The power of knowing your numbers
I’ve been in a numbers mood. I have the privilege of having worked with two Philippine corporate publishers, a US-based small digital press, and also self-publishing all of my books. This means I have a basis for comparison whenever I work with corporate, and I also get to decide which way is better for me on a project-to-project basis.
That said, self-publishing for me as a Filipino author isn’t the same thing the top Kindle authors experience. The English-language romance market is huge and has grown to include Filipino authors like me, but we’re not a majority fave. We’re not a “comfort read.” We’re not a “sure thing.” We are a “diverse read.” I know Filipino authors who’ve found success with a specific strategy that leans into the audience’s expectations, ie writing non-Filipino characters or otherwise not disclosing that they’re Filipino. That’s not what this is about because I chose to…not do that lol. I tried before, but that’s not something I have the energy for anymore.
From 2018 onwards my strategy has been to write books that are specifically Filipino, and then track when the book has earned back what I spent on it. After that, I relax and work on the next book.
First Time for Everything, a book I released on July 1, 2023, made back what I spent by September 23. From these sources. The chart by the way indicates units sold, not USD/PHP amounts. Snack for example looks like a distant second in terms of units sold but that retailer is remitting my royalties minus only a transaction fee, and they’re not yet taking commission fees. Amazon looks great and it’s always number 1 but it only gives authors 35% royalty rate if the buyer is in the Philippines. But the point is, this book “earned out” in 2 months and 22 days. Thank you, readers.
When people ask me about self-publishing I do and still will talk about it this way: Think about what you’ve spent, and then track when the book gives it all back to you. If you’re just starting out, maybe plan your expenses so that you know how much to spend, given a realistic sales projection. (“I’ll just make it go viral” is not a realistic sales projection nor a sound marketing strategy.) My main expenses per book, including First Time for Everything: 2 human editors, 1 human artist (for other books a photographer/studio/cover models), 1 human designer.
And when I say realistic I mean don’t expect people who were supportive for free to be as supportive when they have to pay for a thing. My Wattpad conversion rate is less than 5% (meaning less than 5% of a free story’s unique readers will pay for the published version). Even if I set up a pre-order form, there will be about 10% who fill up the form and then don’t proceed to payment. But I know this because of past experience and I expect it.
Knowing these numbers and being so familiar with my audience lets me experiment, ie write books I really want to write about. But to be able to do that I need to have established trust with them. Some of my readers have been around and buying every book since 2009–the very first one I published. I wonder if authors today (if you’ve started in the last 5 years or so and in trad pub) get to find their people, or consider their corporate publisher a place where their career can grow.
[If you worked at these places I will reference or if you worked on my books before, you might want to skip the next part. OR you could give me “the tea.” There’s no need to defend a system that treats our work like disposable things ha!]
This is an old royalty check from a corporate publisher. This represents the first few months of distribution for this title, which is usually the check with the largest amount, and then succeeding checks are for smaller amounts. At 5% net for a book that was sold at PHP195…this probably means 6,000 books sold in several months? Or more? I never got a report on units sold, though I should have asked for it. I think 6,000 sold in its first few months is great. Especially for a print and Philippines only publishing agreement. This was a title that I had already self-published on Amazon, and sold the first edition indie print books. Several thousand copies of a YA romance, in English, to an exclusively Philippine audience, is amazing. Kudos to the publisher. This is top tier work, and what every author should experience when working with a corporate publisher.
Except this was also my last book with them, because…they had decided this wasn’t performing? They wanted to focus on other authors and titles that sold more with less effort? When the news came that they will not be publishing more of my books I took it well, because by this time I had 4 years of self-publishing experience. An established base. This was not going to stop me from writing and publishing more.
This is from a different corporate publisher. This check was for one year of royalties, for one title, at 15% net for a book sold for PHP195. This pub did give a report on units sold, and it was officially 425. Print and Philippines only publishing agreement.
Big difference ano? Not even close. So difficult to accept this when I’ve seen better.
And yet the discussion with this pub was oddly similar — this book didn’t live up to their targets. Why did other titles sell more with no marketing? (LOL red flag) I was told that the reason this book underperformed was that I didn’t sign over all rights; I said there’s no reason for me to sign over all rights when the only rights I gave them (print/Philippines) only earned this much. You don’t give someone who failed their one job, ten more jobs.
I left that meeting knowing they were not getting any of my other books. But only because I know my numbers, I know who will be buying my books, and I know what it looks like when publishers give a title the widest distribution they can offer. I felt sorry for authors who would be getting a similar meeting, or email, that their books just weren’t performing, because I’m guessing many of those authors would have had thriving careers if publishers cared.
Authors, get your numbers. Do that math.
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