I'm not quite sure what to make of this. I got a sales report for "The Lyons' Den", today, from STARbooks Press, with promise of a check to follow. Not a lot...hell, not even triple digits in the figures...but it says 115 copies of the book sold between May and December of 2012. And 90% of the sales were in paperback, not electronic.
That means Amazon.com accounts for only 15% of sales, according to the figures they've given me. I wonder where the rest of the sales came from? Bookshops? Those are vanishing to the point of near extinction. Barnes & Noble online? No idea. Same for Kobo.com...who actually dropped LD from their lineup and, when I pointed it out, they seemed unable to understand that all I was concerned about was my book no longer being listed (it's back up but without the cover art) and they started out by telling me they didn't have a record of me buying the book. They kept that line up all through our "discussion," and even thought I was trying to special order it.
Amazingly stupid.
Anyway, I have to wonder where the book was sold if it wasn't sold through Amazon. But then again, I've long thought Amazon underreports sales. It's the Hollywood style of bookkeeping -- there are never any profits to share or tax, and you don't pay out a penny more to talent than you are forced to, even if you have a contract obligating you to do it.
Anyway, the big positive is, I've actually been paid royalties, now. Well, when I get the check, I will have been paid. But it's amazing what a boost that gives you. I kept saying I was a professional author, but I had nothing but my work to back it up. Now I got a check coming. That makes me real.
Yeah, bay-beee....
That means Amazon.com accounts for only 15% of sales, according to the figures they've given me. I wonder where the rest of the sales came from? Bookshops? Those are vanishing to the point of near extinction. Barnes & Noble online? No idea. Same for Kobo.com...who actually dropped LD from their lineup and, when I pointed it out, they seemed unable to understand that all I was concerned about was my book no longer being listed (it's back up but without the cover art) and they started out by telling me they didn't have a record of me buying the book. They kept that line up all through our "discussion," and even thought I was trying to special order it.
Amazingly stupid.
Anyway, I have to wonder where the book was sold if it wasn't sold through Amazon. But then again, I've long thought Amazon underreports sales. It's the Hollywood style of bookkeeping -- there are never any profits to share or tax, and you don't pay out a penny more to talent than you are forced to, even if you have a contract obligating you to do it.
Anyway, the big positive is, I've actually been paid royalties, now. Well, when I get the check, I will have been paid. But it's amazing what a boost that gives you. I kept saying I was a professional author, but I had nothing but my work to back it up. Now I got a check coming. That makes me real.
Yeah, bay-beee....
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