Be Prolific - A Key to Prosperity as a Self-Published Author (Warning Math Involved)

I would love to retire from my "day job" and just write and engage in activities I want to but cannot because of the need to support my family, the time spent doing so and the lack of money to retire.

As a non-fiction author, I am probably not going to make that happen. There simply is not a large enough market for my books. But I can certainly pay for a lot of things I would not be able to  and possibly have a better, and perhaps earlier, retirement than I would otherwise.

Since I view my writing as part of a business, I also view it as a means to maximize my income. Since each of my titles will not sell thousands, but rather hundreds of copies (there have been three exceptions thankfully) how can I maximize my income through writing?

By being prolific. In a variety of formats.

The more books I have available for sale in a variety of formats, the more books I can sell. Of course, this requires effort and more time spent marketing, but it also means more income and the possibility of reaching more readers.

As I type, I have a total of 35 titles available in paperback. I have a total of 14 available as ebooks. Three of those 35 titles account for the majority of my sales. But those other titles, even while only selling one to five copies a month, add up financially.

I have also discovered via corresponding with the individuals who buy my books they don't buy just one, they usually by 7 to 8 total copies. Yes, the three most popular books I have are almost always in the mix of those 7 or 8 books, but the other various titles fill a need or an interest for these readers.

If those books were not available, I would not be earning as much income from the sales of my books.

It would seem my two most valuable marketing tools are my newsletter and those three books. Once I convince someone to buy one of those books, they buy more. They tell others and they buy books.

Following my own advice, I am working on a single new book this summer. The rest of my "writing time" is being spent learning how to use Calibre and the ebook template from Joel Friedlander's Book Design Templates.

My goal is to convert as many of my 35 paper titles to eBooks as I can myself. While I have used eBook Architects in the past and been very happy with their work and pricing, I am not willing to risk the investment in many of the books I am planning to convert myself to eBooks, particularly Kindle books.

I am certain all of my books would earn out their conversion cost. That is not the point. I can't afford to pay for the conversions at this time. I actually need the income from my book sales right now due to an impending wedding, medical bills from reconstructive shoulder surgery and the youngest daughter's travel team gymnastics costs (at least her other sport, distance running, is relatively inexpensive).

So my goals in terms of being prolific this summer include finishing and releasing one new title while converting another 7-10 titles to ebooks myself at no cost other than the ebook template and my time.

Hopefully the additional ebook titles will translate into 1 to 5 sales per title each month. Why invest the time?

Here is the part where I warned about math being involved. If I manage to achieve the minimum of my goal and covert seven titles to ebooks and sell them on KDP for $2.99 each, I will earn roughly $14.99 per month if I only sell one copy of each title. If I average selling three copies for all seven titles at $2.99 I will earn roughly $45 a month. Multiple that times 12 months and you have $540 a year.

Not exactly an amount of money to brag about. But that is $540 I would not have earned if I had not "been prolific" in the number of ebook titles as well as paperback titles I have available.

Keep in mind most of my readers buy more than one of my books after they buy the first one. My average customer buys 7-8 copies of my titles. By making my titles available in as many different formats as possible I increase the chances of reaching more readers and selling more copies.

More math. My books sell seasonally. Four months out of the year my sales have a huge spike. Titles that sell 2-5 copies a month for eight months out of the year will sell 25-80 copies in a month.  Let's take those same seven titles now.  

On average those seven titles will earn $360 for 8 months of the year. Even if those seven titles sell an average of just 25 copies each per month for the other 4 months of the year, at a price of $2.99 I will earn roughly $1450. Add $360 to that amount and I will have earned roughly $1800 for the year.

All for books I have already written, had edited and are in print.

Will I earn that much money as a result of my efforts this summer? I have no idea. But if I don't make the effort to produce a "prolific" number of ebooks from books I already have in print, I have no chance to earn that money.

Google Affiliate Ads for a Self-Publisher's Blog: Selling Out? Smart Business? Or Making a Living Self-Publishing?

I will have been a high school teacher and coach for 29 years when the 2012-2013 school year ends. Very few of my college classmates who entered the profession are still in the classroom. I don't know if that is good or bad, but I do know the challenges of teaching are many these days.

As such, I have some distinct financial goals with my self-publishing enterprise. I would like to be debt free as soon as possible. That means paying off what we owe on the children's education (with one yet to go to college) and paying off our mortgage on the house.

Retirement? What's that?

Ideally, I would like to be able to work for myself and be able to engage in what my wife and I want to do. That will require being debt free and earning a decent income.

As such, it would seem wise to have as many different sources of income slowly (preferably quickly) coming in as possible.

Hence the decision to monetize this blog.

To some readers of this blog, this decision is probably viewed as a sell out of sorts. To others it might seem like smart business. One moment, I think I am selling out and the next I think this is a necessary business step.

I do know this, I have always viewed this as a business. A business I have made too many mistakes in learning and it has cost me money in a wide variety of ways. What pushed me to the decision to monetize is the realization I might be leaving money on the table I could otherwise be earning.

This experiment hopefully will not cost me any readers of this blog, and in the learning process, I will earn a little money. Another of those revenue streams that needs to trickle in.

One of the common needs of all authors, regardless of the type of work published, is the need to have a platform to connect with potential readers. One of the most common platforms is a blog.

If you can monetize your blog without losing readers and visitors, I have decided it makes good business sense to do so.

Selling your own books direct from your blog or website, or steering buyers to Amazon with Amazon Affiliate buttons and earning commissions in the process is certainly acceptable.

But what about appropriate advertising and affiliate advertising sales? Certainly a bit more commercial and to some, selling out. Most of the blogs I read I visit for the content and not to be sold products.

Can you strike a happy medium in the process? I hope so. And so the experiment begins with this post with adds for three books I actually own, have read and found portions of the information applicable and of value to my tiny self-publishing empire in one way or another.

I like the concept behind the Google Affiliate Ads better than how the Adsense ads work. I have no control over the Adsense advertisers that wind up on my blog but can at least preview and select products that are advertised on my blog in the Affiliate ads.

As I have stated many times on this blog, self-publishing is a business. Finding sources of revenue to increase income levels is an important activity. If you have a blog, and invest considerable time in writing posts and building an audience, you probably need to find a way to generate some income through the blog.

So yet another experiment in expanding my tiny empire begins.

I would love for other authors who visit this blog to share their opinions, ideas and experiences with others by posting comments about the topic of this post.

Evaluate the Need for Your Book - Developing a Business Plan Part III

Will anyone other than your mother want to read your book? You love your book. Your friends will even encourage you to write your book if it is still in the idea stage. But will anyone actually want to read the finished book?

Before you self-publish your book, you need to ask, and try to learn, the answer to that question. If nobody will buy the book, there simply is no market for the book.

While you can self-publish at a very low cost (if you do everything your self at no cost), I have learned the hard way to pay to have my book edited by a pro as well as the interior and cover design. You can forget getting me to try to convert anything on my own to Kindle ever again.

I can't speak to the fiction market but I have learned a bit about judging the niche in the non-fiction market I write for. Even then, I am surprised at what sells and what doesn't.

Every book I have self-published has eventually earned back the money I invested (except for my three latest books but they have not had time to earn out yet). Three of the titles not only returned my investment quickly, they have earned quite well since they have been published.

Several of my other titles just crawl along, selling a few copies a month while others will peak suddenly and then not sell at all again for a few months. I have learned my niche is seasonal and this is to be expected.

Why have I not been able to write more books that sell really well?

To be honest, I only recently learned the answer to that question and consider myself lucky that my uneducated approach to deciding which books to write and publish has not left me holding the bag financially for a lot of my titles.

What is the question to ask? What do your potential readers want?

Since I write non-fiction, the answer to what my readers want is:

1. "how to" information
2. information that eliminates a problem
3. information that eliminates "pain"

I had been writing what I wanted to write about, not what the market is interested in. Since my motivation now is less about becoming an author and writing about things that interest me and more about making my tiny self-publishing business grow and become more financially viable, I find myself much more willing to take the time to find out what my audience wants.

Not only do I want to share what I know that fills the needs of my potential readers, I am willing to do extensive research in order to obtain the necessary knowledge to fill those needs if I do not already possess the required knowledge.

My approach is a bit more business oriented now. I have a good idea of the financial investment necessary to write, publish and launch a new book. Experience has taught me how much time and effort will be required to market and promote the book and I have an exact idea of how many copies I have to sell in order to at least recoup the financial investment.

No longer do I simply write, and publish, a book because I came up with what I think is a good idea. I do my homework and try to determine if there is enough potential interest for me to recoup my financial investment within 18 months, preferably less.

If I believe I can sell enough copies to recoup the cost of editing, cover and interior design, promotion and marketing and conversion to Kindle, I move forward. If not, the idea is shelved.

Self-publishing is a business. As painful and non-creative as it may sound, an author needs to determine if there is a market for the book before launching it into the world.

Self-Publishing As Your Real Job? You Are Not Alone If This Is Your Dream!

There are days when I really don't want to go to my "real" job. I would rather earn my living by sharing the knowledge I have acquired in my nearly 30 years as a coach and teacher. Mainly, I just want to coach a basketball team and not have to deal with all the endless, mindless stuff teachers have to deal with today. 

I still love history (what I teach) and the students themselves. There is nothing like the look on a student's face when the light bulb of understanding lights up or the fun of interacting with your students over an interesting topic. It's just all the other stuff that has robbed the joy of the profession.

My part-time job, self-publishing, has become engaging, interesting and fun. It is even helping to pay a few of the family's bills, something that was not even on the radar when I started this venture.

The thought now goes through my mind at least once a week, "can I make a living as an author selling non-fiction to a niche market?" Should I give up the security of a profession I have performed for nearly 30 years and have learned a great deal about how to perform for one I have just taken up in the last few years?

Scary question.

I don't know what I will do in the future. What I do know is this is something worth investigating.

Can I develop a business model that will allow me to not only pull off being a self-supporting author but be successful enough that I can honestly say I was as good at being an author as I was a teacher and coach? Satisfaction is a big part of the equation to me at this stage of my life.

I look at individuals in the field of self-publishing who have shared the benefit of their trials and tribulations as they made a living via self-publishing and take heart. These individuals have done it and were willing to share their hard earned knowledge with the rest of us who would like to make it as self-publishing authors as well.

Time will tell whether or not I make the decision to take the big chance.

In the mean time, I am writing more books to sell, researching and learning everything I can about the business of self-publishing and anything related to that business endeavor.

So long as I am learning, even if it is by the time honored method of learning from my mistakes, I will share what I learn here on The Self-Publisher's Notebook.

If you are considering making this life-change, let's call it a career change to make it sound safer, please share your comments about this post in the comments section!

Sites for New and Veteran Self-Publishers to Visit

I really appreciate every author, or individual considering taking the leap and becoming an author, who visit this blog. It has been an uphill struggle to learn everything I need to know to make this a successful business and like any endeavor worth engaging in, you can never afford to stop learning.

Many individuals have taken the time to share their experiences, both good and bad, in the field of self-publishing with the intent of helping me along and to shorten the learning curve for me. I feel an obligation to do the same.

There are certainly readers of this blog who probably get a chuckle out of my mistakes as they are more experienced in the field of self-publishing. Then there are the authors who are new to the game and I hope they learn information of value from reading this blog. The third group are probably authors who are at about the same state I am in the learning process.

So, in an effort to share sources of information, here are a few sites I visit regularly and I have learned a great deal from.

Aaron Shepard's Publishing Blog

Aaron is the author of Aiming at Amazon and the guru of self-publishing when it comes to the business model of selling self-published books via Amazon. He is also the author of POD for Profit and the creator of "Plan B" since Amazon has revised its dealings with Lightning Source. Aaron is just a treasure trove of information and views it as both a creative endeavor and a business.

Aaron has a realistic view of Amazon, how it works and what truly drives this company. In other words, he sees Amazon's good and bad points, of which there are both.

Morris Rosenthal's Self-publishing Blog

Morris is another of the leaders of the self-publishing movement and the use of print-on-demand as a business model for self-publishing. His book Print-on-Demand Book Publishing is another book self-publishing authors should read, even with the rise of the ebook. It describes the business model of POD for self-publishing. Remember, self-publishing is a business!

Morris writes about a lot of things on his self-publishing blog, ranging from understanding Amazon Sales Rankings, dealing with copyright violations, building an author platform and some just off the wall stuff that is really funny if you get his sense of humor. I have learned a lot by reading his blog and the archived posts.

Joel Friedlander's The Book Designer

This site is a great source of information about the design end of self-publishing as well as a wide range of topics that deal with self-publishing and publishing. Joel constantly provides new blog postings addressing topics both of interest and importance to authors who self-publish. Like Aaron and Morris, Joel views self-publishing as a both a creative and a business endeavor.

Joel also provides courses designed to teach new authors and veteran authors venturing into self-publishing learn the process and business of self-publishing. Joel also designs books as a service to self-publishing authors.

J.A. Konrath's A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

Konrath is a leader among the fiction authors who have become successful financially through self-publishing, primarily via Kindle ebook sales.

I don't always agree with his worldview on a range of topics, but I always come away from visiting his blog having learned something about the publishing industry. I write non-fiction and doubt I could ever write anything fictional worth publishing.

I have learned a great deal about the ebook explosion from his blog. Like the other three bloggers I have listed, Konrath views self-publishing as a business, and this from a very creative author. I have read many of his thrillers, particularly the Jack Daniels detective thrillers, and can attest Mr. Konrath knows how to spin a thrilling tale.

Michael Marcus's Book Making

I don't quite know how to describe this blog.  Sometimes I visit and exit the blog with my blood pressure about to come out my ears telling myself I will never visit again. I always do though and I am pretty sure if Marcus could see me turn red in the face he would get a good chuckle out of it. If you already read this blog, you know exactly what I mean. Marcus loves to yank a chain, anyone's chain.

Why do I go back time after time? Because as mad as Marcus can make me, he also makes me laugh and often he writes about issues that are both important and informative for authors who self-publish.  Perhaps I just need thicker skin.

Like the other sites, I learn from the information Marcus shares and that is what makes the site worth putting on your list of self-publishing blogs to read.

In all fairness, if you wind up on the sharp end of Marcus' wit, you might have done something to deserve it. Just as quickly has he can take a poke at you, if you have done something praiseworthy, Marcus will be one of the first to point it out. He will also take a poke at himself from time-to-time.

Also, Marcus likes The Rolling Stones, The World's Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band. So do I.

Kindle Nation Daily

All things Kindle. If you plan on making ebooks, Kindle in particular, part of your business plan, this site needs to be on your list of blogs and sites to visit. 

The focus of late is largely on books selling well on Kindle and the technology itself. While I am not trying to compete with best selling authors, it is a way to track what is going on with different topics and niches as well as changes in the technology. Something we all need to be aware of as authors who sell Kindle books.

If anyone knows of a site or blog that would be a good addition to this short list, please share it via the comment sections for this post.

Sell Your Book Using CreateSpace International in Europe!

I did not think too much about this new feature when CreateSpace announced the new option of having your books distributed in Europe. I should have given it more than the passing thought that I did. I should have known better since I sell about a dozen Kindle editions of my books to readers in Europe, particularly in Germany and the UK.

I signed my books up and forgot about it.

Then I started seeing numbers listed on my Member Dashboard page with funny signs before the numbers. I realized those were symbols for the Euro and the Pound! My POD paperbacks are selling in Europe at numbers just below my Kindle sales!

Now, to be honest I am more excited about the fact this is sort of neat and not about the amount of money I am earning. But still, it is pretty cool to just click the mouse on your computer and now your books are available to readers who are Amazon customers in Europe.

The promo for this new distribution option is shown below, taken from the CreateSpace website.

If you want to take advantage of distribution in Europe, just click on the icon in the image shown below on the CreateSpace page.

Clicking on the Enable Now icon will take you to your Member Dashboard. You will see the yellow banner below near the top of your Dashboard page.

I selected one of my new books as an example. After clicking on the Channels page this is what you will see after you have enabled your distribution options.

It will only take a few minutes to do this. It is worth it just to see that someone in Europe thought your book was interesting enough to purchase! Besides, self-publishing is a business. European distribution is FREE! These are sales you would never have otherwise, and every sale adds up on the bottom line.

Can You Afford NOT to Self-Publish?

This past weekend I was examining a wide range of figures concerning my tiny publishing empire. I was mainly interested in comparing total sales, both print and ebook, of the current year with previous years. In the process I also looked at total revenue from sales.

One figure that jumped out at me was the monthly check I get from my first book. The amount has become very small. I was smart enough (my wife was smart enough) to retain the ebook rights. The book is still my number one seller, but the sales are almost all now Kindle sales with a couple of Nook sales per month thrown in.

What did I get from the first book's publisher? A nice cover, good formatting and editing and ever decreasing royalty check once the book peaked after its first 18 months of sales.

This all leads to the question I should have asked myself, "can I afford not to self-publish?" For the fun of it, I calculated all the costs of getting the first book to market if I had self-published it. Next, I calculated the difference between what I have been paid in royalties and what I would have been paid had I used CreateSpace.

Working on the premise sales would have been identical, I did not serve myself well by NOT self-publishing, to the tune of a loss of roughly 22% net profit. Granted, we are not talking millions of dollars. Still, when you are doing this as a second source of income, 22% is still a chunk of change.

So, if you have a book to publish, consider the financial pros and cons of having your book accepted for traditional publishing as opposed to self-publishing. You will have to do all the promotional work regardless of the approach you take.

Compare the advance and royalties you will be paid versus the income you believe you can generate if you self-publish. Be sure to include in your calculations the cost of editing, cover design, interior design and marketing and promotion. Know exactly how many copies you must sell to break even. After all, self-publishing is a business.