2024 Year End Report: Expenses
TRANSPARENCYMILESTONEPLANNING
I do a good job showing you folks how much money I make, how much I spend on publishing, that sort of thing. But I haven't to date done a good job showing where the money goes. Let me spoil it for you: it all goes right back into the business. But anyway, here it is, the first ever Expense Report. I don't know if they will come more frequently than once a year yet. But you will get at least one a year!
2024 Top Line Numbers
Total Earnings: $12,385.42
Event Expenses: $4,142.96
Other Expenses: $7,728.49
Total Expenses: $11,871.45
Total Profit: $513.97
Individual Category Totals
Book Inventory: $3,677.18
Booth Equipment: $1,041.21
General Business: $170.00
Marketing: $734.74
Office Supplies: $1,120.66
Podcast/Tech Gear: $607.31
Publishing: $377.39
Individual Category Breakdown
If you are wondering 'why is each line broken down like that, why not just put all of Book Order in one?' its because in my tracking spreadsheet I have them in there by date. I am not including date data because who gives a shit if I ordered business cards on June 1st or September 17th? So each line is one order from one location.
Book Inventory
Book Order $471.58
Book Order $167.00
Book Order $250.05
100 Zines - Seek Ye $183.43
100 Zines - Witch $292.43
100 Zines - Football Cult $292.54
Book Order $316.00
Book Order $334.60
100 Zines - Cerberus $292.54
100 Zines - CCC $292.54
Book Order $535.19
Book Order $80.28
Book Order $169.00
Nothing really to say here. I get low on books, I have to order more books. I also ordered my initial stock of zines for each of my five zines. I use Mixam for the zines, Amazon for the books. All good buys.
Booth Equipment
FYY Electronic Organizer, Travel Cable Organizer Bag Pouch $11.99
100 Pieces Resealable Mylar Bags with Clear Window $5.99
200 Pack Clear Plastic Bag with Handles 9'' x 12'' $15.99
EHWINE 10 Pack Acrylic Sign Holder 4x6 $16.99
Convenience Concepts Xtra Storage 3 Tier Folding Metal Shelves $150.81
Leinuosen 8 Pcs Clear Acrylic Hat Stand $32.99
Type C Charger Fast Charging, 2 Pack $9.99
WEALUXE Set of 2 Black Rectangle Tablecloth for Tables 8ft $24.99
Fitable Rectangle Tablecloth 54x78 inch Tablecloth $14.44
Stackdeck clips $27.35
Banner stand, book ends, flag decorations, flag hangers, stand clamps $138.37
LookHUMAN Garden or Yard Flag $34.54
Table cloths $14.03
LookHUMAN Garden or Yard Flag $34.54
AUSTOR 100 Pcs 6 Sided Dice Set x 2 $33.46
Book Stamp $54.20
ixtureDisplays® 4-Tiered 29" Wire Display Rack $89.09
Tropical Opossum Hawaiian Shirt Men $31.26
HENABLE 4PCS Premium Black Iron Plate Stands for Display 6 Inch $5.63
Stacktech Dolly $294.56
Ok, so I am always trying out new stuff for the booth. While this isn't my full time job is the time to experiment, so I can get fine tuned on what works. There were some duds here though. Here are some bad buys in retrospect:
- AUSTOR 100 Pcs 6 Sided Dice Set x 2 $33.46 - These sold like shit.
- Leinuosen 8 Pcs Clear Acrylic Hat Stand $32.99 - Good idea at the time, but I don't use them now, as I found a better solution.
- 100 Pieces Resealable Mylar Bags with Clear Window $5.99 - These are bags for stickers...but I don't sell stickers anymore. I used like 1.
- 200 Pack Clear Plastic Bag with Handles 9'' x 12'' $15.99 - I never remember to use these, and they are kinda...cheap feeling.
- EHWINE 10 Pack Acrylic Sign Holder 4x6 - $16.99 Like the hat stands, a good idea at the time, but I found a better solution.
- Book Stamp - $54.20 To be fair, I really want to use this. It's a book embosser with my logo. The issue is I never remember, and it's a little finicky.
- Convenience Concepts Xtra Storage 3 Tier Folding Metal Shelves - $150.81 This wasn't a totally bad buy. But its two small desktop metal shelves with two connecting shelves. And...I really only ever use one of the shelves. I could have bought a cheaper version of this I think.
So yeah, if I had not bought these things I would have saved $310.43
General Business
PO Box for 12 months $170.00
You can see what this category is all about. I have to have an address for my newsletter, and I don't want it to be my home. So I pay for a P.O. box, but that is also where I get fan mail, so totally, totally worth it! All good buys.
Marketing
1500 Business Cards $77.93
5000 Business Cards $135.77
2000 Stickers $152.92
Possum Posse Stickers - Uprint $68.12
Multiverse Sponsorship $300.00
I don't pay for adds (yet, looking into it for 2025), so most of my marketing budget goes to buying new business cards and stickers. I use vistaprint for cards (when they run a sale) and Uprint for stickers. So far, all good buys. We will have to wait and see on the Multiverse Sponsorship to know if it was a good buy.
Office Supplies
GHQME No-Assembly Folding Bookshelf Storage Shelves $149.00
GHQME No-Assembly Folding Bookshelf Storage Shelves $149.00
JIMEIQI Accordion File Organizer $8.99
JIMEIQI Accordion File Organizer $8.99
JIMEIQI Accordion File Organizer $8.99
Yens Poly Bubble Mailers 8.5x12 25 Pack Black $14.50
DEVAISE 3 Drawer Mobile File Cabinet $53.67
Amazon Basics Hanging File Folder, Fireproof Document File Organizer Box, 2 of: HP 27h Full HD Monitor, Tribesigns Modern Computer Desk, WAVLINK USB 3.0 and USB-C Dual 4K Display Universal Laptop Docking Station, Asgolion Printer Table, Iwaiting Outdoor 6 Cube Storage Organizer, 2 of: JIMEIQI Accordion File Organizer $665.99
Charging Station, Power Strip, Organizer 12 pack $61.53
The bulk of this was the new office stuff I needed, like a new desk, the docking station for my desk, file organizers, etc. All good buys.
Podcast/Tech Gear
PoP voice Premium 16 Feet Dual-head Lavalier Microphone $18.46
Stouchi USB C to 3.5mm Female Adapter $8.00
Audio-Technica BPHS1 Broadcast Stereo Headset $236.52
Behringer U-Phoria UMC22 USB Audio Interface $42.12
Sanyun SW208 3" Active Bluetooth 5.0 Bookshelf Speakers $57.45
2 of HENABLE 4PCS Premium Black Iron Plate Stands for Display 6 Inch $11.86
Keyboard/Mouse $20.51
Laptop Screen Extender Triple Monitor $212.39
The vast bulk of this are items that make it easier for me to podcast, or improve the quality of said podcasts. These expenses are high this year, but I don't anticipate spending much in the space in the years to come. Kinda got a good setup running. All good buys so far, though I haven't gotten to use the Lavalier Mic yet, as that is for me to be able to record at Conventions, and it hasn't come up just yet.
Publishing
Vectorstock 1 month fee $32.39
Cleo Edits $345.00
These are expenses that go into bringing a book to market. Luckily for my balance sheet all the software I now use I bought in 2023 or earlier (Atticus, Affinity, etc). I doubt I will reup Vectorstock when it comes due in 2025 though. So, one good buy.
Event Breakdown
Event - Booth Fee - Hotel Share/Travel
Chattacon - $100.00 - $300.00
Atlanta Comic Con - $200.00 - $0.00
Huntsville Comic and Pop Art - $50.00 - $150.00
Atlanta Self Publishing Conference - $0.00 - $176.46
Capitol City Author Event - $250.00 - $0.00
ConCarolinas - $111.83 - $95.00
HuntsvilleCon - $100.00 - $0.00
Fanboy Expo Knoxville - $216.00 - $120.00
Local Author Event Read Herring - $50.00 - $0.00
Dragoncon - $460.00 - $0.00
Alabama Comic Con - $275.00 - $0.00
Sumiton Book Festival - $25.00 - $0.00
Multiverse - $30.00 - $400.00
CONjuration - $150.00 - $151.00
Let's be real: I absolutely pay for a room at Dragon Con. But I would do that event no matter what, and I end up sharing with folks, so I count that as a personal expense. I also don't track food costs. I know I can, but in my mind, I would be eating anyway. And I try to do things like bring bagels for breakfast and such.
As for which events were not worth the spend: Capitol City Author Event (not my genre, it was a romance event), Alabama Comic Con (this was a well run, but ultimately shit event for sales), Local Author Event at Read Herring (50 bucks for 2 hours of selling? Not worth).
Fixed Expenses
I have a few fixed expenses each year. Traditionally I have tracked them on my profit sheet, buy taking the yearly cost and dividing it up by month. These are things like my podcast host (Captivate), webhost (GoDaddy), Vectorstock, Bookfunnel, PO Box, business licenses. I have decided moving forward that as those bills come due, I will instead be listing them on the expense report, rather than my monthly recap.
Fixed Expenses total for 2024 (already deducted from the profit total): 519.42
