ADVANCED MAGIC BAKERY… Chapter Thirteen

CHAPTER THIRTEEN… Levels of Income and Expectations

First off, realize that if you sell to traditional book publishers, none of this applies including anything to do with a magic bakery. What you have done by doing that is make a magic pie and then sell all rights in that pie and the pie walks out the door in someone else’s hands to make them money. No income for you besides the sad little advance check.

If you have done that, from a person who sold 106 books in traditional publishing before the indie world got started, I feel bad for you. But I must say, in 2025 you should know better.

So now, to the income your magic bakery can expect.

Level One… No Income…

You are just getting started (we all did that at one point or another, remember.) You only have a few things published. Imagine what your store looks like. You have all these wonderful shelves and display cases and they are all empty except for one or two pies. If a customer did happen to wonder in, they would take one look around and leave.

The problem with this level is the expectations. I once spent $20,000 remodeling a retail space, had almost a hundred thousand in inventory on the day we opened, and an employee and had rent and all the utilities to pay. Did not make a dime until the third day we were open. Took five years to break even.

Your magic bakery is no different, only you have no expenses besides your computer and a few subscriptions. You have an empty store, don’t expect to make any money and if you do because a friend or family bought a copy or two, then celebrate and write the next book.

Level Two… Coffee Money

Yes, we all went through this level as well. I had my expenses so low when I went through this that any kind of money from my stories seemed like a lottery win. I was in this level for years and years. A $300 short story sale could pay my rent and some food for a month. Yes, I lived that low.

What your store looks like is that you have some inventory, maybe 10-15 major books and another twenty or thirty short stories, all published stand alone. (Short stories for $1.99 electronic. Major books in electronic, paper, and hardback editions. And electronic you have in all seven major sites to get your work out around the world.) But overall, your store still looks more empty than full.

Coffee money tends to be in the range of $15 to $200 per month. Often when added up around a thousand a year.

At this point you are doing nothing else but getting your books out in the major stores and you have a web site. And your focus needs to be writing more and more and improving your craft and publishing skills.

Level Three… Decent Money

At this point you have made it past the 20 major books discovery threshold and also have a bunch of short stories published stand alone. You must be adding in other income streams besides the standard online stores at this point to reach this level.  Your magic bakery is starting to look like a real store, with a decent selection.

Decent money is $2,000 per month.  But you will not make that completely from the seven online major stores. (Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, B&N, D2D, GooglePlay, and Ingrams.)

Even if you have 50 major books, if you only stay in those seven, your income is limited. You will need your own Shopify store at this point where you can control discounts and add in merch and other fun stuff. Your web site must be solid.

You might also have a Patreon page or something similar with a steady monthly income, even though small. And more than likely you are doing a couple of Kickstarters a year, Making a thousand in each one. You are also building a good mailing list.

You are becoming a better storyteller and your books are branded. You are better at covers, you have your expenses down, and your sales copy is actually interesting.

At this point every book you write will slightly bump your income and you will refresh older books at times to get them to new customers. Remember books (magic pies) never spoil. And every little bit adds up. Something writers forget.

Level Four… Making a Living

I consider making a living at $100,000 per year. Others need less, others more.

Your magic bakery is humming and expanding as you need more shelf space and money is appearing in your cash register constantly 24/7. (Remember, you customers are all over the world.)

You would think that jumping from $20,000 per year to $100,000 per year would be difficult, but jumping from Coffee Money to $20,000 is much harder.

Climbing to this level just means you are writing more and more, getting everything out, your craft is better so people like your stories more and will want to read more because you have more. You have built a good fan base, maybe are doing four Kickstarters a year to promote your newest books or older books brought forward. And you are making $3,000 to $5,000 a campaign.

You have an active Shopify store, lots of fun stuff and merch. Your web site is active, your Patreon is active. and you are starting to get some licenses, like translation, audio, gaming and so on.

But the key to this level is production in the magic bakery kitchen. You have to have spent the time improving your craft, your sales copy, your covers.

Level Five… Stupid (Great) Money

I consider any levels of income of $500,000 and above great money. At this level you will be in a full corporation, more than likely you will have help on a bunch of stuff. Thousands of indie writers are making this and far above a million per year (and not by doing stupid Facebook ads).

Yes, I said thousands. The seven online stores that you put all your focus on at the start are just a steady but small (in comparison) flow. You will be writing a lot. More new books and stories all the time, at a higher craft level.

Your magic bakery has expanded so much, you can’t see or remember all the aisles of pies.

A large part of the income at this level comes from licenses and special projects and ways of getting your work into reader’s hands.

You know copyright and licenses and branding as an art form. You own a bunch of valuable trademarks. Your accountant is on speed dial.

Trust me, you want to trade up for the problems in this level.