ADVANCED MAGIC BAKERY… Chapter Ten

STARTING OFF WITH LINKS…

I am getting a hunch that many people have started this series in the middle and have not read all the chapters and such. And are reading like every third chapter. Now I am pretty good at helping readers understand things, but only reading every three chapters is beyond my skill to help you.

So for quick reference, here are links to the other chapters before jumping into Chapter Ten…

• Introduction:
• Chapter One: A Magic Pie
• Chapter Two: Market or No Market
• Chapter Three: Moral Rights
• Chapter Four: Starting a Business
• Chapter Five: What You Sell
• Chapter Six: Who Are Your Customers?
• Chapter Seven: The Magic of the Business
• Chapter Eight: The Basics of Anti-Promotion
• Chapter Nine: Easy Promotion That Makes Money

Okay, not that’s a bunch of reading, but nothing that long, I promise.

So now…

CHAPTER TEN: Organizing Your Magic Store

Here is the problem. So many writers, owners of magic bakeries, have a very difficult time both in physical ways and mentally keeping track of where a magic pie might be licensed and on the market.

If you are doing electronic distribution right, and really extending into the world as far as you can, then your magic pie (your story) in able to be licensed from upwards of a thousand places. And even if you tried to track all those, you would be missing hundreds and thousands more.

So we keep track of the major places. And we never allow a magic pie to be exclusive to only one place like Amazon. I have talked about that stupidity in other blogs more times than I can count over the years.

And the above is only for a tiny slice of the pie that never vanishes. Electronic edition in English. Not audio, not translation, nothing. All those are other cash streams. All very tiny slices of the pie, slices that also never vanish even as money flows in.

But first, somehow, you have to realize that no place doesn’t want your work. They make money when the license your work, so if you have something in your head that is chanting some ancient chant about you can’t compete with yourself, just take a gun to the chanter. Your magic pies can be in the same place five times over from five different sources. And that is a good thing. More discoverability.

So you are a writer, a baker of pies, a person who can imagine things.

So imagine your own bakery. You have been baking and bringing out of the kitchen enough to make the store sort of look full, and you are constantly still in the kitchen baking even more. So you got over twenty major books and a bunch of stand-alone short stories.

You can duplicate magic pies. The pie (story) is magic, so it can be in your store in any place you want it to be, and several places at the same time.

That’s right, the same pie in a dozen places in your store.

So a suggestion of organization of your magic store to keep this straight in your mind… Each pie can be in every section…

ELECTRONIC LICENSING SECTION

Big Section to the Right as the Customers Come In…  In this section is your Electronic licensing section, all the thousands of places your story (pie) can be licensed around the world.

PAPERBACK AND HARDBACK SECTION

Section Near the Front… In this section where stores can license your books to sell paper and hardback editions.

MOVIES, STREAMING

This section where your pies can be licensed for major rights, or minor rights as the case might be.

GAMING SECTION

You can license your work to a major gaming company or do a game yourself. Games are not that hard these days and there are a thousand variations of games.

MERCHANDISE SECTION

Where your pies are licensed for things like t-shirts, mugs, and so on. Distribution agreements can be large in this area.

SPECIAL SECTION

This section is where your pies will be exclusive for short times say only to Kickstarter backers for a short time, or put on pre-order, and or for special sales on your Shopify store. Pies move from this section out into your other sections in a very short time. But this section can really draw customer’s attention.

SMALLER SPECIALIZED SECTIONS

Sections for audio, large print, translations, podcasts, radio plays, broadway plays, and so on. Lots of cash streams to help fund your magic bakery. Only your imagination limits this.

So this was just my quick walk around a possible store, looking at the cool signs for each section and the names on all the warm, wonderful-smelling pies.

Of course, branding would help your store a great deal, but not really a topic for this book.

Hope this made sense. Magic Pies are really, really amazing.