Tax Time Revelations and…Is Writing is the Career We Can’t Retire From?

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I had my appointment with my CPA on Wednesday.  The appointment was in the middle of the Southern snowstorm aftermath, actually—there’s nothing like adding to the misery of taxes with a minor natural disaster, you know.  I hired a CPA last year when I continued waking up in cold sweats in the middle of the night, worrying that I was doing my taxes wrong.  I didn’t think I’d fit in well in tax jail.  I decided I didn’t mind paying for peace of mind.

She had me painstakingly pick through my bank account and pull out every deposit from all sources…self-publishing and traditional publishing…for 2013.  This was nightmarish and took the better part of an hour.  But I didn’t have the 1099 from Amazon yet and she wanted to double-check all my income sources anyway, so I combed through the statements.  The entries I was looking for were direct deposits and checks from Penguin (via my agent), Llewellyn (my agent doesn’t represent me with this publisher), Amazon, ACX, Smashwords, Apple, CreateSpace, and Barnes & Noble.

The amazing revelation I made was that my total income for 2013 was 68% self-publishing income.  That’s with a total of 8 traditionally published books and 5 self-published books currently on the shelves (1 trad. published book is in production and 1 self-published book is in production).

Overall profits increased by 66.6% for 2013.  I tried to figure out what I was doing right so that I could replicate it.  But all I’ve done online is what I’ve been doing for ages…I blog here.  I tweet. I Google Plus.  I sometimes Facebook.  I rarely pitch my books.  What had changed in 2013: all my self-published books released in print. All my self-published books released in audio.  I had three traditionally-published releases (although, as I mentioned, the traditionally-published income was a small fraction of my total) and one self-published release.  I did a couple of Goodreads giveaways.

My accountant asked about my advertising expenses for my small business, since I wrote off $100 in 2012 for print copies of my traditionally published books for giveaways, conferences, charity basket auctions, that kind of thing.  No–I spent $0 for advertising in 2013.  I blushed a little when she asked me that question.  What kind of a small business owner am I?  But I seem to make more when I just focus on the writing stuff.

One big  help was that foreign sales picked up dramatically last year. My foreign sales figures had been lackluster for over a year and a half.  From 2011 until early last year, I never even clicked on foreign sales on the KDP page.   In 2013, I saw a dramatic upswing…mainly in the UK, but also Denmark and Australia (other foreign sales were just odds and ends here and there).  I did nothing to make those sales happen.  I guess my visibility increased on Amazon US to the point where it just trickled through to the other markets. I really have no explanation for it.

Actually, I do have one explanation for it.  I’m starting to saturate my corner of the market a little bit.  I’ve given my content more reach by putting it in more formats.  And I’m writing 3-4 books a year.  I think I’ve got readers engaged with me—an amazing feat, considering I don’t actually interact with readers on any of my social media platforms…well, with the exception of my Riley Adams Facebook page.  I’m getting many more emails and Facebook direct messages from readers than I ever received in the past.

What engages my readers are my books.  And that’s the way I want it.  They’re not very interested in me.  A good thing, because I’m not particularly interesting.  My sister joked with me one day and asked if readers were calling themselves “my number one fan.”  (Stephen King reference there.)  And I told her, no, not at all.  Although several have written to me saying they’re Myrtle Clover’s #1 fan (protagonist in one series).  And that’s exactly the way I want it.

But to sustain this book-centric reader engagement, I have to keep writing books.  Which brings me to my next point—is writing a career that’s difficult to retire from? To keep our income stream constant, is the necessary visibility and discoverability dependent on regular book publication?

I think it might be. And right now, that’s absolutely fine with me.  I love writing books.  I’m all about books.  But people I know frequently ask me if I might burn out at the pace I’m going.  I say no—but there are days when I’ve got to recharge.  Fortunately, there are enough writing-related tasks to switch to something else productive and allow myself to recharge a little.  So I’ll contact my book cover designer or I’ll edit my outline or I’ll write a blog post or schedule updates on Twitter.

But…sure.  When I think of keeping this career going and keeping my readers engaged and I think of the decades in the future—it can be overwhelming.  In some ways, though, it’s a relief to me to think that my platform, which is a writer-centric platform, isn’t what’s connecting me to readers.  I’m sure it’s not.  My blog and Twitter and Google + have given me a higher visibility among writers, but readers aren’t finding me that way.  They’re finding me through my books.

When I think of all my favorite authors…many of them (aside from some of the now-deceased Golden Age mystery writers) continue to be favorites because they regularly publish.  That’s how they stay on my radar.  Each year there’s an Elizabeth George book out or a Louise Penny book out or an M.C. Beaton.  That’s what’s keeping me hooked… regularly released solid reads.

So those are my thoughts, just from my own data.  What do you think, though?  How do you feel readers are discovering your books, or how do you discover books as a reader?  What keeps your favorite writers on your radar, as a reader?  How can writers sustain visibility and income levels, moving forward?

Image: MorgueFile: Cohdra