This Week in Self-Publishing: My To-Do List

Go to NicoleDieker.com right now. I dare you.

Patreon revenue: $6,909

Book revenue: $899.96

Book sales: 196 ebooks, 134 paperbacks

Book expenses: $4,239.85

Money spent this week: $96.53 (on awards fees and shipping for the IPPYs and the Washington State Book Awards)

So I just want to run down all the stuff, really quickly, because I have a lot of work to do and the news is THE NEWS. You know.

The Missoula reading at Fact & Fiction went very well! There was music, there was reading, and then Marian Call led a short Q&A afterwards. (I’m always glad when there’s someone to MC the Q&A. It goes so much better than when I try to do it myself, because if nobody has any questions the MC can always ask one of their own, and that usually prompts an audience member to think of one.)

I don’t have Missoula sales to announce because they didn’t do a consignment agreement (where I provided the books and they sold them and we split the money). They ordered the books outright from IngramSpark, so I don’t know how many of my Ingram sales were from Missoula. I’d guess the same number that I’ve been selling at my other readings: 10–15ish.

I submitted Biographies to the IPPYs and the Washington State Book Awards this week. I opened up the Ben Franklin awards page and thought “$225? Seriously?” and then I wondered if I really needed to submit to that award.

I’m getting more hesitant to spend money on this book, now that it’s out in the world and I can see what it’s doing. I’m definitely going to spend some money on book promos like Bargain Booksy and Reading Deals and etc.—because we’ve already proven that those earn back their investments—but I’ve already submit to five awards, and maybe I can be done?

OR WOULD THIS BE THE ONE AWARD I WOULD ACTUALLY WIN AND I MISSED MY CHANCE BECAUSE I’M TOO CHEAP TO SPEND $225?

Right. Moving on.

Right now Nicole Dieker Dot Com redirects to an animated GIF of a kitten falling over, which is adorable, but it also means that I am in the process of building a new website.

I am at the very beginning of the process, and since I am doing this while simultaneously helping The Billfold with its website migration, I know just how much work this is going to take.

But I want this website so badly. I feel like it’s the next step in my professional process: gettin’ a site that has all my stuff in one place, and migrating these posts over to it, and linking to my freelance work and my Hugo House classes, and telling everyone to sign up for my TinyLetter.

So I gotta build this site. And get new headshots. MY HAIR ISN’T EVEN THAT COLOR ANYMORE.

The trouble with getting new headshots is that I feel like I haven’t made a genuine smile since Trump got elected.

So my current order of operations is:

1. Do the website
2. Do this month’s Bargain Booksy promo
3. Start sending out thoughtful & interesting TinyLetters that include links to this week’s This Week in Self-Publishing post as well as my best freelance stuff from the week, interesting links I’ve read, upcoming appearances, you know how TinyLetters work
4. Submit Biographies Vol. 1 to other promo sites
5. Appear at Readerfest in Seattle on September 9—YES, THAT IS MY NEXT PUBLIC THING, LET’S HANG
6. Focus fully on revising Biographies Vol. 2 (I have several weekends blocked off for this)

CAN WE DO IT ALL?

PROBABLY YES. I am good at doing a lot of things.

But wow this will take a lot of work, in addition to all of my freelance work and checking in with whatever’s happened in the world since I began writing this post. ❤

I ALSO WANT TO DEEP-CLEAN MY APARTMENT BECAUSE I’VE BEEN AWAY FROM HOME FOR THE PAST TWO WEEKENDS AND EVEN THOUGH I’VE BEEN WIPING THE SINK DOWN THERE IS STILL DUST COLLECTING EVERYWHERE.

Previously:

This Week in Self-Publishing: En Route to Missoula