The Published Parent's Non-fiction Self-Publishing Journey with Amazon and CreateSpace

Several people asked me this past week about self-publishing, and it's such a deep subject! I asked my writer friend Chris Lienke if I could use her questions as a basis for this post, then I'll sprinkle in some of the other friends' questions as well. She says, "I'm considering publishing a writing book ... but need some details like this before spending too much time on it." Here are some of her questions:

I was wondering if you self-published your books and, if so, any tips there?

Yes, I am an only child and independent by nature, so sending my work to publishing houses and agents and waiting for a reply was not going to work for me. When I realized in 2009ish that people were self-publishing and making money doing it, I decided it was for me because (1) I've always been a writer and (2) I homeschool 5 kids and enjoy being at home.

Honestly, my first ebook was junk and was poorly formatted by me and had a bad cover (also by me). I believe in going back in time and celebrating your failures because we LEARN FROM THEM!!! So here you go:

Yeah, I don't recommend putting your family on your
cover no matter how much you love them.

I've since learned NOT to create my own covers so I paid a little bit ($20?) to get the cover below made on Fiverr (the price has gone up ... now I pay about $40 for a print cover with spine and an ebook cover to go with it; some people are great at creating their own covers and more power to them).

The revamp of this project is a long way down the pike (something akin to the Slow Family Living movement), so the cover may change again, but I think it's a lot better than the one I made! I do recommend paying to get a cover made, but I don't recommend paying a fortune when you're just starting out. It all depends on how much money you have and/or want to spend, and I had none at first.

I think this one is way more fun and
reflects my personality better!

My next attempt at an ebook was what you know now as Make Money to Write About Your Kids, which came out in 2009 and was published on the platform called Payloadz. It was great because I could collect the email of each person who purchased the book and stay in touch. Amazon won't let you do that, sadly (more on that later). They also took a smaller royalty, but they didn't have a good review system and were not as well-known as Amazon for sure.

Payloadz now charges this to be on their platform:
The cost for the PayLoadz Hybrid (Premium) is $19.95 per month + 2.9% of the sale and $0.29 transaction fee (except for orders that are less than $2.00; then the per transaction fee is only 4.9% + $.05).

4th edition in 2012, cover by me

7th edition to come out 2018, and I'm
still considering changing the title
back to the original!!!

Then came The Tater Tot Casserole Cookbook, a labor of love and something just for fun, and it has done pretty well. I plan to check into Amazon ads to get the word out on this one.

And I have this one in the works. I'm hoping summer will find me pounding away at the keyboard on my back deck so I can give you some good updates!

I realized I needed more products on Amazon, so I whipped out a couple of books based on parenting magazine articles I had written. They were thrown together, they were flops, and I took them down. I want to make sure everything I have on Amazon from here on out is a QUALITY and HELPFUL product because I'm in this for the long haul! I do not want people to see that I have a new book out and GROAN because it's probably another piece of junk. I want people to see that I have a new book out and rush to purchase it in ebook or print format or grab it on Kindle Unlimited to pop onto their Kindle immediately. I also love good reviews! I want people to have fun with my work and learn cool things as well.

My main tips are to create a great cover that stands out even in a thumbnail image and make sure you hire a proofreader (I proofread my own work but my husband does the final proof of the print book for me). If you follow that link and hire me on Fiverr, please send me a very clean copy of your work that has already been developmentally edited. I am your final pass (why I am so affordable) and I always find lots of juicy errors, which is good for you!

Amazon for ebooks and CreateSpace for print books are what I have used and they are both super simple. It's easy to get answers if you get stuck, and CreateSpace even provides an ISBN for you, and normally ISBNs are EXPENSIVE. Now you can do both ebook and print just on Amazon and eliminate CreateSpace but I don't want to learn something new right now so I'm sticking with CreateSpace until they kick it to the curb.

More tips would be listen to self-publishing podcasts and check out great blogs and ebooks. They will tell you about things like creating an advance reader team, building buzz, and getting reviews in place BEFORE the launch date. Some of the advice will differ, and you'll learn as you go along.

There are many platforms to park your book for sale. Right now I am only on Amazon, but am going to look into getting my books into libraries and in bookstores, etc. (Kobo, Smashwords, etc.)

Also, I'm curious how you've gotten the word out and what the experience was like to get it up on Amazon.

I get the word out with a lot of social media and the occasional Facebook ad. I tried Pinterest ads, accidentally spent a fortune, and didn't get results. I have a Facebook group for parenting magazine writers, as well as a mailing list, so that covers updates on that book and any series additions. I also blog a lot several different places.

As I said above, Amazon makes things so easy for an author. So easy, in fact, that I created a print book for the homeschool co-op where I teach and made it available only for parents and kids (not for sale on Amazon). I was able to order copies at $3.50 each plus shipping and it was amazing.

Lastly, I was curious how many you've sold -- have you found this to be a real income?

So I basically have 3 ways I sell books using Amazon: ebook, print, and Kindle Unlimited pages read. I'll give you my figures below but first I'll answer your question about it becoming a real income. (Keep in mind you can also get your book on audio, so that would be a fourth income stream.)

*Kindle Unlimited (KU) pages read is cool because you can offer your book FREE to rent to people who pay $9.99 a month to Amazon for this privilege. I myself pay for KU and love it. Lots of great authors put their books free on KU for download, and last I heard you make about half a penny per page read. This changes based on how many people are members of KU. A year ago the total for the month to be shared was $12 million. Last month is was more like $21 million. Half a penny per page read doesn't sound like much, but many authors report making more money from that than with their ebook sales! The trend of renting books rather than buying them is real.

I believe this could be a real income for me if I could put another several books into my arsenal. I have plans for a Make Money to Write About Your Kids workbook and also a book of nonpaying markets for clips and coverage because so many people seem to be interested in that. I also plan to break out the MM series into one book of only markets and another book of only advice for those who only need one or the other at a certain time. I have plans for a homeschool series and many more ideas. If you have many products in circulation and are getting the word out daily, I believe this can be a good income.

I went into my historical reports and this is what I came up with for just two books on Amazon in EBOOK FORMAT ONLY. It says MM has been on Amazon since December 2013, but I sold it on a platform called Payloadz before that (it went live summer of 2009) and made quite a bit. I would have to do a bit of digging to get you those numbers, but the bottom line was I didn't work my book business like a business so no, it was not a livable income at that time. The Tater Tot Casserole Cookbook (TT) went live summer of 2013 in ebook format only.

Royalties Earned (What's this?) 

Currency	eBook Royalty	Paperback Royalty	KU/KOLL Royalty	Total Royalty
USD	1,272.97	0.00	144.49	1,417.46
GBP	8.74	0.00	0.27	9.01
EUR	7.82	0.00	0.19	8.01
JPY	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
INR	341.91	0.00	3.73	345.64
CAD	52.34	0.00	2.89	55.23
BRL	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
MXN	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
AUD	3.14	0.00	0.00	3.14

Create Space says I have earned $840.39 on both PRINT books in total. That's 95 copies of MM and 351 copies of TT. I estimate maybe another $500 sold on ebooks on Payloadz back in 2009-2010. Underwhelming, yes. I bring in an average of about $40 a month selling books in both formats but keep in mind I have been coasting for years, making more selling magazine articles and doing blogging and proofreading. See my income reports here, and they go back to 2013 when I was trying to do WAY too many things at once (since then I have decided to focus on only 4 areas: books, blogging, articles and proofreading). Clearly I have not been focused on books, but that's going to change this summer!

What percentage do I get to keep (royalty)?

It depends on pricing. Normally if the book is priced $2.99 or below I get to keep 70%. If the book is higher, it's only 30%. Keep in mind Amazon takes care of the sending for you. This means that your print book can be sent to Prime members for free and they get your book within 2 days. I know I could not offer that kind of service for the price they do. You get my tater tot cookbook for $6.99 shipped for free and within 2 days! I don't get to keep the email of the buyer, which stinks because I like to connect, but it's still a great deal.

Do you retain ownership of the book?

Yes. I can take it down or put it back up or sell it anywhere I want (as long as I'm not enrolled in the KDP Select program, which is another subject entirely and you can join for free for just 3 months at a time but during that time you are EXCLUSIVE with Amazon and can only sell there).

Please let me more questions in the comments and I will post updates in other posts I will link to from here!

Happy writing!

You can sign up for an email subscription to this site and get a free sample of the book, including FIVE markets that pay $50 plus for reprints! Please also consider joining my Facebook group called Parenting Magazine Writers ... it's FREE and full of tips and tricks and markets and like-minded writer friends!

The Published Parent March 2018 Income Report: Blogging, Proofreading, Articles, Books

Below is my homeschooling work-at-home mom income for March 2018 in the areas I focus on: proofreading, blogging, parenting magazine articles and books on Amazon.com. If you are interested in seeing February's income, you can head here.

*I show only what I was PAID, not what I earned. I'm having a bit of trouble getting paid by a few regional parenting magazines at the moment, so hopefully they will send checks and March's numbers will reflect that! Happy writing, and please ask me anything in the comments section!

Please keep in mind before you judge my measly income that I also homeschool 5 children, including teaching a few hours a week at the homeschool coop. My kids are 8, 10, 13, 14 and 16 and homeschooling is a HUGE job! How do I do it? I let them sleep in the mornings and I get most of my work done then. I also have to check in at night for an hour as well. I do not take any days off.

Check out my 167 regional parenting magazine credits post here!

You can sign up for an email subscription to this site and get a free sample of the book, including FIVE markets that pay $50 plus for reprints! Please also consider joining my Facebook group called Parenting Magazine Writers ... it's FREE and full of tips and tricks and markets and like-minded writer friends!

The Published Parent February 2018 Income Report: Blogging, Proofreading, Articles, Books

Below is my homeschooling work-at-home mom income for February 2018 in the areas I focus on: proofreading, blogging, parenting magazine articles and books on Amazon.com. If you are interested in seeing January's income, which is about a third of this month's, you can head here. Here is March 2018.

*I show only what I was PAID, not what I earned. I'm having a bit of trouble getting paid by a few regional parenting magazines at the moment, so hopefully they will send checks and March's numbers will reflect that! Happy writing, and please ask me anything in the comments section!

Please keep in mind before you judge my measly income that I also homeschool 5 children, including teaching a few hours a week at the homeschool coop. My kids are 8, 10, 13, 14 and 16 and homeschooling is a HUGE job! How do I do it? I let them sleep in the mornings and I get most of my work done then. I also have to check in at night for an hour as well. I do not take any days off.

Check out my 167 regional parenting magazine credits post here!

You can sign up for an email subscription to this site and get a free sample of the book, including FIVE markets that pay $50 plus for reprints! Please also consider joining my Facebook group called Parenting Magazine Writers ... it's FREE and full of tips and tricks and markets and like-minded writer friends!

168 Parenting Magazine Publishing Credits (Mostly Paid) and How You Can Also Get Published!

Do you want to get paid for your parenting and family articles and stop giving them away for free or getting paid pennies per view?


Below are the just the first 50 of my publishing credits. You'll see that most of them are paid. When I was starting out I would give a piece for free very now and then for the byline but I don't do that anymore. Once you get to the bottom of the list you can hit the link to see the rest!


These are great places to work for, and they are all in my book, the 6th edition of "Make Money to Write About Your Kids: Get Published in Regional, National and Online Parenting and Family Magazines" on Kindle or Cloud (you can read it on your laptop if you wish). The print edition in 6x9" is also ready and it's a hefty little dude that you can highlight and put sticky notes in and mark up when you get published in certain markets! Check for changes and updates here! 

The beautiful Susan M. of Beyond Your Blog interviewed me on her podcast!

Keep in mind I have been published in some of these magazines up to 30 times with 30 different articles (actually, sometimes they'll use the same piece in different years and pay me twice, which is fair).


I might write a piece and have it published up to 30 times as a reprint. Magazines know you are sending your work as reprints to other magazines so why are you writing something ONCE and only letting it be used ONCE? Recycle that puppy as a reprint!

1. About Families
2. Alaska Parent
3. Arizona Parenting
4. Athens Parent
5. Atlanta Baby
6. Atlanta Parent
7. Auburn Opelika Parents
8. Augusta Family
9. Austin Family
10. Baton Rouge Parents
11. Bay Area Parent Silicon Valley
12. BC Parent
13. Bermuda Parent
14. Birmingham Parent
15. Black Hills Parent
16. Boom!
17. Bowling Green Parent
18. Bronx/Riverdale Family
19. Brooklyn Family
20. Calgary's Child
21. Carolina Parent
22. Central California Parent
23. Central Penn Parent
24. Charlotte Parent
25. Child Guide
26. Cincinnati Family
27. Cincinnati Parent
28. Colorado Parent
29. Columbus Parent
30. CT Parent (Connecticut)
31. Cy-Fair Parent
32. Eastern Shore Parents
33. Edmonton's Child (nonpaying)
34. Family Time
35. Family Times
36. Findlay Area Family
37. First Coast Parent
38. First Time Parent
39. Flagler Parent (I do not recommend working with them)
40. Florida Family News
41. Fort Bend Parent
42. Fredericksburg Parent
43. Genessee Valley Parent
44. Georgia Family
45. Greater Fort Wayne Family (nonpaying)
46. Greater Pensacola Parents 
47. Growing Up in the Valley
48. Houston Baby Guide
49. Houston Family
50. Hudson Valley Parent

Check out the rest of the 168 parenting and magazine publishing credits here! I wrote the post over at my main blog a long time ago and just keep updating it. I started the post just to keep track of where I had been published.

You can sign up for an email subscription The Published Parent and get a free sample of the book, including FIVE markets that pay $50 plus for reprints! Please also consider joining my Facebook group called Parenting Magazine Writers ... it's FREE and full of tips and tricks and markets and like-minded writer friends!

The Published Parent January 2018 Income Report: Proofreading, Blogging, Articles, Books

Below is my homeschooling work-at-home mom income for January 2018 in the areas I focus on: proofreading, blogging, parenting magazine articles and books on Amazon.com.

Things are still a bit slow from moving at the end of last year, but they are picking up! I show only what I was PAID, not what I earned. I'm having a bit of trouble getting paid by a few regional parenting magazines at the moment, so hopefully they will send checks and February's numbers will reflect that! Happy writing, and please ask me anything in the comments section!

You can sign up for an email subscription to this site and get a free sample of the book, including FIVE markets that pay $50 plus for reprints! Please also consider joining my Facebook group called Parenting Magazine Writers ... it's FREE and full of tips and tricks and markets and like-minded writer friends!

An Icy Day to Work on "Make Money to Write About Your Kids" 7th Edition

Today in Peculiar, MO it's in the 20s and icy and windy. Schools are cancelling and the huge trash company called it quits for the day. My eye doctor's office closed for the day, so my son and I will reschedule. I wasn't going to go anyway ... my huge van doesn't do so well on icy roads. My husband works a good half hour from home, and I wonder how long it will take him to drive home in this weather.

The last update of the book came out in March of 2015, and I always planned to do an update every year, but it didn't work out that way. Now I am sitting on close to 100 updates, and that is frustrating to those who want to purchase the latest edition without having to sleuth out all the changes. I do post all updates on this site to each edition, but it's still a lot of work for someone to go through them all and write in changes in their print book.

So I finally stopped procrastinating. I stopped telling myself I had to get every piece of paper in my home organized before I could start on this project. I stopped telling myself I needed special pens and notebooks to complete the project. I found two blank spiral notebooks to log every single market, pass or fail, and here we go. I have about 339 markets to check with the hope of hitting 300 PAYING markets for inclusion in the book.

Yes, we are still homeschooling today. My oldest son, who is 16, will get a fire going and we'll make cookies and have hot chocolate after lunch. I'll read books to the kids in front of the fire, help them with math, and then put on a movie (we never do that on regular homeschool days). During the movie I plan to research markets.

I hope you have an amazing and productive writing day!

Please follow me on Instagram for updates!

You can sign up for an email subscription to this site and get a free sample of the book, including FIVE markets that pay $50 plus for reprints! Please also consider joining my Facebook group called Parenting Magazine Writers ... it's FREE and full of tips and tricks and markets and like-minded writer friends!

2017 Income and 2018 Goals #Proofreading #Writing #Blogging

I don't know about you, but I love to know how much money other people are making, especially when they are working doing the same things I am doing. I am also a sucker for goals. I love to read the goals of others and find out how they did.

I'm not going to tease you ... here was my 2017 income and below that you can find my 2018 goals. You can check out THIS POST for my 2016 income.

DID I MEET MY 2017 GOALS, WHICH WERE...?

Proofreading: $11,000
Articles: $5,000
Blogging: $3,000

Books: $1,000
TOTAL $20,000

Not quite. In 2017 I was teaching a teen to drive and at the same time schlepping him and his siblings around town more than ever. Also, we moved. I underestimated how much time it would take to get our previous home ready and how often I would be kicked out of that house for it to be shown to prospective buyers. Then we went on vacation, packed within a week and moved to the country. Lots of paperwork involved, and then the 4 acres next to us became available (bidding war) and that was more paperwork and communication and stress that drove me to bed with Netflix instead of to my laptop.

WHAT ARE MY 2018 GOALS?

I am going big this year. My income goal for 2018 is $36,000. Or an average of $3,000 per month.

Proofreading: $12,000
Articles: $6,000
Blogging: $12,000
Books: $6,000

How am I going to do it?

• Keep myself available and ready to work at all times as far as proofreading and blogging. 
• Another key is I plan to lose some weight and cut some sugar, as well as drink more water, giving me more energy at night, when the kids are having their screen time and I am normally wanting to just be a brainless slug.
• I plan to write an original article per month, keep my reprint list in circulation using my Google calendar, and branch out to the nationals by sending one query per month.
• I also plan to finish the 7th edition of my book and move on to another book I've been dying to finish.

If you want to see how I'm doing, check my MONTHLY INCOME REPORTS, posted the first day of each month! Each one will tell you how to get to the others.

It's a tall order while I'm also homeschooling, teaching another teen to drive, and have a husband heading overseas, but you have to have goals! And I like to make them large!

Thanks for stopping by and please sign up for an email subscription! If you don't already have it, it comes with a couple of sample chapters of my book and 6 markets that pay over $50 per reprint.

You can sign up for an email subscription to this site and get a free sample of the book, including FIVE markets that pay $50 plus for reprints! Please also consider joining my Facebook group called Parenting Magazine Writers ... it's FREE and full of tips and tricks and markets and like-minded writer friends!