Self-Publishing Income Report: Month 2

Hi there and welcome to the Jenny Bravo Books blog! As a first-time author, I’ve decided to track the first three months of my earnings online for you. Enjoy!

Good morning, friends! As promised, I will be providing a self-publishing income report for my novel, These Are the Moments. July marked my second full month of being a published author, and I still have to remind myself that it's really happening. I wrote a book? People are buying it? What? 

Today, I'm excited to share my numbers with you. There's definitely been a decline since launch, as expected, but I'm excited for the plans I have to boost more sales.

Time to report!

WHAT I DID THIS MONTH

This month has been a month of research. From attending The Self-Publishing Summit to studying Nick Stephenson's blog, I've been educating myself on everything I need to know about self-publishing.

Spent time writing

I've never wanted to be a one-hit-wonder writer. I recently announced plans for a sequel to my novel, and I've also cleaned up my prequel for re-release. It makes sense that with more titles, you have a better chance at creating more profit. Gross, profit is an ugly word. You get my point.

Targeted my keywords on Amazon

Amazon basically operates as one big search engine. When you type a word into the search bar, it provides you with suggestions, just as Google does. When you upload your book, Amazon allows you to select keywords. The more targeted your keywords, the greater chance your book has of showing up on the right lists. For instance, I included mine under "New Adult Clean Romance."

Free book for promotion

According to Nick Stephenson, the key to gaining more readers and traffic involves offering your readers something of value. If you can, offer a free book to capture readers who enjoy your writing. My prequel will be available for free, and I'm also working on another smaller project for free. Give, give, give. That's the key. 

KDP ROYALTIES

Total Book Sales: 16 ebooks

Total KENP Read: 1389 pages

Total Book Royalties: $42.77

This month I decided to enroll These Are the Moments in KDP Select. I've read several articles about the pros and cons of the program, but I decided to try it out for myself. I've yet to run a promotion, but I'm planning to when the prequel is ready for publication.

Here's a chart of this month's sales:

As part of the KDP Select program, members can read your book for free. The royalties are based off of KENP read, which stands for Kindle Edition Normalized Pages. This month, I received 1389 KENP read, which equals about $8.03. Here's a chart for you:

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Createspace Royalties

Total Book Sales: 8 Print Books

Total Book Royalties: $16.96

Oh, print books. I love this post by Ksenia Anske, where she refers to them as souvenirs, as a way to hold onto something you love. While the numbers aren't incredibly impressive, I still love print.

TOTAL AMOUNT EARNED: $59.73

Thoughts on this month

I'm really proud of this month. Selling any books at all is an accomplishment, which makes this is a successful second month to me. It's definitely scary to share this with you, but I received some amazing feedback from last month, and knew I needed to continue. Keep writing. Keep striving.

Discussion Time: What's your best book-selling strategy? How do you find your ideal readers?

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Start Your Own Literary Magazine with Helen Scheuerer

Welcome to #FriendFriday, an interview-style guest post series every 1st and 3rd Friday of the month. Want to be the next interviewee? Send me an email!

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Happy #FriendFriday! Today I'm hosting one of my favorite people in the book biz, Helen Scheuerer! She's a cool Aussie who started her own literary magazine and published my short story in her anthology, Kindling.

Round of applause for Helen!

Here's your intro question. Tell me about yourself in less than 70 words.

Here goes: My name is Helen Scheuerer, I’m a novelist and editor from Sydney, Australia. I’m the Founding Editor of Writer’s Edit – the Online Literary Magazine (http://www.writersedit.com/), and the Editor of our creative writing anthology Kindling (now onto it’s second volume). I freelance for a number of other creative websites and document my own writing process at http://helenscheuerer.com/

You're a blogger, writer, freelancer and Founding Editor of Writer's Edit. Tell us how you got started.

Growing up, I wrote (terrible) novels throughout high school and when it came to university, there was nothing else I could see myself doing. I went about completing a Bachelor of Creative Arts, majoring in Creative Writing and started working as a copywriter for an e-commerce site.

I worked as a writer/editor for two of the biggest Internet start-ups in Australia before I realised that this wasn’t the kind of writing that I had imagined for myself. Realising I needed to run my own show in order to be happy and creative, I quit the copywriting business and while I was traveling in the UK, the idea for Writer’s Edit was born.

Writer’s Edit started as a Tumblr blog – I wanted to test my commitment before launching a fully formed online literary magazine. Turns out, I have plenty of commitment. Because of my work for Writer’s Edit, I’ve also been able to pick up a range of freelance clients that support me while I work on the site and my own fiction.

Let's put you to the test. How did you organize and publish the Kindling anthology? What were the hardest and most rewarding parts?

Wow, that’s a hard one for sure! It was always my dream that Writer’s Edit become a small press. While I love the opportunities that the online world brings (like meeting you for instance!), there’s just something magical about print! Kindling started as a pipe dream that I voiced to our Deputy Editor, Kyra.

It seems like such a long time ago now, but we went about publishing a call-out for short stories, poems and essays and recruiting editors for each category. We edited our shortlisted pieces, compiled the manuscript and got our talented designer, Alissa to create the interior and cover designs. We crowdfunded in order to cover our printing and launch costs.

The hardest (and scariest) part was probably hitting ‘publish’ on the crowdfunding campaign. Sharing your ideas with the whole world and asking for help is no easy task. You open yourself up to judgement and critique, but off the back of that – it’s also the most rewarding part; seeing an influx of incredible support, and usually from a range of people you just don’t expect. It’s such a heart-warming experience. That, and the moment the first box of books arrived at my studio were the most rewarding parts. Seeing the finished product really took my breath away.

If you could be the author of any novel in history, which novel would that be and why? (Stumped you, didn't I?)

Actually, no. :)  This is by far, the easiest of your questions! Cormac McCarthy’s The Road wins this one by a long shot. The one, all-encompassing feeling I have when it comes to McCarthy and this book is awe. Pure awe. I wish I could inspire that same feeling in others.

And finally, before we let you go, what's the best advice you've received and how did it get you here today?

Oh there’s so much I could rattle off here, but what it ultimately comes down to is this: Find out what you love doing, and do that.

Doing what I love has meant putting in more effort, more time and more commitment than I have for any other job. It’s that passion, and commitment to my own goals that’s helped me get where I am today.

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Thanks so much for having me, Jenny!

Self-Publishing Income Report: Month 1

Hi there and welcome to Jenny Bravo Books! As a first-time author, I've decided to track the first three months of my earnings online for you. Enjoy!

It's Monday, people, and I've got a new series for you! You may have seen blogger income reports out there on Pinterest, like this one from food bloggers Pinch of Yum or The Write Life column about freelance earnings, and today I'm staring one of my own.

Whether you're considering self-publishing or not, this post is for every writer out there. Not only can it show you a realistic expectation for your potential earnings, but it can also show you tips and tricks to encourage more sales. Every month, I will try something extra to boost my sales, whether that be blog-oriented improvements, advertising, whatever!

Thank you in advance for the support. Now let's get crackin'.

What I did this month

For this first month, we're looking at sales from May 26th—my launch date—through the end of June. There were plenty of marketing strategies that I used for selling my book, and you can read more about them here, but I've hand-picked a couple of strategies that I feel had the best impact that you can implement for your own promotional use.

Goodreads Giveaway

I've had a Goodreads account for some time now, and once I set up my author profile, I was able to also set up a giveaway for my book. I offered three signed copies of my book and was amazed to see that 632 people had signed up for the chance to win. This was a great way to reach out to people who wouldn't otherwise know about my book.

Netgalley Subscription

Netgalley is an amazing way to get reviews for your soon-to-be-published book, and thanks to my editor, Tanya Gold, I found an affordable way to gain entry. By signing up for a month's subscription through the Broad Universe co-op, I only paid $45 for the opportunity to gain reviews from book bloggers.

Social Media Promotion

And I don't mean the buy my book, buy my book tweets and emails. My main goal on social media and my blog is to be a real person, so that same philosophy applied to promotional strategy. Every step of the way, I've been using the #TATM and updating readers about my book's progress. When it came to launch month, I organized Twitter chats, started posting videos on YouTube, and gave my book away for people to review.

KDP Royalties

Total book sales: 56 ebooks

Total book royalties: $111.06

I chose to sell the ebook version of These Are the Moments on Kindle first, before reaching out to other platforms. I also decided not to use KDP select, which enrolls your book in KDP Unlimited. Learn more about that program here.

Below is a chart of my Kindle sales. I opened up my ebook for preorders, so that's where you'll see the spike at the beginning of the month:

Here's another chart for you of my KDP royalties, per each Amazon website:

CREATESPACE Royalties

Total book sales: 28 print books

Total book royalties: $77.56

Print books are not for every self-publisher. For me, it wasn't even a question. While they might not be the most lucrative of book selling methods, I clung to the romantic notion of holding my book in my hands, and I'm happy I did. I'm now officially in two bookstores—Sundog Books in Seaside, FL and Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, TX— and I'm working on more.

So how did I do? While I sold the majority of my print books through my book launch party, I did sell almost 30 print books in the past month! Not bad for a first timer. Note: my sales from my book launch party are not included in this report as those were sold primarily to family and friends. 

Thoughts on this month

I'm excited about this month's sales. It's interesting to look at the difference between the ebook vs. print book royalties—about $33—and that I sold double the amount of ebooks that I did print copies. Next month's sales will most likely be lower, but I plan to fix my #TATM prequel and release it for sale through KDP. For me, I believe the key to more sales will be more books, but I don't want to rush the process.

Discussion Time: What do you think about the self-publishing income report? Was this helpful to you?

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How to Calculate Createspace Royalties

Amazon's print-on-demand service is pretty baller. (Is it cool that I say it that way? Okay, perfect.) Createspace is a royalty-based program that factors its cost through both fixed and percentage-based calculations. That's fancy language that I'll break down later. 

Previously on the blog, we've talked about overall Createspace tips. Today, we're talking about how to calculate Createspace royalties. When it comes to pricing your book, it's pretty simple. The more a book costs, the more money you receive. I chose to price my book, These Are the Moments at $12.99. As a new author, I was prepared to make less money in exchange for the chance of a broader readership.

Are you ready to calculate your royalty? Let's get started!

Calculating Your Royalty

Let's take this step by step to avoid any confusion. To your left, we have a basic break down of how to calculate your royalty. As stated above, my list price is $12.99, so that's where we'll begin.

I know. This requires some math. You may be thinking, why is it important to calculate my own royalty? They do it for me! Educate yourself, my friend. It's great to have a grip on what you're earning and why. Plus, you'll sound smarter. To your left, you'll see there are three pegs to calculating Createspace's percentage. Let's dive in.

Calculating Createspace's Share

You still with me, so far? Okay, good. First, let's tackle Peg #1 of Createspace's share, Sales Channel Percentage. Note: we're only calculating the standard Amazon.com royalty for this tutorial. Based off the table below, Amazon will take 40% of the book's selling price. For TATM, this would be 40% of $12.99 which is $5.196. Makes sense? Moving on, then.

Okay, for the second peg, Fixed Charges, there are two variables to consider. 1) Is your book black and white or color? 2) What page range does it fall under? In keeping with the TATM tutorial, my book is 348 pages and black and white. This puts my fixed charge on the lower end at $0.85 per book.

Note: Keep this chart in mind when you're writing your book. If you're planning on printing copies with Createspace and it falls close to the 108-110 page range for black and white, weigh your options. Bumping up your page count could produce more profit for you in the long run.

Here's where things get interesting. Depending on the length of your book, there may be a per-page charge. As stated above, These Are the Moments falls at 348 pages, so this charge applies to me. 348 pages x $0.012 turns out to be $4.176. Are you with me? Great.

So what's the smart strategy here in terms of page count? On the one hand, black and white books with under 108 pages have a $2.15 fixed charge, but no per-page charge. My book only has a $0.85 fixed charge, but a $4.176 charge for per-page count.

Here's my assessment: Write what you want to write. Write large books, short stories, novellas, what have you. Test the waters and see what sells. Remember, it's the writing that matters.

The Final Royalty

Math time! We've got this. Back to our first chart: List price - Createspace share = Your royalty. So to calculate the royalty for These Are the Moments, the equation looks like this: $12.99 - (5.196 + $.85 + $4.176) = $2.77. 

Thanks for reading this tutorial! To find more about your own royalty, visit the Createspace site.

Discussion Time: Have you tried to calculate Createspace royalties for your book? Are you considering POD services?

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The Cost of Self-Publishing a Book

Concerned about the cost of self-publishing a book? Read the break-down below!

Unlike traditional publishing, self-publishing requires an investment of your own money up front. But how much money, exactly? And does more money equal a better product? I asked myself these questions as I researched for These Are the Moments. After reading this post by Ksenia Anske, I decided it was a route I could afford.

When it comes to the cost of self-publishing a book, the good news is that you control your own spending. You have the power to shop around for the best, more cost-efficient editors and cover designers. You are the one steering this self-publishing ship, my friend.

Here's a breakdown of self-publishing costs:

DEVELOPMENTAL EDITING COSTS

There are several types of editing to explore for your self-published novel. Personally, I hired a developmental editor — more on that here — as well as a proofreader. My editor, Tanya Gold, offers a couple choices for developmental editing.

A full manuscript review involves notes in the margins and is generally more expensive. There are also evaluations, which involve an overall plot analysis, written up in ten pages or so. I chose to pay for a developmental review of the first five chapters, as well as an evaluation of the rest of the novel.

So what does this mean? What price are we looking at? Editing can cost you anywhere from $500 to $2500. It's typically based off a rate per page or per word. I was on the lower side at approximately $1100.

Is editing worth the price? Absolutely. Especially for your first novel. Yes, beta readers are available for directional purposes. Yes, you can get away without an editor. But if you want your book to be great, you need guidance.

PROOFREADING COSTS

Proofreading is on the lower spectrum of self-publishing costs and is often bundled with developmental editing. Tanya helped me find my proofreader, Miranda Martin, and I was happy with the pricing.

What price are we looking at? This type of editing also involves a per word/per page pricing. I paid around $700 for this service, and it cost anywhere up to $1,000. Again, this depends on the length of your novel.

COVER DESIGN COSTS

This is where you get to have some fun. I highly recommend using a service like Reedsy — which doesn't cost anything — in order to find the perfect designer for you. Read more on finding a freelance cover designer here. I loved my experience working with Kisscut Design. Natalie does amazing work and I couldn't have asked for better results.

What price are we looking at? The type of design affects the price. If you're looking for illustrations, that can cost more. As an illustrated cover, mine was on the lower end of the money spectrum at $1,000. Cover design costs anywhere from $500 to several thousand dollars. Prices increase if you're looking to include interior illustrations.

FORMATTING

You might not have thought about this aspect of self-publishing. When it comes to making your book look like a book, you need interior formatting. This can cost around $250, but if you want to DIY, I recommend it.

What price are we looking at? I purchased a Book Design Template and organized my text in InDesign. I loved the process of assembling a book on my own, and it only cost me $75. If you don't feel comfortable with this method, hiring someone is always a good option.

PRINTING

I chose to print my book through Createspace — more details on how to do that here — so the cost was minimal. This is a print on demand service and pays around a 60% royalty fee. If you use a different service for print, please comment below with your costs!

What price are we looking at? I paid $5 for a print draft, and then I spent money to purchase copies for my book signing. This ran about $5 per copy as well.

Discussion Time: What are your thoughts on the cost of self-publishing a book? Tell us your costs below!

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