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


30th income report September 2015In September I still hadn’t recovered from the Slicing the Hype catastrophe. I tried to revive it and organized a free promo. It cost me almost $60, I gave away over 1,500 copies, but I sold only 16 copies in the result.
A moderate success of “99… Stories” didn’t help much, because I didn’t identify with that book. I hadn’t written the content, so I felt more of a publisher than a writer of it.

Writing

I didn’t write a lot of book content that month. In fact I doubt if I wrote anything for my books for more than 2 days. I filled my writing schedule with a lot of blog posts and articles. I also contributed quite a lot to The Community’s forum.

The Community

I observed Aaron Walker’s attempts to invigorate his Community and I tried to help him with that. I tried to attend each weekly call, even though they were at midnight my time in the middle of the week. Once I was so exhausted that I couldn’t set the alarm clock properly and missed a call.

However, it was a different experience that I hoped for. I still had in mind the level of commitment and engagement we enjoyed in the Transformational Contest and I counted on something similar. I visited the forum daily, but I felt that my efforts went unnoticed.

Good Men Project

My first article on GoodMenProject was published in July on and got about 100 social shares. In August I published two articles. I submitted 5 more articles in September and another one was published on 26th of September.

Despite the site’s traffic (a few millions visits a month) my articles were far from highly popular and didn’t get me much exposure or traction.

Six Simple Steps to Success

I grudgingly began the work on my next book project- a series that finally became Six Simple Steps to Success. I planned the first part as a short free book. Even with my lack of enthusiasm the content has been ready for publication before the end of the month. I also received a quota for the post-production of the next volume in the series from Archangel Ink. At the end of September, I started work on that book as well.

I didn’t pour my heart into the project.

In the desperate attempt to interact with my readers, I started a Facebook group. It was a project doomed to failure since the beginning. Only about 20 people joined, including a few of my friends from Transformational Contest. My efforts to contribute regularly and stir some interaction failed. Well, that was yet another failed marketing scheme in my arsenal.

On 30th of September I had a call with Steve Scott. It had no specific purpose, I just wanted to hang out with him, reached out and he agreed. We talked for 30 minutes about Kindle publishing and everything related to that.

That was a high note in otherwise grey month.

In hindsight I can see that September 2015 was underutilized. It was a classic example of emotions that got into the way of reason and performance. I was still fresh in my new day job without a burden of duties. I didn’t properly use that opportunity. I didn’t sit on my hands – I was no longer capable of that, my personal philosophy didn’t allow for that – but I didn’t work as hard as I used to.

I regretted it even more when my day job constrained my side hustle in the following months.

The Income Report Breakdown

Income:
Amazon royalties: €430.28 ($486.22)
German translation royalties: €25.44 ($28.75)
BuckBooks affiliate’s commission: $15.48
DollarBook affiliate’s commission: $9
Total: $539.45

Costs:
$272.57, editing for Know Yourself Like Your Success Depends on It
$16, proofreading services Fiverr
$69, cover of Simplify Your Pursuit of Success
$105, my copy editor’s share in The Art of Persistence royalties
$30, View From the Top Community fee
$12, Slicing the Hype promo on JamesHMayfield.com
$206.48 editing and proofreading for Simplify Your Pursuit of Success
$15.75, Slicing the Hype promo on Bknights
$20, Slicing the Hype promo on RobinReads
$10, Slicing the Hype promo on The Fussy Librarian

Total: $756.8

Net Result: -$217.35


Previous Income Report: August 2015

Thirthieth Income Report September 2015 (-$217.35)

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