In Which I Make Some Mistakes, Learn From Them, and Eat Some Ice Cream

Sometimes it feels like my venture into self publishing has been a long series of blunders. In truth, I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm stumbling around in the dark crashing into walls, hoping at some point I'll find a light switch (if there is one).

I've learned a few lessons, though. First, I've created a budget. Budgets have turned out to be highly helpful things. Budgets ensure I'm spending money smartly where it needs to be spent instead of flailing wildly, bleeding money everywhere. I created my budget thusly (I'm in a fancy word mood):


1. I added up all my actual expenses from the past couple of months and subtracted from my actual income.

2. I found things that could realistically be cut back to save money. (Can I go to the library a little more often instead of buying ten books a week? Can I maybe never order in pizza again just because I'm bored and don't want to eat another sandwich?)

3. I decided how much money a month I can afford to spend on my self publishing.

4. I subtracted fixed expenses, like my website and RWA membership.

5. I calculated how much it'll cost to publish a book with cover and editing expenses.

6. I determined how often I can reasonably afford to publish a book.

7. I did some cutting of my overly optimistic book release plan.

Note I am basing all this on the actual income I am getting from my day job, not from hypothetical income I might get from self publishing. The goal is to gradually be able to pay for all my self publishing costs with my self publishing income, but I can't rely on it until I start making sales.

I feel like because I said 'first' there should be a second lesson. Here it is: don't eat an entire box of candy at once. You'll get a stomach ache.