100 things #89 - Sometimes This Whole writing game is bemusing.
No seriously.
For example, I got my royalty statement today and it's far more detailed than it used to be. That's both helpful and a bit depressing. No, this isn't going to be a post about not enough sales. No one really wants to hear that. Even if it's true.
But sometimes I'm bemused at sales prices like eight cents. Seriously, eight cents was the whole take on one short story of which I get half. My worries are over :-).
The same group sold a novella for twenty cent so I had to go look it up because I didn't know what it was and it turned out to be basically a netflix sort of thing for books, a digital library which does give a token amount to the author's if someone who has subscribed downloads their books. Okay fair enough. I'm an avid library person so I can hardly complain about that but it was pretty silly seeing that eight cents worth of sales. In fact scribd would be a godsend to my blind friends. Really.
I think I was more bemused by the amazon customer who bought and then returned one of my e-novellas. I laughingly told Mom this and she said 'they probably read it in an hour and returned it. That could be true. Could be they realized they duplicated a purchase. I've done that before but I've sucked it up as my own fault and didn't return it. I've seen people complain about people returning ebooks. I can't say I'm a fan but I'm not going to whine about it. I'm just glad someone didn't say 'hey this sucked and I sent it back.'
But at the end of the day, bemused or not, I'm just glad people are buying anything I've written. Every single story I had on offer was purchased at least once this last quarter, so what do I have to complain about? That I'm not selling as much as 50 Shades? Okay yeah I could complain about that (or laugh at how hard my secretary took time away from telling me about God's plan to scold me for not thinking 50 Shades was a great book and for not making plans to see the movie!)
The writing game is just plain strange but that's what makes it interesting.
For example, I got my royalty statement today and it's far more detailed than it used to be. That's both helpful and a bit depressing. No, this isn't going to be a post about not enough sales. No one really wants to hear that. Even if it's true.
But sometimes I'm bemused at sales prices like eight cents. Seriously, eight cents was the whole take on one short story of which I get half. My worries are over :-).
The same group sold a novella for twenty cent so I had to go look it up because I didn't know what it was and it turned out to be basically a netflix sort of thing for books, a digital library which does give a token amount to the author's if someone who has subscribed downloads their books. Okay fair enough. I'm an avid library person so I can hardly complain about that but it was pretty silly seeing that eight cents worth of sales. In fact scribd would be a godsend to my blind friends. Really.
I think I was more bemused by the amazon customer who bought and then returned one of my e-novellas. I laughingly told Mom this and she said 'they probably read it in an hour and returned it. That could be true. Could be they realized they duplicated a purchase. I've done that before but I've sucked it up as my own fault and didn't return it. I've seen people complain about people returning ebooks. I can't say I'm a fan but I'm not going to whine about it. I'm just glad someone didn't say 'hey this sucked and I sent it back.'
But at the end of the day, bemused or not, I'm just glad people are buying anything I've written. Every single story I had on offer was purchased at least once this last quarter, so what do I have to complain about? That I'm not selling as much as 50 Shades? Okay yeah I could complain about that (or laugh at how hard my secretary took time away from telling me about God's plan to scold me for not thinking 50 Shades was a great book and for not making plans to see the movie!)
The writing game is just plain strange but that's what makes it interesting.