Another quick monthly write-up. I believe I haven’t missed a single one since December 2023. A lot happened since then.

This month was a bit of a set-back. There is a huge drama going on in the self-publishing space with many books related to Murder Mystery being taken down. Even though I am not in the exact niche of the book taken down, I kinda saw the writing on the wall and decided to pull the plug on my best-selling book. Wise decision? Time will tell. For now all my competitors are still up and untouched. But they are out since less than 2 months. Let’s see.

My focus is now on Q4. I am working on 3 titles that I want to publish before the end of the year.

Data Freelance

Paused.

Data Internships

Paused.

xTopics

Paused.

Soccrbets

Paused.

Freelancing

Still doing it. I am not looking for more clients, but I might soon, since I am not in a great financial position.

Publishing

So the big news is that I had to take down my bestseller. It was a voluntary decision, and there are many factors that determined it.

• Risky niche. My book was the first to copy the idea of a very famous puzzle book. The original book is in the top 100 in the US, and they have a huge budget. Since I don’t think I have much differentiation yet, they might claim some kind of trademark on it. And this would mean the end of my account.
• My book was made focusing on speed at the expense of quality. In hindsight, it was not a great idea, but at the time I wanted to publish fast. The 1-star reviews started to come fast, and that really slowed down the launch and hurt the book long term too. Instead of trying to salvage it with extensive editing, taking it down and focusing on other projects looked like a better decision.

I think I skipped July ad didn’t publish anything this month. But I was working on a title that I am launching right now. It’s in the word search space, another super-crowded niche. But I think I have a unique angle to succeed.

My other books are all profitable. I am running ads and experimenting with them, and at the same time I am reviewing the listings and optimizing them. My ACOS in July has been 45%, up from 37% of June. It’s not bad, but I gotta keep this under control, I have a tight budget and my cash needs to be saved for expensive Q4 ads.

The cashflow

Time to see the numbers.

Good overall results. All books are profitable apart from the one in launch phase. I am working to turn that into profitability in teh month of August.

The start of August obviously suffers from the missing revenues from the bestseller. Moreover, my books don’t really do well during Summer, so there are missing sales all over the catalog. I should close the month in break even, maybe slightly in the red. September should be more or less similar, and I am working hard to get back in the green in October.

See you next month for another update!