The Business End (Patreon)

So, if you’re not into the money end of the business, feel free to skip this. 

Amazon has algorithms that no one seems to understand in whole, but everyone agrees that there is a 30 day “cliff” for new books. During the first thirty days, Amazon will make the title more visible. Probably most importantly, it will appear higher on searches. If you search “Texas Charm” in books, mine is the first result even though Jean Brashear’s het romance of the same name has more sales and reviews. After the thirty day period, she will move ahead of me, and depending on how many sales I get relative to other books with similar names, I could have five, a dozen, or a hundred books move in front of me in those search rankings.

After the thirty day cliff, my book is also less likely to show up in “Customers who looked at this also looked at…” list that appears under any given title. So most of the money to recoup the costs has to come in during that first thirty days. After thirty days, most titles are going to earn between zero and forty dollars a month, or at least that’s what I average. Now, that doesn’t mean the backlist doesn’t bring in money. It does. Take an average of fifteen to thirty dollars a month times fifteen books, and it adds up. On a really good month where someone has talked about one of my books and I get a bump, I can get five hundred dollars from my backlist. I make more from Patreon, but all of it adds up.

But the other issue is timing. My cover artist and editor expect to be paid when they do the work. Weird, huh? I mean, people work, and they want to get paid for it. Well, Amazon has another theory. Amazon’s theory seems to be to procrastinate as long as possible, I suspect because they get interest off all the money they are holding in the bank. So, the sales I make today will only start to pay out in December and January. Barnes and Noble and iTunes are getting money to me in about two months, but Amazon… oh the Zon. I get it three to four months later. I made sales in May that I’m still waiting to see the money. And if someone from May returns a copy of my book, Amazon will take that money away from what they’re holding.

So Texas Charm cost 895 in outside costs (editing and cover). As of today, Draft2Digital is reporting $614.27 in sales. Assuming no one returns the title, that means I am $280.27 away from breaking even on outside costs. That’s after one week. Sales will slow now since those who were anxious for a new book have bought it, so sales now depends on new people hearing about the book. Only one review site up a review (thank you Love Bytes!!), so Goodreads and word of mouth is it because I’m not willing to sink more money into advertising. Most authors bemoan the lack of response when they pay for advertising, and I’m not willing to make my recoup costs higher when it looks like this title is going to make it. Come December and January, I should get my investment back, and then hopefully over the next several years, Texas Charm will be one more backlist title that drip, drip, drips away, providing a small but steady stream of income. And the more books I have on my backlist, the more they drip.

So that’s the business end. I’m going to go write either Saddled, or more Claimings with our Japanese colonel.