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July 2024 Income Report

August 30 2024 – 03:51pm

To listen to an audio version of this report, join the Patreon »

July’s revenue was $9,084, up from June’s $3,972. Profits were $5,553, up from June’s $2,006.

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Rebounding revenue/profit

Revenue this month was the highest it’s been since April 2023, when it was $10,064, which also means revenue was the highest it’s been all year.

Profit was also the highest it’s been all year. Last time profit was at least this high was September 2023, when profits were $7,128. Though that was significantly higher.

Twelve-month trailing profit is also on the way up. At $47,103, it’s the highest it’s been since February of this year, when it was $49,093.

$5,553 profit isn’t a huge amount of profit, but I don’t expect this month’s rebounded revenue and profit to be anomalies. This month’s revenue was helped to its higher position by one new product: The Preview Edition of How to Sell a Book brought in $1,029. In August I’ll see a boost in revenue from the Kickstarter campaign for the Journal Prompts Workbook, which brought in $4,101. The debut of the First Edition of How to Sell a Book should soon follow, as well as a paperback edition of the Journal Prompts Workbook. I’m hopeful these new additions to my catalog will introduce some new readers to the rest of my catalog.

Also boosting revenue is a couple foreign rights deals. This month’s revenue includes $2,317 earned for selling English rights to MMT within Malaysia. It costs $30 and slow shipping for someone to get my book in Malaysia, where median household income is about $1,500 per month. The publisher I made a deal with can distribute the book for less than $11 per copy, and get it on shelves of bookstores in Malaysia.

Coming soon should also be a $3,000 payment for translating The Heart to Start into Russian.

Dragging profits down a bit is my first payment to my warehouse, for shipping and handling since March. Since paying that invoice I’ve learned that nearly $50 of that $802 payment was overpaid due to an accounting error. So those expenses belong to orders processed since then.

Also keep in mind I don’t account for agent commissions on foreign-rights deals, for no other reason than it’s simpler that way. But the agent who made the Malaysia deal charges 20%, so that’s substantial. More than $450 of that deal went to commissions for the agent. That feels like a lot, but I’ve personally witnessed this agent instantly get an 80% higher advance than I was able to negotiate on a deal. Dealing with publishers seems to be a racket, whether domestically or abroad.

High direct-sales revenue

This month I had my highest direct-sales revenue in four years! I made $1,399 in direct sales, helped along greatly by the Preview Edition of How to Sell a Book. In June 2020, I brought in $1,780, entirely from the Preview Edition of MMT.

My six-month average share of sales from direct sales still didn’t climb much last month, as the second-highest month since June 2020 slipped out of the six-month window. In January this year, I had made $1,076 in direct sales. My six-month average share of sales from direct sales over the past six months is 16.7%, up from 16.1%.

Ad spend low

My ad spend is low, historically. Over the past twelve months, I’ve spent $16,865 on ads, which is near the record-low. As of November 2020, I had spent $15,453 on ads in the previous twelve months.

The most I’ve ever spent on ads in a twelve-month period was in the period ending November 2019, when I had spent $39,901 in the previous year. At that point, my twelve-month total profit on books was $5,298, a monthly average of only $411. As of this month’s report, over the past twelve months I’ve made $3,237 profit, as a monthly average.

As you can see, I spend on ads more profitably than I used to. In fact, my twelve-month ROI on ad spend is a record once again this month: 230%.

Increasing ad spend (or trying to)

Since I have a record ROI on ad spend, I’d like to see if I can increase my ad spend and try to increase my gross margins. I think the golden age of the sweet spot between ad spend and profits was when I had Prestozon automatically managing a three-campaign structure for me: a Discovery, Research, and Performance campaign for each book.

Prestozon got bought by Helium 10, and now costs way more. But I’ve begun making an attempt at managing campaigns the same way, but manually. If I keep a process checklist and set reminders for myself, I can keep a steady stream of effective keywords and ASINs coming. I could even delegate the management of campaigns.

Amazon Ads malfunctioning

Unfortunately, just after I set up some campaigns for some books and optimized my keywords and ASINs, Amazon Ads started malfunctioning. Some authors in a Facebook group reported their ads receiving no impressions at all. I believe my ads are still running, but I’m not able to see my campaigns nor their performance.

Actually, just as I’m about to publish this, I’ve just been able to see my campaigns for the first time in three weeks. Customer service was slow but they did eventually fix the problem. Crazy to see I spent $1,000 on ads I couldn’t even manage.

How to Sell a Book manuscript finished!

I’ve finished writing the first draft of How to Sell a Book, and Preview Edition customers have now been delivered the entire first draft. This also means I get to do my favorite part of writing any book: Printing it out and going back out into the world to read and edit at a café.

It turned out way thicker than I had expected, in part due to some complications with the print shop. I’ll at least have plenty of scrap paper for my typewriter. It is, however, as long as Mind Management, Not Time Management, so it’s by no means a short book.

I also ordered through BookVault a paperback ARC for myself. Aside from giving me a feel for how the book will look in its final form, I can photograph this paperback for the Shopify store. Unfortunately it got damaged in transit, so touch-up will be a challenge.

Need to make an index

One of the most challenging things of preparing HSB for publish will be creating the index. A detailed index of topics and where to find them will be really useful in such a long book covering so many things in so much detail. I’ve run some experiments, and it looks like ChatGPT isn’t very useful for creating an index, but Claude very well may be. I’ll know more once I get it laid out and the pages of topics within the paperback are settled.

100 Journal Prompts Workbook Kickstarter campaign successful

The Kickstarter campaign for the 100 Journal Prompts Workbook has ended in success. I raised $4,101 from 136 backers. That’s considerably more than the conservative $1,500 goal I set.

As I wrote about the campaign’s progress last month, I was disappointed in the results so far. But this result at the end of the campaign is right within all of my predicted ranges. In May, as I was preparing the campaign, I wrote that I was:

• 50% sure it would earn between $3,000 and $6,000
• 70% sure it would earn between $2,000 and $8,000
• 90% sure it would earn between $1,500 and $15,000

As confidence increases, the potential range widens. So the 50%-confidence prediction is the most precise. To split the middle on that prediction, I’d have to have raised exactly $4,500. So $4,101 is about 10% below that midline. Not bad!

Finally received Kickstarter payout. Rewards on the way!

I didn’t realize until the campaign was over that it takes two weeks to actually be sent the money from a Kickstarter campaign. But, I could see in Kickstarter once backers’ payments had been collected, so at that point I sent out the PDF ebook rewards.

I finally got payment earlier this week, and so have ordered the physical rewards. Anything without a wristband or book plate is being shipped directly from BookVault. Anything with, will be fulfilled from my warehouse. Still a couple more weeks before physical books arrive at their respective destinations.

There are still a few stragglers who haven’t filled out their surveys with address information, so if you’re one of them, fill it out!

Getting organized with pricing promotions

I’m trying to get organized in how I run pricing promotions for books and audiobooks. I’ve begun creating a spreadsheet in Airtable to try to keep track. Creating what I want is proving complicated, so I’ll think it out here.

The first thing this spreadsheet does is keep track of all my Kindle Deal nominations and, once they’re running, my Kindle Deals. In the past I’ve had these deals conflict with BookBub Featured Deals and cause problems. So I want to have a place I can look to see if any books are awaiting selection for any Kindle deals, or if any deals are active.

Next, I want a clear picture of when my books are eligible for BookBub Featured Deals. This is difficult to program in the spreadsheet, because there are a lot of moving parts to whether a book is eligible. Each book can only be promoted once every six months. Once one book is promoted, another book can’t be for at least 30 days. When a book is rejected for a Featured Deal, which is very common, BookBub requests that you don’t apply with the same book for at least four weeks from receiving the rejection.

In the past, I’ve simply applied for a Featured Deal when I thought to, mentally determined when a given book was eligible, and used Boomerang to bring any rejection emails back into my inbox four weeks after receiving them, as a reminder to apply again.

I’m also keeping in this spreadsheet other discount ebook email lists, such as The Fussy Librarian. I haven’t been impressed with other discount lists in the past, but I want to try them again, ideally stacking them with BookBub Featured Deals. These other lists don’t have particularly strict rules about how often a book can be promoted, but some have lower page-length requirements than BookBub’s minimum 100 pages, so books that aren’t eligible for Featured Deals are eligible for these.

I’m also trying to keep track of my audiobooks’ eligibility for Chirp deals, in an effort to expand wide audiobook sales, which I’ll talk about in a bit.

For my one book that is in KDP Select, the Spanish version of WAB, I am trying to keep track of when it’s eligible for Kindle Countdown Deals.

I’d like to have one place I can look to see what promotions I should apply for, and what active or upcoming promotions might conflict with a promotion I’m considering. It’s possible I’m overthinking it, given how few of my books are actually eligible for promotions I know work. But I’m only going to have more of those books into the future, so if I could reduce the mental load of keeping on top of my potential promotions, that would be ideal.

Since beginning to work on this spreadsheet, both MMT and HTS have been rejected both for Chirp deals and BookBub Featured Deals, so that hasn’t done much to make me feel like this spreadsheet is an especially good idea!

Are wide audiobooks a mistake?

As I mentioned, I’m trying to apply to Chirp audiobook deals whenever possible, in an effort to increase my wide audiobook sales. I’m motivated to do this by my realization I’m losing significant money selling my audiobooks wide.

As of the end of last month, Mind Management has made $18,419 through ACX. It’s earned $5,380 through Findaway Voices, and $487 through direct sales.

Since MMT is not exclusive to ACX, it’s earning a 25% royalty rate on those sales, instead of the 40% it could be earning if it were exclusive. So by rough back-of-the-napkin math, that $18,419 could be $29,470. If I subtract from that $11,051 difference the $5,567 I’ve made selling wide, that’s about $5,484 lost.

There are various reasons I might not have lost quite that much. Findaway Voices at one point earned a slightly higher royalty rate on Apple, versus an exclusive contract with ACX. I believe that’s still the case. Also, maybe ACX pushes my audiobook slightly harder since they earn more money than if I were exclusive. Perhaps they even have an internal program to try to cause wide authors like myself to doubt their decisions.

Building wide sales takes time and effort, but MMT has been out nearly four years now. The best way I know to grow wide sales is to get Chirp deals. But MMT and HTS have each been selected only once. HTS has been rejected twice, and MMT eight times. ZET was rejected the one time I applied.

Given that’s been over the course of three and a half years, I should have way more rejections. Like thirty apiece. So I could definitely do something more to get Chirp deals. But with such a high rejection rate it feels futile and rejection isn’t fun. Also, Chirp’s most-relevant category doesn’t inspire confidence: the ultra-vague, “Nonfiction.”

Another thing I can try is advertising direct audiobook sales through Facebook Ads. I’ve started one for MMT, and have so far spent about $79, without a sale. Okay, screw that, I’m turning it off.

I could do more to educate my audience on direct audiobook sales, such as showcasing the BookFunnel audiobook app, and/or putting an audiobook promotion in my welcome sequence. I’ve been giving away the audiobook and ebook free with paper-book purchases, but many customers haven’t even bothered to take advantage.

The only other idea I have for promoting wide audiobooks is I can generate up to 100 redemption codes to listen to my audiobooks free on Spotify. I could do some kind of giveaway, but don’t have a good idea yet on how.

Is the extra work of being a wide audiobook author, and “fighting the good fight,” worth the thousands of dollars I’ve lost? Strangely, I’m leaning on the side of “yes,” as I write this. Maybe that’s because I feel like there are things I could be trying that I’m not yet trying. Maybe I’ll feel differently if I try those things and they don’t work.

Sunsetting “Digital Products” category

I’m trying to phase out the Digital Products category, as I’ve eliminated any promotion of my digital courses and hope to soon eliminate them completely. As a trial this month, I’m just leaving out the category.

Perhaps at some point I’ll make a course again and bring it back.

New on Patreon: Setting up a book on BookVault

This month on Patreon, I’ve shared a bonus screencast showing how I set up a book on BookVault and ordered myself an ARC of the How to Sell a Book paperback.

I’ve been trying to add at least one new piece of bonus content per month over the past several months, just for Patreon supporters. Most have been screencasts. Some other recent additions:

• My carry on travel packing and gadgets
• How I compile book-sales reports as a “wide” self-published author
• How I use Todoist for GTD and Mind Management
• Evaluating foreign-rights opportunities as a self-published author
• Quarantining and Warming Up New Email Subscribers from Facebook Lead Ads
• A tour of my Shopify store & Meta ads

Join the Patreon to get instant access to all these, plus audio versions of these reports. (Join through the website, not the iOS app, to avoid higher fees.)

Income

Book Sales

Affiliates / Advertising

Reader Support

Services

Expenses

General

Advertising

Hosting

This post is filed under Income Reports.