Marilyn's Musings

Just received a monthly royalty break-down from one of my publishers for the month of September. Though books and e-books were sold at different sources, my royalty came to $17 plus a few cents. My percentage, of course, was the least. The bookstores keep the most, then the publisher, then my cut. And in case you aren't knowledgeable about the publishing business--that's how it goes. This particular publisher is good about letting the author know which books were sold as e-books and which as trade paperback, whether they were sold through Ingram (which means a bookstore ordered them and they were sold), or Fictionwise (an e-book distributor) or purchased directly from the publisher. I like knowing, because it gives me some idea of how my promotion is working. The royalties were all for previous books, none for Dispel the Mist , as yet. I'm anxious to see how that will play out and if my blog tour helped. To be perfectly frank, I sell far more books myself at book and craft ...

My very first book, an historical family saga was published by Dorchester Press, not the biggest New York Publisher, but right up there. It actually did pretty well--and might've done better if I'd had a clue about promotion back then. This was before everyone had a computer and no one knew anything about the Internet. Right after the book was published, my editor left and that was the end of my association with Dorchester. I had another saga published by an outfit that the owner and son turned out to be crooks--yes, crooks, they gambled away all the royalty money in Vegas and ended up going to jail. Oh, and my time with crooks wasn't over, my first mystery, The Astral Gift , was published by a co-op publishers who did well at first, then absconded with everyone's money. In my case, only 50 books were printed and ordered by a bookstore where I had my first signing. The 50 books were sold and no more could be purchased because the publishers had disappeared. Golden Eagle...