The Business of Writing: Game Plans and GRAPHS!
Wherein I finally have a way to get those good numbers.
This is a business of writing post, which means most of it is restricted to paid subscribers, who I appreciate very much. If you would like to know how my business plan is going and look at sales graphs, you, too, can secure my eternal gratitude by signing up.
But! Everyone, regardless of subscription status, may enjoy this photo of a barbie doll dress I made for a children’s hospital from scraps left over from an absolutely enormous voluminous blouse.
I have been having trouble working out exactly how many books I’ve sold and through which outlets and to readers from which nations. The data is available - more or less. It’s just scattered across two retail platforms and a ton of downloadable spreadsheets. Putting it in one readable place has been an unpleasant task, exacerbated by the part where both Draft2Digital and Amazon pay two months AFTER the end of the month where the sale took place, and Amazon only pays out from a specific (country) marketplace if you reach the equivalent of $100USD in that marketplace1 so it’s revenue, but it’s not money you can actually spend yet etc etc etc.
God.
While I was teaching full time for three months, I let all that slide, and then catching up seemed insurmountable. Except I absolutely had to do it, because I’m running a creative business here, and that means I have to know where the money is coming from and going to. I was just about coming to the grim conclusion that I’d have to suck it up and sacrifice a couple of writing days to this bullshit.
Enter my friend Marie Cardno and her recommendation of ScribeCount, a browser extension that handily takes all that data, does computer math with it, and turns it into readable numbers and also, GRAPHS!
So, courtesy of ScribeCount, here are the number of units I’ve sold this year:
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