Full transcript
0:00Hello everyone and welcome to the first
0:03monthly income report video reporting on
0:06November 2025
0:09as far as my publishing journey,
0:10tracking my publishing journey to uh
0:13attempt to make upwards of seven figures
0:16from my uh publishing business. Um so
0:21this is the first month that we've done
0:22this. I did a couple of weekly videos on
0:25this topic, but I realized that I was
0:27didn't often have much to update people
0:29about each week. So, I'm now doing this
0:31as a monthly video that I'm going to do,
0:34just tracking everything that I'm doing.
0:35Now, this is the first month that I've
0:37really started to take my publishing
0:39business seriously. In the past, you
0:41know, with this channel and everything,
0:43I've just been geeking out about the
0:44technology and about writing stuff, but
0:47not really putting a whole lot of effort
0:48into the publishing or marketing of my
0:50books. Now I have been publishing books
0:54uh ever since 2018. I wrote 14 books the
0:57traditional way before AI came around.
0:59Now I do use AI in my process to augment
1:03what I'm capable of doing. But I also
1:05work with ghost writers to produce books
1:06that way. And uh I have a multiple tools
1:10in my belt as far as producing the
1:11content that will go into publishing.
1:14But I'm spending a lot more time really
1:16focusing on the publishing aspect of
1:18things uh going forward. So,
1:22keep in mind that this is like the first
1:24month I'm taking things seriously. All
1:25right. [laughter]
1:26Um, and a lot of what happened this past
1:29month was preparatory work. Getting some
1:33of the basics established and also
1:35making quite a number of mistakes and
1:37figuring out what was not working. That
1:40is a crucial part of the process as
1:41well. kind of feels sometimes like we uh
1:45every time we make a mistake that we've
1:48wasted time or money. And in the case of
1:51November,
1:53uh I honestly feel that way a little bit
1:55because it doesn't look like I've made
1:57much progress. But I can tell you just
1:59from learning all of what doesn't work.
2:01I've made a number of pivots that I
2:04think have that are going to have really
2:06good long-term results. But they are
2:08long-term results. And so let's talk a
2:11little bit about that. I've got a
2:12spreadsheet here.
2:14This is modified a little bit from the
2:17spreadsheet that I was using from my
2:19weekly. So a couple of things that I
2:22want to report on right now. Keep in
2:24mind I'm going to expand this
2:25spreadsheet in the future to have
2:27probably things like number of new email
2:29subscribers um to differentiate between
2:32Amazon ads and Facebook ads and stuff
2:34like that. But I'm really trying to take
2:36a systematic approach to things and I'm
2:38really only focusing on one or two
2:39things at a time. So those are the
2:41things that I'm p that I'm uh reporting
2:44on here. And the first is titles
2:46published. And as you can see, I I
2:48published zero titles in November. Uh
2:51once again, this is kind of I I'm I'm
2:55prepping prepping things. And I have my
2:57first major fiction release coming out
3:00in about two weeks from when I'm filming
3:02this. And so like things are spinning
3:06and I've got a couple I've got six
3:07different public domain books that I'm
3:09prepping that'll probably I'll probably
3:11be done with them by the end of this
3:13week. By the time you see this it'll
3:15probably be done and I will publish all
3:18six of those. Uh although I will
3:20probably drip them out so they're not
3:21published all at once. But anyway, um
3:25lots is happening behind the scenes.
3:27I've got over a dozen books that have
3:29been written by ghostriters I just
3:31haven't published yet. And so you can
3:34see how like I just haven't been putting
3:36in the effort into the publishing and
3:37marketing uh side of things because I
3:40you I've had this YouTube channel and
3:41all all this other stuff. So zero titles
3:44published. I spent $55.78
3:47on Amazon ads. This was almost entirely
3:50going to my non-fiction books uh like
3:53the plot module for instance. And uh it
3:55was actually good that I checked this
3:57because this is a lot less than what
4:00I've spent in the past and kind of
4:03explains why I had less of a stellar
4:06month uh as far as my non-fiction is
4:08concerned compared to what I usually get
4:10for non-fiction. Uh as far as fiction
4:12revenue, and I lump all my fiction and
4:14my public domain titles all together
4:16here, I got $77.38.
4:19That is also pretty low for me. Uh
4:22usually if you combine all of the uh
4:24public domain stuff, it's usually at
4:26least double that. Um but still, we're
4:29putting the effort like that was with no
4:31effort put into marketing the fiction
4:33whatsoever. And I still haven't really
4:35put any effort into marketing this
4:36fiction on Amazon. So, um expect this to
4:42see big changes as I even even just
4:44start to run ads to it. We're I'm
4:46expecting to see a lot there. My
4:48non-fiction got a little over $500. 528
4:51and 93. [snorts] And uh again, this is a
4:55this is a low month for me. Usually,
4:56this is upwards of like 8 to 800 to,000.
5:00Uh but I did notice that my Amazon ads
5:04had gone down considerably. Usually,
5:05this is like two or 300 that I'm
5:07spending in Amazon ads on those books.
5:09So, I'm going to have to go into my
5:11Amazon ads and kind of figure out why it
5:14dipped down so low. I'm sure there's
5:16probably a dumb reason somewhere. I have
5:18not been monitoring my Amazon ads
5:20effectively and well I I'll get into
5:23what I'm doing with Amazon ads in the
5:26future. So that leads to a total revenue
5:28of income minus expenses of $50050
5:32$5503.
5:35So I've also made a couple of notes here
5:37that I want to talk to you about just as
5:41a
5:42uh just some ideas on on what I'm
5:45working on and how things are going.
5:47what's what's been happening behind the
5:49scenes, right? And the first thing is
5:52that I I've kind of gone over this
5:53already, but I've tested a bunch of
5:55things already. I launched two YouTube
5:57channels to promote my fiction, trying
6:00to get things into more of a
6:01subscription model with my fiction
6:03group. I quickly realized that that was
6:06not working. I also ran ads to that
6:08group and u spent like $200. Didn't get
6:10a single sale out of that. Um, and I'm
6:14not reporting those expenses here, by
6:16the way, because I've uh what we're
6:18reporting here is just what I'm spending
6:22to my an Amazon store. Okay? So, I've
6:25kind of cut out all of the additional
6:27expenses that I've had uh for now
6:29because I want to keep it focused on
6:31growing my Amazon business because
6:33that's the biggest pivot that I've made
6:34this month is deciding to go from this
6:37weird business idea that I had that has
6:40worked in other things. it's worked for
6:42my story hacker group and all of that um
6:45to focusing more on an Amazon first
6:47business. The reasons being I think I
6:52need to master the basics before I can
6:55go to something a little bit more
6:56complicated. And the basics include
6:59things like learning what sells. And the
7:01best place to learn what sells is to
7:04sell on Amazon. So, I figured uh better
7:07to go back to basics, go look what
7:09everybody's talking about on how to be
7:11successful on Amazon and really take it
7:13seriously and go deep on it. So, that's
7:16the biggest pivot I made in November was
7:19making that change. As part of that, I
7:22decided to get a pretty expensive
7:26uh coaching package. I do believe that
7:28coaching is probably the best investment
7:29that one can make for the the potential
7:33growth of you and your business. And so,
7:36um, if some of you may have heard of
7:38Brian Cohen. He's actually a friend of
7:40mine. He lives not too far from me
7:42actually here in North Carolina. And,
7:46um, I so I knew him as a friend, but I
7:48knew he also had this highle coaching
7:50program for authors who were making a
7:52lot of money already from their books.
7:54Now, I wasn't making as much money from
7:56my books, but I do make a lot of money
7:57through other uh baskets, other uh other
8:01eggs in other baskets. And so,
8:05um and so I talked to him and he was
8:07just like, "Yeah, we can get you in uh
8:09and we can do this." So, I was lucky
8:10enough to get into his program, uh
8:12called Pathfinders. And I am now doing
8:16that. And it's because of him that I
8:18already have a date set for my next
8:20major fiction release. Uh I I realized
8:24that I was just a lot of what I was
8:27doing there was just I was just sort of
8:30dragging my feet and I don't really know
8:32why because I've published many books
8:34before. I know how it goes. Um but
8:38anyway,
8:40uh that's been really helpful so far
8:42even though it's only been a couple of
8:43weeks that I've been in that program. I
8:46have a coaching call later today
8:48actually. Um the other thing uh there
8:51are two areas that I have started really
8:54going deep on when it comes to learning
8:56the basics right um and based on just my
9:01general knowledge of the industry that I
9:04learned from working at Kindlereneur for
9:05a couple of years as well as publishing
9:07several books uh before that um is that
9:11genre research is important but I
9:13haven't really taken that seriously
9:15right I was kind of just like yeah yeah
9:17genre is important I'm just going to
9:19write the fantasy that I like and then
9:20try to make it work and market it to the
9:23the most similar genre. Um, but what
9:28I've come to learn as I've dug a little
9:30deeper on this is that it's a lot more
9:34than just saying, "Oh, this is a
9:36fantasy, right? Or this is a
9:39spy thriller or you know, whatever your
9:43thing is, clean romance." there are
9:45specific tropes and specific beats that
9:49you need to hit and a lot of people
9:51don't like that. They think that like oh
9:53that's uh you know that limits your
9:56creativity and everything and I
9:57disagree. I was told I I remember taking
10:00like a marketing class way back in
10:02college and the I don't remember
10:04anything that was said in that class
10:05except for this one thing that he said
10:06that constraint breeds creativity. And
10:11so if you give yourself a couple of
10:12points of constraint, what I'd call
10:14tropes,
10:16um, your creativity, creativity can
10:19actually flourish. But the reason
10:20they're so important is because you
10:22think of a book like a recipe and
10:25[snorts] imagine you go to a pizza shop
10:27and you order a pepperoni pizza. You
10:30expect to get a pepperoni pizza. You do
10:32not expect anchovies and u you know
10:35spinach and tomatoes and all of these
10:38other things to be put on your pizza.
10:41And if the person did that and maybe
10:44instead of putting it on a
10:46instead of putting it on a some bread uh
10:49pizza crust, they put it on a giant
10:53piece of lettuce, right? And if somebody
10:57gave you that, you wouldn't praise them
10:59for their creativity.
11:01You would say, "I ordered the pepperoni
11:02pizza. Where's my pepperoni pizza?" And
11:05then you would leave them a really
11:06scathing review and never go back there
11:09again. That's the way tropes work.
11:12People are looking for something very
11:14specific um done really well and maybe
11:18with a little bit of an extra flare on
11:20top, but you need those basic
11:22ingredients. Um and that's what I've
11:25been learning. And so I've been going
11:26really deep lately and I'm going to
11:28actually be producing some guides on
11:30certain genres that I've gone deep on. U
11:33because you know being something of an
11:35AI expert I've been able to analyze
11:37these things at a deeper level that most
11:39people do not do
11:42uh and create guides for myself [snorts]
11:44to to go into this uh this level of
11:48detail. And I've really learned that I
11:51had not been doing what I should have
11:54been doing with genre research and it's
11:56probably the number one reason why I was
11:59failing before as an author and unable
12:01to get certain books off the ground.
12:04Now, I will say there is a service that
12:06I've been working with called Kalytics.
12:09Uh this is their dashboard here. Um this
12:12is a service that I've known about. I've
12:14actually purchased some of their
12:15individual reports in the past. Um, but
12:19this is essentially a ton of information
12:23that is put together by um, Alex, who is
12:26the guy who runs this. And um, I used to
12:29think this was like a a tool like
12:32Publisher Rocket or something like that
12:34where you could sort through stuff, but
12:36really it's just he's giving you a lot
12:37of data that he and his team have sorted
12:39through and you can get that in the form
12:42of a giant spreadsheet that they give
12:43out every month. Uh but also they do
12:46these reports now and then with custom
12:49research on specific genres that are
12:52trending or hot or just interesting
12:54rising genres and stuff like that.
12:57[snorts] Um so we have like in October
12:59there was a cozy mystery report. In
13:02November there was a Christian romance
13:04report
13:05or excuse me Christmas romance report.
13:09Um, one I've been going through in
13:10detail was this one, the urban fantasy
13:12report from 2015, 2025. Um,
13:16[clears throat] uh, because I'm
13:17considering writing an urban fantasy.
13:19And I've gotten quite a few insights
13:21from doing this. I'll give you one
13:23example.
13:24I've learned that a urban fantasy with a
13:27female protagonist is often a very
13:30different type of book from an urban
13:32fantasy with a male protagonist.
13:35the the quintessential male protagonist
13:37urban fantasy that you may have heard of
13:39is the Dresden Files series by Jim
13:41Butcher. That's your quintessential male
13:44urban fantasy. But a female urban
13:45fantasy is often quite different.
13:47There's often a lot more romance there.
13:50Um
13:51the the main character is maybe I I
13:54don't know.
13:56You you have to dig into it, but like
13:58there's there's a lot of differences. It
14:00doesn't feel like the same book. The
14:01male one, he's usually more of like a
14:04hard-boiled detective. With the female
14:06version, it could be quite a different
14:08situation for the main character about
14:10what they are. There there can still be
14:12some detective versions, but anyway,
14:14like when you get to this amount of
14:16detail, you really start to learn that
14:19there are subtle differences that make a
14:21difference for the readers of those
14:23genres.
14:24And if you get it wrong, it's like
14:26giving you the kale salad instead of the
14:28pepperoni pizza. And so I've been
14:30considering doing a male-led urban
14:32fantasy book. And so that's the reason I
14:35bring that up. But there's lots of
14:36things in here that I've really enjoyed
14:39learning about. And uh even if I don't
14:41plan on writing in that, like I don't
14:44really plan on writing a Christmas
14:45romance, but I'm really interested in
14:47kind of learning what's going on in the
14:48market and just seeing how all all of
14:50this works. Um and horror fiction as
14:53well. Like there's lots of interesting
14:55stuff here. So, uh this is not the
14:58cheapest
15:00uh program,
15:02but it is I have found it to be pretty
15:05valuable, especially when working
15:07together with something like Publisher
15:09Rocket, which allows me to sort through
15:11the data myself manually. Um it's it's
15:14just it's been a good resource for me.
15:16So, I I do have an affiliate link to
15:18this down below if you want to check it
15:19out. Um no sponsorship or anything. This
15:23is just something that I bought recently
15:24and actually have found it to be useful
15:26and I'll probably do a full review of it
15:28at some point in at a later date. So,
15:30other than that, I am working to publish
15:33a lot of titles in the near future, both
15:35my own fiction as well as some public
15:37domain stuff that I have really good uh
15:40data pointing to indicate that I might
15:43be able to make some good money there.
15:45And the other thing that I'm doing is
15:47I'm really going deep on Amazon ads.
15:49haven't really started this a whole lot
15:50yet. Um, but and and there wasn't much
15:54that went into Amazon ads in the month
15:56of November. So, this is more of a
15:57December thing that's coming up. Uh, is
16:00that I really want to work on Amazon
16:02ads. And the good news is that my coach,
16:04Brian Cohen, is kind of known as the
16:06Amazon ads guy. There are plenty of
16:07other people that are successful with
16:09Amazon ads as well, but he's one of
16:10them. And so, I plan on going through
16:13his programs, and I'll probably have a
16:15review of those as well on this channel
16:17as I go. Uh the idea is that I'm going
16:19to be documenting every every part of my
16:22process starting with genre research and
16:25Amazon ads as the two big things that I
16:28really get deep into here on this
16:30channel. So that's happening and
16:32starting I should say in December. So
16:34we'll see if that has any major
16:36influence on things. Um, the last thing
16:39I want to point out before I close this
16:41video is that over the course of
16:44November,
16:45I was working extremely hard on a lot of
16:49things like th those YouTube channels
16:53that was not showing a whole lot of
16:55results. Uh, now you could just say
16:58stick with it. You know, the sunshines
17:01at at the end of the tunnel, but you've
17:04you've got to spend a lot of time doing
17:06that. And that can be the the thing
17:08about spending a whole lot of work
17:10trying to make something work is that
17:12you very quickly figure out a what's not
17:14working so we can cut that. Um and b are
17:19there better ways to do things. I've
17:20already talked about my pivot pivots and
17:22stuff like that.
17:24But because of that I I was even having
17:26some success on one of my YouTube
17:28channels. It got monetized in three
17:30weeks which is insane. That's faster
17:31than the nerdy novelist got monetized.
17:34But I was finding that I was spending so
17:36much of my time working on that channel
17:39that I wasn't spending as much time
17:41working on stuff that would allow me to
17:44publish a lot of stuff. And um really my
17:48time spent was maybe like 2/3 on YouTube
17:51including this channel and
17:54like uh one sixth doing administrative
17:58stuff that I have to do and then like an
18:01additional one sixth doing uh what I
18:05actually wanted to do. So you learn
18:07through this process about what you
18:09actually what you really want to do and
18:12spending more time doing more of what
18:13you love. And I realized that there are
18:15a couple of things that at least
18:16temporarily I need to cut out. And one
18:20of them was that YouTube channel even
18:21though it was seeing some success and I
18:23was getting people on my email list
18:25because of it and reading some of the
18:26free books that I offer. That can wait.
18:29I think I think I can put that off and
18:31get to it at a later time when I'm ready
18:33for it. But right now, I'm much more
18:35interested in this genre research and
18:37doing Amazon ads and starting from the
18:39beginning. Whereas I think YouTube,
18:41there are people that are really
18:42successful with a YouTube first, but
18:44they're kind of the exception. And I
18:46really want to go a little bit more
18:47traditional and see if I can make that
18:49work and document the whole process and
18:51and to help you guys. And so I'm keeping
18:55it to just this YouTube channel and the
18:57videos I produce on this YouTube
18:59channel.
19:00And um
19:03but only doing like one a day or so.
19:05It's a lot less time to focus on just
19:08one YouTube channel than to try and do
19:09two. Especially when the second one I
19:11was writing and uh and recording one
19:14episode every for every day of the week.
19:16So, seven a week. It was a lot. Um and
19:20the other thing that I've cut out
19:22surprisingly is a lot of the writing.
19:25I've decided that at least temporarily I
19:28need to take a break from writing
19:29fiction. um even with AI because that
19:33was taking away from this task of
19:35publishing. I need to start publishing
19:38and there's a lot of things that I want
19:40to test in the publishing that are I
19:43guess you could call it like AI writing
19:45of a sort but it's really more like
19:47creating derivative works like
19:48translations of my books using AI or a
19:52young reader edition of my books or uh
19:54different versions of public domain
19:56books, stuff like that. Those are all
19:58things I really want to test.
20:00And I couldn't really do a lot of that
20:03while also spending a lot of time
20:04writing a new book. So, with that in
20:08mind, I've actually pulled back a little
20:10bit on the writing. I'm still doing a
20:12little bit here and there, but it's more
20:15as part of another larger project than
20:18than as like a regular habit, right? Um,
20:21and focusing more on the stuff that I
20:23love to do at this period of time. and
20:26then, you know, once I finish up a
20:27couple of these projects that I'm
20:29currently enjoying immensely,
20:31getting back to some of those other
20:33things that need to happen. Um, so it's
20:37been a big balance over the last couple
20:38of months of just thinking through what
20:41do I actually
20:43love to do? What lights me up?
20:47And there's a certain amount of that
20:48that's just like doing R&D with AI and
20:51playing around with it. I just love
20:52that. There's a certain amount in terms
20:54of the publishing process. I'm also a
20:56huge lifelong learner type of person. I
20:58love to learn new things and document
20:59it. So, that's part of things. Um, and
21:03focusing more on that because right now
21:06the where I am at is I I have a problem.
21:09It's a good problem to have, but it's
21:10still a problem of having too many
21:12things that I want to do and not being
21:14able to do everything.
21:17>> [snorts]
21:17>> So, the solutions to that are to either
21:19cut some of that out, find somebody else
21:21to do it, hire them, which I do some of
21:24that as well. Um, but some of the things
21:27can't really be hired out. They have to
21:29be done by me, at least at first, while
21:31I get it off the ground.
21:34Um, and I cannot do all of those things.
21:36So, some of them have to be cut out,
21:37even things that I enjoy doing. like I
21:40loved making that YouTube channel that
21:42was doing really well, but I think I
21:45found it was getting in in the way of
21:47other [snorts] things that I loved and I
21:49had to prioritize what I work on. So,
21:52this is just kind of a word of caution
21:56for those of you who are looking to
21:59uh to become a publisher yourself to to
22:02publish your own books. When I say
22:03become a publisher, I'm talking about
22:05myself primarily. we're if if you want
22:08to take this seriously, you are a
22:09publisher already. Uh just a publisher
22:11of one person.
22:13Um you're going to have to make some
22:15sacrifices. You you can do anything you
22:18want to do, but you can't do everything
22:19that you want to do. And that's
22:21something that I've had to learn the
22:23hard way, especially over this past
22:25month or two. Those are my final
22:27thoughts. I'll see you again for the
22:29revenue report for December in about a
22:32month from now. And uh hopefully if you
22:35have any questions, let me know below
22:36and I'll be sure to try and address
22:38those next time.