Self-Publishing Income Report: Month 3

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!

self-publishing income report

It's reporting time! The August Numbers are in. The polls are closed. {Insert another phrase that deals with money.} Another month of being a published author has come and gone, so here I am, in my sweats, writing a fun post for you.

What's new this month? Well, I've been balancing two projects at once, and it's been. . . interesting. The prequel, Those Were the Days, is fixed and pretty, almost ready to hit the virtual shelves. The TATM mini-book from Simon's perspective is heading to editing next week. So basically, I'm telling you that I wrote stuff and you can read it soon. The end. 

Onward to the numbers!

What I did this month

Started live-streaming

There's a fancy new app called Periscope that allows you to chat on the go with your audience. If haven't joined yet, hop on the bandwagon, my friends. Authors and creative entrepreneurs are sharing amazing content there. For my part, I'm sharing writing tips and novel secrets. Download the app here and follow @blotsandplots.

Chained myself to the keyboard

Again, I found myself in the #TATM tent, writing and editing away. In August, I made a big life change by moving back home to Louisiana, so I've found that I now have extra free time to work, which is awesome! Anyway, books, books, books.

Ran my first book promotion

Technically, this happened in September, but you can read this post about how I sold 43 books in a single day. Go #TeamTATM go!

KDP Book Royalties

Total Book Sales: 7 ebooks

Total KENP Read: 2383 pages

Total Book Royalties: $28.81

This month, a good majority of my book sales came from the KDP Select program: $12.25. Here's a chart of my sales below:

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And here's one of the KENP read:

self-publishing income report

Createspace Royalties

Total Book Sales: 3 print books

Total Book Royalties: $8.31

Dear owners of the above three books, thank you for making print books happen. I secretly root for you, my friends.

Total Amount Earned: $37.12

Thoughts on this month

Let's keep the ball going, gems and gents! Now, it's time to focus on promotion. Making new friends. Supporting my self-published besties like Rachel Del and Kristen Kieffer {get her workbook here.} 

Discussion Time: Where are you spending the most time in your writing process? Promoting? Creating new content? 

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The #1 Secret to Writing Faster and Saving Your Time

Let's be honest. We're wasting our time. How many times do you catch yourself mindlessly scrolling through Instagram? How many times do you lock yourself away to "write," only to spend hours checking your email or reading Buzzfeed articles or you name it. 

Guess what, friends? There's hope for all of us. With one simple strategy, you can up your writing game and save time while you're at it!

Curious yet? Let's get the party started.

First, a Story

When I began writing my novel, These Are the Moments, I found myself getting distracted really easily. I'd check my phone or click over to Pinterest, and before I knew it, there went thirty minutes of precious writing time. I knew that if I planned to complete my novel in the next century, I needed a game plan.

First, I eliminated my distractions by writing on paper. Still, I found myself reaching for the phone. That's when I started to pay attention. Whenever I felt stuck or bored in a scene, I would avoid writing by hopping onto my phone or social media. Instead of writing my way around the problem, I avoided it completely.

Truth Talk: Take a moment to really think about your writing habits. Do you evade or attack? Leave your answers in the comments below.

Second, a Solution

Through Twitter, I discovered a writing strategy that saved my career and my time, and today, I'm here to share it with you. It's called a word sprint. Also known as a word war or a write sprint. The idea behind this concept is that you write as much as you can without stopping for a set amount of time.

What's so special about this technique? This technique teaches you how to crush your inner editor. Because you are aiming for a high word count, you are able to write freely without pause and keeps you from hitting the delete key. Also, it's a race against the clock, so you're tricking yourself into writing faster.

Practice Time: Let's start with a quick, five minute sprint. Set your timer, have a scene in mind, and write, write, write!

Third, a community

By now, you probably realize that you're on the Jenny Bravo Books blog. If you're new here, hello and welcome! If you're a regular, I'm thrilled and I think you're pretty. This blog is for you, my friends. If you ever have a blog post suggestion or a question, I'm just a hop, skip and an email away.

Here's why you should join our community. We like confetti, first of all, because we are party people. Also, we hang out on Twitter.  But mainly? We support each other. 

Discussion Time: What's your biggest time waster? What's your secret to writing faster? 

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Start Your Writing Career in Less Than Fifteen Minutes

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Happy Monday, writer ladies and gents. Are you looking to take your writing hobby to the next level? Are you ready to start your writing career? Today, I'm going to help you boost your writing game and help you embrace your new career, in less than fifteen minutes!

First of all, we should define writing career. Maybe you imagine James Patterson or Stephen King, the kind of writer who can afford to stay home and make a permanent income from their books. Maybe you imagine the write-by-night artist, the one who balances a day job with novel-writing.

Here's a definition I'd like to use: a writing career begins the moment you decide to take yourself seriously as a professional writer. A writing career is not defined by the quantity of books you've written, the amount of money you make or the number of readers you've gained. 

Excited, yet? Let's start your writing career in less than fifteen minutes...

Define Your Goals + Embrace Your Identity

estimated time: 5 minutes

To start off, I want you to imagine yourself as a writer. You are not an aspiring writer or a future novelist. You are a writer. There's something to be said about owning your title, and with that ownership comes a sense of pride and confidence. You can read more about this over here.

Once you've got that down, we need to define your goals. At this step, I want you to focus on your broad, long term goals. Ask yourself the following three questions and write down your responses:

1. What is my definition of literary success?

2. What am I willing to sacrifice to make more time for writing?

3. What am I most excited about my new writing career?

Now that you've defined your own vision for your writing career, we can begin the writing part of this process.

Brainstorm Your Next Project

estimated time: 7 minutes

If you're ready to start your writing career, then you are ready to start your first project. Maybe you're the kind of writer who has started and stopped novel after novel. Maybe you're the kind of writer who is scared to make the big leap into novel-writing. Maybe you're just plain stuck. Are you looking to start a novel? Be sure to check out this post next. 

More than likely, you're stuck in one of two camps. Camp one: You have one good idea that you can't make work. Camp two: You have too many ideas that you can't choose. First, let's take a few minutes to pick your path.

CAMP ONE

1. What do you like about your project idea?

2. What's keeping you from making it work?

3. Would you rather revive or abandon your project?

CAMP TWO

1. List your ideas down in bulleted form.

2. Circle the top three ideas that excite you the most.

3. Of the top three, which idea do you feel is the best suited for your style + time?

Remember, this project is not written in stone. Writing is a fluid art, and you never know where it may lead you. 

Get Writing, My Friend

estimated time: 2 1/2 minutes (we said less than 15, remember?)

For this last step, I'm going to give you a couple of options:

1. Start writing, right now. If you're feeling up to it, spend the next 2 1/2 minutes writing as fast as you can. I bet you can't stop yourself once you've started.

2. Build a writing schedule. Maybe you need organization to get your best work done. If that's the case, read this post on five ways to schedule your writing time.

And there you have it! Three steps to start your writing career in less than fifteen minutes. For more exclusive writing tips, be sure to join the mailing list. Sign up in the sidebar. 

Discussion Time: Where are you in your writing career? How can you use these tools to reach your goals?

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An Open Letter to My Book's Readers

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Dear reader,

You're looking lovely today. Your hair's doing that shiny thing and your eyes are brighter than normal people's eyes and maybe it's time I just compliment the heck out of you. Is that okay? Splendid.

Why do I want to compliment you? Well, I'm not trying to suck up, if that's what you're thinking. No. I pride myself on being honest and real with you. I want to compliment you because we're friends, and I think you deserve it. Sometimes we talk on Twitter, and I think you're really funny. Sometimes, we comment on each other's Instagram photos. We even blog together!

But what I like the most about our friendship is that we support each other. *cue the dramatic, let's-get-personal music*

I always knew that I wanted to write a book that you were going to like. Really, we were bound to find each other from the start. I wanted to write a book for the girl who feels awkward in the school hallway. For the mom who went to Twilight premieres and spent way too much time in Limited Too with her daughter. For the boy who would rather stay home to read than go out and drink with his friends. You, who has had your heart broken. You, who wants to fall in love. You, who would rather eat cake.

I put off writing this book for six years. If you read this page, you know that I've written version after bad version of These Are the Moments. There were so many points where I told myself, "You're just not good enough." Then, I stopped beating myself up. I started writing, instead. That's when I got bold and began sharing. And you made me feel brave. You told me to keep writing, so I did. You told me that you couldn't wait to read the rest, so I made sure you didn't have to.

You helped me finish my book in less than a year. Every time I posted a new scene or tweeted a new quote, you let me know that my words had value. If you didn't know then, I'll tell you now: that encouragement gave me the confidence boost to finish my story. You let me know that I was doing something right, and I'm one thousand percent grateful for that.

Something amazing happened along the way. These Are the Moments is a very personal book for me. There are real, true-to-life emotions tangled in fictional scenarios, and when you hand that kind of work over to the public, it can be scary. No, not scary. Petrifying. I asked myself questions like, "What if no one reads it? Or worse, what if they read it and hate it?" It reaches a point where you just have to close your eyes and let go.

That's when the really cool thing happened. (Quick Important Note: my book is about an on-again, off-again relationship.) People started reaching out to me. I would check my Twitter messages to find bubble after bubble of your stories and why These Are the Moments felt just like your story.

Thank you for that. Thank you for helping me see that books truly do belong to their readers. Thank you for not yelling at me when my book made you cry. Thank you for cheering me on. Thank you for sticking around.

Please keep sharing your stories. I promise to keep sharing mine.

Love + Confetti,

Jenny