Subscribe to blog updates via email »

November 2025 Income Report

January 10 2026 – 06:54pm

November’s revenue was $3,823, down from October’s $5,370. Profits were $2,541, down from October’s $3,595.

Record-low income and profit

12-month income and profits were both record lows again this month. Income over the past year was $55,394, and profits were $26,224.

WANT TO WRITE A BOOK?
Download your FREE copy of How to Write a Book »
(for a limited time)

This is the third month in a row income was an all-time low, and fourth month in a row for profits. Reminds me of the days when I had record highs on these every month for like a year. I guess that’s the way this business goes. Help is on the way.

Dip in book sales income/profit continues

Book sales income and profits are also in lulls. Book sales over the past year were $36,724, which is the lowest since June 2021, when they were $37,540. Book profits have been $17,099, which is the lowest since May 2021, when they were $14,224.

Preview Edition campaign for Finish What Matters underway

The big news right now is that I’m finally running a Preview Edition campaign for Finish What Matters, giving readers a chance to read chapters as they are available, and giving me – after five years – some much-needed motivation to focus on delivering those chapters.

While I still have three of nine chapters to really get to at least completed-draft stage, that I think in reality is more than “67%” done. I have a much better feel for the shape of the book and there are even parts that after alpha-reader feedback may belong in some of those unwritten chapters.

I only ever launch a Preview Edition when, based upon my level of comfort with the subject, and progress in writing, I’m very confident I can deliver the chapters on the timeline outlined. The Preview Edition for me always represents a change in mental focus from somewhat-leisurely trying to figure out the shape of a book to using a bit of good, old-fashioned grit-your-teeth discipline and elbow grease to hold that small part of the ever-changing universe in place long enough to call it done.

As we enter 2026, I’m aware my forecasts in the past for finishing this book have been mostly-wrong. I was 60% sure I’d finish the manuscript in 2023, that jumped to 70% sure in 2024, when I was wrong again, then I held steady in 2025 at 70%. Now I’m upgrading that to 90% (generally my highest, recognizing catastrophes can occur).

While I did not finish the manuscript, as I was confident I would, I made substantial progress. When I made the prediction at the beginning of the year, I merely had an outline and was starting over with a fresh draft. Now I have most of a draft that I could feel pretty good about shipping as-is.

Starting about March, I basically just locked myself in a room most of each day and thought about the nature of finishing, and all that comes along with it – the creative process, cognitive styles, managing resources and risk, self-motivation, facing criticism, and more. It helps that I also meditated an hour a day all year. Combine that with the power of my Zettelkasten and many long conversations with ChatGPT, and I think I’m mostly-done with the richest, most-sophisticated book I’ve ever written – which admittedly will not be for everyone.

Kickstarter-style Shopify widget

This is the first Preview Edition on which I have a Kickstarter-style “goal” widget on the page. As I write this, I’ve made $1,678 in sales, towards my goal of $3,000.

25 days to go, so my fingers are crossed I can get there. I have some potential stretch goals planned for if and when we cross that threshold.

I have 29 backers at this moment, which is neither outstanding nor worrying. I sold 23 copies on the first day of the MMT Preview Edition, and at that time, I was offering a few chapters upon sign-up, and there was only one tier. This time around I’m offering just the introduction, and a few tiers, which could cause people to need to time to think.

To do Kickstarter style on Shopify, I first looked at a bunch of plugins, but they either weren’t impressive, or weren’t impressive and wanted to take a substantial cut of my proceeds. Instead, I used this widget generator from the PreProduct plugin, and modified it with the help of ChatGPT.

“Get it done in Q1,” finishing cohort

A new addition to this Preview Edition is a small-group cohort. I’m going to lead a small group through finishing a project of theirs in Q1. The cohort will consist of three group calls, spaced two weeks apart, and a WhatsApp group.

This will give a few dedicated readers a chance to get personalized help applying the concepts in the book, and it will give me some practice talking about these ideas, and seeing how they work with different personalities and projects.

I’m limiting the group to 8, and the seats are filling up at a pace that makes me about 60% sure I can fill them all.

Lecture series

The finishing cohort will also include attendance to my three-lecture series, each on a section of the book. Again, this will give everyone a chance to absorb the concepts in a different context, and even ask questions on the live broadcast.

Interestingly, even at a much lower price than the cohort, this is selling at about the same pace. I wonder how much hesitation is happening, as people consider which tier they should choose.

So far, the Preview Edition is having the desired effect of lighting a fire under my butt to finish this book. I melted through the draft of the fifth chapter at a much faster pace than prior chapters. It is a great feeling to have five years of work finally bring in some money (please add to the pile!)

Finishing survey

I also recently sent out a survey on people’s attitudes and behaviors around finishing creative projects. The patterns I’m seeing in the responses are fascinating, and will provide strong support for the theories I’m presenting in the book.

I’ve already drawn the Amazon gift card I promised, but if you’re up for taking the survey, please do! I would love to have more responses.

First TikTok income

New on this report is my very first income from TikTok! It’s been a long, long struggle with figuring out region restrictions and then realizing I couldn’t have a Business account if I wanted to earn in their Creator Rewards program.

But now that I’m in the program, I’ve noticed that the videos that are eligible to earn – those at least one minute long – they are very stingy about sending views to. Why bother if there are other videos they can send to for free.

But I did have one that did pretty well, about the origin of the name of the Pringles mascot. I think that video accounts for the majority of the $76 I’ve received.

It’s been interesting to see that the same reels that get like 200 views on TikTok routinely reach around 10,000 on Instagram.

Video reels are still way on the “wildcard” side of the barbell for me, even if there is revenue potential. The revenue potential and odds of revenue are both higher and more secure in finishing my next book.

So I’m trying to limit myself to one reel a week. I’ve built a creative system similar to the one I use for producing Love Mondays emails. It’s doing a good job of helping me avoid getting distracted by new ideas, while still feeling assured that some are still getting the opportunity to succeed.

One reel a week is a pretty agonizing pace for me. I’m trying to also schedule re-runs on some cadence. Perhaps I will be able to increase my production volume. I really hope to once the book is done, because I do feel like a window of opportunity is closing with reels.

Audiobook earnings missing during Spotify switch

It’s worth noting that book earnings are a little artificially low as audiobook earnings shift a bit. Findaway Voices is now InAudio, and Spotify, which used to be accounted for within Findaway Voices, is now its own thing. And it turns out Spotify only reports the streaming revenue quarterly. I can see the streams in one report, but the royalty report so far has nothing. So what may be $30 or $200 for MMT is just not there at all for now.

Income

Book Sales

Misc. Products

Affiliates / Advertising

Reader Support

Services

Expenses

General

Advertising

Hosting

This post is filed under Income Reports.