Full transcript
0:00Hello everyone and welcome to this
0:02monthly income report that I've been
0:05doing and this is for the month of
0:07March. Apologies that this is coming out
0:09a little bit late. I was actually on
0:11vacation for a little while and so did
0:13not get back into actually film this and
0:17get it out until we were already midway
0:19through April. So I apologize for that
0:22but in this month we're going to take a
0:24look at my income. I've got a couple of
0:26notes on a few things that have
0:27happened. Obviously I was out of town
0:30for a good chunk of March. So that has
0:32affected things a little bit but I also
0:34have an apology to make to all of you
0:36and then after that I'll we'll talk a
0:38little bit about how I'm planning to
0:40mitigate the
0:42errors that I've been making
0:44for which I need to apologize.
0:46And so we'll get into that. But first
0:49let's actually dive in and look at the
0:51spreadsheet. All right, we're looking at
0:54March 2026
0:56and in March 2026 I published four
0:58books. Now I actually these are all of
1:01my genre guides. In fact I have them
1:03listed here. We've got how to write
1:05bookshop cozy mysteries, how to write
1:071920s historical cozy mysteries which
1:09was a fun little niche
1:12that I found in my research, how to
1:13write romantasy and how to write cozy
1:15science fiction. So I'm in the process
1:17of putting out a lot of these genre
1:18guides that are based on AI analyses of
1:22actual bestsellers where I like break
1:24everything down scene by scene and it's
1:26this really fun thing that I do that has
1:28identifies remarkable consistency across
1:30different genres. But I only published
1:32four of them. I did actually hit the
1:34publish button on a lot more of them.
1:36I've done as many as 30 total but I've
1:38scheduled a lot of them out for
1:41pre-order. So I'm only counting the ones
1:43that actually released in March and
1:45those four. All right. So yeah, four
1:48titles that's not bad. Obviously I could
1:50be doing a lot more and which some
1:52people are going to think like a more
1:54what? What the heck? [laughter] Four is
1:56already a lot. Well these are short
1:57guides, right? They're really short.
1:58They don't take me long to produce. The
2:00biggest part is actually analyzing the
2:02books themselves and then I just use AI
2:04to kind of like build a report of that
2:07whole process and that's essentially
2:08what the guides are. But regardless I
2:11have not put out any flagship fiction
2:13books. I've not put out any public
2:15domain books. It's just been these small
2:18nonfiction guides, right? So that's part
2:20of the problem. For Amazon ads I spent
2:22$188. Once again I have not done
2:25anything with Amazon ads this month.
2:27This is just been
2:29running the ads that I've had in there
2:31up to this point and so really nothing
2:33to say there.
2:35For fiction revenue we're at $145.89.
2:39About where we've been the last couple
2:41of months. A little bit more than the
2:42last month which is good but not really
2:44any major changes there. And the other
2:47part is the nonfiction which made me
2:49$686.14.
2:52A little less than last month but still
2:54higher than it has been which I'm happy
2:56to see. And I think the reason why it
2:58was we had to spike last month is cuz I
3:01had a couple of videos come out that
3:03were related to my genre guides and I
3:05think a lot of people bought them.
3:08Maybe not a lot of people cuz I wasn't
3:09even promoting them in my videos but
3:12people found them, people bought them
3:14and so that I think that accounts for
3:16the increase there.
3:18In March I don't believe we had any of
3:19those. So that's just something to keep
3:21in that in mind there. All right. For
3:23audiobook revenue there's nothing new to
3:26add here because
3:28there's
3:30ACX does not release their income
3:33reports until like two months out. So I
3:36don't know what my revenue was for March
3:38yet but I was able to add my revenue for
3:41February which was $49. About the same
3:44as it where it has been. It's been
3:45remarkably consistent actually
3:47considering that I've done no marketing
3:49whatsoever of my audiobooks. The fact
3:51that we've had a consistent $50 every
3:53single month is kind of nice to see.
3:55Obviously I would like it to be more
3:56than that but it's nice to see that at
3:58least somebody is buying my book
3:59consistently every single month via
4:01Audible. All right. And then last but
4:03not least the total revenue minus
4:05expenses is $643.41.
4:08All right. So I have a couple of notes
4:11and if you look at this graph you'll
4:13notice that not much has changed and
4:16this is the thing that I really need to
4:17apologize for cuz when I started out
4:20doing these income reports I kind of
4:21made a promise to all of you that I was
4:23going to start taking publishing
4:25seriously and I kind of haven't done
4:27that. And the reason for that is cuz I'm
4:29trying to juggle two different
4:30businesses here. I'm trying to do the
4:31publishing business and then I'm trying
4:33to do my school business which is the
4:35Story Hacker Group the membership. And
4:37full disclosure I make a lot more from
4:39that membership than I do from the
4:40publishing. Now the publishing I'm still
4:42trying to put what I can into it because
4:44that's really my passion. It's the
4:47storytelling, the publishing. I really
4:49want to make it work especially for my
4:51fiction. But I've never promised on this
4:54channel or in my membership to teach
4:56people how to make money with books
4:58because that's not something that I have
5:00done. I have only promised to show
5:02people how to use AI effectively in the
5:03process and that I'm pretty good at. And
5:06real quick if you want the exact
5:07long-form prompts I use to write books
5:09with AI hit the Story Hacker link below.
5:11The group's waitlisted right now but
5:13when you join I'll email you my full
5:14prompt pack for free. Pop in your email
5:17and I'll send it over. And you know
5:19that's what the membership's about. But
5:21I've always wanted to crack the fiction
5:24selling side of it. Nonfiction too but
5:27particularly the the fiction side of
5:29things. The only reason my nonfiction is
5:30outperforming my fiction right now is
5:32because of this channel. People find me
5:34on this channel and even though I don't
5:36promote the books on Amazon people find
5:38them anyway and they purchase them. I do
5:40a tiny bit of Amazon ads for the
5:43nonfiction but really that's the only
5:44form of marketing that I do for the
5:46books. And so really my goal, my passion
5:49is to get the fiction side up and
5:51running. I want to have a multiple
5:53six-figure if not seven-figure fiction
5:55business. That is my goal. But here's
5:57the thing. I have not done it. I have
5:59not been putting in the effort that I
6:01know needs to go into it because I've
6:03been so distracted for lack of a better
6:06term with the membership which you know
6:08I'm not going to fault myself for that
6:09because it's important that I give my
6:13attention to that as well. There are a
6:15lot of people in there counting on me.
6:17We're building a new tool right now. I'm
6:19adding a whole lot of content. Like it's
6:21a big thing for me but it is very
6:24difficult to juggle to more than one
6:25business and so I've struggled and I've
6:28struggled to do anything and it seems
6:29like month passes after month where I'm
6:31always like intending to do stuff but
6:33then nothing happens. And so I've been
6:35working on that to try and think through
6:37what I can do and I came up with a
6:39couple of things. The main thing is that
6:42just understanding how I work and let me
6:45clarify what that means. So I am very
6:47much a project-based
6:49worker. I like to have okay this is the
6:52project I'm working on. This is all I'm
6:54going to do for the next couple of days
6:56until I finish it.
6:58And I like working that way. The only
7:00problem is there are certain tasks that
7:03need to be done on the regular and can't
7:05necessarily be put off for a couple of
7:07days while I'm working on stuff. The
7:09classic example that's pretty much
7:10universal for everybody is you need to
7:12answer emails. Now you might not need to
7:14actually spend as much time on email
7:15answering side of things as you think
7:17because we all tend to overcheck our
7:19notifications, right? But there still
7:22usually needs to be a time set aside
7:23daily to answer your basic emails or
7:26just to make sure that there are no
7:27fires that need to be put out. Also
7:29there are certain things like this
7:31YouTube channel for instance. I need to
7:33create fairly regular content. Now
7:35sometimes I can go more than a week
7:37without creating any YouTube content if
7:39I've got a sufficient backlog set up.
7:42Like I was just on vacation for two
7:43weeks and two weeks before that I was in
7:46Ireland for a week. So like obviously I
7:48didn't get a whole lot done in that one
7:50week that I had between those two trips.
7:52So that's one week of work in four week.
7:54Anyway, you get the idea, right? So
7:56there are things that need to be done
7:58daily, things that need to be done
7:59weekly and then there are things that
8:01can be done on a project basis. And so
8:03one of the things I've been doing
8:04recently is kind of plotting out what
8:06absolutely particularly in the marketing
8:09of my fiction and nonfiction books, what
8:11needs to be done weekly daily and what
8:14can be done as part of a project. Now
8:16the writing and the editing and the
8:18publishing of a book or a series that is
8:22more of a project thing. I can spend a
8:24whole lot of time on that and get it all
8:26done in one big lump. But there are
8:29certain things in the marketing that
8:32kind of need to be done on the regular.
8:34The most important of which is email,
8:36okay? I've never been that great at
8:39sending out regular emails to my email
8:41list and as a result the email list that
8:43I have which is about 1,500 people or so
8:46is kind of dead. I can send an email to
8:48those 1,500 people saying hey I've got a
8:50new book out and I might get four or
8:53five sales. So it's it really needs some
8:55work. But I know the techniques cuz I've
8:58had success with them in the past. I've
9:00seen what other people are doing
9:01currently in my group that is working
9:03for them. You know I worked at
9:05what other people doing. I like I know
9:07the theory. I know what works. I just
9:09need to do it. And so this is why I'm
9:12going to make email a big priority in
9:13the near future as something that needs
9:15to be done weekly. Now I can maybe set
9:17aside a day to do all of these things
9:19that need to be done weekly and then the
9:21other four days can be more
9:22project-based, right? But we all have
9:25this tendency to either go towards
9:27projects or to have things that are done
9:29just more regularly everyday kind of
9:31stuff. For me making writing a habit
9:35like something I do every day has never
9:37worked for me. I've tried really really
9:38hard. It's it's the sort of advice that
9:40you hear all the time and it just hasn't
9:42worked for me because I just work better
9:44in a project mentality where I just work
9:46on this thing all the time until it's
9:48done. And additionally when you have too
9:50many of those things that are like
9:53things you're doing regularly every
9:54single day eventually you're switching
9:56between so many things in the day that
9:57it feels like you're getting nothing
9:59done and you have a little bit of
10:00anxiety because of the switching cost of
10:02your attention to all of these different
10:04things. And so it's my plan is to
10:06probably pick a day, it'll probably be
10:07like Monday and I'll do all of the
10:10things that need to be done for that
10:12week. So filming a couple of videos,
10:14setting out emails or scheduling them
10:17for the week, probably doing some ad
10:19creative and stuff like that. That could
10:21all be done in one day. And then
10:22obviously we move on and uh do more
10:26project-based stuff for the rest of the
10:27week as possible. Obviously there are
10:29some things that just come up, meetings
10:31and whatnot that have to be done, but
10:33that's just the whole thing. I know I'm
10:34kind of rambling a little bit, but that
10:36is the my proposed change going forward.
10:39I really want I'm going to focus a lot
10:41on email to kind of show how just
10:44putting a small amount of attention on
10:45that and building the email list is
10:47going to affect things. I'm going to add
10:49a new marker here on my spreadsheet to
10:51show how many new email subscribers I'm
10:54getting. Since my current email list is
10:56mostly dead, I'm going to essentially
10:58start from scratch, build an entirely
11:00new email list from scratch. So you get
11:02to watch that progress and how much it
11:05affects things. And and we'll go from
11:07there. So those are my thoughts. Thank
11:09you for watching this video. I will see
11:11you in the next one.