Monthly Recap: October 2025

TRANSPARENCYMONTHLY RECAP

10/31/20255 min read

Let's call it like it is: any month where I gross over 1k is a good month. This month I ended up a nudge over 1.5k, so yeah, I'm happy. The bulk came from the Foothills Book Festival (over 900). Most exciting for me though is I had my first legit sale come through my Bearded Bard Inkworks store! Someone bought 3 zines from me! Fuck yeah!

Otherwise it was largely business as usual. 

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:

  • $1,523.19 ($718.11 last month)

  • Increase of: $805.18

Yearly total made:

  • $16,566.58

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 three things of note I will report on this month:

The Bad: 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. I haven't even set out a signup sheet the past few events because I've been sharing. I need to prioritize that more. 

The Also Bad: I lost a couple of Patrons. Since peaking at 24 paid in June, I have dropped to 20 paid, with two dropping this month. I think I have been providing the same content, with the same sort of consistency, so I'm not sure what's happening there either. I'm going to keep an eye on it, but I need to do better about promoting it. I mean, for two bucks a month folks literally can read like...idk I'm guessing close to 100k words or more of free content from me. Whole ass book, lots of flash, etc. 

The Good: I am very happy with Schedchie so far. I need to be using it more, and I need to think through my strategy with it a little bit more as well. But it's announcing my events for me now, which I am always bad about remembering to do. 8/10, would recommend. Literally my only complaint is that there is no 'duplicate' button (at least that I can find).

Social media Growth:

Podcasts:

  • Podcast Downloads (Monthly): 504 (+375)

  • Podcast Downloads (Lifetime): 4637

Here's what I am thinking I will do:

  • I will complete my typo fixes that came along with my Bible.

  • I will finally go wide.

  • I need to finish my file organization process.

  • Keep working on Blackwater Requiem.

  • Work on my Power BI Project (go live to be Jan 1).

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)

  • I will finally go wide. (Nope)

  • I need to finish my file organization process. (Nope)

  • Keep working on Blackwater Requiem. (Broke 33k words!)

I got a lot done! Here is a list:

  • Wrote up the Book Club event, Multiverse, and Foothills Book Festival recaps.

  • Updated the website (small fixes).

  • Did inventory.

  • Calculated my success markers and books sold.

  • Did blog posts about both of the above.

  • Reworked my success markers.

  • Worked on subreddit flairs.

  • Made a template for event announcments, then used it to make up a bunch of announcements.

  • Loaded said announcements into schedchie.

  • Made some assorted promo images.

  • Made new pin images for social media.

  • Handled a bunch of emails.

  • Recorded an episode of Page Numbers.

  • Made images for OBS for my other podcasts.

  • Updated all my 'Bob's Guides.'

  • Did a blog post about my recent ups and downs.

  • Set up Signup Genius to allow me to hopefully better schedule recordings.

  • Built a form for Spookier than Fiction Podcast applications.

  • Started learning Power BI.

  • Made a mock cover for Blackwater Requiem. 

  • Filed my monthly taxes.

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

I did work a little bit on sorting my files. But until that is done, I can't fix the typos. Until I fix the typos I can't go wide, or do my fancy edition.

I honestly don't know what's up with me on this. But here's the deal, I'm setting a hard limit on me, this has to be complete by Dec 31st. By god I will have the files sorted and will be wide by then. I don't really do events in December, so that will help. And I only have two event's left really (a one day event tomorrow, then CONjuration). So I will have enough time to get it done. I may just like, idk, book a roach motel for a weekend and lock myself away.

But hey, writing is going well! Blackwater Requiem is coming along nicely. If I keep my pace, I will be done on schedule looks like. Unless the book just gets away from me word countwise. 

I have something exciting planned for this project. I'll be doing a blog post to talk about it in depth at some point, but I am learning Power BI (for my day job). But I plan to use those skills to build out some really cool dashboards for this project! So that will be taking some of my time as well in the next two months. 

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