Seventh Income Report – October 2013

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

On the 1st of October I started writing my time management book. I was doing it parallel to writing blog content the whole of October.

Strangely enough (The Law of Attraction?) the sales reflected my comeback to writing Kindle content.

I had another record day (3 sales) on 24th of October and once again reached a monthly record (31 sales). In the whole month I had no more than two consecutive days without a sale.

I did another experiment. I put the fitness book on a free promo for the first two days of October with no advertisement whatsoever. It was downloaded just 84 times. That’s about what an organic Amazon traffic is worth in regard to the free promos. Well, that month the book did better than in previous months selling a whooping 4 copies.

I was also working on publishing my speed reading book. It went back and forth between me and my proofreader. I once again ordered a cover from Fiverr. It was again ugly, but this time exactly according to my wishes (I have almost non-existent aesthetic sense as you can see).

I uploaded the book on Amazon, scheduled the free promo and paid $35 (Fiverr again) for spreading the word about a promo.

I also posted the info in about a dozen freebie groups on FB (about 30k members put together).

In the two last days of October the book was downloaded 448 times, which was a promising result.

I also started this blog. The first post was published on 5th October 2013. I felt like talking to myself many times and mostly I was. I had no idea about blog launches, so I began from scratch with no following whatsoever. I remember that I changed the blog’s WP theme at least 3 times before I was satisfied with it.

The learning curve associated with starting and maintaining a blog consumed much of my energy.

The Income Report Breakdown

Income: zero.

Well, 31 sales summed up to $7.44, but it was received into my bank account 2 months later. That’s how this business works.

Lesson:

That’s it. End of October. In the middle of April I started writing. Six and a half months of hustling. Three and a half (one public domain work) books published. 159 days have passed since publishing my first book.

I sold 145 copies of my books. 85% of them were my first work about creating a personal mission statement.

I’ve received one single money transfer so far — eleven euros, less than a single hour of overtime from my employer.

What would you call it? A failure? I tended to use the word ‘disaster’ in my mind.

You need a personal philosophy which will keep you going. Disaster or not, giving up was out of the question.

I earned something else, something more valuable than money. I gained experience.

I learned a lot.

Just in the first half of 2014 I earned about $300 from those first three and a half books I published before the end of October 2013. I sold over 1250 copies of them in that period.

I signed the contract with my publisher in July 2013; they refurbished and re-published them. Within just a couple of weeks of September 2014 I sold via my publisher more than 800 copies of those books and earned about $280.

They were the same books. It was the same content I created struggling in 2013 at the beginning of my career.

Your past does not equal your future. You are good enough. The world may not recognize it yet, but it will.

Cost: $19, Aweber services.

$35, free promo marketing service from Fiverr.

$5, a Fiverr-made cover.

Net result: -$59

Previous Income Report: September 2013 || Next Income Report: November 2013