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LewisLeVal Regular user 131 Posts |
I feel I should add performance art to the above list, as that too came from those unwilling to ride the same waves. As performance artists ourselves, we too should break free of the box, whilst simultaneously realising there is no box.
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Howie Diddot Inner circle San Francisco & Los Angeles California 3288 Posts |
Quote:
On Aug 11, 2019, Philemon Vanderbeck wrote: A few of these 12 year old kids exposing tricks on YouTube have budgets larger than Copperfield; they make enough money on there YouTube channel to purchase expensive tricks for the express purpose of exposing the secrets to subscribers |
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Philemon Vanderbeck Inner circle Seattle, WA 4694 Posts |
Quote:
On Jan 8, 2020, Howie Diddot wrote: Really? Citation needed. I think you miscomprehend how much money most YouTubers make.
Professor Philemon Vanderbeck
That Creepy Magician "I use my sixth sense to create the illusion of possessing the other five." |
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IAIN Eternal Order england 18807 Posts |
Https://naibuzz.com/much-money-davie504-......t-worth/
Davie has just over 5million subscribers... Slap like now...
I've asked to be banned
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Howie Diddot Inner circle San Francisco & Los Angeles California 3288 Posts |
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WitchDocChris Inner circle York, PA 2614 Posts |
Howie, that article is from 2018. Last year YouTube made several changes to their monetization policies that have dramatically affected how much money can be made.
While the 'top earners' on YouTube are definitely bringing in unbelievable amounts of money, I don't know if any of the exposure channels are anywhere near those numbers. Then again, I also don't know any of them so I can't check. But there's a site called SocialBlade that will give you a very rough estimate of how much any particular channel makes.
Christopher
Witch Doctor Psycho Seance book: https://tinyurl.com/y873bbr4 Boffo eBook: https://tinyurl.com/387sxkcd |
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Howie Diddot Inner circle San Francisco & Los Angeles California 3288 Posts |
My last post was to reply to Vanderbeck’s post that I was miscomprehending The amount of money that can be made on YouTube my kids.
The YouTuber kids revealing secrets are not making millions, but they are making more than enough money to buy the expensive tricks and reveal how it’s done; that was the point of my first post I did further research and here is 2019’s YouTube millionaires https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/......5f0538cd |
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WitchDocChris Inner circle York, PA 2614 Posts |
Those YouTube channels are irrelevant, though. They're almost all gamers, but certainly none of them are exposure channels.
Find an exposure channel and plug the username into here: https://socialblade.com/ - that gives you a rough estimate of how much they could be making. If it's not a fairly high number you can rest assured they are not going to spend hundreds on a gimmick just to expose it. Side note, they also basically never read so books are generally safe. And while I appreciate that it was probably hyperbole, absolutely none of them are anywhere near Copperfield.
Christopher
Witch Doctor Psycho Seance book: https://tinyurl.com/y873bbr4 Boffo eBook: https://tinyurl.com/387sxkcd |
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ringmaster Inner circle Memphis, Down in Dixie 1974 Posts |
One hundred fifty dollar books by people I've never heard of, the new normal
One of the last living 10-in-one performers. I wanted to be in show business the worst way, and that was it.
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Socrates Regular user 197 Posts |
Magic and mentalism is a commercial venture for some. The latest and greatest appeal to the masses. With your own vision and imagination you can walk a different path. Grab all of the basic, and I mean basic, books on magic, learn the simple stuff, develop your people skills and learn on the job... start small, work your way up - experiment in real life and you'll save yourself a ton of money.
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mindhunter Inner circle Upstate NY 2280 Posts |
Quote:
On Aug 12, 2019, IAIN wrote: I couldn't agree more, Iain.... SWITCHCRAFT is extremely undervalued, monetarily speaking. (For those that READ it, it is valued highly.) I've been offering my eBooks, below in signature, for a pandemic-pricing-discount and I wondered if people thought the same thing: "Oh, only $10 bucks? Must not be any workers in there....)..... Bryn
Bryn D. Reynolds, Author of:
"The Safwan Papers" & "The LOGAR Scrolls" Mentalism ebooks - PM any interest. My artwork: https://darkmountainarts.com |
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Luke Jonas Regular user Yorkshire UK 191 Posts |
I think it depends on what you are getting for your money? if there is something within a $150 dollar book which you can use and have as part of your set pieces then it will pay for its self ten fold!
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Mark_Chandaue Inner circle Essex UK 4187 Posts |
As my latest book is $150 and you may not have heard of me I would say that a lot of books are underpriced if they contain real world tested material and decent advice rather than untested pipe dreams that don’t actually work in practice. This isn’t a huge market and a huge amount of effort goes into writing a book not including coming up with the effects, testing and refining them and building the experience to be able to produce something worth reading.
A decent sized book is going to be between 80,000 and 120,000 words. To produce a 100,000 word book you are likely to write about 180,000 words unless you are a very experienced and efficient writer. During the editing and restructuring process a lot of the fluff will be cut out. The editor will likely want paying. Then of course you need to get all the illustrations in place which needs a whole bunch of planning. If you have 100 illustrations you can expect to take 300 photos to get the illustrations just right. The photographer may want paying. These then need to be converted into illustrations by an artist who will very likely want paying. Then you need several rounds of proof reading. Proof reader way want paying. You also need the covers designed, ideally by an artist/graphic designer who may want paying. Finally once you have a print ready file it needs to go to the printers who will need paying if you are producing a quality book rather than using a digital print on demand service. From typing the first word to sending a print file to the printers is a long slow and often expensive process. For example, I started writing Harpacrown Too in 2016 and it has finally gone to the printers. Of course I wasn’t sat in front of a word processor for all of that time but hundred of hours were spent working on the book with some chapters going through several rewrites before being considered good enough. Once you have stock in hand there is no guarantee you will sell a single copy let alone break even. Assuming you sell some the early reviews will determine whether the book will be a success or will bomb. In order to make it a success you are likely to need to wholesale it to Murphy’s for around 40% thus doubling the amount you need to sell to break even. If it is a good book that proves popular you can expect to break even within a reasonable time but your full return can take years. It isn’t as simple as Produce 1000 copies at $ $150 = $150,000 and skipping to the bank. A more realistic return is $60,000 less costs, less damaged copies, less promo/review copies, less gifts. That $60,000 may be spread over several years. Harpacrown was released in 2016 and is almost sold out in 2020. So from typing the first word to selling all the stock could be 8 years. Spread that $45,000 or so potential profit over 8 years and it doesn’t seem like such a big return. Reducing the price doesn’t really increase the number of sales but it does increase the speed at which you sell them. I have almost exactly the same number of softback Harpacrowns left as I do hardback despite them being over 50% cheaper. However I got down to the last 30 softbacks a long time ago it just took a year or more for the Collector's edition to catch up. You may infer from this that a good quality book is written out of love, and possibly a desire to leave some form of a mark rather than for the money. To quote Frank Zappa ... “You could make more money as a butcher”. Mark |
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Matt Pulsar Inner circle 1130 Posts |
None of this is as simple as some are trying to make it. There are many books on mentalism that could charge a lot more. I don’t equate it to the sales of magic trinkets. I don’t equate the price of a great mentalism book to a magic book. And let’s say you write a great book of mentalism and put it at a price under a hundred bucks? I give it a month of sales at best before the bootlegs kill the sales and mercilessly steal from the creator. It happens in the most trusted groups and makes me feel like magicians can be the lowest scum to their own brothers and sisters. It’s complicated and not a case of too many releases or too many mentalists or whatever simplification lens you want to see it through. And then on the other side of the coin penguin might sell you a video of Osterlind or other great minds in the mind art teaching some of the best secrets we have for five to ten bucks.
Let’s keep our secrets to those that show them the love and respect they deserve. Let us also honour those who create beauty and mystery that we use and make our livings with. Always find a way to support the creators directly if you can.
Belief Manifests Reality.
Nebula CT: https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/8517 |
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Mark_Chandaue Inner circle Essex UK 4187 Posts |
Dang you replied before I had a chance to do the 5 or so edits my posts usually take due to my dyslexia.
Mark |
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Martin Pulman Inner circle London 3399 Posts |
Most people seem to have completely misunderstood the point I was making in my first post -which is doubtless my fault.
A lot of Mentalism products were priced at a premium back in the day because you were getting hugely restricted access to rare knowledge. Rarity has value. Since then, the market has been flooded with "mentalism" products. The rarity value has gone. The restricted nature of the knowledge is gone. I wish all of the above wasn't true. I wish mentalism's secrets had remained out of reach of "the merely curious". I wish premium quality books and lecture notes only being intermittently released by the masters of their craft -mixed in with the occasional stinker -was still the norm. But that isn't what has happened. It isn't to denigrate anyone's work, but as there is no longer a rarity value -compared to other magic products -the premium should really no longer apply. But obviously people are free to charge what they think their work is worth. Hope everyone stays safe in these strange times. |
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WitchDocChris Inner circle York, PA 2614 Posts |
I would say that quality, actual mentalism, is just as rare as it always has been
Christopher
Witch Doctor Psycho Seance book: https://tinyurl.com/y873bbr4 Boffo eBook: https://tinyurl.com/387sxkcd |
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Socrates Regular user 197 Posts |
Mentalism is a state of mind isn't it?
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ElliottB Inner circle 3250 Posts |
I came across this thread, and noticed the side topic of magic exposure on Youtube. Nowadays, even respected professional magicians are exposing professional grade secrets on YouTube. The Masked Magicians of old no longer bother wearing masks. An average layman, curious about how a trick is done, is not likely to spend money to find out. But he will certainly watch a free Youtube video. I don't really understand why Magicians expose on Youtube, but it seems to be a trend. I am starting to feel like a cranky old man. Back in my day, we used to walk five miles uphill in the snow to learn a magic trick!!
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Mindpro Eternal Order 10586 Posts |
All for self-serving purposes and ego. This is the result of losing from a me-perspective.
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