Welcome, new folks!Hi, there. If you've joined the mailing list recently, I want to make sure you get your free Frosthelm book, Traitors Unseen. If you haven't gotten it, you can get it free here (the site will ask you to sign up for t...
![My indie author business – Jan 2025](https://i0.wp.com/davedobsonbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/image-1.png?resize=676%2C531&ssl=1)
I’ve been doing monthly business posts, so here’s my first of 2025. Revenue Here’s my revenue from Amazon: I had nine audiobook sales through ACX, which will be about another $25, and I sold two books in person at an author event at my local library...
![My 2024 in the indie author business](https://i0.wp.com/davedobsonbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/image-6.png?resize=676%2C589&ssl=1)
I’ve taken to doing monthly reports of my financials as an indie author. I also started doing an annual report last year, which some people found interesting, so I thought I’d continue with that. If you’re curious, here’s last year’s report. The Book...
Welcome, new folks!Hi, there. If you've joined the mailing list recently, I want to make sure you get your free Frosthelm book, Traitors Unseen. If you haven't gotten it, you can get it free here (the site will ask you to sign up for t...
![Notes on the departing books – SPSFC #4](https://i0.wp.com/davedobsonbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/309-michael-shotter-1.png?resize=676%2C1014&ssl=1)
This year, I’m on the Peripheral Prospectors team as a judge for SPSFC. We’ve recently announced our six quarterfinalists, as you can see in this post with more information and previous posts available on the team page here. I’ve been a participant t...
I hope you had a safe and fun end to 2024. In this edition of my newsletter, I have a brief report on how 2024 went for me as a writer, what I'm working on now, and what you're likely to see from me in 2025.My 2024 I had a pretty great 2024 with my w...
Progress on the new mysteryI've made some great progress on my new mystery novel. I'm probably 60% of the way through, writing every day, and I'm just launched on what I'm thinking of as the second act. My main character, Amy Galanis, is a public lib...
![My editing process](https://i0.wp.com/davedobsonbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/cropped-amulet-512x512-1.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1)
A Kenai reader who’s also an author wrote me to ask about my editing process. I thought I’d share my answer to him with you all here. For my first book, Flames Over Frosthelm, I hired a developmental editor who was really great, but I haven’t include...
![Six years of page reads](https://i0.wp.com/davedobsonbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/5YRBOOKS.gif?resize=676%2C292&ssl=1)
I put together a progression of 60 days of my page reads in Kindle Unlimited showing good growth from 2019-2024. I stuck with the same date range each year, Sept 1 to Nov 29. Pretty happy with what I found. Data Notes: — I rescaled the default vertic...
![My November Finances as an Indie Author](https://i0.wp.com/davedobsonbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/image.png?resize=676%2C408&ssl=1)
I’ve been doing a monthly review of my finances as what I think of as a middle-range indie author – more successful than some, far less successful than others. See here for my thoughts on the developmental stages of an indie author career. November r...
![Developmental stages of an indie author](https://i0.wp.com/davedobsonbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Developmental-Stages-of-an-Indie-Author-Career-1.png?resize=676%2C274&ssl=1)
I’ve come up with a (likely imperfect and non-universal) set of stages in the development of an indie author. Here it is: I’ve been at this five years, and I think I’m probably at the Crossroads stage. A lot of activity under my belt, consistent page...
Welcome, new folks!Hi, there. If you've joined the mailing list recently, I want to make sure you get your free Frosthelm book, Traitors Unseen. If you haven't gotten it, you can get it free here (the site will ask you to sign up for t...
![An October in the indie book business](https://i0.wp.com/davedobsonbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/image-1.png?resize=676%2C410&ssl=1)
I’m doing a summary of my October book business. That turns out to be a tricky month to calculate precisely. I’ll start with the basics and then get into the complications. Basics Sales The total orders graph is stupid, because I had a BookBub fueled...
![My sixteen for the scouting stage of SPSFC](https://i0.wp.com/davedobsonbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Peripheral-Prospectors.jpg?resize=676%2C724&ssl=1)
I’ve done a bunch of these contests now (four SPFBOs, two SPSFCs, three BBNYAs, a SFINCS, and some others), and one thing I know as a participant is that it’s fun seeing your book progress through the competition, and it’s also nice to know what’s go...
![Our SPSFC #4 book allocation](https://i0.wp.com/davedobsonbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Peripheral-Prospectors.jpg?resize=676%2C724&ssl=1)
Here they are! Got some great stuff to read coming up. For blurbs and bigger pictures, see the team page at Athena’s place here.