A producer puts in all this hard work into making a video and NO ONE buys it. Not even his best customer.

Does this happen?

yep, it's rare for me but it does happen occasionally. Generally no apparent reason. Same setup or same girl sold well before or after. I guess the stars just didn't line up right on a few clips.

Not so far. Some sell less than expected, some surprise me, but never none

I'm new to selling WAM media (but not new to selling media per se). I concur with Candy in my experience so far, and, as Soundguy (a very experienced producer and seller) attests, there can be a miriad of factors determining sales - or not - and no less mystifying at times, even given vast experience.

I went in with a fairly realistic, even pessimistic, attitude to sales from what I understood - but ended up with two titles in the top seller list for about 6 weeks from the off, effectively paying for all the media I'd produced. At the same time, however, one or two others have sold only a handful!

It is a very risky business to have a lot invested in. I'm lucky that my model is also my partner so she gets paid from sales in retrospect. Plus, we also enjoy doing it from a creative perspective. I do feel for the commercial producers who have all sorts of costs and model fees to recoup each time because even given success, the numbers and revenue generated are generally still not colossal.

I am surprised Rich has not weighed in.

(Or MG for that matter.)

All of my video scenes have sold, though some have sold far more than others. Looking over the back catalogue, there are a few photo only scenes that haven't sold - some of them had rather out of date pricing. Just dropped all of them to $4. Figuring what will work well is definitely something that comes with practise.

Well, we might be the exceptions (although I don't know). MG isn't gonna be as open about her stats as I will, I suspect.

Without getting into specific numbers: I treat this as a business. And it needs to be profitable. So I *will* pay a high rate to a model who's worth it... Or pay more to use real Cool Whip or good crusts versus all shaving cream, for instance... But those are investments. And "bad sales" for me = Lousy return on investment, which equals "breaking even." (Because let's be real here... I probably invest 40 hours into each scene between writing it, setting it up, shooting it, cleanup, production, editing, rendering, and promoting. Would you want to work 40 hours a week and get paid nothing??)

In other words, if I'm losing money on ANY scene, I'm seriously questioning what went wrong. And TBH, it almost never happens. (I think Wig-Gate might've been the first one. UGH.) Mostly that's because I've been doing this a long time, and I'm careful with my costs, and my sales were pretty good from Day One. (I made my entire initial investment back after SS01... Released only on VHS!! ) Not bragging, just giving you my perspective.

So when a scene has "disappointing sales," that's my way of saying it's taking a long time to turn profitable. And (nearly) all get there eventually, but again... If your business is barely turning a profit, it's not really a business anymore. It's a hobby. So I can't really sustain SlapstickStuff unless at least SOME scenes are "really profitable" and make up for the other ones. (Basically, just like a Hollywood studio. You can afford a bomb like Zoolander 2 if you also release a Deadpool. And yes, I know, different studios but....)

Or short answer: No. And even single digit sales after one week make me seriously rethink whether to shoot with that particular model again.

Some do a lot better than others, but none can come close to my wrestling, face sitting and tape bondage scenes. Either way, it is always an investment shooting WAM, so I only shoot clips I want to see, and customs people order.

Not bragging, but I would say that 99% of our shoots show a profit or break even. The key for us is our blockbusters shoots that make up for any possible slow sellers. And like Rich said, it's the same formula as the movie studios.

Yes, but in fairness... When you were last making new videos I could cover $600 worth of start-up costs by selling 4 scenes on a VHS tape for $25.

Never had a scene that I filmed that sold zero copies, thank goodness, or even single figures.

However equally most haven't broken even..yet. Some already have tho, and I think all of them should, in the end, given time.

I have absolutely no understanding of why some scenes sell 6 x more than others..I only wish I knew.

William Goldman said about Hollywood 'Nobody knows anything' and that seems to be true for the WAM Fetish too