Why would a successfully self published author like Mark Dawson openly share his income and expenses for his self publishing business? It’s not to brag and not to put himself a peg or two above others. It’s to show you what’s possible. Really, Mark’s a regular guy just like you who is learning how to make Indie publishing work for himself. He wants you to come along for the ride and learn how to do it for yourself.

You can do it. You need to believe that.

On this episode you’ll hear what “it’s possible” looks like - and this particular report covers one of Mark’s lower income months. Still, the figures are quite impressive for a guy who didn’t know anything about the business side of self publishing before he started.

But there’s more than just the figures.

Mark’s eager to share some of the advertising he’s doing to promote his books and the mindset and reasoning behind the particular promotional channels he’s using to get his books into the public eye a bit more. You’ll get some insight into the lessons he’s learned in his self publishing journey and are encouraged to apply them to your situation to make your book sales soar as well.

And it’s not just about book sales.

As you listen to Mark’s report keep in mind that the money he spends on advertising and promotions is not just to sell books. He realizes that some promotional channels are showing a net loss on paper, but that’s only when you look at sales that resulted from the promotion. His goal is not always immediate sales. It’s just as important in many cases to spend money to get email subscribers, because those people turn into book buying fans later on and often work their way through Mark’s entire catalogue, showing the profit on the “back end” so to speak.

So enjoy this month’s earnings report and feel free to shoot us an email if you have any questions about what we share.

Outline of this great episode

• [0:23] James’ introduction to this episode and why he and Mark do it.
• [1:24] The U.S. figures.
• [2:32] Why book commissions are what push things into a profitable place this month.
• [3:57] UK campaigns and figures.
• [7:36] Tracking advertising purchases.
• [8:30] Mark doesn’t need to advertise to get sales, so why is he doing it?
• [9:53] Mailing list efforts for the month.