James Maxey
@JamesAllenMaxey
A guy who writes stuff. Reality is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.
My catalog: A 馃У. I've written a lot of books. I'm not prolific, just old. Crank out a book or two every year or two and eventually you have a wall of books. I mainly use X to talk about writing and books, so I thought I'd use this thread to explain all the crazy stuff I write:
Galaxycon is a wrap! Alas, a 200 book show continues to elude me as I finish with only 175 sold. But, I did break $4k pretax for the first time, getting to $4305, thanks to a whopping $2105 in hardcovers. I some ways my goals are in conflict.
And, yay! I got to unload my car today and get to load it again tomorrow during the most intense heat wave in a century! #winning
GenCon is a solid show worth doing if you can get in. If it were a month away from Galaxycon Raleigh, I'd be 100% enthusiasm. For it to start 4 days after I wrap Raleigh leaves me doubting my life choices.
GenCon is a solid show worth doing if you can get in. If it were a month away from Galaxycon Raleigh, I'd be 100% enthusiasm. For it to start 4 days after I wrap Raleigh leaves me doubting my life choices.
Next up is GenCon. I only did 105 books last year, about $2500, not bad, but not the numbers I need to get excited about driving 10 hours for it. But, it was my first time, so I had no repeat business. With AoS and Illustrated Saga added since last year, my goal is 120+ and $3k.
"If only" is how X J Maye was born. James Maxey had built a not-too-bad career around a certain type of action/adventure storytelling and I needed to shake things up to write books outside the brand and boundaries James had built.
I'll disagree a bit with this. My career is built on the power of negative thinking. I'm constantly critical over what I've done, always thinking about how I could have done a little better, if only. "If only" are words that haunt, but also words that drive you.
I'll disagree a bit with this. My career is built on the power of negative thinking. I'm constantly critical over what I've done, always thinking about how I could have done a little better, if only. "If only" are words that haunt, but also words that drive you.
Right. Don't think that way. Don't see the one you didn't sell, but the 199 you did. But, yeah, I'd react the exact same way...
This Galaxycon, one of my partners had raised his $15 books to $20 and it had no noticeable reduction on his sales. A project for the next few months is to start removing prices on my covers so I can follow suit. $20 is now a price point no one blinks at.
Only sold 16, bringing me to 26 hardcovers sold, $780 revenue, 8 to go to my first $1000. I'll almost certainly beat that at GenCon next weekend.
Angels of Sodom is my wild card. I've only got two shows worth of data, but both of those were mediocre to outright bad shows, and at both shows AoS was my top-selling hardcover. My goal is to sell 20 at Raleigh, and my fantasy is to blow past that into the 30 book range.
I posted a pic of someone buying the first copy of this book, so here's the pic of someone buying the last copy I have from my initial order.
@Mulhern4 Does Twitter sell books? It helped sell these! Thanks so much for your support!
I had one more, in my kitchen/, from where I did my test setup last week. So, if you want a copy today at Galaxycon Raleigh, I've got two total, so find me fast!
Now at 22 sold. For a solo hardcover priced at $30, that's amazing.
As of today, I've sold 20 Illustrated Sagas. 30 is the point where my costs are covered. I'd hoped to get there by GenCon but it might take a show or two past that to really be in the black.
