OnyxTowers: Business purchases made for book publishing

Been burning dat bitch-ass midnight oil, waking up too damn late in the day to go outside.

Damn, wish I could afford that fancy ass West Elm artisinal crap.
Soon, my pretty...

Well it's me again, ahoy! Here to regale you with more of my shenanigans! Because right now you are taking a quick break from your work-at-home, or you are simply taking a generous shit! Either way, glad you are here.

I should state that, since I've abandoned my tshirt merch shop some 4-5yrs back to care for my mother with Alzheimer's, I stopped looking in on it, assuming I stopped earning royalties on any of the designs. I was delightfully wrong, earning some $44? since 2019, so I was finally able to file for taxes again. Sure it was FREE, to file for Federal taxes, however, State taxes cost me about $14. Best $14 I ever spent, if it got me these government relief checks! And they came in at the right time in my life too!

So! I've been running around like a chicken with my damn head cut off the last few days. It's been so hectic, last Saturday, I was awake for 21 straight hours. You heard correctly. No, I don't do recreational drugs.

It's just once the tax refund came in, I got cracking, taking account of my book publishing start-up costs. I made a detailed list of costs all pertaning to services and hardware I will need to begin, and on a shoestring budget. Takes some money to make even more!

Lots of people want to throw up an ebook and walk away, assuming even one copy will sell. With such an oversaturated marketplace, and thousands of competitors, I don't see how any eyeballs will get on any product in the Kindle marketplace. Since I've been paying attention to trends, ever changing TOS of the book publishing ecommerce side of things, webinars, videos, newsletters, and author interviews since 2015, I feel I am ready to finally throw my hat in the ring.

So here's where I have already spent some of this money <$1,800.00> already:

$139.98 ❒ 2 cell phones - One for my elderly father, whose old car keeps stalling out on the road; one for me, because I haven't had a working cell phone since my Verizon Blackberry, the one with the keyboard, and I leave the house now to various doctor/dentist apppointments. Also, all these new accounts I'm opening requires 2FA authentication only avail. with smartphone apps
$20 ❒ Two cell phone cases with the screen protectors - Here we tend to drop things often. We protect our expensive electronics from ruin!
$4.95 ❒ A clip-on ringlight, to make proper videos and take pics in low light - light fixtures in this house come out dim, an effect of living with the elderly
$175.38 ❒ Domain names - Had to park them now because I ran the risk of losing them, and they are crucial to my branding; one went as far back as 2009 to a tech blog I only recently reactivated from abandonment in the early aughts
$79.00 ❒ Publishing Business In A Box - This is several ebooks on all the legal ramifications of the world of publishing, including copyright, trademark, infringement, establishing your business as an LLC, etc. I wanna get this right. Formerly called Author in a Box.
$124.99 ❒ Keyboard & Mouse - My mouse is crapping out now, had it since 2009. Keyboard works but it's old and doesn't light up, which I find cumbersome when I type in the dark at night by low light. Also, it's a Black Friday Sale item.
$169.99 ❒ 8 TB Hard Drive - Storage off-computer. I have 2 already, and still running out of space, because they carry files from the mid-90's-Now. :-P Another Black Friday Sale item; orig. $199.88, but I've seen it currently as high as $249.00.
$49.99 ❒ Playstation controller. Nothing to do with business, just dropped mine too many times :-( But I did get the last one at cheapest price!

Now here's where I plan to spend money on these upfront publishing business expenses, because my stimulus check rolled in 2 days ago <$1,400.00>:

$130.00 + $9.00 bi-annual filing fee ❒ S Corp filing - For a myriad of valid reasons, but mostly because I wish to stay as anonymous on the internet as possible, and limit my liabilities operating a legit business (cost varies from state to state)
$00.00 /yr one time fee ❒ EIN (Employer Identification Number) - This is FREE with a social security number (for American citizens) but even foreigners can apply for one, with sufficient business paperwork and a filing fee
$119.40 + taxes ($9.95 month) ❒ Virtual Office - This pricing is for an affordable one I found near my geographical area, and the closer you get to NYC, the prices jump drastically. When you file for a business registration, you need an actual brick and mortar address by law, for your documentation. Virtual offices let you do use theirs legally while retaining anonymity, and charge extra if you want your snail mail forwarded to you. Prices vary by location.
$120.00 /yr ($9.99/mo.) ❒ MailChimp - It's imperative to have your newsletter service ready to go right before launch. Thsese services include lead capture, which picks up your customer's email addresses should they sign up, then you retarget them over and over, with new products and discounts. Customer email addresses = Client list.
$97.00 /yr one time fee ❒ Publisher Rocket - This software helps you pick correct categories and tags for your book, lets you see how your competitors rank & more. Here's how that works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB9t34eKbUk
$5.00 /yr one time fee ❒ Business Bank Account - My bank stated this is the absolute minimum to keep in the account, and no overhead fees. Varies from bank to bank. You don't have to use your current bank, so shop around for better rates!
$20.00 /yr one time fee ❒ Book Funnel - Where everyone can download my ARC and develop reviews before it hits the Kindle marketplace

Photo by Ken Tomita from Pexels

This is assuming I still don't need that $495.00 dental operation on my broken molar, sheesh! Fortunately for me, Medicaid has covered all dental surgeries, fillings, visits, xrays. All my medications and doctors visits/televisits, bloodwork, EKG, vaccinations, MRI's (2x), have also been fully covered. (glad to live in a blue state!) But if I still have enough cash left over, I may consider getting these things now, rather than later:

$119.00 /yr one time fee ❒ Book Design Template - The interior design of the book, a template with adjusted margins, page styles programmed into it, dropcaps and fonts, already set up for you
$8.00 xtra small size/ monthly (for my zipcode) ❒ P.O.Box - This will not mask your identity, but will also meet the address registration requirement for business filings, and newsletters like Mailchimp, Convertkit, Sendinblue, etc. This is the absolute smallest size I found.
$42.00/yr ($3.50/mo.) (on sale now) ❒ Evernote - I've been using this cloud storage since it first came out. This is where I keep recent backups of WIP. The free version lets you upload 60MB monthly + 2 devices, personal version 10GB + unimited devices
$348/yr ($29/mo) ❒ Creative Fabrica - This is just for myself, for other creative endeavors. This license covers all commercial outlets from what I understand, and includes graphics and fonts, so no need to purchase separately. Been thinking of revamping my old merch store, so I'd like to segregate that from the book publishing thing, then outsource merchandise related stuff to there instead
$129.00 /yr one time fee ❒ fonts - Commercial license to use epub fonts for books worldwide rights usage. Unless you're a graphics designer, many of you will never need this.
$49 one time fee ❒ Scrivener - Word processing software.
$295 ❒ for 10 ISBN numbers - Each book you publish requires one. So one title with an ebook, a print book, and an audio book will require 3 of these numbers. The link is for United States only. There's separate website for Canada & UK.
$660 ❒ Gaming PC - I promise this isn't a frivolous purchase! I have a 14yr. old PC, it's beginning to crap out, and rather than buy a cheap PC laptop to fulfill the writing stuff + top of the line PC to handle all my art & design software that hogs all the memory, one gaming PC will work for both needs, as the parts are high end. I did not include the cost of the graphics card as there is a worldwide shortage right now, thanks to Covid and Bitcoin mining. >:-(
Instagram ads - Not sure how much I'll pony up in the beginning of this business venture.
Misc. book marketing expenses - Not sure how many other services I will use for my debut novel. Many of them will not let you purchase their services until AFTER you have a minimum of 10 Amazon reviews up. Have been keeping a long-ass list of these services, will post soon.

MUST REMEMBER: The book publishing business is 1/3 advertising & marketing, so a generous portion of this budget MUST go to that!

There will be an additional number of various services I will be using that are actually FREE of charge. Life is looking quite interesting as of late! Once I upload my book, I'll make a post with a long detailed list. Stay tuned.