Hi all!

Well, in 7 days it will be the end of the 216/2017 financial year. Time to start getting your financial affairs in order if you live in Australia.

I thought it timely to do a quick rundown of the kinds of things we, as professional authors, should start thinking about.

Before I go any further, please note I am not an accountant and I would STRONGLY recommend you seek appropriately qualified assistance for the completion of returns etc.

During the year many of you will have become newly published authors! Congratulations. I'm hopeful that at this time you set up a folder to print out details of your contracts, any advances and royalties made. 

Your files don't need to be alphabetised in triplicate. A set of simple manila folders named contracts, advances, expenses & royalties should be sufficient.

Expenses: Conferences, Flights, Parking, Transportation, Accomodation & meals at these attendances, computers, printers, computer paper, internet & telephones as well as note pads, postage & pens are all acceptable expenses as are the various promotional items (business cards, banners etc) can be claimed, however you need to Make money before you can Claim it. :D You should also include office furniture you use, covers, editing and formatting costs as well as the printing of your novels. So much to consider!

Royalties: You should be tracking them, I personally keep an idea on my income through my PayPal account as that is where the majority of my funds are sourced from. I've kept print outs showing the amount into my separate working bank account in $AUD to make it easier for my accountant to track. You could also place details of advances in this folder if that's easier for you.

Contracts: Depending on your choice to self publish, big five or small press, the details of your royalty rates might be requested by your accountant. If you've got them printed and in a folder it does make life simpler.

Something to remember, you may be able to classify yourself as a special professional allowing for you to "average" your income over a couple of years allowing for good years & bad years. "An artist classed as a ‘special professional’ (an artist, composer, writer—including a computer programmer—inventor, performer, production associate) may be able to average income over a number of years" See here for more information.

In light of my upcoming release of the Reunion Trilogy, I thought I'd lay my cards on the table and give a full and frank accounting of what it costs me Per Book to produce it.

These figures are fluid. They will change from release to release meaning the ROI (Return On Investment) will also be changeable.

​Now this was a great price but painful process as it took me 3 days of pushing and hammering to get the cover right. If I quantified my time value, the cost of it would have risen exponentially. I was looking for cheap and got it, but I probably wouldn't go that route again. It's far too difficult to find a quality artist on there to get what I paid for in a quick turn around timeframe.

Formatting: I recently invested in Vellum Print. I cost me $AUD139.99 to upgrade from my ebook version to the print. Given I have a number of titles coming out, that will allow me to even out the costs, if I work on 4 books in 2017 (which is close to what it will be) then the cost of that to this title is $35 to format the book. Easy Peasy.

ISBN: I bought my ISBN's in a pack of 10 at a grand total of $AUD88 so the cost for this title is $AUD8.80

My total outlay : $AUD71.80

I need to recoup that on top of my cost price for printing and shipping in order to break even then make a profit on this title.

Cover

Because this is my first totally on my own self published book and I happened to see the perfect cover very early on, I purchased a cover that was pre-made but of a very high quality.

Having said that, I'm paying for an artist, but I have 2 chances at making my money back. 1) Ebook and 2) Paperback.

Cost: $USD110 and that includes the print cover with full wrap and the ebook version. (On current conversion rate say $AUD145)

Editing

I'm so darned lucky, as my editor (who also works for at least one publishing house) also happens to be an exceptionally good friend. She looks after me. In order to get a high quality editing job, you pay. It's a case of you need to find someone who understands you, will look at your work and "get it" as well as do a quality job. Without that, you aren't going to release a quality title. (Sorry to all those who get teachers/friends and family members to edit. Unless you have a qualified/experienced Fiction Editor, then your work will suffer!!) It cost me in the region of $AUD600 - well worth EVERY PENNY I spent.

ISBN: Again, I buy mine in a pack of 10 but I used 2 for this book. 1 for the ebook version and 1 for the print version. Cost? @$8.80 each, my outlay is $17.60

Formatting: Yep add in my $AUD35 for Vellum

My total outlay for Print and Ebook versions: $AUD797.60

I'm going to work this next bit out using the 35% Amazon royalty rate for a 99 cent title (yes, I get 35 cents in the dollar - that's it for all my hard work!)

Inheritance of the Blood - each copy makes me 34.65 cents PER COPY SOLD.

In order to recoup my original costs, I need to sell XXX x 34.65 to break even. The value of XXX = 2301 copies.

Having said that, I've got the added benefit of being able to recoup through print costs too. But it's sobering to know I need to sell more than 2302 books before I make a profit.

So, next time you pirate a book, please think about those figures.

p.s. Inheritance Of The Blood will pre-order at 99 cents before heading back up to full cost at $4.99 :) So when I make it available, please get in early and purchase your copy!

I've been really busy. It's true. Not just writing new stories but also clearing up things that I've left for some time.

First up, I have a cover release! 

More releases!

The Reunion Trilogy

Have you checked out the Reunion series? Released as a boxed set in January 2015, it's now coming to paperback. I'm waiting for the cover art and hope to have that soon. The plan is to make that available for ordering from 1 August 2017 though I would think I'll be able to order the paperbacks well before that. Once I have a cover, I'll be posting it up!

Cyborg: Redux

I actually already have the cover art for this, even though it's not due to be available for pre-order until December 2017. It's really awesome and I can't wait to share it in the next couple of weeks. The awesome Willsin Rowe was the designer and you'll see why very soon (he was also the designer for the Warriors of the Elector paperback editions and my go-to for cover art!

Current WIP

Children of a Greater Evil - the sequel to Cyborg: Redux and I have the distinct impression this one is going to be a lot more action based with the romance being a whole heap more subdued. Of course, it's hard to know exactly where this is going to go as I'm not a plotter! 

Last Finished

Hero of Heartbreak Hill - an invitation only Contemporary was finished last week and I'm really pleased with how this story evolved - especially given there are parts of it that are directly reflective of my life :D No spoilers though!!

To learn more, check out my newsletter which is out today...

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As anyone who's worked with me in the last 12 months will know, I'm a relatively recent convert to Vellum (http://www.vellum.pub) however, once I'd made the jump it was definite with no going back.

The original Vellum file I used allowed me to create beautiful ebooks myself, saving hours of hassle with formatting. I'd previously used the Smashwords Meat Grinder (not that I'd had any real issue with it, but I always found it clunky and laborious to format beforehand!) 

When my friend Suzi Love introduced me to Vellum, it was almost ​love at first sight!

And yes, it is a Mac Only program - sorry Windows users!

Okay just note, this isn't exhaustive - I've had 12 hours to play and work with this and hunt for the highs and lows!

Roll onto May of 2017 - we'd heard that Vellum for Print was on the way, but to be honest, it was only when they gave the release date of 1 June that I got super excited. 

If the system was as easy, then I was going to get it! 

Crafting quality books as an Independent Author is expensive. With quality cover art costing me $70 - $150 usually and rigorous editing to pay for (my latest bill was over $700 for 2 books and over 100K words - Don't get me wrong that's an awesome price but better if I can refine the costings of production somewhat), if I could find somewhere I could save a few dollars, then it makes my job even more easier and my initial outlay easier to bear.

So let's start at the beginning. The cost to upgrade in $AUD was 139.99. I'd previously bought the unlimited version and though I could continue to create those magnificent ebooks, in order to continue with my print plans, I had to upgrade. I didn't have to do it straight away - I could have waited until I generated a book, but I was desperate to try it out! The upgrade was run through the program itself.

Uploading required me to use the Check for Upgrades but from there it self extracted. Excellent. I didn't want to be dithering about with files.

The first tiny glitch I discovered was that I had the old version on the Dock. I had to close the old one before I could access the new version, which allowed me then to access the new settings. Once done, things were simple. The documents showed up on the right hand side of my screen. I would strongly recommend you remove the old version from your applications file and overwrite it with the new one manually.

You may notice I have 2 copies of the one title - one will be a sample book for the iTunes store...

Great. Open the file and you'll find it is very similar to the old system with a few new things. 

​The image file is also Ebook only. 

I love that I can tag exactly what I want in individual books though, as it will make creation of the PDF for print a much cleaner and easier process.

One drawback I found was that the ISBN in the set up page still reads Ebook. No room for the Print. It was suggested to me that I create 2 copyright pages and tag one for Ebook and One for Print. That works and I can specify the ISBN on that page.

Painful yes, but I can do that with any page in the book! So the drawbacks are almost equalled out by the bonuses.

As previously you can pick the range of styles, fonts etc., so you can customise it a little. I know some don't like that those customisations are limited, but honestly, the average author isn't going to throw their hands in the air over that.

You can also preview a range of formats including the print and once you've chosen print you can choose to view it in Proof or Draft formats. Proof is good because you'll see exactly how the page will look in the PDF. 

Vellum 2.0 also looks after your Widows/Orphans and event detects those nasty little run on sentences. (To see more on that visit the Vellum FAQ page for the Print edition.

The sizes of the format are limited to four.The four are I would guess, the most widely used. If you're looking to create a smaller book or one out of the ordinary then the option doesn't exist in the program. You can however tinker with the margins!

If you ask me does Vellum Print live up to expectations?

For me, it will do everything I can think of At this time although as I indicated above it has got a couple of little warts.

Would I recommend it to others?

Absolutely!

I would rate this at around 9/10!