The year is simply flying by, to the point that I honestly wasn't prepared for what I was going to say for my September post. Usually, I have this stuff planned out a couple days in advance. Instead, I'm literally making this up as I go!
August Review
I'll keep things as brief as possible. In short, August was rather eventful. I got stuck on a bus to Megaplex that was late, ended up losing money from Megabus being the worst transit company ever, missed Furrydelphia because of a brake issue on my car literally days before, and fell a bit short of expectations for IndyFurCon.
There was a lot of good this month, and a lot of bad...but it's best for us to focus on the good.
I did the math as I was typing up this post, and I still don't believe it. I'm beside myself, but...let's just say that the community really came through for me when my brakes failed me. I really didn't think I'd be able to recover from the missed sales at Furrydelphia, but we pulled in $4,776 last month.
In all of my years of working, I've never broken $3,500. I was going to be happy with that, and thanks to generous supporters, I was able to reach a much higher number.
Commissions were the bulk of it, scoring $2,473 between the "Ladies Night" auctions and support that came in after my brakes failed. Our goal of $950 was summarily crushed.
Conventions fell short thanks to one con missed, and missing Friday at Megaplex entirely because of Megabus, but $1725 was nice.
We sold 22 e-books, meaning things tapered off, but that was expected. We lost patrons, which I did not expect, but growing patrons is like straining water from a rock.
Busy as I was, 17 posts was a bold goal, but I didn't expect to only get 6 posts up. That was my fault, and I can do better.
All told, I had a brazen goal of $4,375 for August, and somehow, outdid it. Gotta keep dreaming big. Thank you all for the support.
September Preview
There's a lot to do this month, but there's a convention gap between now and Midwest Furfest. That's going to be our biggest financial obstacle, with limited options to work around it.
I can't possibly expect commissions to break $2,000 again this month, but you'd better believe I'm going to try for it. I -need- to expand my market a bit and pull in more customers, so that I'm not waiting on the same few people to get money in again. I value my repeat customers more than I can voice, but I need to get a few more of them!
It's full speed ahead on several book projects and finishing up the commission backlog, with Uber driving to make up the difference when the opportunity allows. Things will be very straightforward until a couple weeks before FurFest, but I've also got something special planned for October. I'll make a post about those plans during the last week of September, so stay tuned!
Let's set some more goals, and achieve them again.
September Goals
Maintain. It won't be easy without conventions to bolster my numbers, but I need to write like the wind and make as much money as possible while going full speed ahead on "Ladies Night" and "Cursed Temple," while deciding which books to move ahead on next.
Commissions: $1500. The baseline goal of $950 just doesn't cut it when there's no cons to back up my finances, so the goal remains high. Conventions: $0. In 2019, I'd like to have one every month. Patreon: 35 patrons or $240 pledged. This Patreon page needs to grow. Without a higher passive income, I can't increase book production. E-books: 25 sold. Keeping this trend on the up and up would be great. Paperbacks: 10 sold. I'd like more people to start ordering my books as paperbacks when I'm not at cons. Ko-Fi: Five a month. No change there. Posts: 11. Two public posts a week, one $3 a week, one $5 a week, one SOTM (which you guys will vote on, and I'll actually do.)
Total September goal: $2,052. To be honest, I'd love to see over $3,000 again this month, so if you've got commission ideas, hand them on over.
Let's make $3,000+ the monthly norm, instead of the exception.
