The mysteries of publishing

[pbray]

Received the royalty statements from Bantam in yesterday's mail, along with a nice check. The royalty statements from my previous publisher were virtually incomprehensible, containing almost no detail, and were usually weeks (if not months) late. While I was with them they changed the royalty software at least three times, as I recall, and each time the change to new software created delays and confusion.

On the other hand the Bantam statements are fun. Pages of detail. For example, since Devlin's Luck has had three different cover prices, I get separate pages showing the performance at the $5.99, $6.50 and $6.99 cover prices.

There's tons of data, with details by month, so I could make graphs to chart out the sales history against time for each book, allowing me to think deep thoughts about the selling patterns of a multi-book series, or perhaps how publicity efforts impacted sales.

Will I do any of this deep analysis? Hell no. That kind of stuff consumes me during the day job, and the last thing I need to do is start cranking spreadsheets at night. But it's nice to know I could, if I wanted to.

Comments

[ferragus.livejournal.com]

Wow, I have to ask if there's a correlation between the cover price and the sales? Feel free to ignore it if you feel it's too personal.

My thought is that there won't be, which would prove that the publishers are correct in increasing the prices.

Why not ask Bantam to release a hard cover version now and see how that would be reflected in sales numbers ;)

(Hey I'll buy one, esp if I know I'll be seeing you to get is signed!)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Sales of Devlin's Luck do not seem to have been impacted when they raised the cover price, although I do think it was very helpful that it initially went on sale at $5.99 as did the sequel Devlin's Honor, to help build me up as an author. As a reader myself, I know the price point matters when deciding to try an unknown author.

[ferragus.livejournal.com]

Yeah I think in my clumsy way, that's what I was really trying to ask.

Thanks!