#002 Subscription Costs and Breakdown for Subscribers
Serialization for "Heart of Stone"
Last week I introduced you to the cover and the basic plot synopsis/elevator pitch for Heart of Stone. I want to spend a little bit more time discussing what it is that subscribers receive with this novel.
My goal is to publish the first novel I wrote, back when I was in my freshman year of college.
Not to be dramatic, or to be inappropriate with details from my personal life, but the novel sat collecting digital dust, if you will, on the thumb drive it was saved on. During the approximately 15 years since that book was written, I’ve worked at newspapers as a reporter and editor, for a trade magazine as an assistant editor, and contracted through educational companies and book publishers to learn about reading critically, assessing, writing, and editing, and the publishing process as a whole.
It took these four things to get myself to the point of publishing this work:
My husband reading my work and telling me that he thought it was pretty good for an 18-year-old to have written.
Finishing graduate school.
Working through my own mental health illnesses that has prevented me from believing in my own competency, ability, and skill.
And most important:Reviewing my 15 years of work experience and realizing I know more than I was giving myself credit for.
The following breakdown is for you the reader (Patron) to understand what you are investing in. A good amount of this effort is to prove to myself that I can be consistent and do this work.
Between now and March, I will be preparing a backlog of content to save myself a little work as my IRL job builds up steam and to make sure both paid and free subscribers have something to look forward to.
The publishing schedule:
The book will begin publishing on Monday, March 11, 2024, on the second and fourth Monday of the month. All chapters of the book will have a free preview, with the full chapter unlocked for paying members at two tier distributions.
Paid subscribers will receive two full chapters each month. If I have done my math correctly, the publishing schedule will last for 15 months (30 chapters), through June of 2025. This may be subject to change, as chapters are rewritten and edited, and additional content may be added or deleted, ultimately changing the timeline and ultimate length of the publication.
Tiered Subscriptions for Patrons
Below is the cost breakdown, and the benefits to each tier.
The purpose of these fees is for these reasons:
The novel needs editing; since I haven’t read and worked on it in more than two years, I don’t remember most of what I wrote 15 years before, so I’ll be coming to it with fresh eyes. Standard editing rates for the Editorial Freelancers Association are, as of 2019 for the most current data, $35-40/hr for copyediting; developmental editing is $46-50/hr.
According to the CPI Inflation calculator, based on the above, the current rate would be $48.79 as of November 2023 per hour for copyediting, the price I’m working from. Words are generally between $0.02 to $0.049 per word, depending on the type of editing/rewriting being done.
However, the current monthly subscription is substantially below bar for current market rates. Five subscribers would offset the cost of one hour of editing work.
With enough paying subscribers, fees are to pay both the cost of editing and rewriting the work, and paying for the printing and potential shipping costs of the book, depending on the service used.
Funds may need to be used for additional editing, printing, or artwork purposes — a.k.a. unforeseen costs that sometimes crop up.
I’m also basing my rates on my 14 years of experience writing and editing, in addition to the critical analysis skills gained through graduate school and my present profession.
Chapter length varies between 2,000 to 6,000+ words, with total word count at approximately 87,000 words.
87,000 x $0.03 editing cost = $2,610
87,000/250 words/pg = 348 pages
4 pgs/hr/348 pages = 87 hrs x $48.79/hr = $4,244.73
The goal by the end of 2024 is 100 Paid Subscribers. This calculates to $1,000 in revenue, potentially every month. It’s still below the two estimates bolded above.
Given the base estimation of printing costs, from this lovely article by Grammar Factory Publishing Company, self-publishing a book, with additional editing, printing, shipping, marketing, and other additional costs, including eating the cost if the book doesn’t sell and you have it in stores, to losing approximately 30-70% of revenue to whatever company is hosting and printing the book on demand, is upwards of $4,500 to $17,000.
The average print cost of a book is $3 to $8, softcover, or up to $12+ for hardcover, a feature promised to paying members.
That’s not profitable to me, or a good investment of your dollars, especially with inflation and rising costs across the board.
My intention is to hold all subscriber funds until the book is published, determine the actual cost of printing, shipping, and other odds and ends, and prevent as much loss to myself or waste of your investment as possible.
The Breakdown:
Free membership:
Free preview of each chapter
Access to other free work on the site
Paid Membership — $10/mo
Full chapter and access to all previous and subsequent chapters
A post mortem at the end of each month on the process of serialization, with regular updates toward the end of securing print publishing for a hard cover copy
Ability to comment on posts and email
directly
Upon completion of publication, a printed soft-cover version of the book that you helped fund and patronized
Founding Membership — $250 yearly
A signed hardcover edition of the book, probably with a specially designed cover. I say this, because the current artwork for the cover was done by myself. I am not a graphic design artist, but I want to provide something of value that is particular and special to the people that have funded it, as a thank you.
Call to action:
If you believe in supporting good work, spread the word, share the work on your socials, and sign up for a paid subscription.
Substack has been disrupting the publishing model, and while 15 months is in it for the long haul, there will always be a need for quality fiction.
The Free Press wrote a great piece on the shrinking and tightening of writing in the world.
We need more quality books, better writing, and the diversity of ideas that free expression allegedly promises. If the writing doesn’t speak for itself, send me a message, unsubscribe, or put your dollars toward art and literature you want to support.
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