2025 Year End Report: Expenses
TRANSPARENCYMILESTONEPLANNING
Just like I did last year, here is a breakdown of all my expenses for the year. If you haven't yet, you should go check out my new Data page, the last page of the dashboard is a dynamic page that shows all my expenses, so you can see some neat breakdowns. Anywho, let's dive in!
2025 Top Line Numbers
Total Earnings: $17,580.60
Total Expenses: $14,082.18
Total Profit: $3,498.42
Individual Category Totals
Book Inventory: $4,375.16
BBI Inventory: $1,403.10
Convention: $2,114.81
Booth Equipment: $617.09
General Business: $1,768.60
Marketing: $975.61
Webhosting: $279.66
Charity: $220.00
Podcast/Tech Gear: $136.34
Publishing: $2,017.46
Individual Category Breakdown
If you are wondering, in the sections below, '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. And if I made some bad buys, I will detail them out, as usual.
Book Inventory: $4,375.16
Book Order: $811.28
Book Order: $618.70
Book Order: $34.91
Book Order: $1,614.25
Book Order: $166.45
Book Order: $1,129.57
Nothing really to say here. I get low on books, I have to order more books. Last year I tracked my zines in here, but they now get broken out into a different category, BBI Inventory. This was more than last year, but I sold more. So that makes sense.
All good buys.
BBI Inventory: $1,577.45
Mixam - Zine Order: $174.35
Mixam - Zine Order: $174.35
Mixam - Zine Order: $293.35
Mixam - Zine Order: $174.35
Mixam - Zine Order: $174.35
Mixam - Zine Order: $293.35
Mixam - Zine Order: $293.35
So here are all the zines I ordered for the year. Each order was for 100 zines, and each was either a new zine, or a second edition of an older zine.
All good buys. You know, if I sell them that is.
Convention: $2,114.81
Southern Fried Gaming Booth: $175.00
Booth Fee - Montevallo Book Festival: $25.00
Foothills Booth Fee: $75.00
Huntsville Hotel: $50.00
Hotel ConCarolinas: $300.00
Knoxville Hotel: $90.00
Hotel SFGE: $442.94
CONjuration Booth Fee: $160.00
Fanboy Expo Knoxville: $521.87
Southern Fried Gaming: $275.00
So this category is a little wonky. Because a lot of the time the expense is for a different year than it's incurred. For example I did Chattacon, Connooga, Fanboy Nola, all in the first couple of months of 2025. But the booth fees were paid and hotels were booked back in 2024. And that Fanboy Expo Knoxville you see is for the one in 2026.
All good buys (so far at least!)
Booth Equipment: $617.09
Lowes: $60.20
Book Rack: $47.51
Lowes: $209.96
Zip Ties: $6.47
Banner Stand: $32.39
Plastic Bags: $75.00
Directors Chair: $118.79
Lowe's: $66.77
All those Lowes expenses you see? Yeah, those were buying new things for my Stackdeck modular tote system. It's what I use to move books to conventions and back. It's expensive, and worth every fucking penny. Overall I spent less here than last year, which makes sense. At this point I have my booth dialed in pretty good. It's just carrying an ever increasing amount of stock is the biggest cause of spending here.
All good buys, except the banner stand. It works fine, but I suspect I will likely be upgrading my banner setup in 2026, and it will have been wasted money really. It's fine though.
General Business: $1,768.60
PO Box for 12 months: $188.00
Harland Clarke - Checks: $27.73
Everlance - 1 Year Subscription: $99.99
Alabama Writers Forum Membership: $35.00
Alabama Writers Cooperative Membership: $25.00
Local County License $13.14
State and Local Taxes: $1,379.74
I have expanded what gets included under here this year, so my spending went way up. First off, I now track all the taxes I am paying to state and local govs here. I am also adding in membership fees to organizations I have joined. There is also my Everlance Subscription, which is how I track my milage for tax purposes. And, same as last year, my PO Box.
All good buys. Even the taxes.
Marketing: $975.61
Vistaprint: $96.37
Yard Signs, Stickers: $131.99
Business Cards from Uprinting: $593.37
Mailerlite 1 Year Subscription: $126.00
Schechie for the year: $27.88
I still haven't started paying for ads. The first three expenses area all for stickers, business cards, yard signs, all that sort of stuff. All well spent. Schedchie is the new social media post scheduler I started paying for. Been worth every penny, though I have got to get better about using it. Also on there is my newsletter host, Mailerlite.
Mailerlite was a bad spend. I hate that I had to do it, and this will be the only money they ever get from me. Probably going with EmailOctopus when my year is up.
Webhosting: $279.66
Porkbun: $10.72
Porkbun: $11.06
Hostinger: $191.52
Porkbun: $55.30
Porkbun: $11.06
If you see Porkbun, its paying for a domain address. If you see Hostinger, its paying for the hosting on one of my websites. Most of these are multiyear payments.
All gloriously good buys (fuck you GoDaddy, forever)!
Podcast/Tech Gear: $136.34
Webcam, docking station $125.55
HDMI Adapter $10.79
I said last year that I would not spend as much in this category, and I was right. I had to buy a couple of replacement parts, and a webcam.
All good buys.
Publishing: $2,017.46
Book Bible by Carol: $1,000.00
Vectorstock image: $43.19
Vectorstock subscription$194.27
Collectors Edition Cover Initial Payment: $500.00
Collectors Edition Cover Final Payment: $280.00
These are expenses that go into bringing a book to market. This was an unusually expensive year, in that I spent that much and none of it was on editing. That will, typically, be about my only real expense outside vectorstock. But I hired someone to make my series bible for me, and hired someone to make me a super fancy cover for my two collectors editions omnibuses I want to come out with in 2026.
All good buys.
Charity: $220.00
Donation to Heather
I did a small fundraiser for a friend battling cancer.
Best spend of all.
