My 3rd Year as a Part-Time Author
It's my third year as a part-time author. A part-time author is someone who writes and distributes books part-time. I've been writing stories since childhood, and 2020 was my debut year of becoming an author. Yep, only a few days before the world shut down. It's my second year wrapping up how my year turned out. I focused on the business full-time in September this year, so it was a slightly slow start.
I look forward to author Laura Salas's blog post about her earnings as a working author every year. Laura outlines her earnings based on her revenue streams; it's helpful to see how one can earn a living as an author. This year's countless strikes, including the Writer's Guild Association and the HarperCollins Publishing House Strike, have highlighted pay issues. The bottom line is to pay people fair and livable wages! It's no surprise that authors have to work hard for their money.
I will focus on the publishing side of my business, which concentrates strictly on authoring, speaking, and consulting.
As an indie author, I sold ~3700 books across Amazon, Ingramspark, website sales, and bulk book orders.
This year, author visits and presentations accounted for less than 5% of my earnings. I shared a marketing presentation with my local chapter of Society of Children’s Book Writier’s and Illustrators. I engaged in monthly lives with a show, I co-host called Authorapy with two other indie authors.
I was featured in two online holiday catalogs and had the opportunity to share my books at JP Morgan Chase in NYC.
Vendor markets accounted for 20% of earnings. I did only a handful of markets. What I enjoy is going to new cities and sharing my books. It is worth it, honestly. Opportunities in other cities are something I plan to explore.
I had zero writing gigs this year, which is no bueno. I was approached for a writing opportunity, and I turned it down. But I wrote 50 newsletters and 19 blogs and was featured in Yahoo News and the New York Post.
I had several author consulting gigs and plan to lean into them more in 2024. if you're interested in writing a book next year or planning a crowdfunding campaign, let's chat!
My most significant expense this year was printing! I printed 5,000 books this year. Over half of my revenue was from book sales, 4% of my budget was on advertising and marketing, and marketing efforts.
In 2024, I'm focusing more on blogging and writing. I would love more author visit opportunities to share with students. If you're a teacher or know a school interested in an author, please email me at hi@thewealthplayground.com.
Here are things I plan to do differently in 2024:
Invest in my technology. I need a new laptop and want a portable mic for events.
Have a costume/persona - I would like to create a persona while at visits. I want to do more to make author visits memorable for the students.
Consult more - I love writing and consulting. I have experience in creative writing, crowdfunding, and marketing.
For bulk orders, I will ship directly from the vendor to the client (cutting myself out of the process)
Did you enjoy this blog post? If so, let me know if I should anything else.