You might as well stop reading, because I’ll tell you right now, there’s not a whole lot of bells and whistles this month.
This has been kind of an up-down month. The main problem was money – I didn’t make any for about the first three weeks of October and the anxiety was killing me.
Finally around the 21st I got some work and made some money and managed to scrape by for another month. But I’m sure you know all about spending all your money on bills and then starting over from scratch, over and over and over and…
Maybe you don’t live in America, I don’t know. If you do, I sure hope you vote in a few days. Here in Montana we’ve got some serious races and I’ve been writing about them quite a bit. In fact, this is the month the 2014 Montana Election Blog surpassed the Writing Blog in number of views. The blog also passed 200 posts, so that’s pretty good.
This has been kind of an up-down month. The main problem was money – I didn’t make any for about the first three weeks of October and the anxiety was killing me.
Finally around the 21st I got some work and made some money and managed to scrape by for another month. But I’m sure you know all about spending all your money on bills and then starting over from scratch, over and over and over and…
Maybe you don’t live in America, I don’t know. If you do, I sure hope you vote in a few days. Here in Montana we’ve got some serious races and I’ve been writing about them quite a bit. In fact, this is the month the 2014 Montana Election Blog surpassed the Writing Blog in number of views. The blog also passed 200 posts, so that’s pretty good.
What else happened this month? I wrote 118,735 words, but other than that, not a whole helluva lot happened, so this monthly report should be pretty short.
Keeping Sane
This month I released a new ESL book, my first since June. All this year until that month I’d been releasing one ESL book a month, but I kind of got slowed down and stopped.
Well, I ran out of ideas. So on this one I did more ESL philosophy and stuff and we’ll see how it goes.
How does my ESL website go? Well, I give a lot of stuff away for free, but I do sell ESL PowerPoints, usually for $0.99 a pop. This month I made just over $50…which is a lot better than many of those $0.99 books I have.
Next month we’ll be having a big giveaway on the site, so if you know some English teachers, let them know.
Well, I ran out of ideas. So on this one I did more ESL philosophy and stuff and we’ll see how it goes.
How does my ESL website go? Well, I give a lot of stuff away for free, but I do sell ESL PowerPoints, usually for $0.99 a pop. This month I made just over $50…which is a lot better than many of those $0.99 books I have.
Next month we’ll be having a big giveaway on the site, so if you know some English teachers, let them know.
New Covers
The big eBook investment this month was new covers for The Jongurian Trilogy. I have a feeling that will be a good move long-term, but right now it means I’m pinching pennies a bit.
Still, I can’t wait to get another custom cover because they really do make the books stand out.
So how did these covers do? Well, for Books 2 and 3 they haven’t done much…but for the perma-free Book 1 I noticed that ‘sales’ ticked up pretty quickly.
See, for about two months I was getting under 10 ‘sales’ a day, and now I’m back up to under 20…so that’s a big increase. Wow, to be at 100 again, huh?
I thought so, and I thought those new covers might be just what I needed to finally get one of these books onto BookBub. So I submitted Book 3 this past week and just got the rejection on it today, my 17th BookBub rejection. Oh well.
Still, I can’t wait to get another custom cover because they really do make the books stand out.
So how did these covers do? Well, for Books 2 and 3 they haven’t done much…but for the perma-free Book 1 I noticed that ‘sales’ ticked up pretty quickly.
See, for about two months I was getting under 10 ‘sales’ a day, and now I’m back up to under 20…so that’s a big increase. Wow, to be at 100 again, huh?
I thought so, and I thought those new covers might be just what I needed to finally get one of these books onto BookBub. So I submitted Book 3 this past week and just got the rejection on it today, my 17th BookBub rejection. Oh well.
Writing Work
I did a lot of SEO content writing work this month, primarily for sites selling SEO and social media services.
I’ve written this content many times now, and actually have a folder of old content that I base new content on. So if I need to write something on CMS services or email marketing, I can pull up that old file and get all the key points. That means it takes me a couple hours to do the main page content for a site, but I get paid more than that.
This is why having marketable skills is so important. I have a degree in history yet I make more per hour often than someone with a law degree or someone with a business degree. Because maybe I’m charging for an hour when you break it down, but it takes me just 15 minutes.
Anyways, you have to sell yourself and convince people you can do something for them. I mean, you’re taking their money, so you have to convince them…and deliver. Most people can’t do that. A lot more can only do one but not the other. So if you can do both you can make money.
I don’t care if it’s selling plant food or getting someone to buy your SEO services…it’s all the same. It’s the ability to convince someone through your words alone that you’re better than the other guy. I like to call it rhetoric, myself, and it helped pay my rent this month (eBook sales account for the rest).
I’ve written this content many times now, and actually have a folder of old content that I base new content on. So if I need to write something on CMS services or email marketing, I can pull up that old file and get all the key points. That means it takes me a couple hours to do the main page content for a site, but I get paid more than that.
This is why having marketable skills is so important. I have a degree in history yet I make more per hour often than someone with a law degree or someone with a business degree. Because maybe I’m charging for an hour when you break it down, but it takes me just 15 minutes.
Anyways, you have to sell yourself and convince people you can do something for them. I mean, you’re taking their money, so you have to convince them…and deliver. Most people can’t do that. A lot more can only do one but not the other. So if you can do both you can make money.
I don’t care if it’s selling plant food or getting someone to buy your SEO services…it’s all the same. It’s the ability to convince someone through your words alone that you’re better than the other guy. I like to call it rhetoric, myself, and it helped pay my rent this month (eBook sales account for the rest).
Recall Election
I’ve gotten serious about recalling our incompetent mayor here in Missoula, and have even talked with election administrators and the city attorney.
But what for? I don’t pay property taxes, so why should I care about these people? I mean, rich people – they will never lift a finger to help you or even help themselves, but they will never stop complaining about their perceived problems, however slight they may seem to you or I.
I guess it comes down to jobs, and the fact that I’d like one…that’s not in the restaurant industry. I’ve had a lot of those, and I thought I got a college degree so I wouldn’t have to get anymore. But that’s all we get in this town, probably because the mayor’s attention is elsewhere.
So we recall, or threaten to, for oftentimes the latter will accomplish what you want. Well, it didn’t in July, so I pushed harder and now we’re set to begin. The cost to me? Elbow grease and shoe leather.
But what for? I don’t pay property taxes, so why should I care about these people? I mean, rich people – they will never lift a finger to help you or even help themselves, but they will never stop complaining about their perceived problems, however slight they may seem to you or I.
I guess it comes down to jobs, and the fact that I’d like one…that’s not in the restaurant industry. I’ve had a lot of those, and I thought I got a college degree so I wouldn’t have to get anymore. But that’s all we get in this town, probably because the mayor’s attention is elsewhere.
So we recall, or threaten to, for oftentimes the latter will accomplish what you want. Well, it didn’t in July, so I pushed harder and now we’re set to begin. The cost to me? Elbow grease and shoe leather.
Blogging
I do a lot of blog posts each month, and this month I put out 89 between my two sites and four blogs.
That’s a lot, huh? Nearly 100 posts in a month, and I do that about every month. So let’s just say an average of 50 a month…that gives me 600 blog posts a year.
Of course those are over 4 different blogs…so there’s that.
But still, pretty damn good. How long before someone pays me to just write blog posts for big sites? Well, probably never – I guess you’d have to apply for a job like that.
Or do you? Aren’t there some people that are just so damn good that they’re sought out, that they’re offered work and money just for doing what they’re already doing now? I think so, and I think I’ll be doing that pretty soon.
That’s a lot, huh? Nearly 100 posts in a month, and I do that about every month. So let’s just say an average of 50 a month…that gives me 600 blog posts a year.
Of course those are over 4 different blogs…so there’s that.
But still, pretty damn good. How long before someone pays me to just write blog posts for big sites? Well, probably never – I guess you’d have to apply for a job like that.
Or do you? Aren’t there some people that are just so damn good that they’re sought out, that they’re offered work and money just for doing what they’re already doing now? I think so, and I think I’ll be doing that pretty soon.
Next Month (NaNo)
So what’s happening in November? NaNoWriMo is staring, which is National Write a Novel Month for all you regular folks out there. I did this last year and you can read about it a bit if you want. I’ll probably write more on it in a day or two.
It starts after midnight, so it’s probably going now (I’m writing this at around 3:20 PM) but my story’s already got 21,000 words and I just wrote 3,000 of those a little bit ago.
Maybe I should have saved those for after midnight, but then maybe they wouldn’t have come. I guess it doesn’t really matter to me that much because I do this everyday. Also, my NaNo book from last year only sold 30 copies.
The book this year will be better. I’m doing a sci-fi book about aliens that will have a cool cover and probably appeal to its genre. I’ll do some marketing for it in early December (I expect to finish it mid-November and put it out at the end of the month) and then I’ll switch over to another book.
What’s that…Tarot Card Killer 2? No, that’s what I’d planned all year, but instead I decided to blow the dust off the John Colter novel and start that. I started into it last night, and I think I’ll call it Colter’s Winter, make it the first of a 3-part series, and give it a cover like this:
It starts after midnight, so it’s probably going now (I’m writing this at around 3:20 PM) but my story’s already got 21,000 words and I just wrote 3,000 of those a little bit ago.
Maybe I should have saved those for after midnight, but then maybe they wouldn’t have come. I guess it doesn’t really matter to me that much because I do this everyday. Also, my NaNo book from last year only sold 30 copies.
The book this year will be better. I’m doing a sci-fi book about aliens that will have a cool cover and probably appeal to its genre. I’ll do some marketing for it in early December (I expect to finish it mid-November and put it out at the end of the month) and then I’ll switch over to another book.
What’s that…Tarot Card Killer 2? No, that’s what I’d planned all year, but instead I decided to blow the dust off the John Colter novel and start that. I started into it last night, and I think I’ll call it Colter’s Winter, make it the first of a 3-part series, and give it a cover like this:
Painting of John Colter by Gerry Metz
Painting of John Colter by Jim Carson
Well, that’s the plan. Welcome to November.
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