How I made six-figures self-publishing my books

I used to live in Texas. They have a saying there: “Never ask a person about the size of their ranch.”

Meaning, it’s impolite to compare material goods. We should respect people purely for who they are, not what they own or how much money they have, and that is a code I live by.

Except for today.

I was updating my spreadsheet tracking my book sales and realized that over 12 years, I’ve been making significant money from my books … against the odds. Actually making a living wage is so weird and rare for a business writer that it’s worth writing about!

Even though I’m uncomfortable with this topic, I’m going to break all precedent and talk about the size of my ranch (my income from nine books) because it’s an important, teachable lesson.

I’m not doing this to brag (although I am proud of my work) and I’m not doing this to sell you anything or make promises about how you can make a million dollars writing books. That is just sales bro silliness.

I am writing this post to de-stigmatize the idea of self-publishing your book. I want to break my own rules and share a little bit of my personal economics and success because the ONLY WAY I could have been financially successful as a writer was to self-publish. And I think it’s probably the same…