The Economics of Touring - Angry Filmmaker Style - Part Two
On my last tour in 2017, I already had a lot of DVDs and T-shirts left over from previous tours so I didn’t have to buy any more. This time I decided to add some new merchandise consisting of bookmarks and stickers. I figure the stickers will help attract kids and in turn, their parents over to my merchandise table and I can sell more books and DVDs. This strategy worked in more than a few places so that was good.
I need to purchase more books so I have figure out how many I’m going to need? I also have to figure out weight and space in the van. I decided to order two hundred books (three different titles – Road Dog, The Angry Filmmaker Survival Guide Part One: Making the Extreme No Budget Film, and Part Two: Sound Conversations with (un)Sound People. If/when I need more I can order from the road and have them drop shipped a couple stops ahead of me.
I figured out shipping costs but what I didn’t think about is sales tax. When I have books shipped to my home in Oregon we don’t have a sales tax so I don’t worry about it. When I have books drop shipped to other cites I’m getting charged sales tax on each shipment.
Suddenly, the cost of my books goes up. And I don’t realize this until I’m already out on the road. Oops!
If I’m doing a guest lecture or a film related workshop I have some sort of guaranty as far as what I will be paid. If I can sell merchandise above and beyond that, that’s great.
If I’m reading at a bookstore I need to send them books in advance (which I’ve already paid for and I cover the shipping) and they’ll sell them at my event. The only money I’m guaranteed is my percentage from the sales and that usually arrives months later. Even if the bookstore gives me 60% of the sales, remember I pay for the books and the shipping to the bookstore. My actual payment from them is much smaller after expenses.
There are some small independent bookstores that actually let me sell my books personally and keep all the money. These are the bookstores I want to return to. One bookstore booked me because I had a friend who knew the owners. I believe they didn’t really want me there but thought they were doing my friend a favor. They did no publicity (I did), and when I got to the store they had stacked a few of my books at a table towards the back of the store with one chair. They told me I couldn’t do a reading. What? I was told to just sit there and if people came by I could sign books.
I asked them to please set up additional chairs for when people showed up. They put out two. Long story short, they eventually had to put out a dozen chairs and when enough people showed up, I did a reading anyway. I just stood up and read. My audience applauded and I could see the people who worked at the book store were not pleased. I sold around 20 books. A few months later when the bookstore sent me my percentage of sales they also sent me the rest of my books back.
I was scheduled to do a reading at one store so I decided to drop by a week before my event since I was passing through anyway. It was good I did. They forgot they booked me so they had done no publicity and on the day of my reading the only people who showed up were my friends who appeared in the book and already had their copies. I didn’t sell a single book that day!
And I had to pay for gas and other expenses to get there. While there I stayed with friends, but then I paid for gas and food to get to my next gig in another city. This stop was a money loser for me. Oh well…
The only way I was able to make this last tour work was by doing an Indiegogo campaign, taking a loan out from my credit union, getting sponsors, and by doing paid guest lectures and workshops on filmmaking.
The percentage I made off of book/merchandise sales was very small.
And this was the trip where I blew a tire at 65 mph on the freeway and ended up having to replace two tires. Then my starter went out. And none of this happened while I’m in a decent sized city. All in the middle of nowhere, needless to say I paid a lot more for tires and a starter than I should have, but I had no choice…
I lost money on this tour but I gained new followers, many of them eventually purchased books from my website. I also went to The Grand Canyon and Muscle Shoals, two bucket list items, and got to see old friends. These are the things that make touring worthwhile for me.
Even though financially this was the worst tour I did over the years, I was also thinking at the time it would be my last full tour. And later on the pandemic hit.
I’m still always looking for new opportunities to do readings and I’m willing to travel a reasonable distance to do it, but no more long tours.
Yes I’m writing a new book but I’m not walking away from the old ones. I still believe in them.
I am an Independent Author/Filmmaker. I have no publisher behind me and certainly no deep pockets. What I do have are good books and great stories. So take a chance and buy a copy of one of my books.
Thanks for reading.
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“If you have ever had a fantastic, wide-ranging conversation with a good friend over good beer, then you know how it feels to read Road Dog. Road Dog will especially resonate with the many musicians, artists and writers who must also market their work by taking to the road. Baker’s writing is honest, fresh and straightforward…a delight from the first word to the last.” - - S.L. Stoner, Sage Adair Historical Mysteries.