Wins and Frustrations as an Author in 2024

Welcome to 2025. I’m excited about the new year, but some interesting challenges have brought me to this current moment in time. In this newsletter, I’ll be sharing some of those. Keep reading. Please.

Kudos for a Great 2024

Let’s start with some good news. There are two items to share about this.

First, I made the top 10 bestsellers list in a program I’m a member of that allows me to sell books in grocery stores.

This program opens doors for authors to get in front of readers by setting up a book table in local grocery stores in several states, including Texas where I live. Throughout the year, I spent about 30 hours a week selling and signing books for readers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. During a couple of months, I sold books in grocery stores in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina.

In 2024, I sold more than 1,300 books among several titles. My bestselling title was ++I Am Not the King++, and I sold almost 500 copies of that book in grocery stores.

I am very proud of this achievement. As a result of my efforts, approximately 75 percent of my income came from book sales in grocery stores last year. That program resulted in more than $17,000 in book sales earnings for me. That’s one sales channel!

Now, for the bad news.

Frustrating Publishing Delays

Some of my readers volunteered to be alpha readers for my upcoming novel, Strangers & Aliens: 60 Days for Abel. Thanks to all who volunteered.

Initially, I had planned to have the novel ready for your eyes over the Christmas holidays. Unfortunately, life interfered. And it wasn’t just a single event. Rather, it was multiple events that hit simultaneously. Here’s what happened.

The grocery store chain I was scheduling my book signing events through blocked out the last two weeks of the year. That meant I couldn’t rely on that income. Since I had let all my freelance writing business lapse and wasn’t expecting those black-out dates, I had no income source for those two weeks. Whoops!

I’ve been making money online for more than 20 years and I knew I could generate some income quickly through several methods I’ve used over the years. I was not particularly worried.

However …

Going into the holiday, the plan was to work on my novel and earn enough quick money online to get me through the holiday. The goal was to get Strangers & Aliens into the hands of alpha readers quickly. Then, my mother-in-law died. She lived in Pennsylvania. Damn the luck!

Well, I can’t blame my mother-in-law. Can I? After all, the timing of this natural event was impeccable as I didn’t have to cancel any book signings. On the other hand …

That would not have been an issue, but it required traveling to Pennsylvania so my wife could, with her sister, arrange the details of their mother's celebration of life and we could be with family. We left on December 20th to spend Christmas with the children and grandchildren and arrived on Christmas Eve.

It’s a long trip to Pennsylvania from Texas. It took three days of all-day driving. Add the three days of driving for the return trip, Christmas Day, and the Celebration of Life ceremony, that took eight days out of my work schedule. Plus, we spent the afternoon before the ceremony preparing the venue. As you can see, I didn’t have a lot of time for working—on the novel or on earning income. I did manage to have about three, maybe four days, of productivity working on other things (like planning for this year).

After returning home, I was scheduled to sell books in Wylie, Texas last week. But … thanks Mother Nature! … due to inclement weather concerns, I had to cancel.

The weather itself wasn’t the issue, per se. My wife and I could have holed up in a state park and waited out the weather. However, if my elderly parents had an emergency and I couldn’t get back home to help them, due to icy bridges and what-not, that could have been disastrous. I chose to cancel for that possibility. And anyone who knows about icy weather in Texas knows we don’t drive on that here.

Again, the previous two weeks with no income and, now, a third week with no income made earning some quick money a higher priority for me. I did not work on my novel last week. Instead, I spent most of my time helping to train AI models, which allowed me to earn some extra income without the time-consuming task of pursuing clients.

So … all of that is to say that I can now get back to my plan for 2025, which includes three things:

1. Selling books in grocery stores
2. Completing my novel
3. Supplementing my author income with online money-making opportunities

Here’s a quick preview of the cover for Strangers & Aliens. I’d love your feedback.

Answer this question for me: Does this cover intrigue you enough to interest you in this book?

$LEOPOLL

After your vote, if you’d like to provide feedback on the cover, please do so in the comments. Thank you!

Where I’ll Be This Week

This week, I’ll be selling and signing books in Forney, Texas. Do you know anyone in Forney? If so, send them to Kroger at 500 Marketplace Boulevard in Forney. Below are the times I’ll be signing books at that location:

• Tuesday, January 14, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Wednesday, January 15, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Thursday, January 16, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Friday, January 17, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Saturday, January 18, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Are you an author living any of these states: Arizona, Texas, Oregon, Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio, Colorado, Washington, Idaho, Alabama, Alaska, Kentucky, Indiana, California, or Georgia? Would you like to learn how to sell your books in grocery stores? Message me by clicking the button below.

This post was first published at Substack.

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