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.
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First, Action Figures – Issue Nine: Hell Hath No Fury is available for pre-sale for the Kindle! Buy it now for $3.99 and get it when it drops next week — January 21, to be precise. The print edition should be ready by the end of the month or early February.
Next, the audiobook edition of The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Assassins Brawl is finally available! It dropped yesterday and is on Audible now. Once again, my narrator Heather did a kickass job, and I can’t wait to hear what she’s going to do for Blades of Glory.
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.
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