BW Sales and Income

[Luke]

Hi All,

A long time ago, I promised to post my sales data and I never did. So here it is at long last!

Between May 5th and December 31st I tracked the sales of 1293 copies of Burning Wheel Revised. I think there were more sales (since we sold all of our 1545 copes), but I can't track them. They must have been at smaller cons or from my own house. Bad me for not tracking every sale!

After fees, cuts and percentages, that nets me 17412.17.

The Monster Burner sold a very respectable 419 tracked copies (again, there were a few more sales at small cons that I haven't tracked).
After fees, cuts and percentages that nets me 4727.72

Various small supplements and pdfs netted me another 3274.82.

25414.71 in pseudo-net income (my gross -- a mythical amount of money that I never actually see -- is about 44K). However, my expenses for printing, cons and other various things actually put me at a loss for the year. Is that a bad thing? Hell no. BW's in its second printing, making a nice profit. The Monster Burner is nearing the end of its run and also turning a nice profit. I've got a quite a nice nest egg in the bank, a nice new computer and I get to go to cons all over the country. It's not a bad deal at all. But it don't pay the bills.

The astute reader may note that while I have a high volume of sales and income, the smaller games have a much higher percentage profit. Jared and Vincent kick my ass in the pure profit department.

I will be discussing these numbers and some other fun experiences I've had this past year at our Small Press Game Design seminar at Gencon.
-L

[JakeVanDam]

Do you have any idea why a game with fewer sales would net less than a game with so many more sales? Is your margin per unit that much smaller? Is the volume eaten up in overhead and miscelanious expenses? Is it all tied up in unsold merchandise? Do the gods of small-buissiness economics just hate success?

[Luke]

Do you have any idea why a game with fewer sales would net less than a game with so many more sales? Is your margin per unit that much smaller? Is the volume eaten up in overhead and miscelanious expenses? Is it all tied up in unsold merchandise? Do the gods of small-buissiness economics just hate success?

Hi Jake,
It's ten to 7 am, so I may be just reading your question wrong: A game with fewer sales nets less than a game with more sales because it sells less. Did you mean to ask why my percentage profit is so low? Am I just misreading?

Well, my expenses are high. My travel/hotel expenses from last year were 4K. My printing bill, 14K. But I went to a lot of cons last year, tried to pay as much of my friend's expenses as possible AND did two print runs of BW. It was an expensive year.

-Luke

[Bryan Hansel]

I was  a little confused also.  So, do you mean that last year you were in the hole, but now you have a second printing that is almost paid for already or is paid for, so all proceeds from that printing with be profit?

[Luke]

I printed two runs of BWR last year, one in May (1500 copies) and one in November  (2000 copies). So my expenses from last year include two print runs.

-L

[Valamir]

Actually, his expenses from last year include printing costs of the 1545 copies he sold, not the 3500 copies he printed.

Thanks to the marvels of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, us publisher types don't get to expense printing costs until the books are sold.  In accounting terms we just translated one asset (cash) into another asset (inventory) which accounting does not recognize as an expense...that's where the whole COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) thing comes in for those with vague recollections of Accounting 101.

[Thor Olavsrud]

Note that part of the reason that Burning Wheel can sell so many copies is that it is sold through distribution, in addition to direct sales and direct to retailer sales. The profit on books sold in distro is far less than the profit on books sold direct or direct to the retailer. Note that our small supplements are sold only by us at cons.

[Luke]

what Ralph said.

But outside of accounting magic land, that's how much money i made and spent last year.

-L

[JakeVanDam]

Do you have any idea why a game with fewer sales would net less than a game with so many more sales? Is your margin per unit that much smaller? Is the volume eaten up in overhead and miscelanious expenses? Is it all tied up in unsold merchandise? Do the gods of small-buissiness economics just hate success?

Hi Jake,
It's ten to 7 am, so I may be just reading your question wrong: A game with fewer sales nets less than a game with more sales because it sells less. Did you mean to ask why my percentage profit is so low? Am I just misreading?

Well, my expenses are high. My travel/hotel expenses from last year were 4K. My printing bill, 14K. But I went to a lot of cons last year, tried to pay as much of my friend's expenses as possible AND did two print runs of BW. It was an expensive year.

-Luke

Sorry, I mistyped- I meant the latter. Thanks for expanding on that.