This Week in Self-Publishing: En Route to Missoula
Plus, sales numbers from my Portland reading!
Patreon revenue: $6,909
Book revenue: $888.20
Book sales: 193 ebooks, 133 paperbacks
Book expenses: $4,143.32
Money spent this week: $0.00 (Did I include the cost of flights/hotels to Missoula back when I bought them? I can’t remember. I should do a more thorough tally at some point, because I know I didn’t count the cost of the Bolt Bus to Portland last week. I think I forget that travel also counts as book expenses.)
I’m writing this from a tiny plane en route to Missoula, where I’ll be doing a reading tonight at 5:30 p.m. at Fact & Fiction bookstore with author Kayla Cagan and musicians Marian Call and Seth Boyer.
The plane is so old that I can’t imagine how old it actually must be; the seats are comfortable and wide and there is enough legroom for two of me if we sat in front of each other.
There’s also… I mean, I’m not sure this plane has wings? It must have wings. But I can’t see them — only these propeller tube things attached to the plane by metal bars, the kind of apparatus that I can only imagine coming apart.
But it hasn’t come apart yet, because this plane has flown for so long that it feels like being in the past. I have to keep reminding myself that this is, in fact, right now.
I sold nine books at my reading at Another Read Through last Friday, and I don’t know yet exactly how much I’ve earned from those sales, but the check should be arriving soon.
I’ve also been getting more Amazon reviews, all of which remind me that this book is doing exactly what I hoped it would do. Here’s one excerpt:
Being the oldest in the family and an ardent reader I related to Meredith in the beginning. I saw myself in Natalie when she got her first glasses. I understood Rosemary (the mother) even as I was bonding with her children. Jack the father reminded me of my father.
Nicole Dieker writes in a style that makes you feel you are a fly on the wall. I found myself reading “just one more chapter” until I reached the end. I am happy that it was not really “the end” and look forward to her next book.
(If you liked that review and you haven’t yet bought The Biographies of Ordinary People: Volume 1: 1989–2000, here’s the link.)
Also, to the person who included in their review that they were glad this was a trilogy, um… it’s a duology. For now. I’m pretty sure forever. Since Volume 2 ends in 2016, I’d have to wait another 15 years before I could write another book about these characters.
I am in the process of creating a new website, in which I’ll be able to showcase my freelance writing work, my novel, and my teaching. It’ll serve as an online portfolio as well as a place for me to put these blog posts (sorry Medium, we had a good run) and any other bloggy-type stuff I want to share.
I know it’s ridiculous to think of writing even more blog posts in addition to my daily work at The Billfold and my monthly work at Lifehacker, The Write Life, The Verbs, and Reviews.com. (And revising and prepping Volume 2 for publication.)
But… like, I wrote this post for The Billfold about wanting to detach a little from social media. I used the phrase “I could be one of those people who makes the successful transition from social media renter to website homeownership,” which is… apt. I want a home base that I can call my own, where I can showcase my work and share my thoughts.
I’m also going to apply for three more awards when I get back: the IPPYs and the Ben Franklin awards, which I’ve mentioned before, along with the Washington State Book Awards, which I just learned about and which are apparently free to enter as long as I mail six copies of my book to the Seattle Public Library? I can do that.
And, of course, do another BargainBooksy promo and start applying at the other promo sites, now that I have more Amazon reviews. (Thank you.)
So that’s where I am this week. Literally in the air, as I try to put a bunch of things together and get whatever this becomes started. ❤
