I have noticed that writers have a hard time with the idea that publishing books is a business. Romance writers tend to be a little more clear-eyed on this point — we get that contracts aren’t handed out by the publishing fairy. To sell a book, you have to sell books. And yourself. And hustle. And treat your writing as a professional endeavor.
Yet over and over again, I hear the same thing from writers, telling me there’s one aspect of the business that scares the bejeezus out of them. I’ll paraphrase a recent conversation I had with a multi-published (and more!) friend (even though she’s not so very innocent, I won’t name names):
Me: Can you tell me generally if you’re seeing numbers for your ebook sales trending up or staying flat?
Her: Uh, I have to tell you the truth. I have no idea.
Me: Have you looked at your royalty statements?
Her: No. I know I should, but, well, no. My agent…
Me: [Sigh. She has a terrific agent, the woman I'd chose for myself, but still...]
I’ll be the first to admit that royalty statements aren’t glamorous. The truth of the matter is they are chock full of one the scariest words in the English language: algebra. I was happily doing nested calculations and percentages and all sorts of things when my former boss stopped me cold in my tracks. “You’re just doing basic algebra, you know.”
Uh, I didn’t. I mean, I didn’t think of what I was doing as algebra. It took only another deep thought to realize something even scarier: not only was I doing algebra, but I was also doing word problems. That’s what royalty statements are. You take your contractual definition of royalties (gross sales, however defined, less returns/reserves, less other deductions, times a royalty rate) to come up with an amount due (or unrecouped), subtract the advance, blah, blah, blah.
Even if your agent is checking your statements, you should be looking over the numbers, too. It’s your money. It’s your business. Mistakes happen. Systems glitch. Trends emerge. Surprises pop out in the numbers (who knew you’d been selling like hotcakes in Montenegro?). Things your editor never told you reveal themselves.
It is my (never) humble opinion that authors should read and understand their contracts before signing them. Sure there are stupid questions (I’ve asked them all. Twice.), but it’s your career, right? You should know what you’re signing. Authors should read and understand their royalty statements. Every single number.
Even if you think you’re math challenged. I certainly am. The cute young temp in our office no longer looks at me with pity when I say out loud, “What’s three plus two?” (And, yeah, it’s adorable when a 25-year old kid answers a question like that with absolute helpful sincerity.) I know people who do complex calculations in their heads while I’m most proud of the fact that I default to a 20% tip because it’s easier than figuring out 15%.
My trusty calculator does the heavy lifting when it comes to numbers. What’s more important when I’m looking at statements and contracts is the fact that my trusty brain understands all the bits and pieces and how they fit together as a whole…
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Geez…I’m still debating between whether to take business cards or bookmarks to a conference I’ll be attending in Sept and now I have to think about math, too!?
You’re right, I know you are, but still…
The calculator option on the cellphone – priceless.
Haven’t yet seen my first royalty statement.
Am looking forward to it.
One of the reasons I have an agent is because I can’t do math. I have severe dyscalculia and I try very hard to understand royalty statements but truthfully it’s way over my head. I do try to keep track of what’s selling where however as best I can.
On the other hand, it’s possible to obsess over royalty statements…especially since returns aren’t predictable and each title is different. But you try to forecast anyway. It’s the control freak in me, I guess.
Amen to every word. I have an agent. A wonderful agent who I wouldn’t trade for the world. I still read every word of every contract. I still read every line of my royalty statement, and when there’s something I don’t understand I ask for an explanation because it is my business and as the person in charge of it I must stay on top of every detail.
Also, I like to be an informed participant in my career planning and I can’t be that if I don’t know 90 percent of what’s going on with my own books..
Royalty statement = slow slide into madness.
I’m not kidding. I swear mine make NO sense (and I’m not math challenged, LOL!).
I can tell you that my ebook sales to date on my first book are .0025% of my total sales (not a misprint). We’ll see if Kindle sales up that for my new book (assuming Amazon ever gets the damn Kindle version up for sale . . . ).
I understand both sides of it.
I think you should try to keep yourself informed on how you’re doing – if you can’t handle the numbers, ask your agent to give you a summary, or something? but I definitely understand the scariness involved. Numbers are *concrete.* Ewww.
That said, I like having my hands in everything, so when I finally get published, I’ll be awaiting my statements curiously.
I can say I understand my royalty statments perfectly. I get them twice a month–once for digital, once for print; they list each of my titles and how many copies have been sold, and my percentage. They even break down whether the sales were direct from the publisher or from another site.
Now, if they just had bottom line totals worth celebrating….
Funny, I don’t think of keeping track of my book sales as doing algebra (although you’re right, it is)…I think of it as simply keeping data on how my babies are doing. I don’t know a mother or grandmother who can’t recite the stats of her children’s birthweight, age (often to the day when they’re still little), and current height. Moms (and Dads, let’s not be sexist!) often keeps the entire month’s calendar in her head and knows to the minute how long it takes to get her sleeping teenager from still asleep in bed to wide awake and ready for basketball practice. So expecting authors to be able to figure out a royalty statement and have some of the numbers readily at hand shouldn’t be such a stretch. The writing part of being an author might be the fun part, but the numbers part can make you or break you.
I’m very data-driven. Besides my royalty statements, I also keep a chart of my website hits and SL (Second Life) transactions. Without all the data, how would I know which book(s) are doing well and which aren’t? I have spreadsheets and charts that have mapped every book I’ve ever published in both print and ebook formats and can tell over time which types of stories are the winners with my readers…and more importantly, which aren’t. Do I go too far with transfering the numbers from my royalty statement into the spreadsheet? I really don’t think so. It gives me the opportunity to see how a book does OVER TIME. A one-month snapshot is really cool, but it’s the long-haul I’m interested in.
Good thoughts, Kassia! *waves*
Diana
I happen to love math. I love playing with the numbers on my royalty statement. I know that’s a little geeky, but that’s the kind of neurons I have firing. Though I do wish I had bigger numbers to challenge me.
I am pretty excited about these comments — being a bit of a control freak, I think this is so important. Being the chick whose little sister was in her math classes (little sister being advanced, older sister being, well, a reader, advanced reader!), I know the challenges of math. It really makes my heart warm to see so many of you taking charge.
If you can’t do this, make sure you have someone close who can. Please.
I would read every single word, and possibly recalculate every number.
But I’m obsessive-compulsive and a control freak. Plus recalculating every number would be fun.
[...] Statements . 11 07 2008 Kassia Krozser over at Romancing the Blog posted about writers having a small business mindset in order to survive. The point that caught my interest, though, was her insistence that writers [...]