Thirty Ninth Income Report – June 2016 (-$399.66)

Are you curious about a one-year delay? I explained it in my first income report.

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In my astrology, June 2016 was the month of burnout.
It always happen to me after a book launch to some degree. My burnouts are more severe if the launch wasn’t good.
This one wasn’t good.

Making Business Connections That Count didn’t make a big splash. The launch itself was almost OK. I had worse. But the book simply didn’t take off afterwards.
It sold only 81 copies in June, and that included a few days the book was still in the Hot New Releases section.

Lesson 1:
Writing this report hit me how I attached emotional load to my sales results. And how it is solely the question of perspective. If I would have sold 400 copies of my first, or second, or third, or fourth book, I would have been so stoked. Especially considering that over 150 of those sales were 70% royalties and my first 4 books were priced at $0.99.
Success or failure is all in the perspective, in your interpretation of results, not in the actual results.

Lesson 2:
Making Business Connections… wasn’t a blockbuster. But it’s an additional book in my catalog. Since the launch, it returned the initial investment, and each additional sale is making me money. It is another eventual contact point for readers who don’t know my works yet.

And that’s the true value of a book for a non-fiction author in any expert/ authority area.
My second book was The Fitness Expert Next Door in which I described, on my example, weight loss best practices available for common folks.

In the first quarter of its life the book sold less than 20 copies. It sold 234 copies during its first 10 months. In the end I made it permafree and it became an attractive entry point for readers who were just checking out my writing.

I made $155 on it during a few-months-long episode with Archangel Ink as my publisher. When I was again on my own in January 2015, I immediately made it permafree again.

But some of my biggest fans found me via this book. They bought more of my books. In fact, I know the cases when they bought ALL of my other books.

I remember distinctly two emails from readers at the beginning of my career thanking me for that book and how it made the difference in their lives. At that time such messages were extremely rare. They provided me with much needed faith that I was doing the right thing.

So, it’s not the amount of money the book will make for you. It’s about the impact you will make with it in people’s lives.

Burnout

But it doesn’t change the fact that I felt overwhelmed, exhausted and disappointed. The sales seemed to dwindle even more rapidly after the launch than before it. My revenues didn’t cover my expenses. So, I enjoyed the nice weather and restricted my business activities to minimum.

I wrote 1,000 words a day, mostly for Quora. I kept in touch with my readers via email. And I hardly did anything more.

As I mentioned, the weather was nice and we enjoyed a few barbecues in our backyard. My wife’s cousin, who lives in a town 10 miles from us, visited us with family once or twice. My wife bought a bike, and we enjoyed bike rides together. The last few days of June were free from school for kids, so I spent with them a bit more time.

A Millionaire Again

In June I crossed one million words in my writing log which I started on 23rd of September 2013.
It took me almost 2 years and 9 months. No one gave me a reward for effort, but it felt nice anyway. I bragged about this in a few Facebook groups, and my fellow authors appreciated my tenacity.

Business Training

My business coach signed me up for his small business training program, and it was the only additional project I tackled in June.

We met every two weeks, and he gave us some assignments to perform. I didn’t feel I needed all of that; the program was aimed for business owners who can afford to hire out some help in their businesses.

On the other hand, it gave some structure to what I was doing. I can recall at least one instance when this knowledge and those exercises worked for my advantage: a few months later, I hired my oldest son to help me out with some mundane everyday tasks, and I used Four Steps to Business Freedom formula to outsource those pieces of work to him. It went pretty smooth.

The Income Report Breakdown

Income:
Amazon royalties: €255.42 ($283.52)
CreateSpace royalties: €33.31 ($39.97)
Draft2Digital royalties: $14.22
Coach.me fees: $37.39
Audiobooks royalties: $2.24

Total: $374.34

Costs:
$30, View From the Top Community fee
$29, Aweber fee
$265, Business on Purpose mastermind
$550, edition of Directed by Purpose by Archangel Ink
Total: $774

Net Result: -$399.66

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Previous Income Report: May 2016