Business Post: Cashflow & Releases and Musings (Patreon)

Earlier this year, I took a number of deals that gave a large upsum advance (specifically the ATL books and some others I can't name), rather than doing the work and releasing the works under Starlit Publishing. I've done that for a few series now (Climbing the Ranks, Hidden Dishes, etc.) and now it's becoming a problem...

Mostly on a cashflow basis.

Not that I have spent all the money, but because I have employees and contractors, I've actually noticed that my monthly income amounts have decreased as new releases aren't feeding right into the regular cashflow.I got used to having a decent monthly cashflow from the businesses, but taking these lump sum payments has actually hurt on-going cashflow. It doesn't help that I've artificially cordoned off the money that I took from these advances (even the interest we make); because I know we have taxes to pay, but also because it's the 'warchest'.

However, all this means that it's put an artificial pinch on the business, since we're now actually spending more than we're pulling in, month-to-month. Not by much, at first - though this month might actually see the first significant drop. November has been... harsh.

Partly, a bunch of this is my fault; I purposely chose to take money upfront because I was worried about things happening this year and next. I felt it was better to get as much money as possible into the coffers now, rather than wait about.

The problem is, I've actually 'sold' a lot of my work going forward too. So Dungeon Brawler goes straight to Audible, which means for the next few years, I won't have ANY money from that (other than payment for the second part of the advances). Same with ATL gone. I'll get some money from the fourth Hidden Dishes book, but that series has never been a great seller.

Climbing the Ranks 1-3 are contracted, so I don't get anything there. I could produce book 4, and I might; but it is expensive and our sales on the audiobook and ebook side have not justified hiring someone to do it. At least, not in the short term.

Unfortunately, with recent changes in ads; the FB and AMS ads we used to rely upon to drive ebook sales and (consequently) audio sales have dropped off. We're still doing well, but it's not to the same extent as before; and the infrastructure on the backend is too 'big'.

It isn't all doom and gloom. This is all kind of expected and some of our expenses and things we're doing (setting up for ATL 2-3 Deluxe Editions, planning for recovering of ATL) are work that can be done over the course of, basically, a year or two for 2027 kind of plans.

Also, once DB launches (and we meant to launch it this year but it got pushed back); it will help because a new series always helps. Same with Celestial Cataclysms. So having two new series next year, and ATL print coming in will hopefully see a subsequent increase in sales. There's no guarantee, of course, especially when the major market (the US) continues to weaken.

If we don't see those changes - starting around June pretty much - we might have to relook at the business and restructure it again. Till then, it's more of a 'hunker down and we'll see what happens' over the next 6-8 months.

Still, it's certainly a lesson in sort-of unintended consequences. I say sort-of, since I knew it was going to happen, but certainly not as steep a drop as we're seeing.