Writing Articles

An Unapologetic November

12/1/2016

November was a month where I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself.

I did this by taking charge.

I finished a book that I’d been working on, and I upped my word counts doing so.

It felt good, this releasing myself from the doldrums. I was the one that’d put myself there, after all.

For the month I wrote 102,405 words.

I sold about 240 books and I also put up 28 blog posts.

Let’s discuss it all in my 43rd monthly report.

NaNo

I discussed National Write a Novel Month quite a bit in November, and before.

Here are all those posts:

NaNoWriMo 2016 Draws Near (Oct 21)

How I’m Doing NaNo This Year (Nov 6)

I Finished NaNoWriMo (Nov 20)

I finished on November 20, and that was extremely satisfying.

It took me a bit longer to edit the book on the computer, but I’ve done so now.

I just have to print it, give it another read-through, then it’ll be done.

I already have the cover finished and the book is drafted on Amazon.

So it’s just a matter of days now.

Remember, if you’re on my email list you can get the book for $0.99 when it comes out.

And if you haven’t started the series, you’re in luck.

Colter’s Winter is on sale for $0.99 on Amazon on Friday, December 2.

Besides that, I’m ready to start on the next book. I’ll discuss that a bit more in an upcoming post.

More Confidence

A big part of November was just being confident in who I am and what I’m doing.

It’s why I managed 100,000 words this month, the first time I’ve done that since July.

I like what I’m doing.

I’m writing books that I like, and I write political blog posts that I like.

I don’t think there’s any real problem with that, and if I’m able to do it, hey – great!

When it comes to writing novels quickly, you have to have that confidence.

You have to go into it thinking, ‘I’m going to do this how I want, it might not be perfect, but it’s what I’m going to do.’

I think you have to continually press onward, working on a book until it’s done, edited, and then on the shelf.

At that point you move on. You don’t go back to that book and fiddle around with it to make it ‘better.’

It’s done.

Move on.

Work on the next one.

That was my philosophy this month and I have a pretty good book to show for it.

I haven’t put out a full-length novel since July, and that’s 5 months.

It’s a pretty long time, but I had loss of confidence and stopped working, started doubting.

This month I said screw that and I’m happier for it.

New 2017 Stamps

Some of you might know that I collect stamps.

I mainly stick to US stamps though this year I might branch out to Hong Kong and Russia.

Anyways, I see that the U.S. Postal Service has previews of the 2017 stamps up on their site.

You can also get previews of a few more stamps on Stamp News Now.

Here are some that I can’t wait to get:

Love those Work Projects Administration stamps. I’ll buy a few sheets.

If you’re getting a letter from me in 2017, chances are good it’ll have a WPA stamp on it.

I’ve bought just about all the 2016 stamps so far. Now I’m waiting to get the new 2016 pages for my album so I can add those in.

And then in just a month or so I’ll be able to buy some 2017 stamps.

I enjoy doing this. It’s fun and it’s a small way for me to support my post office.

I also support them by using those stamps.

I like to send out at least 30 letters a month. Now that it’s Christmas season I’ll be sending out more.

Will you get one?

Sure, just give me your address.

Quick MT Thoughts

What’s happening with Montana?

I see that MT Cowturd has now gone 9 days without a post.

Could that site be done?

I wouldn’t mind at all.

And honestly, I might be done with it.

Why don’t I just take it off my bookmark bar and not visit it anymore?

That goes the same for Intelligent Discontent and Reptile Dysfunction.

Why visit those sites anymore?

A lot of the time when I read their content I get a little angry, my blood begins to rise, the fight or flight response takes hold.

Is that healthy?

Maybe not.

So perhaps for December I’ll try and stay away from the sites that give me that physiological response.

If my site makes you feel that way, I’d suggest staying away as well.

Charitable Giving

November was a very generous month for me.

I gave $80 spread out between 11 different charities.

Most got $10, but a few I gave $5 to.

They were:

Children’s Hunger Relief Fund ($10)
Feed the Children ($10)
Shodair Children’s Hospital ($10)
Watson Children’s Shelter ($10)
Toys for Tots ($10)
Energy Share ($10)
Orbis ($5)
Project Hope ($5)
Boy’s Town ($5)
Lutheran World Relief ($3)
Shriner’s Children’s Hospital ($2)

Yeah, I got skimpy on those last two. Maybe they’ll think I’m not worth their time and take me off their list.

I also wrote about 10 letters to different charities that spend too much money on fundraising or administrative costs.

I told them to get their act together.

Anyways, I’m looking forward to doing a post this month breaking down all the charities I’ve given to.

I have a huge spreadsheet of charity ratings that many will find interesting too.

Stay tuned – fun stuff on the way.

On the Agenda for December

I like December because it’s the last month of the year.

I’ll be able to tally-up my book sales and income for the year, making fun graphs out of them.

I’ve done this for the past few years and I always post it on my site.

Yep, it’s no secret how much money I’m making.

Besides that, I think December will be slow.

Not much is happening in politics so there’s no point writing much about that.

When it comes to my books, I think my efforts will focus on the current Mountain Man Series.

Maybe I’ll do a few Writing Blog posts.

Other than that…not much.

The end of the year is a good time to look back on what worked, what didn’t, and why.

It’s a good time to assess the year’s strategy and develop new tactics for the coming year.

So I’ll be doing that, and I’ll probably be writing about it.

Until then, thanks for reading!

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A Relaxed October

11/1/2016

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October was a pretty relaxed month for me.

I didn’t do a whole lot, writing just 58,640 words.

I put up 28 blog posts and that was about it, no books published for the third month in a row.

Let’s discuss it all.

Freelance Writing

I’m no longer a freelance writer.

I haven’t been for more than a month.

People stopped paying me to write.

It happened a long time ago on this site, but it happened just recently on Frelancer.com, the site I’ve been freelance writing on since 2013.

The problem was fraud.

At the end of August I worked for a woman that was in Mexico. She had a short novel and I edited it.

She paid me $360 to do that.

Three weeks later Freelancer.com took that money back, leaving me with $-115 on the site.

They told me that in 30 days they’d close my account and take that $115 from my bank account, as I’d withdrawn the original $360 weeks earlier.

The whole reason was that the lady in Mexico said that the site had taken $700 from her when she’d only wanted to do that $360.

She contacted her bank and reported it and everything got locked up.

It’s been locked up for about 40 days now.

She can’t get her money, I can’t get mine.

What’s sad is that she actually wants to pay me for the work I’ve done, but there’s some hang-up with the bank and the site and whatever else.

I was able prevent my Freelancer.com account from closing after 30 days and the money being taken from my bank account.

I did that by detailing to the support staff how I’d file a small claims lawsuit in Montana against the president of the company.

That individual would have to show up in Montana within five days of receiving that notice.

Considering that Freelancer.com is based in Australia, this might be tough.

Whether that or some other consideration was going through the support staff’s head, they extended my account to Christmas Eve, whereas usually with a negative balance it would have to close in 30 days.

I could prevent all this buy simply depositing $115 into the site, but since they stole $360 from me more than a month ago, I just don’t feel comfortable doing that.

So my days of freelance writing have stopped, and boy, it’s boring.

I used to do a lot of small writing and editing jobs, now I do none.

A lot more free time, but a lot less income.

National Write a Novel Month

For many November'll be NaNoWriMo, something I discussed a few weeks ago.

It’s started, but boy, I don’t really care.

I mean…what do I have to prove?

I’ve written 82 books and they’re all currently on sale.

Who am I trying to impress?

Perhaps that’s just an excuse to not write 1,667 words a day, which honestly, I kind of dread.

Writing 1,667 words everyday is hard.

Making a story out of them is even harder.

Crafting a story that people actually want to read is harder still.

Then you’ve got to edit it and get a cover and publish it on Amazon.

After that the real work begins – selling the damn thing.

It all starts with writing those first few words, and continuing to write them for 30 days or however long it might take to get that good story.

I’ve done it many times, to varying degrees of success.

Most of the time I do it, no one gives a shit. I have several books with sales to prove that.

Sometimes, however, something magical happens and things for some reason fall into place.

People not only buy the book, they actually leave reviews saying they liked it.

Making it even more sweet, these are complete strangers that you’ll never meet or know.

They actually like what you made up on the computer and then put out for sale.

It gives you a special feeling when that happens, and it all starts with writing those first few words.

So that’s what NaNoWriMo is about.

Manuel’s Money

I’ve been working on the same book since August.

I’m past 25,000 words right now and the story is coming together.

A big worry, however, is that readers will find it boring.

I’ve gotten a few reviews on various books in the Mountain Man Series that are telling me that.

Maybe there’s not enough action, too much build-up, or a lot of talking that doesn’t really matter.

I dunno.

I like writing the historical fiction books about fur trapping’s history in Montana and along the Missouri.

Since I’ve sold 4,112 of ‘em other people must agree.

I’ve mentioned before that I’d like to get a 20-book series under my belt, much like Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander series.

I’m halfway there and by this time next month the book will probably be on sale.

That has a tendency to happen when you sit down each day and write, revise, edit, and of course, pace around, talk to yourself, pull your hair out and generally feel at times worthless or on top of the world, sometimes both at the same time.

That’s how you write a book, or at least that’s how I write a book.

I’ve done it 82 times now and Manuel’s Money will be the 83rd.

Not too shabby.

Writing Income

I’ve achieved a lot, but I haven’t had a lot of success.

And what is ‘success’ anyways?

If it’s selling millions of copies, getting a motion picture deal, and screwing every blond, brunette and redhead on the French Riviera, then no, I haven’t achieved that kind of success yet.

If it’s selling a couple thousand copies a month, buying a house with your earnings, and putting away money so you can be a writer for the rest of your days, then no, I haven’t had that kind of success either.

If it’s selling a couple hundred copies a month, paying your rent, and feeling like you’re a gosh-darn, true-to-the-T writer, then yes, I have had that kind of success.

Let me tell you something – it sure is fleeting.

And I can’t complain too much.

I’m no longer at the level of success where I’m just selling a few dozen copies a month, buying pizza or perhaps paying the power bill with the earnings, and of course still working the day job.

I did that back in 2013 and aside from the day job part, it lasted for a couple years.

Climbing the ‘levels of success’ isn’t easy, and if we do go up a rung or two, we often don’t know why.

In March of this year I saw my Amazon book sales explode from a typical 100 to 200 a month all the way up to 800 sales.

That trend continued – albeit on a slightly downward slope – for the next few months.

Then I got back to where I was at the beginning of the year – about 100 to 200 sales a month

What the hell happened?

I’m not sure, but I am sure you’re getting sick of me analyzing and questioning my sales and asking ‘why.’

I guess it affects your confidence when something like this happens.

Am I just a flash in the pan, a little blip on the radar and nothing more? Should I even keep writing at all anymore?

These terrible thoughts race through your head when you see your sales plummet.

Sometimes having something and then seeing it taken away is worse than not having had it at all.

Well…it kind of feels like that.

The truth is that I’ve achieved a lot, had a good taste of what success can feel like, and now I need to continue to work hard to get an even bigger taste of it.

Or I can just give up.

That’s what it really comes down to – you keep going or you don’t.

At this point I think I’ll keep going.

Boy, though, is it hard sometimes!

Charitable Giving

I continued my trend of giving $10 here and there to charity. This month saw me give $50.

So far I’ve given $420 this year. For October it was like so:

The Salvation Army
Catholic Relief Services
Montana Public Radio
Feeding America
Operation Warm

I could spend that money on the products and services that corporate America wants me to, but I choose not to.

Coming in November

We’ll have the presidential race and all the other political races here in another week.

It’ll be good to have that done with.

But then what?

Like I said, I’ll get done with Manuel’s Money and then I’ll probably tell you all about Rose’s Rage or Rose’s Retribution or whatever the hell I call it.

Now that book is going to be good.

It reminds me a lot of Colter’s Revenge, a book I was thinking about and couldn’t wait to write, even though I still had two books to write before I even got to it.

That’s how this book on the quarter-Cherokee, quarter-black, and half-white fur trapper named Edward Rose is going.

He was a real person, lived with the Crow for some time.

We first met him in Colter’s Run, a book I wrote more than a year ago.

Now he gets his own book, and my, it’ll be good. A real survival tale, not a lot of extra characters, just one man’s story of justice meted out in the cold winter of Montana in 1812-13.

It’ll be a good one.

And that’s about it. I don’t have a whole lot else going on.

Money’ll get a lot tighter as the holidays approach, my medical bills pile up, and my book income goes down.

But I’ll get by – I always do.

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A Humble September

10/1/2016

6 Comments

September was a humbling month.

For one thing, I couldn’t walk for the first half of it.

That gets back to my ankle dislocation at the end of August. Boy – those things take some time to heal.

Thankfully my foot is better now…but not much else seems to be.

It’s a time of thought and reflection, though not much writing.

For the month I wrote 49,078 words, most of them on the Montana blog posts I put up.

I did very little writing on any kinds of books at all, and little in the way of work for others either.

Let’s talk about that.

Doldrums

I guess I feel bored with what I’m working on.

One of those things is Mountain Man Series #10.

Yeah…the tenth book…it’s easy to see why you can lose interest.

It’s called “Manuel’s Money” and I have about 5,000 words on it, no real idea of what it’s about, and no desire to work on it.

There’s no real conflict…besides whites going against Indians.

I’ve written several books about that already, so I’m having a hard time finding a different way to tell that story.

I also don’t have a clear historical outline to follow, such as the previous 8 to 9 books.

We just don’t know that much about the War of 1812 on the Upper Missouri, and even though I’ve found a lot…I’m not sure anyone will care.

So far the antagonist is the Santee tribe and a bunch of hot-headed braves.

The protagonists are Manuel Lisa down in St. Louis and his fur trappers.

I know what Book 11 will be already – “Rose’s Revenge,” or some such, and it’ll be a solo adventure with that character.

But how to get there?

That’s the hang-up, and for now I’m stuck with finding a good conflict to set this story in motion.

Perhaps it’ll come.

Besides that I’m not working on much else, so I’m not working.

I really got out of the habit of making my daily “to-do” list because of this.

On top of that I’m having negative thoughts a lot, mostly about what direction I want to take.

Some of the big thoughts have been, ‘do I even want to be a writer anymore?’ and things like that.

You start to think like that when you’re not making much money from other people doing writing work.

You start to think that when your eBook sales really plummet.

You start to think that when you’ve got a ton of medical bills coming and a drop in income to boot.

So you start to ask, ‘is this what I should be doing?’

I’m not sure.

Teachers Like My Work

I sold about 300 books this month.

I did manage to sell 40 print books this month as well, the big reason being school.

Yep, English Rocks! sold 21 print copies, making me about $125.

This happens each year – new teachers get over to China or other countries, realize they have no idea what to do, and get my book.

Then they have 101 ideas of what to do and life doesn’t seem so shitty anymore.

I’ve sold more than 600 copies of that book since April 2013 and I’ve made over $4,000 from that.

I’m proud of that.

I’m proud of the fact that I was able to take what I’d learned in a job and put it into a format that helps others in that job.

Making money doing so is even better.

Sure, maybe it’s not as much money as I’d make working 40 hours a week helping teachers…but that’s alright.

It’s passive income that comes from something I don’t even think about anymore.

I love it.

Charitable Giving

I didn’t give much to charity this month.

I didn’t spend much money, period.

I have $3,000 in medical bills so I’m really pinching pennies.

Despite that, I still gave $10 each to the following charities:

Operation Homefront (92% to cause)
Feed the Children (90% to cause)
Boy’s Town (82% to cause)

Yep, just $30.

It won’t change the world, but maybe it’ll help.

On the Agenda for October

My, where to go from here?

I need to write more, and if what I’m working on now isn’t interesting me, I have to find something that does.

And writing about Montana politics all the time won’t cut it – I can’t market and sell that.

Oftentimes when I write about what I’m working on it propels me to get going.

Hopefully that’ll be the case with “Manuel’s Money.”

And maybe it’s time to start a new project as well, perhaps something completely different.

Or I could always get a real job and not write anything for awhile.

Stuff to think on as we get started with October.

I’ll tell you how it all worked out in next month’s post.

6 Comments

A Restful August

9/1/2016

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It doesn’t really seem like I did a lot this month.

That shows in my word counts.

I wrote just 54,008 words for the month…a very low number for me.

So what accounts for that? Let’s discuss it and a few other things in this site’s 40th monthly report.

Mostly Editing

I did a lot of editing this month.

That was primarily for Prickly Pear Canyon and Soldiers and Statesmen, the two books I published this month.

The first one has gotten 8 sales so far, while the second has only sold 3 copies.

I also put out the third box set of the Mountain Man Series, which has books 7-9. It’s sold zero copies so far.

I’m not really surprised the history book didn’t sell – I figure that’d be the case.

At least it’s done. Maybe in a decade or so it’ll get some interest…but really, I haven’t done too bad with my Montana books.

Take a look:

So just over 500 sales for my Montana history books. That’s pretty good, considering I don’t have a PhD and that I don’t have a publisher.

That’s just me going to the library, doing the research, writing it up, editing it, getting a cover, and publishing it.

Anyone could do that, but two things usually stop about 90% of those who try: lack of discipline and lack of routine.

I have those and thus I have the books on the shelf to show for it.

Not many that graduate from the University of Montana with a history degree can say the same.

Still, finishing up a new Montana book leaves me with a bit of a quandary as I’m not sure what to focus on next.

My next Montana history book should go up to the year 2020, but I can do a lot of the groundwork to 2015 or so right now.

Perhaps I’ll get started on it soon.

Sales So Far

Sometimes it’s good to look back at your sales to see how far you’ve come.

I’ve now sold about 8,500 books overall and more than 50% of them are from this year.

With the $1,600 I got paid from Amazon at the end of August, my 2016 book income is up to $9,300.

That’s almost more than 2013, 2014, and 2015 combined.

In 2015 I had about 1,900 sales and I figure I made about $5,000 from that…give or take a bit when books get discounted and such.

Here’s what my book sales look like, with the most popular/successful books listed:

The Colter books dominate, though their sales have fallen off lately.

I figure I’ve been dropped from other authors’ “also boughts” on Amazon and that’s the reason why.

After that we get a lot of books that I put out between 2013 and 2015, most of which did well at the time, fell off, then got a steady stream of maybe 5 to 10 sales a month, sometimes more, often less.

Besides Amazon, I’ve sold 204 print books this year with Createspace and another 336 with iTunes, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and other miscellaneous retailers.

So I’ve achieved a lot with my writing, but I haven’t had a lot of success…if you count success as ‘making a living.’

I do pay my bills, but gosh, there’s not much left over.

There’s always a little, however.

Charitable Giving

I continued my trend of giving $10 here and there to charity. This month I gave to the following:

Feeding America (98.5% of donations to cause)
Americares (98%)
Disabled American Veterans (96%)
Food for the Poor (95%)
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (92%)

So far this year I’ve given $340 to charity, and I feel pretty good about that.

There’s a lot of people out there that are in terrible situations.

I don’t have to walk for an hour to get water, I don’t have to go a day without eating, I don’t have to worry about being abused.

Lots of people do, however, and a little money to charity might help them.

On the Agenda for September

I don’t think I’m going to do much at all in September.

The main reason for this is my foot, which I dislocated in Oregon. I don’t expect to be walking on it again for a few weeks yet.

I could do some writing, quite a bit in fact. The problem’s that I’m not sure what to write about.

I could tinker on Mountain Man #10, which I’m thinking of calling “Manuel’s Money.”

Maybe I’ll have the main character break his foot in the book and have some fun around that.

I’ve thought a lot about writing a follow-up to Dulce Base, my alien shoot-‘em-up thriller.

I already have a cover made for that second book and if I reread the first one I might get inspired to start.

Dulce Base has sold 173 copies, after all, so it’s worth a shot.

Besides that…there’s not much to do.

I really need to focus on finding extra income via a ‘real’ job. I was thinking about that before my injury, and now that I’ll be facing hundreds of dollars in medical bills, I’ll have to.

But until the foot heals, it’ll be sitting around the apartment.

We’ll see what happens. Thanks so much for your support!

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A Sit-Tight July

8/1/2016

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July was an interesting month.

I managed to write 107,768 words over the course of its 31 days and that puts me over 784,000 for the year.

I put out one book in July and 29 blog posts.

I also put out a box set of the second three books of the Mountain Man Series.

Besides that, I pretty much just sat tight. I had very little money as I’d done a lot of car maintenance work at the start of the month.

So I took it easy and worked on my books and enjoyed the summer.

Things picked up at the end of the month when I moved.

We’ll discuss all of that in this month’s post.

Moving

The big news is moving, and I got everything set up today…though lots of stuff is still unpacked.

We moved from Livingston Avenue to High Park Way. Here’s a map:

So I’m going from the west side of town to the south side. I’m butting-up against the South Hills, though I’m still a ways away from downtown and the U.

We moved primarily so we could get our son Paul into a better school. Now that’s not a problem.

We’re living upstairs now as opposed to downstairs, and my is it hotter!

Other than that, just a lot of unpacking. Boy, I’m still tired from moving it all yesterday!

Mountain Man Series

The ninth volume of the Mountain Man Series came out this month.

It’s sold about 20 copies so far.

I’m working on the next book, which, like the seventh book, will be a reboot of sorts as we begin a new storyline for a few books.

I hope that the next three books will take us all the way from 1812 to Manuel Lisa’s death in 1820.

From that point we’ll be ready to tackle William Ashley and his hundred men.

I’m really looking forward to getting up to Ashley’s Hundred and have quite a few ideas for those books.

I’ve said it before – I’m going for a Patrick O’Brien-style 20-book series here.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I don’t really want to talk about this tenth book too much as I’m still working on a short novel called Prickly Pear Canyon and that’ll be out soon.

Now that I’m done moving house I think I’ll pick up the pace on that and get it out the door.

It’s much easier to concentrate on one work of fiction at a time.

Charitable Giving

I was broke all through this month due to the car repairs I did at the beginning of July.

Still, at the end of the month I gave a little to charity, just $10 each to two I like.

Those are the Children’s Hunger Relief Fund and Orbis, both of which give 93% of donations to their cause.

Now, $20 isn’t too much, but it’s something.

I hope I can give more in August, and I think I will. I don’t have a lot of use for money after I get done budgeting, though saving some might be a good idea too.

On the Agenda for August

This month I’ll finish the sixth book of Montana history and release it.

I don’t really want to bore you about it, as many people I think find my fascination with Montana history a bit odd.

I’ll tell you right now, I’m quite happy I got the damn thing up to 80,000 words.

To keep the page count below 350 or even 300, I’ll have fewer images in this book.

And I have to say – the Montana history books don’t sell that well. Mainly, they’re for people that want to know and can’t find answers anywhere else.

The sixth book will be one of the best in the series. I can’t wait to let you know it’s on sale.

Besides that, like I mentioned I’ll put out the second of my short Montana novels in the 1860s.

The first was Sun River Crossing, and these shorter works go for $0.99 a piece.

(They All Died, although released first, will become the 4th book in the series (I’ll explain later)).

Other than that, I don’t have a lot planned for August.

It’s mainly taking it easy, picking up what writing work I can, keeping people informed about Montana issues, and doing the work on my works in progress.

Thanks for reading, thanks for supporting this site, and thanks for your interest in what I do.

Have a good month!

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A Take-It-Easy June

7/1/2016

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I took it easy this month, and I think my word count shows that.

I wrote just 94,131 words for the month, the first time I fell below 100,000 for the year.

That happens about once a year, though usually in May.

Anyways, I still managed to put out two books, which we’ll talk about below, and I put up 30 blog posts.

Other than that…here’s what happened.

2 New Books

I put out two new books this past month.

The first was Dorion’s Dilemma around the 1st.

Next up was Sun River Crossing on the 6th.

So far those two books have sold just over 50 copies.

I’m pretty happy about that. I’ve had many new releases sell just 1 or 2 copies when I put them out. So to get that many sales is refreshing.

I’m not sure if you’ve read either of those books yet. The first one there is a Book 8 in a series, so maybe that’s a bit much for you.

That second one, however, is a short novel about Montana in the 1860s and is just $0.99.

Why not give it a look? I think you’ll like it.

Book Sales

Lots of people seem to like my books.

I continue to do well with book sales, primarily because of my Colter novels.

They’ve now sold 2,911 copies and earned me $7,800.

Colter’s Winter alone has just passed the 1,000-sales mark.

Besides that, the next leg of the Mountain Man Series (2 books now) have sold 113 copies.

They’ve earned about $300.

My $0.99 Montana westerns set in the 1860s have sold 29 copies, earning $10 (just a $0.35 royalty on those).

What I really like is that for 2016 I’ve already sold more books than 2015 and 2014 combined.

I’ve sold 3,383 books this year so far and about 7,600 overall.

Wow, I’m really lucky!

So it was a good month and I got paid on June 29 for the books I sold from April 15 to May 15…or thereabouts.

Despite that nice income…it’s all gone.

Yep, my money is gone and there’s a one big reason for that.

No, it’s not the Brexit…though that did have an affect on my UK sales.

When I’d calculated the exchange rate for my £114.96 a month ago I was set to earn $10.78 more than I actually got a couple days ago.

Not a huge hit.

No, the real hit to my earnings this month was my car.

Recent Car Repairs

I am so lucky that I had money this past month to fix my 2000 Toyota Corolla.

You might remember my mentioning my engine light coming on about two or three months ago.

Well, I finally got that looked at and they found out it was a max airflow filter…whatever the hell that is.

Costs a pretty penny, as did the car in general this month.

Max Airflow Filter: $210
New Brakes: $300
New Battery: $110
Engine Diagnosis: $90
New Tires: $290
Car Insurance $250

So that’s $1,240 over the course of the past 4 to 5 weeks.

Ouch!

Like I said, I’m thankful I had the money to get all that stuff done. I’d like to get some money saved up, but I’m moving at the end of July and that’ll take up some cash too.

Oh well, books continue to sell and if I try to keep helping people, I think I’ll be alright.

Charitable Giving

A big part of helping people is giving a little bit of your money to charity.

I find this a much better use than giving it to politicians!

So this month I continued my yearly trend of donating $10 here and there and gave to these charities:

Lutheran World Relief (87.5% to cause)
Food for the Poor (96.5%)
Feed the Children (90.1%)
Toys for Tots (96.9%)
Easter Seals (86.1%)

Not a whole lot, just $50. So far I’ve given $270 to charity this year, or about 4% of my total earnings.

Is that good?

I guess I could give more, but since I have no savings of my own, perhaps I shouldn’t.

Really, though, I think things will continue to work out just fine for me.

On the Agenda for July

This month I hope to again take it easy, letting my passive eBook income roll in.

I’ll probably finish the third volume of the Astoria leg of the Mountain Man Series.

I might finish up this short Montana $0.99 western called “Prickly Pear Canyon,” a direct sequel to Sun River Crossing.

I’ll continue to write about politics and I’ll post on this site most days.

Please keep stopping by.

Also, don’t forget that an easy way to support this site is to buy your Amazon products after clicking over from one of my Amazon ads.

I get a small commission, something that helps me keep working.

So have a good month, and thanks for reading.

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A Goal-Reaching May

6/1/2016

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May was a good month, and we’ll get into that below.

I managed to churn out 113,889 words for the month, putting me over 582,000 words for the year.

I put up 32 blog posts and published 1 book.

Sound familiar?

It’s because it is.

Discipline, routine, repetition – it doesn’t get any simpler than that.

Let’s discuss.

My Book Sales

I’ve sold almost 7,000 books now.

That’s pretty good, considering in January I was telling you how I’d just sold 4,300 books.

So lots of books are selling this year, and that’s finally allowed me to reach one of my big-time goals…having my book sales pay my rent.

My rent is $675 and for the first time since starting in January 2013 with Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, I’ve made enough to do that.

Here’s what my book earnings looked like for May:

Little more complicated than you thought?

My books are selling in 13 different countries where Amazon operates and I also go through Createspace for my print books and Draft 2 Digital (D2D) to get my books on iTunes and those other retailers.

So I get several deposits in my bank account each month, with D2D coming around the 7th or 8th each month and Amazon paying around the 29th of the month.

Finally, this month, I made enough from Amazon to pay the rent.

Actually, I made a helluva lot more.

Yeah, more than $1,900 in book royalties from Amazon and Createspace this month and another $200 from the other retailers.

When I reach a goal, I reach it big.

Now, that goal is nice and all…but is it sustainable?

Thankfully, so far I’m holding steady…sort of.

That’s my book sales this year for all retailers. As you can see, I really shot up from January and February but have since fallen off of that March sales high.

Despite that, I’ll still be pulling in more than $1,000 each month from Amazon for most of the summer (you’re paid for sales made 60 days ago).

So why’d it take me so long to reach this goal?

The Montana Novels

The only reason I’m earning so much money is because of my Mountain Man Series, and primarily the Colter books.

Wow, people like those!

So far I’ve sold almost 2,500 copies of those books and they continue to do well, and earn good reviews.

That’s why I keep writing them…although the transition away from Colter and into the larger mountain man/fur trapping history isn’t going so well.

I’ve sold just 32 copies of Fortin’s Furs and just a few of the one after that.

Despite this, I’m pressing on.

Maybe it’s the covers, maybe it’s the change of character, maybe after 6 books people are just ready to give it a rest.

Either way, I know if I keep my head down and keep working, I can really get somewhere.

I’m talking a 17-book series like Louis L’Amour had, or a 20-book series that can rival what Patrick O’Brian put out, or even a run like John MacDonald’s 21-book series.

When you really push the boundaries like that, and give series-loving readers something to crow about, you’ll get that sustainable income for years and years.

My Situation

Despite making all that money from my books this month, I’ll be broke again by the end of the month.

Hey, that happens when you have every dollar budgeted:

Right off the top I give a few bucks to charity as a way to say thanks to the universe for all it’s done for me.

After that I have a lot of car work this month, plus car insurance, and then some debt to pay off for my wife.

With the rent and the power and the internet and a few other items, that’s about it.

So I’ll have $5 left and then it’s what I can make working for people this month, and then my next Amazon payment at the end of June.

I already know that I’ll be making more than $1,500 from my Amazon books so I don’t have a lot of worries – the rent will get paid.

I'm amazingly lucky.

Come the end of July I’ll be moving closer to the South Hills and that’ll take a bit of cash.

So we’ll see how things go.

I’m pretty confident that things will work out, and work out well.

Please don’t forget that your support helps with that.

Buying a book or clicking on one of my blog ads or ordering your products from Amazon via my site are all ways you can help me.

Thanks!

Charitable Giving

I’ve continued the trend this month of giving some money to charity.

Why do this?

Well, these people need help, they need it bad.

Plus, if I can’t live off of 90% of my income, I have serious problems.

So this month I gave to charity and these charities each got $10:

Disabled American Veterans (96% to cause)
Catholic Relief Services (92%)
Boys Town (82%)
Shriner’s Hospital for Children (79%)
Special Olympics Montana (73%)
Montana School for the Deaf & Blind (?)

So that’s $60 I gave this much, not a whole lot. I have to admit as well, I kind of give for selfish reasons.

I figure that by giving a little to charity it’ll put me right with the universe, maybe increase my karmic potential.

Perhaps it’ll even help me sell more books, I dunno.

So far this year I’ve given $220 to charity. I’ll continue to give $10 here and there and I hope you think about doing so too.

On the Agenda for June

This month will be interesting…and busy.

On June 7 we have the Montana primary and leading up to that I’ll be busy with the second leg of my election strategy

On June 10 the Montana Democratic Party’s state convention starts in Helena.

On June 11 we have the Governor’s Cup race in Helena, which I’ll be doing.

On June 20 I hope to put out another short Montana novella, Sun River Crossing.

On June 24 the Montana AFL-CIO Convention in Helena starts

That’s about all I see on my calendar at this early date.

I will fill you in a few other things that have no set date yet:

I’d like to really go balls-to-the-wall on my sixth Montana history book, perhaps even finishing it.

I might do a lot more travelling and hiking and driving around the state and I’d of course have lots of images of that.

Destinations include Sun River, Great Falls, Prickly Pear Canyon, Bozeman, Havre, Thompson Falls, and maybe if I’m lucky all the way up to Fort Peck Dam and thereabouts.

I’ll probably get a lot of progress in on the third Astoria book of the overall Mountain Man Series.

Oh…what about the second Astoria book, you ask?

Well, it’s about to go on sale and if you’re on my email list you’ll know when, and you’d have had the chance to get it for $0.99.

So please sign-up for that.

I’ll have a lot more news tomorrow.

As usual, thanks for reading!

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A Productive April

5/1/2016

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There wasn’t a lot of bells and whistles with April, just a lot of getting up each day and getting the work done.

I managed to write 100,183 words for the month, putting me up to 468,805 for the year.

I also put up 34 blog posts and published one new book.

Let’s discuss it all in the site’s 36th monthly report.

Fortin’s Furs

The big news of the month was getting the 7th volume of the Mountain Man Series finished and published.

It’s now selling on all retailers and you can read a lot more in the introductory post I put up this past week.

I’m hard at work on the next book and it will come out this month.

The day after I published this latest volume I did a $0.99 promo for Colter’s Winter with Bargainbooksy.

It went well, and I drove the book’s ranking up from #88,000 to #9,000 or so.

Not much in the way of earnings for those 25 to 30 sales (about $7), but hopefully it’ll get a few people to buy into the series.

So far 1,875 of the Mountain Man Series books have sold. At an average royalty of $2.68 that means I’ve earned $5,025 from those books.

The books have slackened off a bit from last month’s high (600 sales then to 500 now), but things are still going well.

If you keep buyin’ ‘em, I’ll keep writin’ ‘em.

Doing the Work

Not a lot happened this month…from my perspective.

Mainly, it’s just getting up each day and doing the work.

Writing is just like any other job. You have to sit down and do it.

Lots of the time you might not want to. You want the finished product, not all the effort that it takes to get that finished product.

Usually you can get over that mindset pretty quickly when you get started. It’s just getting started that can be rough.

So for the most part this month, I got started each day and wrote out a bunch of words.

Keeping lists helps and I’ve written about this many times. I always make up a 10-point list of things to do the next day, and then I cross them off as they’re done.

Mainly it’s just getting up each day and doing it.

Politics

May campaign card

When it came to politics, it was a pretty busy month.

Locally, my own race ramped up as I got my yard signs and my campaign cards printed up.

You can read all about that in my campaign blitz post.

It’s now May and starting next week absentee ballots go out. I’ll be hitting the doors hard until then.

Stay tuned – it should be an interesting month. June’ll be out of this world.

Charitable Giving

I continued my run of charitable giving this year. I like charities that give 90% or more to their cause, so I gave to the following this month:

Catholic Medical Mission Board: 97.6% to cause
Children’s Hunger Relief Fund: 93.8%
Feeding America: 98.5%
Montana Public Radio: ?

I’m not sure how much goes to the cause on that last one, though you can look at my analysis of Montana Public Radio finances to get a better idea.

I gave $10 to each of those charities, so $40 in all this month. For the year I’ve given $160.

Not much, but it’s something and maybe it’ll help some people.

Perhaps you can give $10 as well.

On the Agenda for May

So what do I have planned for this month?

Not a whole lot, but looking at the calendar I can see the following dates coming up:

May 2: Gubernatorial C-5’s come out
May 3: Legislative C-5’s come out
May 9: Absentee ballots go out
May 24: Dorion’s Dilemma on sale
May 26: Legislative C-5’s come out again

So it’s a lot of focusing on politics, not so much on writing.

I will have a new book come out, but if you’re not reading the Mountain Man Series you probably won’t care.

Besides that, I’ll keep writing about Montana. I have a new MT celebrities post planned for the coming weeks. Maybe I’ll talk about some paranormal subjects too.

Hell, that book I wrote has sold 65 copies so far – people are not only interested in the topic, they’re willing to pay for it.

Can’t much say that for politics. I keep working on my 6th book of Montana history, but mainly for myself and for future generations. I know that no one living today gives a hoot.

I’ll also have a very short western novella coming out soon, though there’s no set timeframe and I work on it when I want.

I will say that if you like Montana in the 1860s and Thomas Francis Meagher then you’ll enjoy it. At a permanent $0.99 I think I’ll enjoy the price as well.

We’re continuing the effort to legalize marijuana in Montana too, and we have about 7 weeks to get the 24,000 signatures we need for legalized possession, 20% taxation, and government regulation.

If I’m elected to the legislature I might have a say in the regulatory language.

So cross your fingers and say some prayers – I’ll be meeting voters soon.

Until then, enjoy your mellow Sunday.

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A Lucky March

4/1/2016

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March was a lucky month for me.

First of all, I wrote 130,987 words for the month, bringing me to 368,622 for the year.

I put up 39 blog posts, 80% of them on the Montana blog.

I filed to run for political office again this month.

The real kicker, however, was getting 750 books sales.

Yeah, that’s a lot!

Let’s dive right into that, and the other recent developments, in this 34th monthly report of mine.

An Explosion of eBook Sales

March was a very lucky month when it came to my book sales.

I mainly count Amazon, figuring my print book and D2D sales are icing on the cake.

This month I managed to get 670 sales on Amazon.

Typically, I count the month as good if I get 100 sales.

I got 159 sales on Colter’s Winter alone.

Colter’s Hell got 119 sales and Colter’s Revenge got 129.

On top of this I put out the final Colter book, Colter’s Escape. That got 24 sales for the month.

All told, I sold 610 of the Colter novels this month, 1,351 altogether since I published the first last April.

Wow!

The dip of Sep-Dec was when I was exclusive to Amazon. Yes, Amazon KDP Select killed my sales

Now…are those sales sustainable, or is this just a flash in the pan?

I dunno. It’s hard to say, though for the past month I’ve been averaging about 20 sales a day.

When my US sales totals passed $1,000 I wondered if that was the threshold and it it’d start to come down.

I wondered the same when I hit $1,300 a few days later.

Now that it’s hovering around $1,600 I’m still wondering.

Honestly, I think that is the plateau, I think it will start to level off and perhaps even come down.

But wow – what a fun and wild ride, huh!

Fortin’s Furs

Because I’m experiencing that explosion of eBook sales – mainly driven by those John Colter western novels – I’ve just kept on with the writing.

The 7th volume of the Mountain Man series is called Fortin’s Furs and I have 28,706 words on it and 122 pages.

I expect to have this book on sale by the third or fourth week of April.

The main reason I’m able to get it out so quickly is not because I’m a fast writer, it’s because I’m going with fast eBook cover designers.

Yeah, I’m going to abandon the custom art approach that the first six books had.

I’m doing this for few reasons:

First, it’s expensive. Custom art costs me between $100 and $150 for the image and then another $20 for the layout work. I can get a premade western cover for $25 to $50.

Next, it takes too long. Custom artists typically take two to three weeks to do the sketch and then another week or so to get the image colored and in the size I need.

Finally, it’s a hassle. Dealing with artists is just one more thing that takes away from my writing time.

At this point I’m going with Go On Write and James’s work.

I’ve been enjoying his services since 2013 and even have a few cover credits built up because of all the traffic he gets from my eBook cover artists article.

That’s why I’ll be going with these style covers for the next few volumes of the series:

These three books will take us through the Astoria Expedition and the War of 1812

That’ll be at least three books and I’ll pump them out one after another until June. At that point I’ll assess where I’m at and where I should go next.

Montana Book 6

I simply call my sixth book of Montana history “Book 6.”

Currently it’s 43,000 words and 190 pages. That might sound like a lot but it’s only about halfway there.

It’s a slow affair and goes in fits and starts.

Just six people have bought the fifth book in the series. In fact, here…take a look at my Montana history book sales:

Sales and Earnings for my Montana history books

As you can see, there’s no real money in Montana history books.

Despite that, I like to finish what I start. I also have a feeling that when the series is complete, the books will sell more.

Yeah, it’s all about getting the most recent history out there, the 80s and 90s and into the 2000s.

People just don’t know that much about this, and there’s nothing in book format.

I’ll fill that gaping hole, and I’ll fill it soon.

I hope to put out “Book 6” this year, probably around August or September.

Yep, 5 months from now. Stay tuned. As we get closer to that time you’ll hear a lot more.

Charitable Giving

March was a very tight month.

Remember, I might get a shit-ton of sales but I won’t get the money for those sales until 60 days later, or at the end of May, maybe June on some of ‘em.

So I didn’t have that much money to ‘throw around.’

Despite that, I stuck to what’s evidently becoming a goal of giving $10 a week to charity.

This month I gave $10 to the following charities:

National Council on Aging: 94% of donations go to the cause

Prevent Child Abuse America: 96% of donations go to the cause

Yeah, just $20 this month.

I kind of feel bad about that. I probably could have given more and I should work on that.

Besides that I sent a letter off to the World Wildlife Fund encouraging them to get their fundraising expenses down from the 18.9% they currently are.

Since I was writing the letter I went ahead and suggested they get administrative expenses down from 6% as well.

Currently they give just 74.7% of donations to their cause. That just doesn’t sit well with me.

I sent a similar letter to OxFam America, telling them to get their 15% fundraising down and their 7.6% administrative costs as well.

I will not be giving to either of those charities until they do.

Something else I won’t be doing is giving much to charity this April…unless things turn around.

I was very lucky to get the rent paid and the power bill paid for April. That leaves me with $3.60 in the bank and $100 in my pocket.

Wow, hangin’ by a thread.

Sure makes you feel alive.

Looking Forward to April

Here’s what’s on the agenda for this month:

April 11: Finish writing Fortin’s Furs
April 25: Publish Fortin’s Furs
April 30: Finish They All Died

That last one is a short western novel I’m working on, a kind of abstract book that'll remind people of the film Memento in how it’s paced. I’ll discuss it more later.

I don’t have a lot else besides that. A big reason is because my wife is going to New York for a week starting tomorrow and I have to look after my 4-year-old alone.

Wow, that’s kinda scary.

It’ll cut down on my productivity so I’m leaving things open for now.

For the most part, know that Montana stories will continue.

Also, please remember that an easy way to support this site is by making your Amazon purchases from here. I get about 6% of each sale.

Thanks for reading!

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A Fabulous February

3/1/2016

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February was a very good month for me.

First of all, I wrote 129,787 words. That’s pretty good and I’m quite pleased with that.

When it comes to my websites, I put up 40 blog posts. About 67% of those posts are on the Montana blog.

I got a lot more blog traffic this month, and I’ll discuss that. I also did well with eBook sales, something else we’ll talk about.

There’s a lot more so hang on and get ready for a look at a self-published author’s daily routine.

eBook Sales

February was a very good month, as was January.

In January I sold 183 books on Amazon alone and in February I sold 196.

With the other retailers I sold 263 books this month.

I’m very happy with that. For comparison, I sold the following in these months and years:

February 2013: 34 sales
February 2014: 108 sales
February 2015: 85 sales

So I’m doing well. I’m gaining ground and traction and I hope that continues.

I’m not sure why I’m so luck to be selling more books. I guess I’ve gotten better as a writer, more confident perhaps.

Maybe it’s positive thinking or the power of the universe or God or something.

Whatever it is, I’m quite thankful and I’ll continue to put out books that you like to read (not so much those that you don’t (although they’ll probably sneak out from time to time)).

Blog Traffic

Wow, what the hell happened this month?

My website traffic here on Big Sky Words exploded around February 22 and then shot up even more a couple days later.

Here, take a look at both my Weebly analytics and Google Analytics:

For Weebly, you can tell that most of this is because of social from Facebook.

The real drivers were twofold:

First, the American Lands Council article I put up last October and which just got real popular in Washington State.

Then, the medical marijuana article I wrote where I went to the store and got reactions.

Besides that, I really got a huge boost on the night of the Oscars as people were looking into the film The Revenant and those historical characters and places.

So it was an amazing end of the month in terms of website traffic.

Is that sustainable?

I’m not sure. I think the 800 visitors might be, and even up to 1,000.

The Oscars flash in the pan isn’t, however, even if I experienced the same last year with Michael Keaton.

What is sustainable is my ability to fill the media’s shoes.

Local media is suffering and I’m filling that role. Besides that, I’m not quite sure how to account for this boost.

I’m very luck and I’ll just have to be thankful and continue on as best I can, hoping to meet the increased expectations…whatever they are.

New Releases

On February 9 I put out the 5th book in the Mountain Man Series, Colter’s Revenge.

The book did really well, getting 49 sales for the month, 7 of them in the UK.

I’m quite happy with that because it tells me a few things:

First, people like this series and they’re reading on from the first book all the way to now.

Next, people are waiting for the next volumes to come out and they’ll buy ‘em when they do.

Then, people are willing to pay $4.99 for a 200-page new release on Amazon, and other retailers (the book got 3 sales through D2D).

Finally, I have a level of sustainable income from this 5-volume series, though how long that’ll last is unclear.

I’ve had some success before. Back in late-2013 and early-2014 my Jongurian novels were doing really well.

Those dropped off a cliff after some bad reviews came in and the income went away.

Yeah, those books were selling 20 copies a month for awhile.

This past month they sold 1.

So you have to be ready for the crests and troughs that will come as you ride the waves of self-publishing, or really, any market that doesn’t depend on people’s needs but their wants.

So I’m happy I have this success now and I have to be thankful for that.

Charitable Giving

Something I like to do to show my thankfulness to the universe or God or whatever is by giving to charity.

I’m very cheap in this.

Yep, I write checks for $10.

This fulfills many of my anal-retentive needs:

First, I can use the new 2016 stamps that I like to buy (I always put bills in the mail now, often with a note to whomever opens them).

Then, because of the low donation amount, I can give to several charities and not just one.

Next, I’m able to use up some miscellaneous animal and Marvel superhero stickers, which I like to stick on the back of the envelope.

Finally, it’s fun and makes me feel good.

So I like doing the charitable giving and these charities got $10 each this month:

Catholic Relief Services (92% to their cause);
Orbis (93%);
Paws for Purple Hearts;
Missoula Food Bank;
Direct Relief (99%);
Watson’s Children’s Shelter.

I hope the $10 they got from me helps ‘em out.

As you can see, I check their ratings to make sure they give most of my money to their cause.

I can’t find all of them – especially the really local organizations – but I try.

Remember, I made about $19,000 last year. It’s not a whole lot but it’s more than many.

I can afford to give $10 here and there.

Maybe you can afford it too.

Looking Forward to March

So what’s on the agenda for this month, March? Well…here’s what my calendar looks like so far:

March 6: My 2 Tarot books go wide again (all retailers)

March 8: Release Paranormal Montana

March 14: Filing deadline for political office in Montana

March 16: 6 of my business/ESL books go wide

March 19: Sell Your Book goes wide

March 19: Mansfield-Metcalf Dinner in Helena

March 22: I’ll finish my Montana government book

March 23: Jury duty, 8:30 AM

March 27: Easter in Helena

March 31: Tour Your Book goes wide

I very well might finish up my next Colter novel, Colter’s Escape, and put that out this month.

It depends on how much I get going on it. Oftentimes you can pump out 5,000 words a day on the last few days as you finish ‘em up.

I might do that with this one. As always, if you’re on my email list you’ll hear first and get the book for $0.99 too.

Well, that’s it.

March is starting.

Today is Super Tuesday and we’ll probably know our presidential nominees soon after.

Should be an interesting month. Thanks for reading about it here!

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​NaNo

​More Confidence

​New 2017 Stamps

​Quick MT Thoughts

​Charitable Giving

​On the Agenda for December

​Freelance Writing

​National Write a Novel Month

​Manuel’s Money

​Writing Income

​Charitable Giving

​Coming in November

​Doldrums

​Teachers Like My Work

​Charitable Giving

​On the Agenda for October

​Mostly Editing

​Sales So Far

Charitable Giving

​On the Agenda for September

​Moving

​Mountain Man Series

​Charitable Giving

​On the Agenda for August

​2 New Books

​Book Sales

​Recent Car Repairs

​Charitable Giving

​On the Agenda for July

​My Book Sales

​The Montana Novels

​My Situation

​Charitable Giving

On the Agenda for June

​Fortin’s Furs

​Doing the Work

​Politics

​Charitable Giving

On the Agenda for May

​An Explosion of eBook Sales

​Fortin’s Furs

​Montana Book 6

​Charitable Giving

​Looking Forward to April

​eBook Sales

Blog Traffic

New Releases

​Charitable Giving

Looking Forward to March

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