Doing better than last month. I am writing the report before the 15th. Which is the least I can do for my audience.

These reports will get more and more boring until I reach some kind of breakthrough. This is because I am just focusing exactly on one thing, publishing Quantum Physics for Absolute Beginners.

Apart from the boo, I focus only on freelancing to pay the bills.

Data Freelance

Paused.

Data Internships

Paused.

xTopics

Paused.

Soccrbets

Paused. But I had to resist the urge to update the website content, and add the forms to subscribe to my soccer betting books newsletter. It’s a good thing to do, but not right now, when I need to focus 100% on the new book.

Freelancing

Still doing it. Same clients as last months. Much better to work long term with few clients than short term with many of them if you ask me.

Publishing

I have published the book at the end of the month and currently in the launch phase. For now the launch is slow, but hopefully it will pick up in the next weeks. My strategy is simple, collect as many sales and reviews as I can in the first month. The first month is very important, because Amazon gives a little boost to the new releases. So best to put yourself in the best position possible to attract early reviews, which can make or break a book.

I am following the RoyaltyHero playbook for the launch, and here are a few things I am doing to push the book. First, I asked my ARC readers to give me an honest review. I have around 50 readers, so far I got 2 reviews from them, maybe I can get up to 10 reviews. I also put the e-book on a free promo for the first week of December, and got around 80 sales. Unfortunately I don’t see reviews from those readers yet, but maybe I could get another 5-10 reviews. Also, I am posting every couple of days on FB groups and on socials about the book. Some of the post get a lot of attention, but I need to figure out how to market the book properly on FB. Maybe adding a comment under the post with my book link is the best way to go. So far I have only replied to people who DM me or comment. Finally, I have started to run ads, right after the free promo period ended. It’s not a problem for me to spend a few hundred bucks on ads, especially in this initial phase. So far I am seeing an ACOS around 60% which means I will lose money, but not so much. And it’s probably worth it if it brings a few verified reviews. And the sales of my other books should keep my in the green until I have

My goal is to rank organically on the first page of Amazon for the keyword, and to do that I need to compete with the already existing titles in terms of reviews. Getting 100 reviews would definitely put me there, but I think it will take me at least 6 months at this pace to reach that level. For this reason, I want to push the book on different channels too. TikTok seems to be a good one, but I found it almost impossible to set up an account, even with a US VPN. I want to give a try to other video platforms, like Instagram or YouTube. I feel there is potential there, I still need to understand how to get the best out of it, but I definitely want to start as early as possible, already this year.

Finally, I am not focusing on other books for now. However, there are a few things I learned publishing this new book, that I want to apply to my other three soccer betting books.

• Set up a mailing list via a link in the book.
• Nudge the readers to leave an honest review on Amazon.
• Add a free lead magnet to further increase the number of readers who subscribe to the mailing list.

Other books will come in the future. If this one starts to do well, I have a few ideas for others in the same niche. But if not, I surely plan to write more in other niches which I think have potential.

The cashflow

Time to look at the income for this month (without freelancing).

We are still in the red. Which is acceptable as long as it’s a few bucks. I think most of those expenses will start to repay themselves quite fast, like the marketing on the new book. Some others, I will keep them lower in the future. For example, I don’t need such an expensive designer for my paperback cover, because I can easily do it myself in Canva. For Grammarly, it’s going to last for at least one year, and I think it’s just money well spent, since it helps me avoid mistakes that, as a non-native speaker, could really ruin me and my present and future books.

November has always been a good month for me, since my books sell much better during the Black Friday. But this year it’s been awful. Especially Gumroad. Last year I sold $150 worth of books, this year less than $30. I am really thinking of leaving the platform and enroll the books in KDP select, to get more royalties and spread them around. Will I get less than $15 per month, which is the Gumroad average this year? I seriously doubt it.

Overall, I had big expectations for the new book, especially about the number of reviews. But I am not complaining. It’s time to write to my ARC readers, push on marketing and find new and creative ways to promote the book. Consistency and focus are the most important things right now. In January, we’ll see where we are.