Royalty Riches?

After receiving my first royalty check for Judgment on Tartarus, I can tell you one thing for darn sure: I'm never going to get rich by writing! Of course, I really didn't expect to, and I feel sorry for anyone who truly expects to become a millionaire overnight because of their writing. ( If I had a day job, I certainly wouldn't quit! )

The real rewards of writing aren't monetary. Writing novels isn't the way to make a fast, easy buck. If you don't love to write, you shouldn't try writing professionally---it's just not for you. ( Unfortunately, a lot of people these days believe they're capable of writing a hot bestseller! )

The raw, unvarnished truth is that only 1% of books published sell 250,000 copies or more. And authors receive a mere pittance for every copy sold. With the growing popularity of e-books, as well as other devices for reading, authors make an even smaller amount from each e-book sold, further lowering their royalty income.

Publishers complain that they aren't making a profit on most books they publish, can no longer afford to pay authors advances, or even to publicize their books! Short story markets are drying up at an alarming rate. Many magazines that used to publish fiction ---even online magazines!---have ceased publication. The future for authors of fiction, in particular, looks rather bleak.

We can only hope that a) the lousy U.S. economy improves markedly---soon!---and b) the generations coming up will become/remain avid readers. In my opinion the future of books of all kinds, magazines, publishers, and authors depends heavily upon these two factors.

Please---keep on reading!

MRTighe

Home Again

Readercon 22 was a very low-key, enjoyable con. We met readers and writers from Canada to California. Lots of new faces; obviously the younger generation still reads. And there were quite a few little ones in tow who will hopefully grow up to be avid readers. The future looks promising in that regard.

The book dealers room was wall-to-wall books, as was most of the space in between. We bought a good many books, ranging from Charlaine Harris to new, unknown authors. We met some of my fellow authors, spent time talking with several of the book dealers. The down side was that, unfortunately, we never managed to sell one of my own books. Competition was fierce; many people were advertising that their e-books were for sale at 99 cents! Now maybe those books are good, maybe not. I can't say without reading them. But I thought Judgment on Tartarus was a steal for $20!

I did manage to get quite a few of my business cards out there; they really did come out nice. But the postcards didn't go over as well as I'd hoped. Hubby's T-shirt, however, which was imprinted with the cover art for Judgment was a real hit. People going by kept staring at it, stopping to ask him what it represented, etc. Have to get ME one!

He also picked up a nice volume of Ann Rice's Vampire Chronicles during a side trip to Barnes and Noble. I bought the second book in Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series: City of Ashes. I'll post a more in depth report on Readercon after I've had some time to think and mull it over.

Til then,

MRTighe