thread: 2006-01-12 : Year-end sales chart
On 2006-01-12, Vincent wrote:
JBR, in marginalia: "Well, you're more than just an author, you're a publisher; I'd be interested in what your total profit to capital investment ratio looking like."
How do I tell you that? What do I count as capital investment?
This makes JBR go "Oh, right."
I edit Accounting textbooks as my day job. I forget that people don't think like this. Total up all the costs you incurred in bringing the product to market (development, production, manufacture, marketing), subtract your total sales to get gross profit, compare profit to costs. It comes out as a percentage. In DIY indie press land, your costs are usually just what you paid for art, what you paid for layout, what you paid to print the books, and what you paid to ship them.
This makes JBR go "Er..."
Subtract your costs from your sales to get profits, rather.
This makes MSW go "shipping?"
Should I factor that in if the customer is the one paying for it? I wouldn't really consider that capital investment since I didn't have to invest anything the way I do with printing costs.
This makes JBR go "Only shipping costs"
The rough answer: if the customer pays for it, don't count it.
In some states, you have to count it and then subtract it for tax stuff, but that's getting nit-picky.
This makes JB go "what i do for shipping"
I count the flat rate shipping charge as income, and keep my Canada Post receipts and receipts for mailers and whatnot. It helps me track it loads better, because I can say "Hmm, shipped 20 books, made 10 bucks. Better drop the flat rate $0.50." or vice versa. Whatever. -James
