Welcome to the next decade

Panic isn’t the right word.

I don’t panic.

I worry my plan isn’t working.

Then I try to adjust.

Like Amazon.

I use Amazon publishing to publish my books.

I make money from selling paperbacks and from Kindle Unlimited page reads.

Some weeks, it’s hard to determine what the final payout is going to be at the end of the month.

I try to take the average of the first 15 days of sales and multiply that number by 30.

That tells me what I’m going to get when Amazon makes a payment two months later.

If that number is low, I can either write and release something to try and bump it up, or I can schedule a promo to ramp up the numbers.

Most of the time, it’s a guessing game because what worked once, may not again, and what was working before might suddenly stop.

December is supposed to be a bad time for indie sales as readers use their money to buy presents for others.

It’s called a sales slump.

It happens all the time. There’s one in summer, one in spring, another in fall and this time of the year.

The problem is, every single author is different.

It might go by genre.

I’ve had a couple of days with the highest KU page reads of the year in Dec.

That’s against the norm.

My norm.

But I’ve also had a few days where paperbacks ruled and I shipped more in a day than I have in one month.

It’s funny how people find you, and how they decide to buy.

Which is why it’s important to:

Put your ebook up on Amazon.

Put your paperback version on Amazon, and B & N, and anywhere else that will carry it.

Put a hardcover up everywhere.

Work on audio and get it up.

That’s 5 ways for consumers to consume your story.

I still have to get mine up on Youtube. (6)

And break out some other ways to make money from each individual piece.

It’s how a business gets built and made.

Then you plan and adjust and alter.

What are your 2020 goals?

Are you making them public?

Mine include:

        Audio release for 50 titles

        Youtube channel up and running as marketing outlet

        Grow newsletter to 15k

        Automate newsletter onboarding

        Clean and Edit BZ series with additional words

        Publish 20 titles (12 50k stories, 8 30 k stories)

        Attend License Expo in Vegas

        Attend 20books Conference in Vegas

        Attend Author Summit Conference in Chicago

        Research INTL Book market for translations using AI

That’s 10 big things that I expect to add to my revenue stream for my publishing company.

I’ve spoken about ways to make money from your books. This is the year that we double down on investments and realize a substantial return from those.

I’ve also set a monetary goal for each income stream using a simple formula.

Traffic + Conversion = Revenue

This means test small to earn $100 and scale up to earn $1000.

Someone asked me about how much I would spend and I said it depends on how much I’m making, which seems like a simple and correct answer.

Except I would spend 100,000 a month, if it’s bringing in 24k in profit.  (meaning I spend 100,000 and make 124,000)

At the end of the year, I’d have a quarter million in my pocket.

(Yes, but you’d have spent 1 million!)

Remember, it’s not about what you make. It’s about what you get to keep.

This year, I plan to keep trying. Keep growing. Keep in the black. And Keep telling stories.

Welcome to a new decade. Let’s make it a dream.