Hello! So… same format as last time?
Okay, cool.
If you haven’t read my previous post about my 2021 Author Stats, you should probably start there. It will give you a lot of good background about where I started, where I wanted to go, and where I ended up. It should also give you a pretty good picture as to how I’m operating moving forward.
Also, I skipped something in my previous post, but, I’ll be talking about that in a bit!
First things first…
2022 Q1 Overview:
- Began production of the audiobook of One Night in Garoureve (January)
- Started work on Book 3 (January)
- Patreon Began (February)
- Needed in Garoureve Released – Book 2 (February)
And uhhh… that’s about it. A lot of stuff I thought that happened in March actually happened in April, when I started putting my pants on one leg at a time rather than being chaotic. Like seriously, the list for April is… Audiobook, Bonus Epilogue, Book Release, Stickers, etc…
But, that’s for next quarter!
NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS
Before I get into talking about my spending, we’re instead going to talk over Newsletter Subscribers. I’ve said it before, I think having a Newsletter is one of the most important first steps when you start your process as an author, and I stand by that!
So, let’s look at the numbers!
I thought about showing y’all every single newsletter, but it felt like way too much data even for an info dump, so I decided to keep it to this. My basic goal with my newsletter is to continue to grow and to keep myself above a 40% open rate, which I have more than done. I do send newsletters more often than this, and try to send one weekly, but these are the big hits and the big jumps, when I tease that something is coming. You can also, obviously, see, when you look at my book numbers, how my newsletter subscribers jumped.
Did I have any other plan for newsletter subs? No. But… they’re doing amazing!
And now, onto the budget!
JANUARY
To start with, once again, please keep in mind that I was getting my first royalty check from Amazon this month, however, it was more or less what my pre-orders were from release day, which was November 30th. So, it wasn’t much, and despite doing so well, I was running on Empty.
That stated, I was being paid something, so we got by! Signed Copies helped as well.
This is the last time you’ll see Linktree on here. I did have to make a small payment to Bookfunnel, as I was on a month to month Mid-Tier level at the time. I also purchased the Book Cover for the 3rd book, and I got this cute little budgeting spreadsheet from Etsy!
You’ll start to notice some fun things on the sidebar. Now that I have an income, I’m holding out tax! That is, 30% of all income!
I also wanted to start doing other savings, but that ended up getting confusing.
Also, my charge card, because, I need to pay that each month. So, yeah.
January!
FEBRUARY
Here is where things start to get fun, because, I finally got a paycheck, and it’s… wow. That stated… again, keep in mind, I didn’t see this money until the end of the month, and in February is when Ruby Dixon’s account was taken away for a hot minute, and I was TERRIFIED of spending this money and Amazon taking away my account and not paying me.
You can see, first of all, that I added in my savings for December’s taxes from 2021, because I wanted to make sure to hold those out. You’ll also notice Canva Pro is now listed for monthly, while Linktree is gone! Woo!
I got myself a website. It’s not much, but it’s a thing. I also started crossing other things off my list, like Bookfunnel, cute bullet journal supplies, and a Silk and Sonder membership. (I now use a Plum Paper agenda, btw).
And then lots of stuff for Signed Books! I really enjoyed February a lot. I did well. I made money, and yes I spent money, but I didn’t spend all of it, because!!! I was saving up for something big in March…
MARCH
In March, I got my laptop!!!
Okay, so the Amazon amount might be shocking for some of y’all, because we haven’t looked at my royalties for this first quarter yet, but, it is what it is. Let’s go through what I spent money on.
Obviously, my laptop. My old one was hanging on by a thread. I also bought my 4th book’s cover and my audiobook covers from my Cover Designer, who lives in Ukraine. Wanted to support my girl!
I also made some big leaping purchases. I purchased an image from a photographer. I put down a deposit on an editor. I bought a new agenda. I bought more writing supplies. And I bought the fonts for my Shifters series so I could make my own stuff!
And somehow, there was still money left over?
Money which I ended up spending in April on commissioned art… but that’s for my next post!
2022 Q1 Spending Overview:
Anywho, uh, yeah. If you remember, we closed out 2021 with me $50 in the negative, and uhhhh here’s where we’re at now!
You’ll notice that a lot of money is, obviously, set aside for taxes. I’m not messing around with those. I’ve also, obviously, spent a lot of the money. The laptop was a good chunk of my profit. Signed Books, when comparing costs to income, did pretty good. My goal there is to always stay green.
All in all, from here on out, my goal is to be green, stay green, and keep going.
And now, uhh, royalties?
PRE-ORDERS
My goal for pre-orders was simply to have more than my previous book, and I certainly did that, HOWEVER, a number of them did not go through on release day. Also, ranking was massively screwed up and this was when KDP was all over the place busted. My book never actually even rostered as a new release.
Also, warning, as we move forward… Paperbacks and Ebooks do not show as the same because I screwed up, so, I apologize about how gross this is. Trust me, it bothers me too.
ROYALTIES OVERALL
I give you all… insanity. Let’s talk about it, shall we?
So at the start, we have the continued rise from my Tiktok viral video. Moving along, a few days before the release of Book 2, a booktoker talked about my book, which got it a little spike there. And then, moving further along, you can see that huge spike at the start of March, which is my most recent viral tiktok video.
AS YOU CAN SEE, TIKTOK DOES CRAZY THINGS.
The red is paperbacks for Book 2, btw. Like I said, gross.
You can see it broken down a little bit better here. Also, my shame. Like… don’t fork up your paperback title. Because it wasn’t exactly like the ebook… yeah. I am ashamed. And I can’t fix it unless I remove it from publication all together. It’s ugh. I hate it.
The actual numbers per month for royalties are as follows:
January: $2731.83 (pd end of March)
Feburary: $3325.70 (pd end of April)
March: $4346.93 (pd end of May)
So uhhh…. yeah. Crazy. Also really crazy I still don’t have all of that money yet. What’s up with that, Amazon?
KENP PAGE READS
One of my big goals for the first quarter was to break 1 million page reads. I kind of… crushed that. Looking at this, you can again follow the flow of spikes. Of course, my first book has way more page reads than my second.
Looking at it like this makes me sad. I know people need to read the first book first to read the second, but the not following through worries me sometimes. But, nothing I can do at the moment!
ORDERS
So this right here continues to blow my mind. LOOK AT THAT ORDER NUMBER. That’s freaking crazy???
Like??? Okay so you can compare here how we’re doing. Lots of interest in my first book, obviously. Struggling with the second, but that’s okay! We keep pushing!
LIFETIME
Insert here my pretty graphic showing you all of the numbers, but, Amazon won’t let me do a custom graphic of more than 90 days, so I’ll have to do the math below:
2021 + 2022 Q1 Total Royalties: $12,541.47
Book 1 Royalties: $9,601.30
Book 2 Royalties: $2,940.17
2021 + 2022 Q1 Total Page Reads: 1,970,250
Book 1 Page Reads: 1,524,291
Book 2 Page Reads: 445,959
2021 + 2022 Q1 Total Orders: 1,217
Book 1 Orders: 928
Book 2 Orders: 289
WRAP UP
So, I’m moving. And that has completely thrown a wrench into my plans for releasing this year. Because I know my royalty checks will be going down while I’m away and not marketing or releasing new books, I’m carefully spending and saving to cover for more releases in the fall.
Overall, I just want to stay green and keep growing. Not lose support or subscribers or followers. So long as we don’t go down, we can keep going up.
And that’s what you missed with me?
If you have any questions, please ask! I’m always happen to answer!
xoxo Elle