Income Report – November 2019

Honestly, this was a year without a crater month. I had some months that weren’t amazing, but for the most part, I made good money every month…until this one. I am upset with how this month turned out. I did get a book written, but not edited this month, but I am sad in a profound way about how this month worked out. You could say that because this year has already been better than the last, I earned a break, but the bills don’t stop just because my year is basically over. Anyway, let’s see how this month worked out.

Income:  $4,064

A combination of doing no book marketing, having only two very small shows, and not having anything to launch on Amazon since August led to the worst month of the year by a wide margin, and a 60% dip from last year, which is a bit heartbreaking. It also shows that no matter how good things are going, disaster is right around the corner. I think I have a good idea of how to fix this for 2020, but I am in a tailspin right now, which you’ll see in the breakdown.

Here’s how it all broke down last month.

Teachable – $0 – yes, for the first time in two years I had ZERO Teachable sales. ZERO.

Online book sales – $108.72 – this includes an Indiegogo payment, but even with it, nothing to write home about. I have a plan for a Kickstarter in January to relaunch all my godsverse books, and I can’t wait for that because it means I’m not releasing ANYTHING until then.

Kickstarter – $0 – This was a one and done thing last month.

Verizon – $760 – back to the below average Verizon sales months from the rest of the year, and honestly that have plagued me since the beginning of last year.

Cons – $1884.9

Book Marketing – $1311.28

So this is what happens when everything craters at once. In the last ten months, I’ve always had something carry me through the finish line and buoy me up. One month it would be shows and another book marketing, and still another would be Kickstarter, but this month, I just had pretty anemic sales all around, while still carrying a huge expense load from the Kickstarter. It’s been a sock in the gut all month.

Expenses: $11,168

Last year I had $20,301 in expenses against $9944 in sales for a deficit of $10357, and I still had over $5,700 to pay on the Cthulhu Kickstarter. This year I had $11,168 in expenses against $4.064 in expenses for a deficit of $7,104, and I have paid (I think) all the Kickstarter expenses, which actually puts me in a pretty good spot comparatively, but I still have to pay for all my travel expenses for next year, which are not inconsequential, as I’m traveling at LEAST to Houston, Denver, and Portland for flights, and driving to at LEAST San Jose, San Diego, and Vegas. I’m not going to be paying for hotels in December, but I do want to pay for all my flights and tables for next year if I can. I’ll be definitely paying for San Diego and Denver next month, and if San Jose opens up then I’ll be paying for that, too, which will cover most of my big tables for 2020, except for Wondercon, and if I can magically get into Emerald City.

Year to Date: $122,918

–YTD w/o Kickstarter: $107,732.42

–Expenses to date: $113,925

Inched up with my YTD, but there’s no way for me to catch last year. No way at all. Still, aside from having a massive Kickstarter, I did pretty well compared to 2017, and will probably beat the $124,028 I made two years ago, and not spent as much as the $133,372 I spent in 2017 either. Unless I have a lot of bad stuff happen next month, I’m confident I will stay well under the expenses of 2017, while beating the revenue from 2017, which is nice. I will also stay under the expenses from 2018.

I’ve been working on profit margins this year, and I’m happy to see the expenses going down (though not by enough) even if the income has also gone down at the same time.

–YTD 2018: $137,557

–EXPENSES TO DATE 2018: $128,066

Comparatively to last year at this time, I have an $8993 profit margin from this year, compared to a $9491 profit margin from last year, which means for the first time all year I have flipped and am doing worse this year than last year, which is maddeningly disappointing. However, as we talked about in previous months, the Kickstarter from last year went unexpectedly well, and crushed through profitability, while this year would have been profitable even without the Kickstarter I ran this year, as it was roughly net neutral at best, though the revenue looked good. I was in a deep hole before the Kickstarter last year, and this year I was profitable even without the Kickstarter, which means if I can figure out how to combine the Kickstarter success from last year with the profitability of this year, I think I can make a run at $150,000 in revenue, and have a nice little chunk of money to take home at the end of the year as well.

Insights: 

November 2018: income: $9,944

November 2018: expenses: $20,301

November 2019 income: $4,064

November 2019 expenses: $11,168

December 2018 income: $4256

December 2018 expenses: $19426

My biggest insight this month is what I talked about above. No matter how good a year you are having…even if you are smashing through every projection, you can still blow it in the end. You can still crater, and if you do the bills don’t stop coming. In fact, they feel like they crush you even more with every passing day. Still, the nice thing about having three successful years is that you can look back and see what worked and what didn’t from your previous attempts, and develop a plan to finally break through to the next level.

I at least think I won’t hit the $19,426 in expenses from last year, but I don’t know by how much I will be below that. Hopefully significantly, but December is always the month when I prep for next year’s shows, which gives me a LOT of expenses for December. Also, as a corporation, this is the month I PAY myself, which means that I have both tax expenses and payroll expenses I don’t have the rest of the year, making my expenses look much higher than they actually are in December. Since I’m paying myself much more this year, and reimbursing myself for expenses accidentally charged to my personal card, I doubt it will be lower. In fact, it may be much higher.

I don’t even think I’ll end up hitting the modest $4,000 income figure I hit last year in December

Next year, I plan to do the same level of book marketing as last year, or at least close to that level of book marketing, and do THREE Kickstarters (one for novels, one for the Cthulhu is Hard to Spell anthology, and one for at least one, if not two, volumes of Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter. 

2020 will be all about taking what I learned between 2017 and 2019 and everything up for success in 2020. I’ve never had a year where I put it all together before, but I think 2020 might be that year, and if I can get Amazon finally working, then I will be a happy camper by the end of 2020. However, there is always the chance that it will blow up right in my face.

There is always a good chance that will happen.