"Paying the Bills," "Paying the Mortgage" and then...?

[Carolyn Kephart]

I've just enough royalties to re-string my guitar and buy a bottle of Chateau neuf du Pape. What more could you want?

Piper Sonoma and air conditioning, here. I'm more than grateful.

CK
Who edited her earlier post because of inadvertant snarkiness...sincere apologies to the OP!

[JL Bryan]

Piper Sonoma and air conditioning, here. I'm more than grateful.

CK
Who edited her earlier post because of inadvertant snarkiness...sincere apologies to the OP!

Awww, we were both being snarky.  Let's just accept that we're both snarky people at times 

[Carolyn Kephart]

Awww, we were both being snarky.  Let's just accept that we're both snarky people at times 

If the tone of my posts comes off wrong, I've failed as a writer; hence the edit.

CK

[John Hartness]

I would say "pay my bar tab," but I need Konrath Kash to fully fund my drunkenness. My hopes and dreams sit in this order.

1) Recoup what I paid to have the book formatted.

2) Make back what I paid for the cover art. And use RDP next time to save a bunch of cash!

3) Pay my niece the commission I offered her in exchange for editing services.

4) Pay for the formatting/editing/cover art for the next book.

lather, rinse, repeat

Somewhere down the list when I have a critical mass of backlist published I'd like to be able to contemplate quitting my day job. But for now, enough to cover my investment in my Redneck Retirement Fund (PowerBall tickets) will do just fine.

[R. Doug]

Forget the yacht harbored in St. Tropez.  I've lowered my expectations.  Right now, I'd like to break even on what I've spent in the way of promotion since this morning:  $75.77 for 500 business cards (they are beautiful) and $69.99 for a Kindle Nation Daily spot.

That puts me $145.76 (1,520,860 Iranian Rials) in the hole with only nine sales in three days to show for it.  This is SOoooo depressing.  

[tbrookside]

I would say just about everybody gets depressed by their first three days of sales.

Except for Hocking.  She busts into the top 25 shouting, "Hey!  Kool-Aid!"

You won't really know what you can do for two more months.

[R. Doug]

TWO MORE MONTHS ! ! !

"Thanks for cheering me up, Thomas," he said as he slowly pulled out his Walther P99c AS from the desk drawer and reached for the box of 124-grain 9mm Hydra Shoks sitting atop his computer monitor.  "That's just what I needed to hear."

[Victorine]

Forget the yacht harbored in St. Tropez.  I've lowered my expectations.  Right now, I'd like to break even on what I've spent in the way of promotion since this morning:  $75.77 for 500 business cards (they are beautiful) and $69.99 for a Kindle Nation Daily spot.

That puts me $145.76 (1,520,860 Iranian Rials) in the hole with only nine sales in three days to show for it.  This is SOoooo depressing.  

Hey, before I read Konrath's blog, my story was just sitting on my hard drive... and so I thought, "Hey, might as well put it up on Lulu as an Ebook."  I sold three.  In. Six. Months.  And two of those were to friends.  Okay, so I didn't expect much when I put my book up on Kindle.  I sold seven in the first ten days it was up.  I was really happy with that!

So, the moral of the story... don't expect much and you won't be disappointed.  Or... don't sell your ebook on Lulu.  Or... never spit in the wind.  Wait...

I'm going to stop now, I think I need more sleep.

Vicki

[& gone]

Are these the official unofficial levels of indie writing success?

Paying the bills--making enough to cover some of your monthly bills

Paying the mortgage--self-explanatory.

What comes next after paying the mortgage?   

If you ask my four year old daughter, she says that it's a brown pony with white spots.  Dang I wish I could buy that adorable little girl a pony!

[R. Doug]

So, the moral of the story... don't expect much and you won't be disappointed

Well, on the upside, I calculate that I've made 262,280 in just THREE DAYS . . . in Iranian Rials, that is.