 percent of all book sales are print and 19 percent are ebooks — and I know this seems counterintuitive to many indie authors who derive most of their income through ebooks sales (I know I do), but print still dominates the marketplace overall.

So, if we apply those numbers to an individual author and their 10,000 copies, a single novel would earn over its lifetime $46,027 — which is the gross income. That drops to $36,027 after the advance is taken out, $30,623 after the agent’s commission is taken out, and $27,561 once taxes are taken out.

I couldn’t find hard data on what an average book’s “lifetime” is, but I found several sources that indicated a typical novel sells 250 copies in its first year — and that average apparently factors in authors ranging from self-published nobodies up to mega-bestselling authors like Stephen King and J.K. Rowling.

That means if you want to reach that 10,000-book benchmark, your book would have to consistently sell at least 250 copies a year for 40 years — and for the sake of this example, we’ll assume that your book doesn’t see a drop-off in sales after its first year (which, in real life, it would).

And so, after your advance pays out in the months after the novel’s release, your annual royalty earnings come out to — drumroll please…

$889.06.

“Real money.”

As I said earlier, I’m not looking to dissuade anyone from traditional publishing, but if that’s your goal, money probably shouldn’t be your primary motivation. The trad-pub route comes with its own benefits, including the possibility of becoming the Next Big Thing, but getting picked up by one of the Big Five publishers is by no means a guarantee of mega-success, or even a reliable revenue stream that would allow you to ditch your day job and become a full-time author.

Weekly Update – November 26, 2019

On By ronsonbeckIn Action Figures, Business of writing, Comic books, Event, Novels, Renaissance faires, Sharing The Love, Strongarm & Lightfoot, Well Behaved Women, Writing process, Young AdultLeave a comment

Thanksgiving is two days away, and immediately after that, the holiday shopping season kicks into high gear. Well, who am I to not engage in crass commercialism?

That’s right, the Kindle editions of the first books in the Action Figures and Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot series and the Well-Behaved Women trilogy will be on sale for 99 cents beginning on Black Friday and through Cyber Monday! Remember, you can buy any of these books now as a gift and schedule them to be delivered to the recipient on Christmas Day (or any date you choose).

I’m also participating in a cross-promotional effort with the Superhero Fiction Authors group, so go here to check out other superhero novels that will be on sale during this period.

But wait, there’s more! I’m also part of a cross-promotional effort with the New England Speculative Writers group, so here are even more great books on sale for 99 cents!

Hey, speaking of the superhero fiction group I belong to, we’re holding a cover art contest. Nothing major, mostly a fun thing to direct traffic to the site (and our books), but the cover of Action Figures – Issue Eight: Crawling From the Wreckage, created by Patricia Lupien, is in the running, so if you’re of a mind, go show my awesome cover artist some love!

WRITING PROJECTS

The Action Figures Omnibus – Volume One: Awaiting editing.

Action Figures – Issue Nine: Hell Hath No Fury: Beat reader feedback is coming in, and the cover art is almost done.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Sworded Affairs: Third draft is finished and it’s almost ready for editing.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Assassins Brawl: Recording of the audiobook edition is done and it’s now in final processing!

APPEARANCES & EVENTS

  • Arisia 2020 – January 17 – 20, Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel. I am confirmed as a vendor for next year! Now I’m waiting to hear about any panel assignments.

The New England Speculative Writers group has a new preview book for newsletter subscribers. Pick it up and read the opening chapters to Well-Behaved Women – Awakening and other stories.

If you’d like to make sure you don’t miss any news from me, remember that I have a weekly newsletter that features some of the stuff you see posted here plus new, newsletter-exclusive material. Click this link to sign up.

Weekly Update – November 19, 2019

On By ronsonbeckIn Action Figures, Business of writing, Comic books, Event, Novels, Renaissance faires, Sharing The Love, Strongarm & Lightfoot, Well Behaved Women, Writing process, Young AdultLeave a comment

Next week, the Kindle editions of all three first books in my three series — Action Figures, The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot, and Well-Behaved Women — will go on sale for 99 cents!

Action Figures and Well-Behaved Women will also be part of cross-promotional efforts with several other authors, and I’ll have more info on those next week!

On another note, mostly of interest to other indie authors…

Earlier this year, I was invited to participate in a multi-author event, but I declined due to what I regarded as an exorbitantly high table fee — $125, which got me a table for four hours of a first-year, one day, eight-hour show. For context: Arisia charges $120 for a table for its entire four-day weekend (early Friday evening through early Monday afternoon).

I later learned that the table fee was greatly slashed to, according to one author who attended, $45 — still for only a four-hour block. I also learned from a number of attending authors, that wasn’t enough of a reduction to make the show profitable. One person said they made their table fee back, others said they ran at a loss — but they “had fun,” “got to network with other writers,” and “got some decent exposure,” so it was all good, they said.

Excuse me a minute while I set up my soapbox…

If you’re an author with designs on making a career of your writing, full- or part-time, you have to adopt a businessperson’s mindset, which means you have to always consider the dollars and cents of doing an event at which you’re allowed to sell books.

Basic rule of thumb: if you don’t make a profit, or at the very least break even on your expenses, the show is not successful.

Quick aside: in business there is something called a “loss leader,” which is typically a product sold at a loss for the express purpose of attracting customers. This is an established and, under the right circumstances, viable approach to lining up future sales.

The problem I often see is when authors who take a bath at an event brush it off, claiming that they got good exposure and a lot of people said they’d buy the book online at a later date.

Here’s the problem: people say a lot of stuff they don’t mean, especially at conventions and fairs at which people sell their wares. “I’ll be back later” is one of the greatest customer lies in the convention scene. It’s code for, “I’m not going to buy anything but I don’t want to say so to your face, so here’s some false hope for you.”

As for authors who do see an online sales spike after an event, claiming cause and effect strikes me as wishful thinking. Sure, an increase in sales via Amazon (or whoever) following an event could be directly connected (in effect, the aforementioned loss leader). It could also very well be coincidence, and it’s damn near impossible to prove which scenario is true.

In any case, it still doesn’t make the show profitable or break-even. You didn’t meet or exceed the cost of being there, ergo the show was not successful.

Now, having said all that, I know authors who do shows fully expecting to walk out in the red — authors who have some other reason to be there, usually. They’re on panels or doing readings or conducting workshops — things that are much better loss leaders than standing at a table in the vendors’ area. There’s active engagement with potential customers who will learn something about the authors and what they have to offer.

If your goal is to have fun and network, go to events as a patron, but if you’re there as a businessperson, do your research to determine whether a given event is likely to yield positive financial results. Don’t enrich someone else at your own literal expense.

WRITING PROJECTS

The Action Figures Omnibus – Volume One: Awaiting editing.

Action Figures – Issue Nine: Hell Hath No Fury: Draft two in review with beta readers.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Sworded Affairs: Third draft is almost finished!

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Assassins Brawl: Recording of the audiobook continues.

APPEARANCES & EVENTS

  • Arisia 2020 – January 17 – 20, Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel. I am confirmed as a vendor for next year. Now I’m waiting to hear about any panel assignments.

The New England Speculative Writers group has a new preview book for newsletter subscribers. Pick it up and read the opening chapters to Well-Behaved Women – Awakening and other stories.

If you’d like to make sure you don’t miss any news from me, remember that I have a weekly newsletter that features some of the stuff you see posted here plus new, newsletter-exclusive material. Click this link to sign up.

Weekly Update – November 12, 2019

On By ronsonbeckIn Action Figures, Business of writing, Comic books, Event, Novels, Renaissance faires, Sharing The Love, Strongarm & Lightfoot, Well Behaved Women, Writing process, Young AdultLeave a comment

Not much to report, because The Big Move to Oxford took up all of my weekend, and then some. I’m working on getting the new writing space in order.

WRITING PROJECTS

The Action Figures Omnibus – Volume One: Second pass is finished, and now this one goes on the back burner for a while so I can focus on other things.

Action Figures – Issue Nine: Hell Hath No Fury: Draft two in review with beta readers.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Sworded Affairs: Third draft has begun!

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Assassins Brawl: Recording of the audiobook continues.

APPEARANCES & EVENTS

  • Arisia 2020 – January 17 – 20, Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel. I am confirmed as a vendor for next year! Now I’m waiting to hear about any panel assignments.

The New England Speculative Writers group has a new preview book for newsletter subscribers. Pick it up and read the opening chapters to Well-Behaved Women – Awakening and other stories.

If you’d like to make sure you don’t miss any news from me, remember that I have a weekly newsletter that features some of the stuff you see posted here plus new, newsletter-exclusive material. Click this link to sign up.

Weekly Update – November 5, 2019

On By ronsonbeckIn Action Figures, Business of writing, Comic books, Event, Novels, Renaissance faires, Sharing The Love, Strongarm & Lightfoot, Well Behaved Women, Writing process, Young AdultLeave a comment

It’s been a hectic week or two due to our Big Move to Oxford. We closed on the house last week and started moving stuff over right away. I also started setting up what will become my writing office! This weekend is The Big Move, when we haul over all the major furniture, at which point the moving part will be complete and we can get down to setting up the house.

 

WRITING PROJECTS

The Action Figures Omnibus – Volume One: Second pass continues.

Action Figures – Issue Nine: Hell Hath No Fury: Draft two in review with beta readers.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Sworded Affairs: The beta readers have spoken, but I’ve yet to sift through their notes due to the move.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Assassins Brawl: Recording of the audiobook continues.

APPEARANCES & EVENTS

  • Arisia 2020 – January 17 – 20, Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel. I am confirmed as a vendor for next year! Now I’m waiting to hear about any panel assignments.

The New England Speculative Writers group has a new preview book for newsletter subscribers. Pick it up and read the opening chapters to Well-Behaved Women – Awakening and other stories.

If you’d like to make sure you don’t miss any news from me, remember that I have a weekly newsletter that features some of the stuff you see posted here plus new, newsletter-exclusive material. Click this link to sign up.

Weekly Update – October 29, 2019

On By ronsonbeckIn Action Figures, Business of writing, Comic books, Event, Novels, Renaissance faires, Sharing The Love, Strongarm & Lightfoot, Well Behaved Women, Writing process, Young AdultLeave a comment

Today’s the last day for the cross-promotional effort spearheaded by Emerald Dodge, which features Well-Behaved Women – Awakening. You can go here to check it out and maybe find some new reading material!

WRITING PROJECTS

The Action Figures Omnibus – Volume One: My second pass is almost done, and then it’ll go off to my editor for a quick once-over.

Action Figures – Issue Nine: Hell Hath No Fury: Draft two in review with beta readers.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Sworded Affairs: Second draft is with my beta readers.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Assassins Brawl: Recording of the audiobook version is underway.

APPEARANCES & EVENTS

  • Arisia 2020 – January 17 – 20, Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel. I am confirmed as a vendor for next year! Now I’m waiting to hear about any panel assignments.

The New England Speculative Writers group has a new preview book for newsletter subscribers. Pick it up and read the opening chapters to Well-Behaved Women – Awakening and other stories.

If you’d like to make sure you don’t miss any news from me, remember that I have a weekly newsletter that features some of the stuff you see posted here plus new, newsletter-exclusive material. Click this link to sign up.

Weekly Update – October 22, 2019

On By ronsonbeckIn Action Figures, Business of writing, Comic books, Event, Novels, Renaissance faires, Sharing The Love, Strongarm & Lightfoot, Well Behaved Women, Writing process, Young AdultLeave a comment

First, Well-Behaved Women – Awakening is part of a new cross-promotional effort spearheaded by Emerald Dodge that begins on Thursday and runs through October 29. You can go here to check it out and maybe find some new reading material!

Speaking of Well-Behaved Women, the audiobook version of Endtimes is now available! That makes all three books available in print, Kindle, and audio formats — the first time I can make such a claim for one of my series!

WRITING PROJECTS

The Action Figures Omnibus – Volume One: Wait, what’s this? Well, the first three Action Figures novels have been out for a while now — they were released in 2013 and 2014 — and I’m planning to release Secret Origins, Black Magic Women, and Pasts Imperfect as a collection, complete with revised text and a new cover! Look for that sometime in 2020!

Action Figures – Issue Nine: Hell Hath No Fury: Draft two in review with beta readers.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Sworded Affairs: Second draft is with my beta readers.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Assassins Brawl: Recording of the audiobook version is underway.

APPEARANCES & EVENTS

  • Arisia 2020 – January 17 – 20, Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel

The New England Speculative Writers group has a new preview book for newsletter subscribers. Pick it up and read the opening chapters to Well-Behaved Women – Awakening and other stories.

If you’d like to make sure you don’t miss any news from me, remember that I have a weekly newsletter that features some of the stuff you see posted here plus new, newsletter-exclusive material. Click this link to sign up.