This morning I decided to finally create a spreadsheet that will track my e-book sales royalties. Now, one of the benefits of e-self publishing (eSP), at least the Kindle variety, is that you know exact sales figures in real time. Payout is only when you accumulate $10.00 in royalties, and there's about a 30 day wait after that.
Compare that with traditional publishing, however. There, I'm told, the sales figures are more or less hidden, the royalty statements are advanced math, and the delay in payment is six to nine months. So the e-book royalty situation is much, much better than for traditional publication.
So far I've sold 3 e-copies of Documenting America and 4 of "Mom's Letter." My accumulated royalties are $2.70, rounded off and including any fractional cents for each sale. I guess I don't know what Kindle does with those fractional cents, but I assume they accumulate. So I'm way far away from reaching payout. Obviously too I haven't generated any buzz yet through limited promotional efforts.
At Suite101.com, I have accumulated $5.47 of ad-share royalties. We are experiencing hard times at Suite, due primarily to changes in the Google search algorithm that has de-rated the site, resulting in drastically lower page views with resulting drops in ad revenue. Except for two big days this month, I typically earn less than 10 cents per day. Of course, I haven't added any articles there since February. I expect that to change this weekend, as I have a couple planned.
A positive thing is my accounts receivable. Buildipedia.com published my latest article yesterday: Asphalt Pavement solar Collectors: The Future is Now. That earns me $250. Also yesterday I submitted my next article for Buildipedia, a feature article on erosion control from construction sites. Once that is accepted and published, I'll have another $250 earned. It's possible they won't accept the article (unlikely; they haven't rejected any yet), in which case I'll earn just a kill fee. So all together my accounts receivable for writing work stands at $508.17. Not bad.
Which leads me to Memorial Day weekend. I'm looking forward to the three days. We have nothing planned. Our children are together in Oklahoma City right now, son having driven there from Chicago to see his newest nephew for the first time. We'll be in Bella Vista, chilling, maybe grilling, doing yard work, reading, writing—at least I'll be writing, cleaning, de-cluttering. Normally my writing desires always exceed my productivity for these weekends, but it's good to dream and plan big. This weekend I hope to:
- Upload corrections to Documenting America, and upload the professional cover my son created for me.
- Get started with SmashWords and upload both Documenting America and "Mom's Letter" there.
- Get started with CreateSpace and upload Documenting America there.
- At least look into Pubbit, and maybe upload both e-books there.
- Possibly register a writer's web site and begin work on it.
- Work some on the passage notes to A Harmony of the Gospels
- Type edits to In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People, including one chapter written in manuscript, and maybe add one more chapter.
- Write/submit two articles to Suite101.com.
As I say, that might be more ambitious than practical. I'll report back after the weekend on what I actually accomplished. Oh, and maybe I'll be able to write a few blog posts and schedule them to post at future dates.
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