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A (Mostly) Stay-at-Home-Mom
Welcome to A (Mostly) Stay-at-Home Mom, where I share insights about finance and family. I'm Charmaine-- a wife, mom, writer and obsessive home baker, and I hit record each week to share about adding to household income as a busy mom.
We'll laugh, we'll cry, we'll discuss strategies for navigating both the home economy and the world economy hand in hand. Braiding each other's hair not included (yet).
Looking for more? I've got a ton of resources, including blog posts to match each of the podcast episodes, on my website: https://bycharmaine.com/
So glad you're here.
A (Mostly) Stay-at-Home-Mom
Is Writing and Self-Publishing a Good Side Gig for Moms?
In today's episode, Charmaine dives into the details of writing and publishing books. She gives her experiences and advice on writing online and self-publishing on Amazon KDP specifically.
Click here to find Charmaine's self-published children's book, "Amos Takes the Skyway."
Hi there and welcome to another episode of the Mostly Stay-at-Home Mom podcast, where we chat about entrepreneurship, mom life and earning a side income as a busy mom. I'm your host, charmaine, and I am so glad you're here. Today's episode is going to be the third in a series that I'm doing about making money as a mom, so I've been giving various ideas and sharing my experiences from trying various side income opportunities. As a mom, you are looking to bring in some extra household income while still focusing the majority of your time and energy in the home and taking care of children, if you have kids. So if you go back two episodes, the series started with Amish and Mennonite side hustles. This is a group of people I personally know and I'm connected with, and they are an industrious, productive group, but they also stay family-centered. So it's really interesting to see that dichotomy at work, I think, with the Amish and Mennonite, and there's so much to learn from them. So if you like to learn from other cultures and want ideas for side income, it's a good episode to listen to. And then my last episode was all about craft businesses and whether making crafts or handmade items from your home and selling them is worthwhile, and I speak on this as someone who has tried her own home bakery, so I give some honest and raw insights there, and you'll just have to check out the episode to see what that's like. Maybe you're considering selling crafts from your home. I highly suggest looking into that episode.
Speaker 1:So today I wanted to talk more about writing and publishing books, or self-publishing books, as a way to potentially earn income on the side as a busy mom. Are there writers or people who enjoy writing listening to this podcast? Maybe you're like me. There are so many ways to write today. You can write for free, obviously, whether that's personally, for your own satisfaction, or if you want to write publicly, online or in any sort of publication, even newspapers and magazines. Those are still in existence. So there are just so many ways to write, it seems, nowadays, with all of the different platforms that have opened up to us. So, since we're talking about making money, are there ways to make money writing? That's the big question. That's been a lifelong question for me too, because I have had this lifelong interest in writing. But is it possible, especially to earn writing and be a mom, run a household, do all of the things that we do as busy moms? My answer is yes, but it's hard. So here are the details.
Speaker 1:If we're talking about traditional publishing, for instance, it's always seemed like it's been a long process of improving your craft, writing through those rejection letters and continuing to apply, ask, submit manuscripts. So writing has always been sort of this long slog. Even the famous writers that we hear about have usually faced so much rejection, have usually faced so much rejection. I mean, reportedly, jk Rowling's manuscript for Harry Potter was rejected 12 times before it was published and, as we know, that became one of the most popular books of all time. And so you know it's um. I'm familiar with the stories of the famous writers going through immense amounts of rejection in this traditional publishing business. Another story or autobiography I guess you could say of the writer's journey that I enjoyed personally was Stephen King's book On Writing. It's called On Writing, if you want to read that.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I've been interested in traditional publishing for a long, long time. It wasn't until recently that I was opened up to the world of online writing and all the possibilities there as well. So maybe traditional publishing isn't really possible for you at the moment. I know it's not super possible for me at this moment. It's more like a long-term goal or dream I have. That's okay. There's still other ways that you can publish your writing at a lower stakes endeavor, I guess I could say Unless you are famous or have some sort of following. Trying to publish a book with traditional publishing takes a while to build up your audience, and so, since motherhood is my primary focus right now, this isn't too much of a concern. So let's talk, then, about non-traditional publishing, the new ways to get words out thanks to the internet.
Speaker 1:Since I'm a dabbler, I've tried a few forms of this. Let's start with online writing. So, personally, I keep writing online because I just can't help myself. An apt description of me would be shy in real life but overshare online. So I love to write and I have hit publish on numerous platforms like Instagram, linkedin, facebook, twitter, x and blogs. So I have purchased domains to actually own a website and I've done blogging before. Actually own a website and I've done blogging before. I still run my substitute teaching blog, where I give sort of diary entry type blog posts, but also informative how-tos surrounding my journey or substitute teacher and a mom, and that blog is called Chocolate for the Teach. It's still up on the internet and I've enjoyed getting into the blogging process the past couple of years.
Speaker 1:But yeah, if you're looking to monetize that, you know all of that you can do without getting paid. I won't even say for free, because there are costs associated with um keeping your words online. Sometimes, like the example I just gave with writing on my own website with my own domain name, it actually costs something to purchase the domain and to purchase hosting to keep your website up online and running. So sometimes you don't even get paid. There are costs. I think it is harder than what some influencers or content creators would have you believe. But as far as making money from content, I do want to go into more detail about content creation in a separate episode than this, but I will say just in general.
Speaker 1:It's possible to make money from content creation or writing online. In my experience, it's not really a windfall amount right away. Even if you happened to get really randomly lucky and had something go viral, having a viral post or video isn't going to give you massive amounts of cash automatically. I mean, maybe if you were selling something I don't know you could take that as an opportunity, I guess, to make money. But being viral online in and of itself won't give you money, but there are ways to earn. I think, overall, if you want to make a quick buck as a mom, this isn't really the best path for that. It's not definitely a quick buck the best path for that. It's not definitely a quick buck. So making money online through writing and content creation is a long game.
Speaker 1:You can earn money by including either affiliate links in your writing in which someone clicks on the link and purchases through a certain window or time frame. Then you would receive a small commission from that purchase. Or you can earn money by displaying ads to your viewers and when those viewers or readers click on the ads, you earn small amounts as well. But for affiliate links or ad clicks, we are talking cents or maybe a few dollars for each one of those. So you really need a massive amount of these to create income that's worth even the initial cost and effort, let alone exceeding that. So I really I don't want to discourage you, but it really is tiny, tiny amounts and you would need a huge volume to have that even make you money making a difference.
Speaker 1:You know, I personally have affiliate links on my Chocolate for the Teach blog and also on my website, bycharmainecom, where I'm housing the blog posts associated with this podcast, and so far I think I've been an affiliate for over a year. So far I've earned $8, if that gives you any perspective and the blog itself is two years old with over 100 posts, so I have plenty of content there, but, again, I don't have the biggest volume, I don't have the biggest readership, and so I haven't earned what I would say is meaningful. You know, eight dollars, wow so. But you know, these technologies have been out and available for a while now, I'd say, and that door has been opened to more people to try their hand at this. So this can be a good and a bad thing, right? So, on the plus side, the barriers to entry have never been lower, so it makes it easier for you to learn how to do this in the first place. I mean, I taught myself how to create a website on WordPress, how to buy a domain name, all of that that was associated with creating a blog. It was a lot of learning, but I was able to do it because there's just a vast amount of free information out there now, and I find that to be similar for any platform you might choose.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, this opens the floodgates and creates lots of competition, so it becomes harder for you to stand out. And you want to stand out to gain readers. And remember the more readers, the more eyes, the more chances you get to earn income from those different income paths. So if you're writing as a personal project, that's awesome, that's fine. But if we're talking about making money or any meaningful income writing, no matter which platform, you will need plenty of readers, like more than you think. It doesn't matter how good your writing is From a commercial standpoint. If no one can find you, if no one can read your work, then you're not going to earn money. So you'll need to market your writing and that becomes a job as well. So you basically are writing for the writing and you end up writing for the marketing of your writing.
Speaker 1:I know it's it's a lot, and I think it's at this point where a lot of content creators and writers get discouraged and I include myself in those numbers because if you are thoughtful in your writing, if you are really putting in a lot of time and effort to put forth a good piece of content or writing, and then all of a sudden you discover there's a whole other job which is putting it out there and marketing it, hoping that someone will read your work. It gets to be quite a lot. So, again, I'll cover more on content creation in a future episode, probably the next one, but in general, yes, while it is possible to make money writing online and creating content, it takes a lot of work and resources. So I will go more into my theories and the trends I'm seeing within content creation in that future episode, but that's my general idea about it. Please don't be discouraged from starting your own thing.
Speaker 1:Obviously, I have started all these different things. I have blogs, websites, podcasts, so many. They're all just like I, because I just love it and it's something that you can probably stick with. If you enjoy it. I will say, um, but no matter, even if you do enjoy writing and publishing online, it still takes a lot of work as well. So I just want to be honest about that and I want to give everyone as full a picture as I can. I don't want to give you these pie in the sky dreams about going viral or getting millions of followers or anything like that. I would be wary of kind of these clickbait titles and promises and videos and articles by people who you never know, if they just want the clicks, if they just want the views and there might be good information out there, but it truly is. You know, you're hearing it from just a regular average Joe person me. It is hard to get noticed either way.
Speaker 1:So another option for making money with your writing is to self-publish your work. There are different ways to do this, but a popular method is through Amazon KDP. I actually went this route when I wrote a children's book with my mom. We published it this past fall actually right before the holidays, and that was it sort of just worked out that way and we were able to put it out there on social media to our friends and family and a lot of people were able to purchase it for the holidays. But basically my mom and I always dreamed of making a book together, with me writing and my mom creating the illustrations, and we were finally able to do that. It was a great project that we worked on and we learned a lot about the editorial and the publishing process through it. But basically my mom taught herself with YouTube videos and the internet how to upload our manuscript or document to Amazon KDP. It was a bit of a process, but it wasn't too bad. Obviously she was able to teach herself and then the book was available for sale on Amazon. So it is printed on demand and we can buy the books at cost. We can sell them ourselves to friends or family or even shops to distribute after paying that initial production fee, or people can purchase directly from Amazon through the link and we receive whatever profit comes from the sale after that initial cost.
Speaker 1:If you're thinking about publishing on Amazon, kdp I will say the process was tedious because we wanted to put out something high quality, but it was also fun and rewarding and it was honestly like a bucket list, I guess, achievement for ourselves, just something memorable, I guess, that we made together as mother and daughter. So did we earn a lot of money? Well, producing the book with my mom was the foremost goal. So I'll preface by saying that that we don't regret this at all because it was just. We wanted to just see what would happen. It was sort of an experiment and on that front we completely succeeded.
Speaker 1:As far as earnings, we didn't earn a windfall amount. The earnings were a nice plus, I'll say, but it wasn't anything you could really live off of. We've sold around 100 copies, so bringing in the profit from those copies, and we did have to spend some time marketing. I posted about it on my social media pages a few times and I tagged my mom as well so her friends would be able to see, and we got a lot of great responses. It was so nice to hear kind of this awesome flood of positive support from friends and family, both my friends and her friends. I can't thank them enough. If you guys supported us, if you bought our book, if you some of you like sent me pictures of you reading with your kids or your kids reading the books, I can't tell you how much that meant to us and how good that makes us feel, just that we were able to put something good out into the world and that it's being enjoyed and learned from. So that truly was so rewarding.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so we did have to. We did have to put it out there because there are so many books published on Amazon, kdp now. I mean, the barrier to entry is pretty low. People can teach themselves how to do it. It's not like going through a traditional publisher with all of the hoops. So there's a lot of competition and we did have to market, didn't spend too much time or money or resources on marketing, but you know there was some consideration that went into it. Yeah, we got a lot of positive responses from friends. I don't think any strangers have found the book on Amazon. I think all of our sales have been truly from friends, which is fine. But that just goes to show how hard it is to be found, I guess, and how easy it would be to just get lost in the shuffle. And how easy it would be to just get lost in the shuffle.
Speaker 1:If you are interested in checking it out, it's about 30 pages. It's a children's book, it's printed in color and it's called Amos Takes the Skyway, about an ambitious yet ornery Amish boy who decides to take his three-wheel bike on an adventure over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. And the ending has a twist to it. It's sort of this silly tale, but also it gives information about the Amish culture. Here in Florida there's an Amish community and it gives a lot of information about the culture, and the last couple pages are informational pages too. So though the story is a fictional one, that ending has some real information about the area, the Skyway Bridge, the Amish and Mennonite culture. So, anyways, that is still on Amazon. It is Amos Takes the Skyway, if you're interested in checking it out.
Speaker 1:So, to summarize, publishing your writing for profit is hard, but it's not impossible, whether it's going to a traditional publisher or writing online or self-publishing no matter which option you choose to make substantial money it is going to be a long game, I think. Or maybe you start to earn a little here and there you might decide it's worth it to keep sticking it out. Like I said, it's easier to keep going if you truly decide it's worth it to keep sticking it out. Like I said, it's easier to keep going if you truly enjoy it. Or you might try your hand at it for a time period just to see what happens. And even if you do earn money, you might think, wow, this isn't worth it. You know, like I said, my blog had earned $8 in affiliate income and that's not really worth some of the cost to me, but I still do it because I enjoy it and I think I have valuable information on there for other substitute teachers to read. So I keep it up. It's a labor of love, as they say. But yeah, that's my personal perspective.
Speaker 1:I want to hear your thoughts, please. I have my email open it's mostlyhomemom at gmailcom, if you want to Some of your thoughts. Have you been successful with Amazon publishing or self-publishing or writing online? I'd love to hear your decide and carefully weigh the pros and cons, if this is something that's worth your time and your energy. Of course, your primary focus maybe if you're here listening to this podcast, is that you want to be that present mom and runner of a household, and so you have to weigh your options to see if this is a worthwhile endeavor to jump into.
Speaker 1:It is a lot of hard into. It is a lot of hard work. It is a lot of resources too, but to me it's worth it. I enjoy it. So that's my two cents. Follow along for the rest of the money making series. A couple more episodes on that as we finish out this season too. Can't believe we're already drawing near to the end of the second season, but thank you so much for following along. If you found this helpful or enjoyable, please share it with a friend. And, of course, I always love to hear your thoughts and reviews on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, and I will see you in the next episode. Thanks,
