Self-Publishing Income Versus Outgo.

It's time to talk about the thing I hate most - Income versus Outgo.  What I've made versus what I've spent. 

As you might have guessed, I keep it all in a spreadsheet.  Every time I spend money on the writing business, I put it in there.  And every time I make money from the writing business, I put it in there.  Of course, since I hate looking at this, I hadn't then taken those incomes and outgoes and transferred them to the sheet that does the math on it all since last January. I did that on Saturday, so I figured I'd share the results with you here today.

At first glance, the income and the outgo nearly match with income coming out a little ahead.  This is because for 'incoming', I also put down any money I've contributed to the process from other non-writing sources.  The reality of 'sales' versus 'outgo' is the depressing part.  The reality of it is that I am $8K in the hole.


:shrug:  That's the reality of this self-publishing thing I'm doing.  Some writers have it better.  Some have it worse.  I expect a lot of writers are about the same.

Okay, so how does outgo/sales break down by year?

2015: -$4958.94 / $1357.92
2016: -$2079.18 / $786.15
2017: -$1525.56 / $318.92
2018: -$2329.14 / $627.53
2019: -$428.00 / $468.80

On the upside, last year is actually showing in the black by like $40. 

I won't bore you with the actual 'by book' numbers.  The book I've made the most money on is Dying Embers.  I assume because this one has been out the longest and my first year was my best year.  The book I've spent the most on is Wish in One Hand - because I had to do the cover art twice and I spent a huge sum on the first cover.  The book that is closest to being in the black is Accidental Death.  Another $100 in sales without spending any more on it and it'll have paid for itself. 

Of course, I've spent $300 on two books that aren't even out yet - covers for Ugly and the Beast and Cinder Ugly.  Maybe I'll start recouping some of that in the first half of this year.  We'll see.  I'm still playing with the idea of publishing those without sending them through the editor.  If I go with the editor, add another $400-$500 to each of those.

So, there are the hard numbers for my first five years of publishing.  Like I've said before, if you're in this for the money, you'll probably be sorely disappointed.  Then again, maybe you'll break out and soar.  Your mileage will probably vary.  Good luck out there and may 2020 be a better year for us all.

And here's the point where you can ask questions.  I'll answer them if I can.

SCIU Sale Wrap-Up

As the year progresses with no new books to show for it, the sales get weaker and weaker, so I probably shouldn't expect much.  You need to be constantly putting forth new material.

Anyway, I said I'd share the results of the latest sale, so here we are.

First, an update on last month's OUAD sale.  It finally made enough money to pay for the ad I placed.  And with page reads still coming in, I'm ahead a little.

Now, the SCIU sale.  It ran from the 10th through the night of the 16th.  Dying Embers was 99c, Fertile Ground and Early Grave were $1.99.  I placed an ad with Bargain Booksy that ran on the 12th for DE ($55).

As of this morning, I sold just under 36 copies of DE, 5 copies of FG and 5 copies of EG.  I'm still seeing page reads, but the hope of actually paying off the ad is slim.  Which kind of blows but like I said, not unexpected. 

Overall, I'm still ahead on ad revenue, showing a 8.91% profit.  $271 spent on ads.  $297.50 earned off ads.  That'll change a little as the month progresses and page reads continue to come in, but not in any major way.

I didn't keep track of rankings this time.  At one point, DE made it into the 300s in its genre specification and into the teen-thousands in overall books.  Not quite enough to effect sales greatly. 

Prior to the ad, I had no sales this time around.  I fell down on the job of pushing on FB.  That may account for lower sales from the ad because the rankings of all three books were so poor when the ad came out.  I made a pretty, new graphic that seemed to get a lot of Likes on FB, but didn't really equate to more sales. 

Could be that because one of my pre-ad push days was Sept 11th the pre-sales fell apart.  It wasn't really a great day for book buying or looking at ads.  But when I set my sale dates, it wasn't even on my radar.  My mistake. 

Anyway, live and learn. 

Not sure what lies ahead for marketing this year.  I have sales penciled in for October, November, and December.  Whether I'll be able to advertise remains to be seen.  Gotta make money to spend money to make money... Ad infinitum.

As for overall sales for the year, I just passed the 400 books/$400 mark.  Not sure if I'll pass last year at this rate, but I've already passed 2017, so this won't be my worst year ever.  That's gotta count for something.

And that's it.  Any questions?