Self-Publishing Income Report for November 2020 - Q4 Boost or the New Normal??

About this video

Sean reports his November self-publishing income by platform, calling the KDP figure a career high in four years of publishing. He claims about $3,941 from KDP, about $1,171 from a personal ACX account he no longer publishes on and about $1,221 (estimated) from his active ACX LLC account, plus smaller amounts from Draft2Digital, Google Play, IngramSpark across US, UK, Australian and Global Connect sales, Findaway Voices at $879, and a small amount of affiliate commissions. He says two top ACX books were removed after ACX accused him of fraudulent free-trial activity, which he denies, and he urges affected publishers to join the ‘Fair Deal for Rights Holders and Narrators’ group. He says expenses were an all-time high at almost $7,000, including roughly $3,000 in US Amazon ads plus Canada and UK ad spend, Facebook and BookBub ads, and software, payroll and accounting costs. He questions whether the strong month is a Q4 boost, arguing his niche gets little Q4 lift compared with low-content and children’s books, and compares low-content publishing (cheaper, beginner-friendly, less English-dependent) with the high-content non-fiction he does.

Key takeaways

• He attributes sustained sales to a virtuous cycle: a genuinely good book in a high-traffic keyword earns organic 4-5 star reviews, which drive more sales and more reviews when ads keep traffic coming.
• His wide-distribution rule: start in KDP Select, and only leave for Draft2Digital, Google Play and other stores once a book earns less than about $10 a month from Select, because Select is an exclusivity contract.
• He says ACX exclusivity is still far more lucrative than Findaway Voices — he claims about 90-95% of his Findaway income came from one of roughly 30-40 books — which is why he wants publishers to contest removals collectively.
• He does not credit Q4 for most of the month’s strength, saying low-content and children’s books get the big Christmas boost while his non-fiction niche does not.
• He presents low-content as the lower-cost, beginner-friendly entry route, and high-content as costlier to produce but the model he knows and has stuck with.

Episode details: published December 8, 2020 · 16:37 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Sean Dollwet’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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