How much I made in my 2nd year on

[@TheKoffeeVerse]

I love these videos!! I was so proud that I sold 7 books this year and made $7.51!! I published my first book in 2023 and my second book in October 2024!

[@itslindseeey]

Thank you; they're fun to make too, so I'm glad you like them! Heck yeah, congrats on two books out!!

[@briannestone8502]

That’s amazing.

[@davidstewart8796]

Thanks for the update, I appreciate your being open and honest about the money that you make, it shows the reality of self publishing.

[@chucklitka2503]

Thanks for sharing your self-publishing experience .You're doing quite well in this day of age. It is much harder these days to find readers than it was back in 2015 when I published my first books. I made $356.13 in 2024 from Amazon. Luckily, I'm writing for the joy of it and to hopefully entertaining readers, so I had a good year. Best of luck going forward!

[@Lokitty666]

Thanks for sharing! This is informative and just what I need.

[@ReleasetheWordKraken]

This is amazing to see. I'm also a part-time indie author trying to increase the transparency around what goes into indie publishing and what money I make. I'm glad KZbin shared your channel with me! I'm thrilled to see more authors sharing, especially those of us who do it part-time.

[@itslindseeey]

Thank you! Omg fun, I'll check out your videos, I always love connecting with fellow authors!

[@TomsBritishASMR]

Congrats Lindsey! I find a lot of channels are a little coy about the effort vs reward, and particularly what the actual reward is; I really appreciate your transparency and candidness. Fingers crossed for an even better 2025!

[@RebeccaKSampson]

I appreciate the update and charts! Your marketing does work, people just expect things to always be a huge explosion, when selling 1K+ books when there are millions in the world is actually better than most. Thank you for your transparency! We can want things to improve and also see it as amazing at the same time. Great job!

[@NicolesBookishNook]

Great video and thank you for sharing! I did so recently and I know only one other person who will share their stats. Very helpful to be transparent if you want to ❤

[@76kilosofshade81]

As an author who aspires to publish (but plans to keep her FT job), I love authors who are as transparent as you. This was great. Thanks!

[@itslindseeey]

Thanks so much! Same, I plan to keep my FT job (unless I get massively lottery-level lucky LOL)

[@76kilosofshade81]

@@itslindseeey yes, I too will reconsider the FT job if that happens. 😄

[@anabmarr]

I love your videos! As an indie author myself, these have been super helpful and have inspired me to take my own journey a bit more seriously :) I wish you great success in 2025!

[@itslindseeey]

Thank you so much; I wish you so much joy on your journey!

[@madebymalayka]

Don't mind the people calling your stuff AI. You've mentioned your graphic design experience plenty of times and, for whatever reason, it's not sticking 🤔 I have soooo many of your videos to catch up on btw, but thanks as always for being so transparent ❤ I hope I make $2K with my debut this year! 🥰

[@gum1h0953]

I've been doing graphic design for almost a decade and have seen all of her book covers. I can see it's not difficult to develop her products for persons who know graphic design.

[@RebeccaTaylorBooks]

Hi Lindsey! Just found your channel and I'm so happy I did. It's so nice that you break down the actual numbers. Just subscribed and I'm off to find some of your marketing videos...Happy New Year!

[@itslindseeey]

Thanks so much, I hope they're helpful! Happy new year!

[@marialeeper-uj8mr]

Glad to hear all about your progress. I need to break my down like this too. I wrote three books last year and made $150. Yip marketing is not my strong suit.

[@itslindseeey]

Thank you! Yeah marketing is definitely the more difficult part, but congrats on writing 3 books in a year, holy moly!

[@thewriterssoundtrack]

Thank you so much for this open and transparent video! So many other authors I've come across gatekeep this info or only offer it behind a paywall, and I found myself leaning more towards trad pub because I was so uncertain if self pub was for me. Looking forward to watching more of your videos ♥

[@baharhoshyar6752]

Congrats on your success!

[@itslindseeey]

Aw, thanks! I'm really proud of how far I've come in just a couple of years!

[@elisenispee7450]

congratulations , still a winner with three books, the $$ will come in later, you're monetizing with your presentations and videos, more luck in 2025 and prosperity.

[@KirileeCosplay]

Awesome work! This is really interesting. Do you find your sales cover your costs (ie. editor etc)?

[@itslindseeey]

Thanks! Yeah, I actually do everything myself (editing, cover design, formatting, marketing, etc.) and with the feedback of a couple of beta readers, so I made my money back the very first month I published.

[@sydrichey6600]

Just wondering have you thought about doing some writing vlogs so we can see your process when it comes to writing your style of books?

[@itslindseeey]

I actually have a vlog I'm working on editing from a lot of the time I was working on this third book! I'd love to dive more into my world building process too and show my spreadsheets with all the info I keep.

[@presleybaldwin3756]

I like the covers, especially the first two, did you make them yourself?

[@itslindseeey]

Thanks so much! Yes, I make all of my covers myself.

[@presleybaldwin3756]

@itslindseeey They're very good, keep up the great work, best of luck with future sales.

[@NekonataVirino]

I just found your channel, I thought it really refreshing. I can appreciate your goal to become monetised (as a small KZbin channel myself with no chance of ever doing that because it’s so niche I really am rooting for you) but can I please make a plea for you not to include masses of mid roll ads once you do make that threshold. - It is the creator’s choice and anyone who pays attention to KZbin knows that. It’s been so lovely to just watch the entire video without it being broken down and disrupted every few minutes by meaningless ads that just waste my time and make me feel kind of disrespected. I have unsubscribed from so many channels recently because three minutes in I get an ad, and then another five minutes in another ad, and then another five minutes in. I’ll put up with and allowed to play the ones at the beginning of the video and the ones at the end but the middle ones - they’re a step too far.

[@AmberCampbellBooks]

PLEASE share your marketing tips! Those authors who sell tens of thousands of books also put thousands a month into marketing and that is something I absolutely can't do right now (I also write poetry, so much smaller market). My goal for next year is to double my lifetime copies sold. And reviews on my books would be awesome 😂 Thank you for making these videos! I love them!

[@itslindseeey]

Thanks for watching! I'll definitely share more marketing tips. Yeah I don't have a budget like that to even begin with so I try to focus on what I can do myself for free or very cheap. I love poetry; I believe in you!

[@designyourcards]

Based on your sales is it really worth writing a 4th book in the series, books 2&3 didn't have many sales. Wouldn't it be better to write standalones until you get a bestseller and then turn that book into a series?

[@itslindseeey]

I actually really want to make a video talking about this now, thanks for the question! 🙌 But to answer it here, I would say it's worth it. My books are interconnected, and book 2 leads into book 3 (more than book 1 leads into 2, if that makes sense) which came out just over a month ago, so they're still gaining traction. Sometimes it takes years for a book to find its audience, so the short-term stats even up to 5 years make it difficult to judge whether a book or series will be "successful" (however you measure that) long-term. I am also working on a few different standalones at the same time, so I'm not really giving up anything but a liiiitle extra time to finish the 4th book. And if the standalones do well, it would be a better move to market my backlist of a series readers can sink their teeth into in order to build loyalty rather than extend a standalone out for a cash grab (at least in my opinion).

[@astrothsknot]

everyone's getting accused of AI right now. i used a photo of Eileen Donan Castle and someone was pointing out where it was AI. my son took the pic.

[@itslindseeey]

Lmao! It's such a hot button topic; people need to take a deep breath

[@davidw7861]

KDP pays nothing for rereads? Doesn't that punish a writer who writes a story that people want to read again?

[@Nancy-1w]

Happy new year! last year, i implemented a strict budgeting strategy to track expenses and set clear limits, while also focusing on a smart investment approach. In just six months, my investments grew by over $70,000, boosting my savings and financial confidence. This combined strategy has set me on track to achieve my long-term financial goals, and i'm hoping to get to a million plus this 2025, so help me God

[@Florencewalter-o4s]

that’s incredible! What’s the secret behind this strategy? How did you manage to save up so much so quickly?

[@Nancy-1w]

Working with Lorrie Greta Hillard , a financial advisor, was a game changer. She helped me refine my savings strategy, including retirement planning, and provided expert guidance on investments and budgeting to maximize my savings.

[@Florencewalter-o4s]

Got it! Thanks for the tip! I was curious, so I looked up Lorrie

[@Latonya-r.b]

that's an incredible goal to set 2025

[@tyhbvft1218]

1:31 what a weird way to look at it, most authors (trad or self-pub) struggle to sell fewer copies than that, and whether marketing is successful or not is dependent on your goals? not everyone markets to be famous, what you have accomplished is significant in my book.

[@itslindseeey]

Thanks so much! I feel pretty proud of what I've accomplished, so I think that's all that matters, but I think people who aren't in the industry don't know that selling books is actually pretty hard 😅

[@NellieMunroAuthor]

Hi fellow marketer! I do marketing for a tech company 🤖

[@riskinhos]

2k that's so sad. that's cents per hour of work. writing is a labour of love. .001% of authors make 99.9999% of all income.

[@itslindseeey]

Writing books is definitely not for the people who want to make a quick buck, but $2k is pretty good, and obviously I'm pretty proud of that! If we got paid for the hours we put in, books would cost hundreds of dollars.

[@riskinhos]

@@itslindseeey glad you are proud. you seem to be a good writer and a good person. doesn't demotivate you to earn so low? I mean with nowadays people making millions on onlyfans. with AI and everything, are books going to end? yet many titles are added per day. who is reading? who is buying? in such a society. you are right to want to get your channel monetised. you would probably earn a lot more than from your books. it seems that everything is against new writers. specially young ones. who has time and money to write a book? most people can't even earn a living wage work 9 to 5. I've published a few and I've sold a decent amount but sometimes I just think to myself if it's all worth it. I don't know any of my readers. I think you will have some success due to social media.

[@itslindseeey]

It all depends what your goals are and where you want to spend your energy. Could I get on onlyfans and make money doing things that I don’t really wanna do? Probably. There also people who get on onlyfans and don’t make any money at all or ruin their chance at having a professional career. As far as AI, people are reading the books that they want to read and it seems that the consensus nowadays is that a lot of people want to read human-written work. I’m always looking for new ways to monetize my hobbies and bring in extra income because yeah, the economy is crap and living wage keeps going up. But at this point in my life, I have the time and money and energy to write books and I LOVE doing it. And I think if you doubt your worth and don’t see the value in telling your stories then that’s gonna show. It almost sounds like you want me to be discouraged, so I encourage you to find joy in something that you love regardless of whether or not it pays you 🫶🏻

[@katgreer6113]

What?? That's pretty good for an indie author!! She's not even paying for marketing and she's earning THIS much? That's amazing and I'm lowkey jealous. I think your idea of an indie authors income must be far from reality. Most authors spend hundreds of $$ on marketing, paying influencers, ads, expensive covers, editing, etc. Even after that, a lot don't make their money back. She is making BANK. Writing is a passion project and if you go in expecting massive or even decent sales you might be dissapointed. Of course its 100% possible but just dont get discrouraged just by the numbers. Keep going!

[@riskinhos]

@@itslindseeey not at all. I want you to succeed. you actually provide value to other people. don't ever give up. you are good and I thank you. it's just me not you. I was wondering how much it pays really. I've earn more than you but compared to the hours it's just pathetic. I don't think it really matters. you are doing something you love. that's all it matters. when I write I write to myself so I get it. what I feel is that platforms like amazon are exploiting content creators. nothing new here anyway. But this is sad. if you didn't had time and money you couldn't write. you clearly know what you are doing. you will succeed. once you get monetised on social media you will earn a lot more. it's just odd that 99% of income will come from social media. don't let my words discourage you. I believe you.