Competition accounts 2022

Foreword

I always like to be open about where the money comes from and goes to in the Willesden Herald short story competition. You can also find the previous years' accounts by clicking on the accounts tag below. Note: the annual competition began in 2005/6 but did not run in 2015, 2018, 2020 or 2021 (ref. History of the competition.) 

We're probably in the red when all is finalised but it all depends on whether the library charges for the use of the Performance Space. These are my own accounts, I no longer run a limited company and I don't make any money from the sale of books online, which all goes to the publisher.* That also runs at a loss by the way - as the number of sales doesn't even cover the annual Ingram fee but let's leave that aside for now. We do it for fun, really.

In the rare case when an author asks me to organise a "short run" print of 10 or more copies for themselves, I send them at cost plus £1 per copy for my trouble, which makes it virtually at cost as my time is next to worthless (full disclosure!) 

I have the itemised details on a spreadsheet here, but the totals are as follows, using $ exchange rates that were current at the time, where applicable. Submittable .com collects the entry fees which they then remit in $USD minus $0.01 per entry + 5% of the total via PayPal and PayPal take their cut too when converting to £GBP. 

Money in

• Entry fees for 371 entries @£5 after Submittable's percentage, paid in dollars: $1646.28 into PayPal, after conversion to pounds at the then rate and PayPal's cut, we got: £1390.95
• Book sales at results/launch event, 17 x £5 = £85
• 10 extra books sold direct from order received. £51.44
• TOTAL: £1527.39

Money out

• Prizes to contributors: £950
• Fees for book designer and judge's introduction (only fair as all the writers are paid): £200
• Book setup and Ingram annual catalogue fee $80 + $12 = $92, paid in pounds: £84.16.
• 47 books ordered including p&p: £188.96
• One month Spotify sub paid to get music for the event build up (yes, I did & cancelled): £9.99
• Postage to UK, France, Ireland, India, Australia & Greece + prize mug + Jiffy bags: £92.07
• TOTAL: £1525.18

If you build it, they will come!
(They did eventually.)

Balance

We're up £2.21 but we have yet to receive an invoice from the library for the space and we're hoping they will see the cultural value in the Willesden short story competition and waive the fee. Otherwise we'll be out another £80. (And if that lands, I will update this report.) So probably down £77.79.

Note. I haven't counted domain renewal for WillesdenHerald.com ($10 p.a.) and NewShortStories.com ($10 p.a.) and the WordPress subscription for New Short Stories ($45 p.a.). I suppose I get fun out of those, so - whatever. I don't run a server anymore, quit that when I closed the limited company.

Stock of books

In: 47

Out: 16 gratis to contributors to the book and the launch, 27 sold, total 43.

Balance: 4

(I get to keep one for myself, yeah? Ed.)

Steve M

* Willesden Herald is an imprint of Pretend Genius Press

Short story competition accounts for 2017 - 2019

2017

This year, I decided if we're having an intro, we should pay for that as all the other items in the book got paid, and so it was only fair. And then we had an intro last year, so I thought I'd better backdate that as well. And I also equalised the treatment for the cover in that regard. Another thing I'm going to do is pay my accountant to do the trading company accounts out of the competition proceeds. There is a reason behind that, in that the competition is almost the only commercial activity I've done this year. I never allowed for accountant fees in past years, when the company was doing other things at the same time (computer programming contracts). So here goes:

In
Entry fees: £2718.84
(445 entries @£7.50 after Submittable commision & dollar conversion)
Books sold: approx £120
(Net on approx 120 books sold, after cost, p&p.)

Out
Prizes: £1225
Commissioned texts and cover. £300
Adverts on Google Adwords: £50
Adverts on Facebook: £90
Supplies: £25 (approx.)
Book setup: £53 ($75)
Ingram catalog fee: £8.50 ($12 p.a. fee)
Books gratis, including prizes (23 x approx £5 inc p&p): £115

Web server (Webfusion): £233
Company accounts 2016/7: £654 (inc VAT - we're not VAT registered)
(I haven't counted this in previous years - could have - but I was doing more other things back then. Also I still will have to pay the accountant for 2017/8 - and I'm going to lose out on that, and I haven't shown that here, as it "hasn't happened yet".)

Totals:
+2838.84
-2753.50
-----------
=85.34

I'm quitting while I'm ahead!

2018

Hiatus - no competition, no book

2019

A new book but no competition, no entry fees, just open and free submission. No sponsorship or advertising materialised, which might have helped with costs. Book published at a considerable loss, very few sales.

Steve M

Update:

2022: We're back with a new short story competition for inclusion in New Short Stories 12.

Competition accounts 2016

The itemised details go to an accountant at the end of the financial year and thence to the taxman etc. Here's a quick overview.

The prize formula said "either (a) half of all net entry fees OR (b) all net entry fees after the first 150 entries,  whichever is the greater, will be divided equally among the ten short-listed." It was (b) that was activated. These go into the accounts of Object Tree Ltd. except where otherwise stated, e.g. PGP below.

In:
Entries 344 @ £5. Proceeds from Submittable after their commission and dollar conversion: £1320
Sold 11 books at the event: £66
"Wine fund" envelope at event: £4
There was no other income or sponsorship in 2016, other than a bottle of Champagne donated.
Total in: £1390

Out:
Prizes £10 x £75 = £750
Book setup + costs for (2 x 10) authors, actors copies (event), judges and helpers copies, approx £220.
Adwords adverts: Approx £40
Performance space for event: £120 (there is a query over this as we were expecting more and it could go as high as £272, according to our records, but only £120 has been invoiced).
Wine: 6 bottles used (out of 12) at about £6.50 each: £39
Bottled water and pretzels: disregard, took most home.
3 WH mugs: (winner, judge and agent) about £40
Total out: £1239 so far, possibly £1361 if Brent council bills the additional items that were quoted.

Further book sales and costs
There are a few books left over for sale from the New Short Stories shop (about 6?).
Proceeds from sales on Amazon, B&N etc go to the publisher Pretend Genius Press (PGP), a registered not-for-profit corporation in Maryland, US.
There is an annual fee to keep the books available in the Ingram catalogue, which is an ongoing cost to PGP on all the back issues.

You can see for yourself, it's just about break even (or a loss really - see update below). If you want to see previous years' details, click on the Accounts link below. Note, there was no competition in 2015.

Update: After reading the previous year's accounts myself, I see I've forgotten to mention the web server costs. These are ongoing at £230 per year (Webfusion now taken over by Heart ISP). That hosts NewShortStories.com but also several other domains. If that's taken into account, we're running at a loss, of course. (Steve)

Competition accounts 2013-14

I want to make this quick, so I'm only going to use round figures here. The accounts are submitted in detail to the IRS as part of my trading company Object Tree Ltd.

The entry fee was £6 this year and all went through Submittable .com, which takes about a dollar per entry. I created the Southernmost Point poetry collection out of the proceeds of the competition, as well as the competition anthology New Short Stories 8. There were 381 entries, resulting in an income of just under £2,000 plus sales of books at the event of £70. Out of that take cash prizes £600, and two books including copies for authors and contributors, which came out at approx £400 each, all told. That's £1400 roughly accounted for. I also paid for my web server, which hosts the websites for Willesden Herald and New Short Stories, out of the money; that's another £270 (Webfusion VPS starter pack annual price). That leaves us with £400. The venue was £45, wine/water/nibbles £65, leaving us with £290. Mugs and p&p take us down to about £200. Although we're in the black this year, this can be balanced against losses in previous years, I think. Only ever wanted to break even and it appears I have done so, or a little better. So that's that. :)

P.S. The accounts for 2012-13 were published in updates under the Kickstarter book project* for that year. Actually I see we were in the black then as well. So that's good. I've spent a fair bit on software that I use and plugins for the WordPress site, which I probably haven't counted, so there's not a lot in it either way. For example I use three plugins from WooCommerce to run the online bookshop and they cost about £20 each. Etc. You can find other previous years' accounts by clicking the accounts tag.

Steve

* Copy of relevant text from the Kickstarter project introduction and updates, for ease of access and in case Kickstarter archives it away:

From Kickstarter project description/introduction:

Here is why we need the money and for what it will be used. First of all a summary and then the detail. I should explain that even though we only really need £400, to get that £400 we have to raise £800 here to cover the cost of the rewards, i.e. the books and mugs, plus shipping. What will we do with the £400? It splits into about £200 to publish the book and £200 to fund the authors' five copies each. That's the summary, now for the detail.

Background 1, entry fees: We had 340 entries this year, at £3.00 making a total of £1020. Less 10% PayPal commission, that left £918. Less prizes, £600, left £318. [Correction 30/3/2013: 340 - 13 unpaid = 327 @ £3 making £981 - 10% = £883, less prizes £600 leaving £283.]

Background 2, website: There were a few incidental expenses but the main other one was when the website had to move to a new server and I paid a year in advance to get the cheaper rate. Even if we hadn't moved, the cost would have been about the same, but we had to "ante up". With the new server comes the latest version of PHP, enabling the rebuilt WordPress-based New Short Stories website. That took away another £200. Together with other incidental expenses - the prize mug etc, somehow or another we are now down to under £100 in the kitty. [Correction 30/3/2013: Have found the difference in 13 unpaid entries (see above). Kitty actually down to under £50.]

To publish the book is not all that expensive, in fact £200 covers what we do, (we set it up for print on demand), but there is also the small matter of 50 copies to send out, five to each of the contributors to the book, plus three more due to friends for helping with the competition. Now that plus postage eats up about £5.50 per book, at cost. There's £290+ right there.

From Kickstarter project updates, in case they archive that away

A rough calculation shows that about £640 + £50 for books for the launch (if and when - see below) has been used out of £830 that I got from Kickstarter after they took their commission. All the figures here are approximate. I just want to get an overview on here, as it makes me feel better about it. It's a big responsibility.

The way I get that total is as follows (all approximate figures, remember): Contributor, designer and judge copies (total 53): £220. Mugs (turned out expensive at about £15 including postage) 12 x 15: £180. Book setup and proof: £100. Individual books x 27 for backers, including postage to me and onward postage from here (very approx. - might be more after some of the distant addresses): £140. 

220 + 180 + 100 + 140 = £640. Plus about 50 for the extra 12 books I added for the launch = £690. 

830 - 690 = £140 left over.

Competition 2010/11 & 2011/12 accounts

We're in the black this year, I think, but only if the venue hire is waived, which it appears it has been.*

Allocation of Kickstarter publishing project funding

I am accounting separately for this to satisfy the backers that the money they put up was used for the purpose intended. The Kickstarter project raised £575.75 after Kickstarter's commission and dollar conversion. One backer has proved uncontactable and so one more book is due if he or she (pen name "Shakespeare" ever comes forward). All other backers have been sent their chosen rewards. In total all but £8 of that has been used up on:

a) Title setup & proof copy
b) Flyers for the launch/results event
c) Author copies (5 x 10) + postage
d) Other contributor copies x 3 + p&p
d) Kickstarter backer rewards + postage
e) Review copy

In accounting I am deducting, i.e. putting back in the value of six copies sold** around the launch time and write off a few sale or return to the local bookshop (no sales, written off) and it all balances out at £8.45 remaining. If anyone wants the exact details, I have it all on a spreadsheet.

Allocation of sponsorship of the results event funding

Similarly, I want to account for the results event sponsorship separately here to show that the money was used as intended. Willesden Green Writers's Group sponsored the results event for £300. Sound and lighting was £258. Wine and snacks were £75 minus a few bottles left over. The venue hire was to be £140, which I have kept in reserve as it appears for the time being that there may be no charge since the space was lent to us by Library Lab, which is already accounted for to the council. However, I have not had a definitive answer on this despite several enquiries. If free venue, we were probably just about on target, i.e. approx £300, after taking away the cost of a few bottles of wine I took home. If not, £140 in the red, carried forward to allocate against the entry fees.

Allocation of entry fees received etc.

The other income was from entry fees, which were 387 x £2.70 after taking away PayPal's 10% commission (average, it varies slightly depending on the exact transaction details), total £1,044.90.

Of that, £600 went in prizes. Then the website with PHP and MySQL used for the competition entry  database costs £17.99 x 12 months = £215.88. The website is used all year round for membership registration etc.

If the council needs paying for the venue, which seems unlikely (see above), another £140 would be for that. Some books went walkies at the results event (one packet of five that was meant for one of the authors and three others). There was income from six copies of the book sold at the results event and shortly after.

Totals for 2011-12

Taking into account everything and carefully not double-counting the Kickstarter items we are either £9.69 in the red or that plus £140 unused, i.e. £131.31 in the black. I have separate spreadsheets for Kickstarter and Overall. Again if anyone needs the gory details, let me know and I can forward them.

Totals for 2010-11

In organising an Accounts tag I see that last year's accounts were never published, or if they were, I cannot see where. Accounts for the other previous years when there were entry fees have been published (see Accounts tag link).

I have last year's spreadsheet here and it adds up to a loss of £383.89. The number of entries and event sponsorship were almost the same as 2011-12 (380 instead of 387 entries, £300 event sponsorship) but we didn't have any money from Kickstarter.

Conclusion

If the £140 is not needed for the venue, which it seems it will not be, I will use that for a Google Adwords campaign promoting the book and the competition. If I'd taken the previous losses as brought forward, we'd still be in the red now. On the other hand without investing in advertising, things might go downhill. Oh the joys of double entry bookkeeping.

Steve

* I have updated and corrected the text of this report several times since first published. The main item I omitted initially was the cost of the web server.

** Profit from sales of books via Amazon go to the publisher, Pretend Genius Press, as also from sales via the PG shop. If books are ordered via Willesden Herald links, a small amount of commission comes back from Amazon to Willesden Herald.

Oh, and finally, in case such things keep you awake all night with worry, this all goes to the Inland Revenue as part of the accounts for my software and publishing company. If I'm ever going to save some tax on the loss, it hasn't happened yet but only due to a technicality because the income is in one year and the expenditure in the next; maybe next year I will. (Steve)

Last year's competition accounts (2009/10)

When we added an entry fee last year, having no sponsor for the prize money, I promised to publish the accounts for the competition.

OUT
Paypal commission: £93
Book setup and buy 36: Approx £200
Event booking (Charles Dickens museum): £206
Prizes: £600
Books for contributors, extra 10 mostly overseas through Amazon, approx: £100
Postage: £18
Wine: £60
Bank charges p.a. (£5 x 12): £60

Web hosting (Pipex Webfusion incl. database and PHP support): (£17.99 x 12): £215.88

Domain registry: £10 approx

Total: £1562.88 (approx.)

IN

Entries: 310 - 16 no pay - 4 test = 290 x 3 = £870

Sale of books at launch: 10 x £10 = £100

Wine fund contributions at launch: £34

Contribution from shared web hosting for WGwg: £25 approx

Amazon Associates commission on book links: £40 approx

Google Ads: £40 approx (not receivable till £60)

Total: £1109.00 (approx)

The inscribed mug is donated by Object Tree Ltd. gratis. Loss therefore in the region of £450 all picked up by Object Tree Ltd, for which I am of course extremely grateful. Thank you Object Tree. Don't mention it Willesden Herald. 

Where we miscalculated badly last year was in the cost of the results event. Thought that was sponsored but it wasn't after all. However friends did help a lot with the organising and running of it. Willesden Green Writers' Group has stepped in to sponsor next year's event, so hopes are high that ends will meet this time.

Of the 36 books bought at cost, most went gratis to contributors. 10 were sold at the launch. 7 authors came to the launch. Several of the contributors (overseas etc.) got their copies sent via Amazon.

I don't get any money from book sales, unless I buy the books at cost and sell them direct, which I could but I don't except for the launch event. Pretend Genius is part sponsoring this year by selling the anthologies and forwarding the entry fee for anyone who wants a free entry with each anthology. The accounts are part of Object Tree Ltd, all audited and submitted to the tax inspectors.

Pretend Genius, the publisher of the anthologies, is a registered not-for-profit organisation in the US.

Willesden Herald does not receive any public money. The organising and reading for the competition are on a voluntary basis. Sometimes if we have helpers they get a WH mug (not the priceless inscribed one). The links at the side of the blog to books on Amazon and Google Ads earn a little money (see above) towards running expenses.

There. I hope that's clear. If there are any questions I will try and answer them. I hope you can see that it's still for the love of the short story. (Ossian)

P.S. About the bank charges. The competition had its own bank account with Lloyds last year, which cost £5 per month. Having seen marvellous offer of free business banking from Alliance & Leicester (now Santander), thought that would be good for the competition account and duly switched over. Unfortunately the small print says that banking is only free if you deposit £1,000 per month. What it really costs is - have you guessed? - £5 per month. Doh! Have since moved it again, this time into main business account so it's "sort of free" now (some months!)

Competiton accounts interim report

I promised to publish the accounts for the short story competition and will do so in more detail later. A rough calculation shows that we are between £200 and £300 in the red.

There is no spare money to promote the book (the term "anthology" is a pejorative, apparently) and there are no sales occurring. The only marketing we have is a sign-up monthly mailshot, which goes to over one thousand people, mostly writers. The money required to run the websites and the mailing list is put in by the Pretend Genius co-op. There is no real sponsorship or subsidy. PG (U.S.) has received a few small donations from generous supporters - thanks. The only money on this side where the competition and New Short Stories are run came from the entry fees. We're still hopeful sales may yet pick up.

Even with some of the top writers and best stories of the year, almost nobody unconnected with the competition wants to order the book. It seems that hundreds, thousands sometimes like to enter writing competitions but the same hundreds are not prepared to buy competition anthologies that they wish to be in.

About ten were sold at the launch on April 10th. Since then still spare capacity on one hand for the counting. [Update April 25^th 2010: About twelve now - signs of life!]

New Short Stories 4 is available for $10 plus delivery from pretend genius store, which is a highly competitive price, compared to cover price of £10 or $15 from Amazon (with free delivery) or other booksellers. You can also order it from any bookshop, as it is listed in Ingrams' catalogue used by them (another cost, by the way, without any corresponding income.)

Books ordered in UK, Ireland and Europe are printed and mailed from the UK, even though the PG shop is in the US. Books for delivery to the US and other parts of the world are printed and mailed from the US. The PG shop uses an approximate costing of the postage and printing costs and offers a generous standard rate to buyers.

The book series has its own website: www.newshortstories.com.

Ossian