Friday, April 5, 2013

E = Excel is Your New Best Friend, Self-Publishers



After the writing, editing, layout and publishing in general is done, the sales begin. Hopefully, that is. But let's assume that you're selling a few here and there at least. But you're a self-published author without a sales or marketing department to keep track of your sales. What do you do so that you have a track record to show to literary agents, convincing them you're a best seller in the making? Why, you make best friends with that helpful tool known as Excel!

I’ve discovered that in general, authors are not numbers people. They tend to have vague idea of sales and revenue earned. In fact, most authors probably don’t scrutinize their royalty statements like they should (with a few exceptions of course). And I get it. Authors are creative folks. Math uses the other side of the brain. But if you are digitally self-publishing, then you are your own publisher. And given that, you should be generating your own royalty statements in an excel spreadsheet. Here’s what you should track and why.
TO TRACK:
1) All Price Points – sales especially
2) All editions — including audio/shorter works
3) Copies given away for free
4) All distribution venues where editions are available
5) Percentage splits/royalty
6) Cumulative totals
Continue reading to find out why at Nelson Agency.

Enter The Eye of the Sword Giveaway until the 14!

1 comment:

  1. insightful post thankyou! will come in handy one day x#

    (http://itsjennythewren.wordpress.com/)

    ReplyDelete

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