Category Archives: business

How to Write Reviews (and Customer Behavior When Shopping)

Posted by on January 16, 2013 No comments

So this was a great question asked in the last post, and my answer seemed worth pulling out into a separate post. How do you write a review?

When I write reviews for other people, my mental checklist is usually like this:
     1. What I liked about this book.
     2. What I didn’t like about this book.

Where “What I liked” breaks down into:
     a. Things that were unique: I’ve never seen this before! (for example: “Steampunk Romans! That’s new to me!”)
     b. Things that were well-done: this author handled these things well. (for example: “love triangles are so hard to do well, but this one was great and avoided these traps.”)
     c. Things that delighted me: (for example: “I loved the magic system in this book being based entirely on cooking! Too fun!”)

And “What I didn’t like” breaks down into:
     a. These things don’t work for me as a reader regardless of how well they’re done. (for example: “I hate jealousy stories and this story is partially moved by jealousy; if you’re not into that, just keep it in mind.”)
     b. These things didn’t work for me because this particular writer disappointed me. (For example: “This book ends too abruptly, I really wanted a better denouement.”)

Then, having puzzled those out, I usually do an equation:

     Did 1 (what I liked about this book) outweigh 2 (what I didn’t)?

If it did, then I write a review.

If it didn’t, then I don’t say anything, because I’d rather spend my time reviewing excellent stuff that needs more attention.

Now. When I am looking for books to read, this is what I look for when I am shopping:

     1. How many reviews does this book have? That tells me how many people cared enough about it to write a note.
     2. What’s the average rating? The granularity doesn’t matter to me: five stars versus four versus three, or two versus one. All I care about is the general feel: did more people like the book or hate it?
     3. What do the titles of the reviews tell me about the book? In other words, if lots of titles are “not her best book but still good” or “great historical fiction!” or “dark and gritty”, etc, then I get a sense for what the readers thought was most notable about the book.

Only after I’ve checked those things do I read any specific reviews, and then I chose the ones rated most helpful. The number one statistic that I notice is how many reviews there are. So if you want to take something away from my behavior as a shopper, then this is it: you don’t need to write a perfect review. What matters is that the review exists! So just by dropping “I liked this book because it made me smile, and I like stories with good endings” into a review box and hitting “submit,” you are making a difference.

So how about you? How do reviews factor into your book-shopping choices?

Help Me Help New Readers

Posted by on January 11, 2013 2 comments

Okay! Opinion time, as in yours and please and thank you for this. I’m contemplating how to set up the writing part of my site to be most useful for new readers. I’ve seen suggestions lately that you have a page for every book you own, and that page would have links to leaving reviews, requesting it at bookstores, etc (for instance, this blog page here from Createspace).

Now, I have to imagine if I had a menu with 50+ drop-downs (one per title) people would look at it and go do something else. But the question remains… how do I help people decide to read my books?

So I am asking you. Pick one of my stories you liked. Imagine that you’re going to recommend it to someone who’s never heard of me. You want to give them… a link. What is that link? Is directly to Amazon? Is it to a page on my site about the book? Or about the series/setting? What would make it easiest for you to get that info to someone else?

Or maybe there’s a book I’ve written in a series you haven’t tried… what would you want to see to make the decision on whether you want to read it?

Inquiring jaguars want to know! Help? :)

Update on Games Workshop’s Quarrel with Spots the Space Marine

Posted by on January 3, 2013 36 comments

In mid-December, Games Workshop made a complaint to Amazon that I had infringed on their trademark of the words “space marine” with my novel Spots the Space Marine (a near-future military science fiction novel about real marines). Their US trademark covers only gaming materials, not novels; the word “space marine” has been in use in science fiction since it was coined in the 1930s, by authors like Heinlein and E.E. Smith, among others. However, based on that complaint, Amazon blocked sales of my e-book.

After some delay due to the holidays, I’ve had a phone conversation with Games Workshop about their issues with my novel. My takeaway from that conversation, then:

Games Workshop has trademarks in the US, UK and Europe. The US and UK trademarks cover only games and miniatures, as I mentioned previously. The European trademark, however, includes Class 16, which reads:

Paper, cardboard and goods made from these materials, not included in other classes; printed matter; bookbinding material; photographs; stationery; adhesives for stationery or household purposes; artists’ materials; paint brushes; typewriters and office requisites (except furniture); instructional and teaching material (except apparatus); plastic materials for packaging (not included in other classes); playing cards; printers’ type; printing blocks

Games Workshop brought their complaint to Amazon Kindle Publishing UK based on this class in the European trademark, which caused Amazon Kindle Publishing (in the US) to block my e-book in all the countries it was being sold. The paperback was not affected at the time of the complaint and has never been blocked from sale.

Salient points (even granting that the many prior usages of “space marine” in science fiction can be ignored):

1. Trademark rights are limited to the territory of the government that grants them. A European trademark cannot be enforced in the US. GW can make claims in the US based on their US trademark, but their US trademark does not include Class 16, the class upon which they told me they were making their claim.

2. My e-book is not “printed matter.” There is a trademark class recommended for covering e-books and other forms of entertainment like radio and television. Games Workshop’s trademarks in the US, UK and Europe do not include this class.

3. The paperback version of Spots isn’t being sold in Europe; I would have to toggle a specific distribution channel to approve Createspace’s distribution to Europe and that toggle is currently off.

At this point, the e-book remains blocked from sale in all countries. Spots was my homage to Heinlein and the greats of science fiction. I contributed some of the profit to charities benefiting wounded soldiers (notably the Wounded Warrior Project). The e-book edition of Spots is where most of the money comes from, and where most of my readers first encounter the story. I don’t appreciate having to defend my use of “space marine” to describe a cookie-baking mom no one could mistake for something out of Warhammer 40K.

I’ve had some positive discussions with lawyers on my next steps, and am now researching lawyers with specialties in international trademark law. If you know of any such people (or are one), I’d like to hear from you! Several of you have asked if you can contribute to a Spots legal defense fund; I hope not to need one, but I’ll keep you updated.

2013: Let’s Talk Budgets

Posted by on January 2, 2013 No comments

‘Tis the season to discuss goals for the new year! And today the Three Jaguars comic launched, so it seems particularly appropriate to talk about my plans for 2013… because my plans are intimately tied up in business concerns, and several of you have expressed interest in how I’m making those decisions.

So let’s get to it!

I started my planning by listing all the things I’d like to do in 2013 if money was no object:

1. Pelted: Alysha’s Fall print edition, with new interior illustrations and cover art. (This went out of print in 2000, I’d like to get it up again.)
2. Pelted: Earthrise, e-book, print and audiobook editions.
3. Pelted: Even the Wingless, audiobook.
4. Milk and Honey: A Rosary of Stones and Thorns, audiobook.
5. Jokka: Pearl in the Void, e-book, print and audiobook editions.
6. Jokka: A Bloom in the North, e-book, print and audiobook editions.
7. Jokka: The Worth of a Shell, print and e-book re-issue (new cover art/interior).
8. Jokka: Clays volume 2, e-book and print editions.
9. Godkin: Godkin Book 2, e-book, print and audiobook editions.
10. Kherishdar: Guidebook, e-book and print editions.
11. Kherishdar: 4 Tales, e-book, print and audiobook editions.
12. Three Jaguars: Business Book, e-book and print editions.

As you can see, not a small list! And all of that has a cost associated to it in time and money. So I sat down with a separate sheet of paper and calculated out the cost of all those projects, per edition, and got totals for each and then a grand total for the year: $28,500! Ouch! That’s money paid to contractors, layout professionals, illustrators and cover artists and voice actors.

After running those numbers, I went back to my 2012 spreadsheet and had a look at what made me the most money for the least expense: e-books, definitely. (Well, serials, but e-books after that.) I ran numbers on audiobooks and print editions, but I just don’t have enough data… I only started audiobooks in mid-2012, and print books look more expensive right now because I haven’t produced many novel-length audiobooks (which can have price tags between $1000 and $4500!). So really, it’s flip-a-coin over whether to spend the money on print or audiobook editions. I lean toward print because it’s cheaper-per-unit, though.

So, armed with new data, the Jaguars made a list of things that are already paid for:

1. Rosary audiobook
2. Godkin Book 1 audiobook
3. Godkin Book 2 e-book and print editions

Those things will definitely go out in 2013. Considering the remaining list, I looked at things I’ve promised to do and added those:

4. Jokka: Pearl in the Void, e-book and print.
5. Jokka: Bloom in the North, e-book and print.
6. Kherishdar: Guidebook, e-book and print.

I’ve also promised Four Tales of the Tryst, but I can save money on that by either serializing it first after we finish Earthrise, or just releasing the e-book and worrying about print and audiobook editions later.

At this point, for the six items above, my projected expense is around $3000-$3500.

Now, I’d like more data on audiobooks and I’ve been talking with one of my narrators about another full-length project, either Even the Wingless or Pearl in the Void. I’d like to produce one this year to see how well it pays for itself, so I’m going to add another $3500 to my budget for that. And at very least when Earthrise completes in early 2013 I want that in e-book format, so I’m tossing in another $200 for art and sundries.

So my total expenses for the year are running around $8000, rounded up for unexpected things like taxes and commission fees, etc. For that $8000 I will end up with 3 audiobooks, 5 e-books and 4 print editions.

Now, this is just paid-for work. Some of the work I’m planning for 2013 only costs me time:

7. Serials: Earthrise
8. Three Jaguars Comic
9. Jaguar Live Podcast

Earthrise will probably conclude in early 2013, giving me space to launch some new revenue-generating project. I don’t know what that might be; it could be Jahir and Vasiht’h's college novel, it could be Faerie Farmer, it could be Four Tales of the Tryst if I decide to serialize that. Additionally, some things I do can be negotiated in return for barter or royalty share; the shorter audiobooks, for instance, can be done royalty-share in exchange for a somewhat painful contract term length. But I’m not going to plan for those; I’ll jump on them on an ad hoc basis, if the opportunity seems right.

So that’s the plan for 2013. I’m hoping that I get some unexpected windfalls that permit me to do more of those extra releases. If I don’t they’ll get rescheduled to 2014 (or beyond).

Meanwhile, it’s also very important to me to get the rest of my backlog out: the novels I’ve already written but haven’t released. Packaging those so people can buy them is going to take valuable time away from current projects, but it needs to be done and until they’re all out there they’ll be cutting away at new projects I’d like to accomplish. So I’ve put together a three year plan for emptying the trunk:

2013: Get Godkin and Earthrise out; start work on editing Books 2 and 3 of Her Instruments, and Sword of the Alliance (Alysha Book 1)

2014: Release Sword of the Alliance and Book 2 of Her Instruments; start work on Morgan Book 2 and the Jahir and Vasiht’h College Novel (if I don’t serialize it this year). Release Three Jaguars comic collection, year 1.

2015: Release Either Side of the Strand (Alysha Book 2), Morgan Book 1 and Book 3 of Her Instruments; work on Faerie Farmer.

All that is kind of fuzzy (and ambitious), but it at least gives me a road-map. By 2015 I’ll be “caught up” and the only books in serious limbo will be the ones that aren’t written yet. I can live with that.

So, there you go. At no point am I working on things I don’t want to work on, but the choice of what to spend time on is based on what I can afford…! And what I can afford is strongly influenced by how well I’m selling now, and that’s something you all help with every day, by talking about my books or lending them to other people, writing reviews or telling me about marketing opportunities. You are as much a part of this journey as I am… so let’s take on 2013 together and see where it leads us. :)

Your questions are welcome!

2012 in Review

Posted by on December 26, 2012 No comments

This year was a banner year for Studio MCAH: it was the first year I made good money by my own standards. It’s not yet full-time money, but it’s now more money than I could make with most part-time jobs, and it’s over double what I made on my best year previous to 2012.

So let’s have a look at what I did to make that happen!


NEW WRITING
This year I finished two novels and wrote half of another: Black Blossom, Pearl in the Void and A Bloom in the North. I also wrote a few more chapters both of The Faerie Farmer and book 2 of Morgan’s trilogy. I wrote two shorts, “Case Study: The Tree” and “Spots: Letters.” I wrote two vignettes in the Kherishdar universe: “That Kiss” and “Always Always, Never Never.” I wrote two nonfiction columns, Three Jaguars on Communication and Three Jaguars on Branding, and one nonfiction book on Kickstarter. The total wordcount for the year in new/useful writing: 284,317.

NEW ART
I finished the following 9 paintings:
“Circles Within Circles”
“The Bramble Bride”
“War Fans”
“Front Cover, Flight of the Godkin Griffin”
“Back Cover, Flight of the Godkin Griffin”
“Maker of Sun and Sky”
“Swan Queen”
“The Next Shame” (portrait)
“Kor’s Daughter” (portrait)

And the following 13 pieces of non-painted art:
“No Moon Shaman”
A logo commission
“Space Samurai Jaguar Marine”
Calligraphy Page – Black Blossom Cover
Calligraphy Page – Aphorisms Cover
Calligraphy Page – Admonishments Cover
Calligraphy – Shul
“Self-Decorating Reindeer”
Interior Illustrations for Flight of the Godkin Griffin (5)

I also did 64 color doodles for the Kickstarter doodle art project, which got mailed to various backers and buyers.

My total completed (non-comics-related) art count for the year: 86.

COMICS
I wrote, penciled and inked 32 pages of Three Jaguars comics.

BOOKS/EBOOKS/AUDIOBOOKS ISSUED
I issued 6 books in print: Flight of the Godkin Griffin, Even the Wingless, A Rosary of Stones and Thorns, Spots: Defense of the Fiddler, Black Blossom and the Kickstarter book.

I issued 8 e-books: Blades and Bitter Apples, Spots: Letters, The Case of the Poisoned House, kindle versions of The Aphorisms of Kherishdar and The Admonishments of Kherishdar (which previously were only available via Smashwords), Flight of the Godkin Griffin, Black Blossom and the Kickstarter book.

I issued 8 audiobooks: The Aphorisms of Kherishdar, The Admonishments of Kherishdar, Black Blossom, “Stormfront,” “Stone Moon, Silk Scarves,” “Fire in the Void,” “Unspeakable,” and “Freedom, Spiced and Drunk.”

I also appeared in one anthology, The Ursa Majors anthology, and signed a contract for another (What Comes Next, more stories from the Ursa Majors winners). And I redid at least 6 e-book/print book covers, but I didn’t track those fully. Total new appearances launched in the marketplace for the year: 23.

This was a huge year for issuing editions. While I didn’t put out as many e-books as I have in the past, I doubled the number of print editions I have available (actually, a little more than doubled!) and prior to mid-2012 I had no audiobook editions at all! So good stuff there. I am really proud of the quality of my print and audiobook editions. I got to work with some real pros in both arenas and it was a real pleasure.

LIVESTREAMS
I hosted 12 livestreams (wow, I didn’t realize there were that many!). Four of those were One Card Draws. I also did four or five balance card readings, but I didn’t track those.

KICKSTARTERS
I ran five Kickstarters: three for books (Spots, Rosary, Black Blossom) and two for art (Ten Sketches, the Three Jaguars web comic).

SERIALS
I concluded one serial (Black Blossom) and launched the next (Earthrise).

WEBSITES
Alas, this year Stardancer.Org had a major outage, taking with it several months of data and over 80 images. So, in the interests of diversifying my web presence, I started two new websites, mcahogarth.org and threejaguarscomic.net. I also re-organized and more fully populated my Zazzle store (which did not have categories before this year), and I started my wiki, which now has 344 pages thanks to a lot of people’s help (I talked about that decision here). Plus, I joined one more social network, Pinterest, which was a huge success for me.

APPEARANCES AND NODS
I attended two cons, Anthrocon and NecronomiCon; did four interviews (three of them as podcasts); won NaNoWriMo, got my first Daily Deviation, gave a talk at a university on crowdfunding art, got a Zazzle “Today’s Best” and was featured on the Favorite Zazzle Artists blog. I also “won” Lexember, the one-conlang-word-a-day festival in December with posts about various Ai-Naidari words.

***

And that’s the whole kit and caboodle! If you’re collecting information on what it takes to make money as an artist/writer/what-have-you, here’s my offering toward your data-set. I hope it’s helpful! Next year I’m going to have to do better than this to continue building my passive income streams to the point of being comfortable as a full-time entertainer. Not only do I have plans to continue expanding my offerings in fiction, art and merchandise, I’m expanding out into web comics and podcasting.

I… think, looking at this, I am totally taking the remainder of 2012 off. All six days of it…! After that it’s back to work!

Organizing Files: Author vs. Publisher

Posted by on December 26, 2012 No comments

For Christmas this year Studio MCAH got its computer! Some of you may recall I’ve been needing one for quite some time, and in fact had earmarked some money for one after the Spots kickstarter… I was sitting on that money waiting for a good deal and never found one, so the Spouse found one for me. I am very pleased! I have been using a cheap laptop I bought for use as a glorified terminal as my Main Computer since my last one died, and I have a sort of hacked together donated desktop from a friend that nevertheless did not run livestream stuff very well (though it gamed like a champ)… but all of it was very cobbled together and at last I can set something purpose-chosen up.

Since it’s been a while since I’ve had a new computer, I am kind of stunned at how many changes there are in relatively cheap ones. For instance, the new computer has two terabytes of hard drive space.

o_O

I remember when it was a big deal that the starship Enterprise had terabytes of data.

Anyway. I digress. Because I suddenly have a larger hard drive, I thought: “hey, this is a good opportunity to reorganize my files!” (Cue Business Manager squealing.) Lately I’ve been extremely annoyed at how my documents are filed and I realized it’s because I have them organized to suit my needs as an author who wanted to make money and an artist who sometimes made money on prints. In the long-long ago, when traditional publishing was the only way to make money, you had stories that were incomplete and stories that were and needed to be mailed to editors. So my file system looked like this:

Writing > Current Novels
Writing > Finished Novels
Writing > Current Short Stories
Writing > Finished Short Stories

Because the markets that took novels were different from the ones that took short stories, so I wanted them separated so I could easily find the ones that were in manuscript format for print-out to mail off for each market. Notice that all the different universes/settings were jumbled together… because it didn’t matter if Black Blossom and Earthrise were from different settings, what mattered was that they were both finished and ready for shopping out somewhere.

The art folder, meanwhile, was set up so I could easily print things out. So it looked like this:

Art > Sketches
Art > Raw Scans and Bluelines
Art > Corrected Scans

I would go to the Corrected Scans folder to get things to print out for art shows; the sketches folder was for things I was scanning to put on Stardancer.org, and the Raw Scans were pre-color correction and cropping, in case I wanted to mess with them further for some other reason.

Once I started publishing work myself, this terrifying folder creep started happening. I developed an e-book folder, where e-book versions of stories that existed in the ‘finished novel folder’ got stored. And then when print versions started happening, all the PDFs of the book blocks went into some other folder (usually under Art > Projects??) along with any scans of illustrations it needed. And cover art. And then an audiobooks folder happened elsewhere, and not only did audiobook info get put there for all my stories, but the cover art and…

So. If I want to find the cover of an existing book for sale, I now have to look in one of three or four folders (“Is it in Art > Marketing > Book Covers? Or Art > Projects > Name of Book? Or Audiobooks? Or Ebooks > Name of Book? ARRRRGH!”)

Last night, while trying to recover from Downton Abbey trauma, I sketched out ideas for how to handle my file system now that I’m a publishing house, not just of books but of comics and art and merchandise. And I’ve sorta decided on this:

Projects > Name-of-Property > Product > Editions

So, for instance, if I wanted to mess with Black Blossom:

Projects > Kherishdar > Black Blossom

Which would get me to a folder with Audiobook, Ebook, Print Book, Art, Drafts+Notes folders.

Or this:

Projects > Three Jaguars > Web Comic > Print Edition
Projects > Three Jaguars > Book, Kickstarter > Ebook Edition

Etc.

I am thinking that random art will go in something like:

Projects > Personal Art > etc

But I’m still trying to decide how to handle scans from my sketchbooks. Right now all the scans I’ve ever made of my sketchbooks (reminder: there are over 120 100-page sketchbooks!) are labeled this way:

(sketchbook #)-(page #)-(date drawn)-description

So for instance, the sketch I was doing earlier this morning would be scanned and saved as:

105-22-20121226-jahirandvasihttree.tif

The sketchbooks folder is full of pictures from over a hundred sketchbooks in rough order of when they were done. I am trying to decide whether to separate them all into different folders, so that, for instance “105-22-20121226-jahirandvasihttree.tif” goes into the Projects > Paradox > Jahir & Vasiht’h > Art folder, or if I should just leave it in some Sketchbook folder because separating it all out will be a pain in the tail.

I think the tree as I’ve developed it is pretty robust, though. And I won’t end up digging through five or six separate folders to find all the different covers for one story. :,

My computer ships on the 9th! So I have time to ponder problems with this system. But I think even with the problems it might develop it’s going to be a lot better than what I’ve got now. And it somehow makes me feel my transition from “occasionally paid by traditional publishing author” to “going business concern” a lot more acutely. *puffs up*

Hit What You Aim For

Posted by on December 3, 2012 1 comment

So it turned out that NaNoWriMo was useful for something after all: I had fun.

Which normally I’d ignore.

But I had fun while writing, and that was a huge clarification of everything. Why, how strange, thought I. I am having fun! This is fun!

And I remembered, Oh right! This is what I wanted to do with my life! Not all that administrative/marketing/business stuff I do in order to make money!

…

Yeah. Of course. The administrative/marketing/business stuff has to be done. But sometimes when you’re good at a lot of things you lose sight of the things you want to do and end up doing the things you’re good at that are more obviously rewarded.

So I did NaNoWriMo, and in a month I wrote a novel, and in two months I wrote a novel and started another and am a quarter into it and still having fun, and I think now I have a goal. I am going to state it out loud, because that helps a body stay on target:

I want to arrange my work year so I can write 2-4 novels a year.

To do that, I need to be setting aside 2-6 months where 80% of my “work time” is dedicated to writing.

Now, I want to make this totally clear: the reason I make money is because of all the time I spend doing administrative/marketing/business stuff. All that Zazzle merchandise, the e-books, the audiobooks, the prints, the serial posting, the website updating, the Kickstarter-running… it works. It makes the whole “make real money” thing possible. But I want to get to a point where the stuff out there is making enough that I can throttle back a little on the business side and concentrate more on the creative side.

How can I do that? Not sure yet. But I stated a goal. Stating a goal is always the beginning. I know if someone said to me: ‘take the next six months. Write.’ Then I would sit down and write 2-4 books and have a rip-roaring grand time. I wouldn’t waste the time. I wouldn’t spend six months thinking about writing books. I wouldn’t spend six months writing part of a book, realizing it was all wrong, and starting over again. I wouldn’t spend six months reloading Livejournal, writing one page of fiction, and then wandering off to count rocks. I would write like a racehorse bursting from a starting gate and keep going until someone dragged me away from the keyboard, mangled metaphors and all.

I have fun. Writing novels. And I mean writing like “turning out 10-20 pages a day.” I’d forgotten that.

So. Yes. NaNoWriMo taught me something. Or rather, reminded me that left to my own devices, all I want to do is tell stories. So I’m going to retool my 3-5 year plan in the hopes of hitting my target: my properly set target. Two to six months a year, 80% writing time.

Now to figure out how. *looks determined*

Coupons!

Posted by on October 24, 2012 1 comment

Super-busy week, but I noticed Zazzle’s running some nice promotions, so I thought I’d point them out: there’s 50% off all cards (so you can get your holiday cards now!), 20% off bags and 25% off aprons. You can get those coupons here! Along with several others.

My store is here! And I have all my cards in one place, including the Ai-Naidari ones. The aprons are here, and the bags here. Oh, hey, I had forgotten I putting the knitting booby on a bag. Hee!

Blue-footed Booties Tote Einkaufstasche

Anyway, just for those of you who are shopping for gifts or cards. 50% off cards! Geez, I should get my own. o_o

Yesterday

Posted by on October 14, 2012 No comments

I…

…penciled four pages of the comic and finished inking one; the other three are in various stages of ink.

…mailed off all the Kickstarter stuff, sent lots of messages about unpaid postage, updated a lot of fulfillment spreadsheets. I also broke down and put away a lot of empty boxes…!

…did accounting, including a breakdown of numbers on the audiobook sales (which are split into six categories, each earning different numbers…!).

…put together the Admonishments cover from blank template to nearly completed layout.

…listened to and approved another two chapters of the Godkin audiobook.

…received and read the suggested edits for Book 2 of the Godkindred duology, which I then prepared for work next week.

…and wrote 20 pages (and a half) of the Jokka sequel, which is now 1/3rd the size of a proper novel… and growing.

All that I did around building tent fortresses, drawing with and bathing/feeding/etc my daughter, who was a touch frustrated at the boring day at home, but geez, we have been driving all week and I am tired of it. I also folded laundry, but honestly didn’t do much housework beyond tidy some of the growing piles of coloring and workbooks. Oh, and I made a Dutch Baby with the new gluten-free flour, which is mostly garbanzo beans. Very meaty sort of flour, that. I am still experimenting with it.

Saturday was… fun. And I realize now that it’s because most of the day I spent making stuff, rather than administrating stuff. And because I spent most of the day making stuff, I didn’t begrudge the adminstrivia quite so much.

So this is about the ratio I want on making vs. business-dealing. Alas that I can’t swing it most days. If I only have eight hours a week and without the administrivia I can’t get the products out the door that feed the family, well… those eight hours get spent on product prep, and creating has to wait for the spare time stolen from sleep.

Still, it feels good to pay for stuff. Last week I wrote a check to Daughter’s reading center. For the whole school year.

*nods* I did that. And you too. :)

The Challenges of Breaking Existing Business Models

Posted by on October 11, 2012 No comments

I had a wonderfully productive discussion this afternoon with ACX, my audiobook distribution company. The good news there is that they are willing to pay Black Blossom’s narrator a stipend for doing the project through them—hooray, more money for my contractors!

The not so good news is that my way of raising money and promoting my work doesn’t easily fit into the business model ACX is used to using. They are excited about working with me because they perceive me as being actively involved with selling my own work (yay!). However, what doesn’t work is how I planned to get the audiobooks to my backers before signing the distribution deal.

In short, I’m going to have to buy the audiobooks for my backers at street cost. Working that out, it looks like I’ll be paying them to give them the prize (this is my pained wince here). Thankfully I haven’t bought the new computer yet so I should be able to swing it.

At very least it’s comforting to know this won’t be happening again: now that I’ve talked things out with ACX we both know what to expect. In the future I can budget for the expense. This time I’m going to have to eat it, though, and call it a lesson learned. I keep burning myself this way, but it’s honestly because there are no rules for what we’re all doing here. Kickstarter’s new. Crowdfunding’s new. Indie artists doing it all for themselves is… if not new, then new enough when bashed together with the internet. We’re all trying to figure out how to work together and make a living. I’m grateful for that opportunity, and remind myself of it every time I get punched in the eye like this. *lopsided smile*

Today, though, I think I am going to give up working for the day and take a long walk. And let my inner Business Manager make sarcastic, grumpy comments about how I’d better turn all these “object lessons” into consulting fees if I want to keep eating. :,