January's Royalties Breakdown

January had a few ups and downs for us, as you may remember from this newsletter I sent a few weeks back, especially with the direct sales.

Thankfully, things picked up and we ended the month slightly better off than we did in December 2023.

All in all, we did about a 2x Return on Ad Spend with the direct sales.

The Facebook Ads we were running for Lori's books on Amazon and the other retailers, however, (now Lori's books are wide), did considerably better.

Ok, we were only spending £20 ($25) per day on the Facebook Ads, and around £14 ($17) per day on Amazon Ads (brand protection campaigns only).

So the numbers aren't huge; just over £1,000 ($1,260) for the month.

But, royalties were around £6,740.

Here are the screenshots:

And here's the numbers in black and white:

Facebook Ads Spend: £610.60

Amazon Ads Spend: £421.33

Amazon Royalties: £5420.09

Draft2Digital Royalties: £623.22

Kobo Royalties: £98.06

Ingram Spark Royalties: £101.50

We don't yet have the numbers for the Audiobooks (as they are with a publisher) but, at a guess, I'd say these will come in at around £500.

Here's how the final figures sit:

Ad Spend: £1031.93

Royalties: £6742.87*

Profit: £5710.94

*This includes an estimated £500 for audiobook royalties.

Yes, this is less than we were earning when Lori's books were in Kindle Unlimited (KU), but with the direct sales royalties added to the above, we're just over £10,700 for January.

And as we start scaling the Ad Spend, and I optimize the direct sales store, the email marketing, etc, we should start to see things start to ramp up.

Why am I sharing this?

Because I want you to know that you don't need to spend $100's per day to make a good income from your books.

Lori has 6 books published, but only 4 of them earn the "real money".

As you may have noticed from the screenshots above, just ONE Facebook Ad was responsible for most of the Amazon and retailer sales in January.

This just goes to show that you also don't need 10's, even 100's of Facebook Ads running.

You only need a handful of great Ads in your account, and you're good to go.

No need to complicate and overwhelm yourself.

Keep things simple.

To Your Success
– Matt