In response to my email last week, several people sent me messages suggesting that I write a book. It's becoming clear to me that I don't promote myself and my products nearly enough!

I have written six books that were traditionally published. That means a publisher paid me an advance ($3000) to write the books, and now I get royalties when the books are sold.

This is very different from self publishing, which anyone can do -- if they are willing to front all the costs of publication up front. But then they get all the profits, so there are pros and cons to each form of publishing.

People sometimes ask if it matters whether they buy my books from me or from bookstores, and the answer is yes! When you buy books from bookstores, I get 10% of the wholesale price, which means $1 on a $20 book (10% of 50%) or $1.75 on a $35 book. In other words, no one gets rich on traditionally published books unless they sells hundreds of thousands of copies. (I've only sold about 25,000 since 2011, so it averages less than $2000 per year.)

When you buy books directly from me

I purchase my books from my publisher at a discount of 60%, so that means I make more if you buy a book from me. However, very few people buy them unless they are on sale.

I do a summer reading sale in May or June, and then I do a not-a-Black-Friday sale in November with books 20-30% off, depending on how many you buy. After I pay for shipping -- because Amazon has conditioned everyone to expect free shipping -- I usually make about $5 per book. (And this does not even include the $600 I pay for the storefront on Shopify. You might recall I said software is a big expense.)

That is still not much, and I had to think long and hard about ordering more books for a sale last November. I'm really not sure if I'll order more when my current supply is gone because fulfillment is a lot of work for only a few dollars per book, and if I didn't have the sales, I don't think I'd make enough to cover the cost of the Shopify store.

For the Love of Goats merch

Speaking of the Shopify store, I do have some merch on there (another suggestion from readers), but it's print on demand, and I only make $2-4 on each of those products. The advantage is that there is no inventory and it ships directly from the manufacturer.

By now you may be wondering why on earth anyone would ever write a book! Maybe you would do it once, but then you'd learn your lesson and certainly not do it again, right? Good questions! I have even said multiple times that I would never write another book!

I write because I love writing. And I write about homesteading and goats because I love homesteading and goats. For me, this business is all about doing the thing I love and sharing it with others.

With gratitude,
Deborah

​