Well, that’s starting to bite, isn’t it?
Generally, I don’t closely follow global economics — as well as distracting me from my actual work at hand, it tends to interfere with my mystique as an unworldly artist-type…
But I do watch my sales figures pretty closely, because a) I can, now that I don’t have to wait for my publisher to impart the data at their leisure, usually six months down the line; and b) I am now responsible for my own sales, and it’s actually possible to relate increase in sales to something that happens in the outside world (like a review, or even a tweet); and c) forewarned is forearmed, and if things start trailing, it’s best to know about it.
So, I watch my sales. And dammit, the British pound has lost 25 cents against the dollar since June!Â
A certain portion of my ebook sales come from Amazon.co.uk, and I’ve always enjoyed doing the conversion, because it makes my income projections look pretty. 79.99 GPB of British book sales in June? Heck, that’s a whole $117.59 in real American money!
Except, not now. It’s $97.59. I feel very hard done by, I must say.
Well. Can’t do much about it, can I? If an entire nation wants to mess with my bottom line, that’s their prerogative, I suppose.
In other news:
My mighty steed.
Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman had their 20th wedding anniversary party last weekend, held at the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round to the delight of young and old. Except, there seemed to be no actual “old,” since once you climb on to a carousel horse, you immediately become nine years old for the duration of the ride. This I have discovered to be true.
Delia herself, in motion, in a flowing silken dress. Don’t you wish you could ride a carousel horse in a flowing silken dress?
The merry-go-round was authentic, lovingly restored, dating from (I seem to remember) 1927.  As well as being open to the public, you can book it for private parties, as Ellen and Delia did.
The lovely couple, twenty years in.
And the party itself was wonderful, filled with wonderful people, many of whom I actually knew (including Genrettes!). (If you were there, and I didn’t say hi, I do apologize — there was so much to see, and so many to talk to.  I’m sure you had as great a time as I did.)
And meanwhile, back at the ranch: Kitchen painting. Those of you who have painted kitchens know what this entails. Those of you who haven’t, you’ll find out. It seems to be one of life’s milestones. Sometime in your life, you will paint a kitchen. No, having painted the living room does not give you a free pass.
It helps to have help. In this case, I’m the help.
And in other news: I’m still hunkered down in the times that are available for hunkering.  More than that cannot be said without spoilers, I suppose.
This whiteboard needed to be much longer, so I split it longitudinally.
October 15th, 2016 at 10:28 pm
Or from a UK point of view, books priced in dollars are now that much more expensive.
Some of us knew this would happen and didn’t vote for this idiocy 🙁
October 18th, 2016 at 11:55 pm
My sympathies! Of course, Americans would never vote for idiocy — Wait, what? Oh, right.
October 16th, 2016 at 7:46 am
Well- As well as being innovative in how she has presented her art, what a great, fun idea for a party! (and one of the few ‘rides’ I will actually get on and enjoy. Ya’ll can keep yur roller coasters.) We could all use some time as a 7 year old.
As well as our own political woes and shows, I feel for the Brits and their uncertainties. ‘May you live in interesting times’… seems to be a curse shared by many right now
I tried to zoom in and get a peek at the secret story board, but left unfulfilled hahaha
October 18th, 2016 at 11:54 pm
Ha! As predicted in the hovertext.
October 17th, 2016 at 4:02 am
Within the last 25 years I can recall the pound being as low as $1.05 (1985) and just over 2.0 in 2007 so these swings are annoying but not unexpected. When you next book comes out I will buy it in $ rather than pounds.
October 17th, 2016 at 12:45 pm
The appropriate economic response is to increase the price in pounds.
Also, now is the time to buy the Globe Shakespeare boxed set, boxes of Dr Stuart’s Elderflower and Lemon tea, and anything else you might happen to want from my stupid ex-country.
October 18th, 2016 at 11:36 pm
Alas, I do not have separate control over the price in pounds. I set the price on Amazon.com in the US of A, and they automatically promulgate it out to their websites in other countries, setting the price in local currency, equivalent to the current exchange rate. (It’ll cost you 11.22 Brazilian Reals to buy a copy of The Steerswoman. Today.)
Exception: The price can never go below .99 in the local currency. This has caused me some grief, when I used BookBub to advertise the series. I had a limited-time sale price of $.99 for the first book — but BookBub had to leave Great Britain out of the campaign, because their policy requires that the promo price had to be at least 50% off the regular price. And the regular price was 1.80 pounds.
October 19th, 2016 at 4:22 pm
My sympathies on the kitchen painting. After one dose of that in my folks house, I had all the counter walls done in Formica. Sponge and water instead of paint.
October 19th, 2016 at 7:05 pm
1.A cool storyboard! I love that you’re getting it all laid out.
2.Carousels are the best! What a great place to have a birthday party. You can’t feel superannuated on a carousel. (Except . . . knowing that it’s been 20 years already does make me feel old! Oh well–we have a carousel in my town too. I’ll just go take a ride.
3. Haven’t painted a kitchen yet. The odds are good that I shall permanently elude this fate.
October 21st, 2016 at 1:07 am
I predict that you shall not elude the fate! I never said it had to be your kitchen. You have grown kids with their own homes and apartments and yep, one of these days you’ll be visiting and find yourself lending a hand.
October 20th, 2016 at 5:10 am
Apparently UK voters failed to notice the similarity between “Brexit” and “breaks it”.
October 21st, 2016 at 1:09 am
Alas.
(Sure hope I don’t also say that on November 8th.)