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Michele Hansen  00:00

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Michele Hansen
So, the other day, I totaled up how much I have made from my book so far, and all the expenses. 

Colleen Schnettler  01:19

Okay. 

Michele Hansen  01:20

So, as of that point, $1363 in presales, which is just, like, the number of copies times 29. That's not my actual payouts. It's just, like, the gross revenue. 

Colleen Schnettler  01:34

Okay. 

Michele Hansen  01:34

And then, so the expenses. So, first one, for the formatting, I have to use the software called Vellum, which is $250. I had to buy ISBNs, like, the little, like, numbers on the back of the book that identify it. 

Colleen Schnettler  01:49

Yeah.

Michele Hansen  01:50

So, and I had to, you can either buy one, or like 10, and since I'm going to do an audio book, you need an ISBN for that, and like, a hardcover needs zone ISBN. And so anyway, that was $295. A barcode is $25. Proofreading $800, which is a lot of money, but I feel like that's the price of like, not being embarrassed that it's full of typos and you know, I feel like if I want to, like, have a book that, like, a manager could buy for their team, or like, people would recommend to their clients, like, it has to be professional.  And so having, like, professional proofreading is the cost of that.

Colleen Schnettler  02:24

Yeah.  I didn't know that was something. I didn't know that was a thing.

Michele Hansen  02:30

Yeah. Yeah, I spent, I think last week I mentioned how I was fighting with Grammarly a lot, and, 

Colleen Schnettler  02:35

Yeah. 

Michele Hansen  02:36

I just, I was like, I have spent like, two days fighting with Grammarly, just trying to get it to work, and like, and I was like, this is just, my time is more expensive than this.

Colleen Schnettler  02:47

Yeah.

Michele Hansen  02:47

So, I'm just gonna hire a proofreader. 

Colleen Schnettler  02:50

Good choice.

Michele Hansen  02:50

And then, of course, you know, don't include hundreds of hours of my time over the last couple of months. But, so, the total for expenses so far is $1370.

Colleen Schnettler  03:01

That's wonderful.

Michele Hansen  03:02

So, when you deduct $1363 minus $1370. 

Colleen Schnettler  03:11

Oh.

Michele Hansen  03:12

You get negative seven.

Colleen Schnettler  03:16

Yeah, I see. I misunderstood what you were saying. Got it. So you're in the hole seven bucks and hundreds of hours of your time.

Michele Hansen  03:25

Yes. Yeah. 

Colleen Schnettler  03:26

Alright. Well, good thing it;s a labor of love.

Michele Hansen  03:28

So, I looked at that number, though, and I just had this moment where I was like, holy, forking shirtballs, like, I need to market this thing. 

Colleen Schnettler  03:39

Yeah. 

Michele Hansen  03:40

Umm, and actually, so like, I sold another two since then. So now, I am actually at positive $51. 

Colleen Schnettler  03:51

Whoo. 

Michele Hansen  03:52

Yeah, whoo. Umm, and of course, you know, we're only like, only in presale, and like, a ton of people have today said they want the hardcover or they want the audio book. So they haven't, they haven't purchased it yet, or they just simply want the finished version. Umm, But yeah, that was kind of a wake up call for me that, like, I've been, you know, we talked about with Sean like, I, like marketing a info product feels very different for me than marketing a SaaS. 

Colleen Schnettler  04:19

Yes.

Michele Hansen  04:19

And also requires a lot more self-promotion, which I'm not comfortable with. Like, it makes me like, deeply uncomfortable to like, reach out to people and be like, hey, like, would you consider, like, you know, reviewing my book like, or, you know, can I be on your podcast and, like, talk, like, it makes me super uncomfortable. Umm so, so but I got to do it because like, negative $7, man, for like, four months worth of work is, you know, basically half of my time the last four months, certainly, last two months, has been on this book. And so I feel like I owe it to myself just for that, like, time to like, sell the gosh darn thing.

Colleen Schnettler  05:07

Definitely.

Michele Hansen  05:09

Yeah. So I like spent, you know, this week I was kind of working on, you know, like, I went through all of the newsletter issues and I, like, put in a link at the top to, like, buy the book because I've noticed that people are sharing the scripts around. Like, I can see the analytics that they're getting shared in people's Slack channels, or, you know, Trello, or Asana, which is a good sign that those maybe have some staying power. So, and just kind of thinking through a little bit more, a little bit more of the marketing and trying to arrange, you kn...