Category: Publishing

Taking Inventory of books – what does that have to do with being an indie author?

If you’re indie, that means you’re self-publishing. That means you print your own books. That means at the end of the year you have to file taxes–and tell the IRS about your inventory.

Who cares? You do, if you’re an author. And you do, if you’re a reader, because ultimately you pay for all the author’s inventory.

In this blog post, I provide you a spreadsheet template you can use to inventory your products, books or anything else.

Taking Inventory – the interesting part

The interesting part is that you can save money if you’re an author. And you can pass those savings on to your readers in the form of cheaper books, or better promotions.

And of course, this applies to non-authors too–anyone who sells stuff has to track their inventory.

Another good feature is you’ll have accurate information to give to the taxman. I assume you want to avoid penalties for errors.

For more interest, check out my latest review:

The Dark Forest

by Liu Cixin (Goodreads Author),

Feb 22, 2022  · it was amazing

bookshelves: dystopian, science-fiction

Author Liu Cixin follows up his first novel, ‘The Three Body Problem’ with another, just as good. Most of the characters from the first novel are dead, except the rude policeman Da Shi. The novel covers two hundred years after the announcement of the coming alien invasion from Proxima Centauri star system.

The novel begins with the four Wallfacers, people chosen to fight the aliens and who are given dictatorial power and resources. The aliens monitor all earth communication and technology development and thwart any progress in physics through directly affecting particle accelerator output. The Wallfacers, keeping their thoughts and plans to themselves, can surprise the aliens.

But that’s just the beginning. Multiple characters leap forward in time through hibernation to two hundred years later. The Wallfacers emerge with no fame or power. Their whole effort has been superseded with spectacular technical advancements. The Earth has built a fleet of two thousand ships, all faster than the invaders’ ships and armed with gamma ray lasers and fusion bombs.

But everything is not as it seems. The fleet advances to intercept an alien probe sent on ahead.

That’s when the action really begins.

You must read this book. It has more twists than the first one.

Andy Zach‘s review

Taking Inventory – the Template

Here are the fields I have and how I use them:

• Date – When the transaction takes place. What transactions? Buying, selling, giving away, returning books, and putting them on consignment at stores.
• Quantity – How many books are involved?
• Cost per book – When you divide the quantity of books by the purchase price.
• Shipping cost – The total shipping cost for the order.
• Sales tax – the total sales tax for the order.
• The total cost of the order – everything above summed together.
• Description of the book order, sale, gift, return, or consignment inventory.
• Discount – any discount you received from the book printer.
• Cost per book – the total cost divided by the number of books.
• Print books sold – total quantity sold for that day.
• Books given – total books given for that day.
• Consignment inventory – books put on consignment at a store for that day.
• On hand, ending inventory – the number of books on hand at the end of that day.
• Ending inventory value – the total value of the remaining books
• Onhand inventory value change – the change in value from the previous day to this one.

Got questions so far? Then ask me here! Or you can email me at andyzach@admin.

Finally, you can download my spreadsheet right here.

Some Inventory ‘Gotchas’

What can go wrong?

1. You can lose track/not record your sales.
2. Or, you can lose track/not record your gifted books.
3. You can lose track of your consignment inventory
4. When you reorder books, the prices can and do change. If you don’t reflect that in your spreadsheet, your dollars spent won’t match what you’ve sold and given away.

These are all mistakes I’ve made.

The solution is to record your sales and gifts immediately and multiple times. When I sell a book, I make a slash in my notebook under “ZT ZD MUM PP Oops SS or VV”, like this:

• ZT lll
• ZD ll
• MUM l
• PP l
• Oops ll
• SS llll
• VV llll

At the same time, I’ll fill out a receipt for the customer. At the same time, I’ll update my sales spreadsheet when I get a chance. So I have 3 records to cross check myself.

This covers cash sales. For credit card, I use Square which gives another check on my sales.

Taking Inventory – Get a Free Book

I’ve got two ways for you to get a free book right now.

First, tell me your ideas, things I haven’t covered. Click right here.

Secondly, you can get a free book through my book newsletter. Click here.