Royalty Discussion

[Changed to public entry, lest I be hoisted on my own petard; fewer secrets indeed :-)]

So, if your royalties are net-30 and on the calendar quarter, you have or soon will receive this quarter's statement. For most of us, this is a time of high emotion that may result in exhiliaration, despondence, or maybe just stunned silence. I've been through all of those. I'm writing this entry because I remember how it felt as a new writer (with only paperbacks in publication) when some of the royalty payments I received seemed utterly trivial. I asked myself often whether or not I should bother continuing. Perhaps you've asked yourself the same question. But then writers need to write, don't they?   So I hung in there and here I am (and here you are).

Here are some round numbers from my experience. In my best year as a writer, all in (advances and royalties), I earned about $50,000. In my worst years, I earned maybe $5,500 (these were the early years). That's quite the spread. These days, an average year is in the $22,000-$30,000 range. Not a ton of money as far as I'm concerned (an average year as a writer represents a small fraction of my legal income, where the fraction has a one for a numerator and a double digit denominator), but not trivial either. And for a variety of reasons (none of which I've been able to announce just yet), I expect my earnings as a writer over the next few years to markedly outpace that average.

Generally, my writing income has consistently increased year over year. I don't think that's all that uncommon as long as your books stay in print. So, even if things aren't where you want them today -- perhaps you've got just one or two novels out there and royalties are enough to go out to eat but not much else -- things could be better tomorrow. The longer your backlist, the more likely that is. By way of example, I have nine novels (I'm counting mmpbs, hardcovers, and gift sets separately) and four anthologies in print, all of which have earned out and now earn royalties. You don't need to sell a lot of units of each for the totals to start to add up to something that feels significant. So, if you really have to write, but that first or second book didn't exactly hit the bestseller lists, hang in there.

Now, is there anything you can do to keep your current books in print and get that next book under contract? Well, nothing sells like sales. It's a bit ugly to think in those terms (this is an artistic endeavor, after all) but here's what I do.

First, I write the best book I can. We all do this. I conceptualize it (as I've mentioned before on the blog) as "re-earning the audience." I never, ever take them for granted. They spend their hard earned money on my words. I try to make them the best words I can. In that way, I hope, I keep the readers I have. This is the customer retention component of the sales strategy.

Second, I reach out to prospective readers directly, mostly by maintaining a robust web presence. N.B., I don't do conventions, I don't spend a lot of time networking with other authors, editors, or agents (there are costs to that, though; you don't see me getting a lot of anthology invites, for example; even so, and notwithstanding my lack of effort on that front, I've met some great fellow authors and editors online), I don't worry too much about awards (except inasmuch as they're fan selected awards), and I don't concern myself with reviews in Publisher's Weekly or Kirkus or similar publications (fans don't care about those, though book buyers for major chains might).

Instead, I focus my online marketing/promotion activities on what I consider direct-to-reader outreach. This is another component of the sales strategy: growing the customer base. This blog is one way I do that. Participation on various messageboards is another. Myspace is another. Reader-to-reader online review sites are another (Graemes, Jay Tomio, Fantasybookspot, The Gravel Pit, Grasping for the Wind, Flames Rising, Fantasy Book Critic, Rob at SFFWorld, The Beezer Review, etc.). The point of all of it is to transform prospective readers into actual readers, then re-earn their loyalty with every book. Writing a recurring character helps a great deal, too, but it carries its own pitfalls (the subject for another post). Note, too, that attending cons, networking, et al., obviously does not preclude the direct-to-reader approach, but I don't have time for both approaches, so I focus on the one that I think will be most effective for me.

I consider myself to have had some success with these efforts. All of my books remain in print, all of them sell pretty well (and sales have actually been growing), and there are some truly wonderful things happening just over the horizon. If I had quit early in my career because the remuneration was so small, I wouldn't be looking at the modicum of success I've had. I'd just be a corporate lawyer writing Firefly fanfic under some silly screen name.

Here's the upshot -- if you're not jumping up and down at your royalty statement, fear not. Most authors, even the ones you consider successful, have been there. Few of us have huge breakout sellers. Godspeed to those that do. But even if you're not one of them, it's possible to build a nice writing career over time.

Also, let me add (lest I be misunderstood) that I don't regard my fans or the review sites who've reviewed my novels as unwitting cogs in my sekrit marketing machine. I appreciate (really more than I can say) the enthusiasm of my readers and the willingness of review sites to review my work (they aren't my drinking buddies and rest assured, they'll pan my stuff if they think it deserves panning). In the end, I look at it this way -- I network not so much with other authors and editors but directly with readers (or readers who run review blogs, but are fans of the genre rather than paid critics). That's the way I like it. Me luvs me my fellow folks. It's fortunate for me that it also happens to work pretty well as a business strategy.

Now, I don't know if that was of any use to you at all, but if so, there you go. I've been meaning to do it for a while. Too much secrecy in our business.