Fourth Income Report – July 2013

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

The first half of July was full of frantic activity.

I was finishing my second book – The Fitness Expert Next Door. It became the first volume in the series “How to Change Your Life in 10 Minutes a Day.”
The book was flying back and forth between my editor and me. We did about 8 iterations of proofreading and edition. Again, I didn’t have a single complaint about the quality of this book.

I was getting a crash course on Aweber. I figured out how to create the list, the sign-up form, how to set it up on my website, how to establish thank you and confirmation page, how to add messages to the mailing sequence. It was a steep learning curve.

Outsourcing

I hired another designer on Fiverr. Once again it wasn’t a positive experience. She did a couple of revisions, but I had the feeling she didn’t read my feedback at all. I remember that in the end I spent 3 hours redoing her job before I could finally hit the ‘Publish’ button late evening on 12th of July. It didn’t add the flavor to the mix with my non-existent graphic skills. I think I demanded a refund for that job.

14th of July the first copy of second book was sold. I also sold 9 copies of 1st book so far in that month.

Holidays

On 15th I went to the family holidays. Two weeks on the beach near the lake. No computer. No Internet. No writing. For two long weeks I abandoned my publishing business.

We were back on 27th of July. I checked my sales as soon as possible. I sold 12 additional copies, 11 of personal mission statement book, 1 copy of fitness book.

Lesson:

Wow, that was a lesson on passive income in a nutshell! I did the entire job beforehand and I didn’t raise a finger to sell books during my holidays!

It’s one thing to read about it in the overhyped style in “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and totally another thing to experience it yourself. Selling eBooks on Amazon IS a passive income stream. All the money I earned from my books is of the passive quality. I worked hard to write, edit, put together and market each book to sit down and reap the benefits later.

I did almost none active promotion of my first book since publishing. I organized only 3 or 4 free KDP Select promotions and left it on the virtual Amazon’s shelves. I sold well over 700 copies of it already. And it’s just the first year of its life! It’s mind blowing.

Stagnation

Not much more happened in July. I sold 27 copies overall, but only 2 copies of The Fitness Expert Next Door. Ugly cover plus zero marketing summed up to this effect. The book was in a very competitive niche and was hard to find throughout Amazon search for any of the main keywords.

I organized hastily a free promo for it at the beginning of August.

The Income Report Breakdown

Income: Still zero.

Well, the royalties reached $6.48 for July, but they weren’t sent to my bank account yet.

Cost: $19

Aweber (affiliate link) is not the cheapest mailing services provider, that’s sure. But with their flexible interface I was able to add about 40 perseverance quotes to my mailing sequence and go to the holidays. I was adding more of them with time. That was exactly the solution I needed, I could stagger the process of creating the mailing sequence.

I sold fewer copies with 2 books in July than in June with one book. Heck, my second book wasn’t a bestseller too! In fact it was my worst performing book till the publication of the book number 4. The ugly cover had a lot to do with it. But everything serves some purpose. In November 2013 this ugly cover made me a big favor.

Net result: -$19

Previous Income Report: June 2013 || Next Income Report: August 2013