Monthly Recap: November 2025

I would be lying if I said I hadn't hoped for a slightly better month, but that's just me being greedy I guess. A month where I gross just shy of a grand is a great month. My events underperformed what I had hoped they would do is all. I was really hoping to go out on a big up note, but sales were a little down at CONjuration, and my library event was a bit of a wash. Still, lots of fun.

Also, online book sales were down this month, alas. 

Otherwise it was largely business as usual. 

Income:

• $0.00- Assorted

• $28.50 - Amazon Shirts

• $2.50 - TeePublic Shirts/Merch

• $3.00 - Tabletop Games on Itch.io

• $47.57 - Patreon

• $70.55 - Online Book Sales/KENP

• $25.80 - Audiobooks  

• $0.00 - Website Book Sales

• $803.00 - In Person Book Sales

• $0.35 - Amazon Affiliate Income

Fixed Monthly Expenses:

• PO Box: $14.17

• Domains: $2.77

• Webhosting: $3.99

• Captivate: $17.00

• Bookfunnel: $1.67

• Schedchie: $10.77

• Mailerlite: $10.50

Total: $60.86

Monthly total made:

• $981.94 ($1,523.19 last month)

• Decrease of: $541.35

Yearly total made:

• $17,548.52

If you would like to leave a comment on this blog, a version of it has been posted on my Patreon and my Subreddit.

Ok so it was a pretty standard month, so the only things of note I will report on this month are:

The Bad: I am just going to copy this from last month, because it is exactly the same situation:

I keep losing subscribers to my newsletter. It's not super dramatic numbers, but basically every month for the past few months for every 3-5 subscribers I gain through signups on my website, I end up losing 4-6. I honestly don't know what's going on. Am I annoying folks? Is Mailerlite being better at delivery hitting folks who hadn't been hit in the past from the newsletter builder I was a part of, who only signed up for freebies? Am I just dogshit at this? Who knows. I'm keeping an eye on it, but I need to be more proactive on building it.

The Good: I gained a patron over on Patreon!

Social media Growth:

• Facebook Page Follows: 1074 (+5) 

• Instagram: 808 (+6)

• Facebook Fan Group: 343 (+4)

• Youtube: 145 subscribers (+2)

• Email List: 590 subscribers (-2)

• Discord Server: 75 (+1)

• Threads: 259 (+1)

• Bluesky: 201 (-1)

• Patrons: 21 paid/37 free(+1/+1)

• r/Talesbybob: 18 (+0)

• Total: 3513(+16)

Podcasts:

• Podcast Downloads (Monthly): 231 (-273)

• Podcast Downloads (Since April 2022): 4869

Here's what I am thinking I will do:

• I will finalize my Data Dashboard.

• Keep working on Blackwater Requiem.

• I will work on both new CCC zines.

• I will plan out my social media strategy with Schedchie, and build out my BBI social media accounts.

• All my annual recap blog posts.

Here is what I planned to get done this month (copy/pasted from last months recap), with its status:

• I will complete my typo fixes that came along with my Bible. (Nope, decided to not do this, instead I am saving them for now).

• I will finally go wide. (FINALLY DONE!)

• I need to finish my file organization process. (FINALLY DONE!)

• Keep working on Blackwater Requiem. (Yep!)

• Work on my Power BI Project (go live to be Jan 1). (Swapped to using Looker instead, it is already live technically)

I got a lot done! Here is a list:

• Did CONjuration.

• Did a museum event and a small library event.

• Wrote up the CONJuration and two other small event blog recaps.

• Updated the website (small fixes).

• Did a blog post about my Transparency Project...Project.

• Sorted my Files!

• Went Wide!

• Sat down with the LadyWife, then Ben, to plan out next years events.

• Applied to the following events: Dragoncon, Momocon, Fanboy Knoxville, Southern Fried Gaming Expo, Opelika Book Festival.

• Ben applied to a few events for us as well, like Stellar Fest and Marietta the Gathering. 

• Reached out about the two new CCC zines to my target authors.

• Started laying both zines out. 

• Set up my Looker, and spent many hours working on the data dashboard.

• Worked on a book cover demo for a friend.

• Guested on an episode of This Week In Indies over on GoIndieNow.

• Filed my monthly taxes.

Alright, alright, alright! Another month in the books, so let's get to recapping!

Ok first things first:

• I organized my files.

• I went wide.

Finally! Jesus Christ I have no idea what was with me with that. But it is done, and now folks can order my physical books from places not Amazon. I already had an order come in, in fact. Which was neat, considering I hadn't advertised the fact.

On the writing front, I didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted this month. I actually took some time off, and then with the holiday, I ended up not writing all that much. Unless I really bust my hump I won't be done at the end of December like I wanted, but hey, the month hasn't started yet so maybe I'll get a wild hair. 

There are two other major elements I have been working on behind the scenes. 

Most relevant to this, I have really been working hard on my Data Dashboard. I mentioned this last month, about how I am taking my day job skills and applying them to this, to make the data easier for you guys to parse. It is like, 90% done. I have a couple of elements I still want to add (mostly around event data), but you can actually get a sneak peak HERE.

Secondly I have started working with some friends to crank out some adventures for my game The CCC. That is coming along really well. I'll reveal more when the time is right. But that too has taken up a lot of my time this month.