Another year has come and gone and I'm going to list for you all my expenses for my self-publishing career,  going through my year's business plan, share all my sales and then give a thorough breakdown not only of this year, but review the trends from my last three years of data.

I'm going way deep into the weeds on this one. Why? I've been an indie author now for six years and I want to share what I've learned with other authors—especially new authors who are just starting out.

If you're here to learn from the mistakes I made from my book launch, then you've come to the right place. My tale is not a success story. But I believe that to succeed, it's important to share our failures. Learn what worked and what didn't, adapt, be nimble and move on.

I wanted to share with you something different, so I've decided to tell the story of how my next book, Ahab's Daughter: The Werewhale Saga, came to be. The road to publication can be a long and twisted one with many struggles along the way.

I signed up for the paid version of Instafreebie back in October 2016. At the time, I had about 1,600 subscribers on my mailing list. I heard some great stories about Instafreebie and thought I would give it a try. For $20/month I connected the service to my Mailchimp account and I had a simple marketing funnel setup.

What's the biggest obstacle you're trying to overcome?

I'm curious. Write and let me know.

For me, I could probably write a book about all the challenges I've had to overcome. The question is a hard one because there are so many competing ones...

When I first started writing books, my wife must have been sick of me saying, "But I don't have enough time." I complained a lot. I worked full-time, we were raising two kids, there were chores to do, I wasn't getting enough sleep and I'd finish my book—only to realize that now the real work needed to get done. I had to figure out how to market the damn thing!

Kevin T. Johns of The Writing Coach podcast was kind enough to interview me on his January 27, 2017 episode of the podcast. During the interview, we talk about how storytelling helped me escape a challenging childhood without a father as well as wasting years waiting for the publishing industry to validate me as an author. I also talk through my long term approach to my publishing career, sharing my year-end numbers from 2016 and the challenges of earning money as an indie author.

I wanted to share the episode of the Self-Publishing Journeys podcast on which Paul Teague interviewed me about my "What I Learned about Indie Publishing in 2016: Full Sales & Figures" article that I wrote back in December 2016.

Based right outside of Philadelphia, I took the train up to New York and went hoping to find answers at Digital Book World Indie 2017. Truth be told, one of the main reasons why I went was to hear Data Guy talk in the Tight Insights: The Indie Universe Quantified session. I wanted to see his data on the big screen. I could have listened to him for hours (more on that in a bit).

Where did the year go? It’s already the end of 2016 and the world has gone through some difficult changes and I feel battered myself. Sales for the third quarter report from Author Earnings showed significant marketing share shrinking for indie ebooks. Was that due to the election in the US? Or top indie authors moving out of the indie publishing category, falling under Amazon’s press? Or is the downtrend a sign of more to come?

When I started writing my first Cinderella’s Secret Witch Diaries book back in 2009, I did not know much about the process of writing. I kept my process as simplistic as I could by using files on my local computer, Microsoft Word and then backed up all my files using Carbonite. I worked full-time and in the early morning hours (and eventually the few precious hours after my kids were asleep), I’d write, re-write, edit and eventually teach myself how to convert my books into .mobi and .epub format.

This week I'm happy to have Ellen Seltz as a guest on the blog. She's come up with a witty and heartfelt article about imposter syndrome that I can definitely relate. Enjoy!

My kids love the movie Kung Fu Panda. They love it so hard, they twitch like dreaming puppies in the fight scenes, subconsciously acting it out. We watch that movie at least once a month, to the point that I recently confessed on Twitter....

Hi, I’m Karen. For almost 40 years, I’ve been an imaginary writer.

Meaning, I spend lots of time imagining how great it will be when I finally write all the amazing stories that are locked somewhere inside of me. But not really doing that much, y’know... actual writing. Because words are hard. And it’s much more fun contemplating which studio I’ll license my film rights to, than writing anything film-worthy.

I have 6 published novels and one short story collection, along with two first drafts sitting at home and am nearly halfway through writing the first draft of a new novel that my wife and I are working on. So, where do all these ideas come from? What’s my creative process and how does an idea become a published book?

This week I'm happy to have Abbigail Kriebs as a guest on the blog. Her topic of introversion is one that I can definitely relate and hope you can too. Enjoy!

I grew up in a large family. There were six of us kids, and between siblings, half-siblings, and step-siblings, there was (and still is) always a bit of confusion as to how to describe what I grew up with as normal to the outside world. Add in the fact that my dad was self-employed and was gone most of the warm-weather months from sun up to sun down, and life was a bit chaotic.

Today I'm please to share a guest blog post from fellow author Jenny O'Brien. Check out her take on how to overcome fear:

My friend told me to French kiss fear.

Since she's survived some trauma and manages to be kind to strangers and herself, I'm taking the advice seriously, but it's still early in our relationship. I'm just not sure how fear is reacting to this new paradigm.

Today's guest post is by Veronica Sicoe who is science fiction author that shares her story of struggling against indifference. No matter if you're an author or not, there are a lot a great points she makes that will help me the next time I hit this wall. I hope you enjoy her post.

I don't know how much material I will want to add to these pages, but I do wish to share my first story with you. Let me tell you a story. Sometimes that's what I do best. When I was in sixth grade attending elementary school, I remember carrying around my Pac-Man spiral copybook in the schoolyard one afternoon during lunch. I had started writing my first story entitled "The Mission." A few minutes into lunch my friends came over and they wanted me to read my story to them.

Well, it's time for my "what I learned as an indie writer in self-publishing" for 2015. At the beginning of this year, my goals were:

• Write and publish two books.
• Have my three Cinderella's Secret Witch Diaries Series books turned into audiobooks for Audible.
• Build my email list up with my readers.

Did I meet my goals? Did I make money or lose it? Where did I net out at the end of the year? Read more to find out!

I have a treat that I'm happy to share with my readers. Below is an interview with Elizabeth Hyde Stevens who is the author of Make Art Make Money: Lessons from Jim Henson on Fueling Your Creative Career. If you're in a creative career, be sure to do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of her book. It's filled with great wisdom about how Jim Henson navigated the creative and business worlds. There are lots of great lessons in the book to help you along your way on your own creative journey. Enjoy!

I started writing when I was 9 years old. I'm 44 now. In all of that time, I have never written a novel in one month. In fact, to be honest, I always thought that people who did NaNoWriMo were way overachievers and I couldn't understand why they would want to do that. Why would someone want to write an entire novel in 30 days? Just didn't make any sense to me.

No one cares what you write about. You're a loser. Face it, you've failed. Throw in the towel and give it a rest already. The world doesn't need another pansy-assed flaming liberal with a bleeding heart. You will NEVER succeed. You are damaged. Damaged beyond repair and that is why you will always truly be alone. Do you know why I know this? It's because I am you. And I know.

I heard a knock on the door to our bedroom and my heart beat faster. I rolled over and without my glasses I couldn't make out the time on my alarm clock. It was late. No, it was early. Really early.

For you fellow writers out there and those of you who are thinking about getting into the self-publishing industry, here are my sales numbers for 2014. I have been working at writing and publishing books since 2011 and I wanted to once again be transparent and share with you how I did in 2014. And, if you're interested, here are my sales from 2012 and 2013.

What's it like to write a novel? Some days it sucks. Just like work. You get up, try really hard, but the neurons aren't firing right, but you keep on going anyway. Other days are a pure joy. I was in a blue writing funk last month but made a public commitment to redouble my efforts and push on to finish the first draft of my latest novel. I share this with you so that you can see that it's not all skipping through the daisies. Writing is work and it's hard. But it's also not impossible, just takes discipline and perseverance.

Writing is hard. It sometimes sucks and doesn't often pay well. Still, I wanted to share with you a quick follow up. Last week I had really beat myself up on being frustrated and not doing well in making my writing goals. Working on my next novel was like having teeth pulled at the dentist's. Well, it's a week later and I wanted to come clean on my progress or lack of it.

I feel like I'm failing in many areas of my life and I've struggled with whether I want to write about it or not. There are many emotions swirling around inside and I just want to express that I'm frustrated, tried and angry. I'm angry because I'm working so hard but feel like I'm failing miserably as a writer, a parent and just as a person. I put a lot of effort and energy into all that I do, but my goals aren't any closer.

Amanda Palmer stood on stage talking with her friend Kyle Cassidy and they were talking about fame, being a celebrity and social media. Amanda thought a moment and said that she remembered a time in which the random thought in your head could not be shared instantly to the world via Twitter, Facebook, or the social media platform du jour.

I wish I had more time to read, but I need to divide my free time into many different mediums (TV, movies, reading, games, music and podcasts). When I do make time to read, I tend to stick to certain authors I know and am familiar with because I want to ensure that I'm enjoying what I'm reading. Here's an example: With Anne Rice's new Lestat novel coming out, I'll be picking that book up without a doubt. It's been a long time since I've read a Rice novel and I'm really looking forward to it.