The second of several dream journals I'll be making
By Marsha
@MarshaMusselman (38663)
Midland, Michigan
April 21, 2024 4:33pm CST
A friend requested a dream journal. I used a template that has fields for various things like: date, location, who was in it, how the dreamer felt and things like that. The first one I did has a cover with planets but different than this one.
It had 121 pgs. I had to use a 8.5x11" size to fit the inside elements properly on the page. The interior is black and white and just slightly more money than my 6x9 journals.
The one I did with this cover I used an interior template with color. It is black, white and has some yellow. I made it 301 pages and the cost of printing is about ten dollars more.
I'll be doing another color interior but this time it'll be black, white and some pink. I'll be making that one 121 pages to get an idea of the cost with using color and the larger sizes.
I have some templates for colorful prayer journals but I've no idea yet how expensive they might be. I also don't know whether customers would prefer one with more pages that will last longer or what. Maybe both will sell.
I got a notification from kdp today that I'll be getting some royalties at the end of the month. One of the books that sold I was surprised to see was in Japan. I think that was one of my pottery journals.
If you're curious my royalties are very small. For some journals I make 1.74 in paperbacks and about 1.89 on hardcovers. But the goal is that in two to five years time I'll be doing much better.
12 people like this
11 responses
@kaylachan (58129)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
23 Apr
@MarshaMusselman Still an interesting concept. Sounds like you enjoy what you do.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38663)
• Midland, Michigan
22 Apr
It is fun. The hard part is coming up with decent titles.
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@Fleura (29218)
• United Kingdom
22 Apr
@MarshaMusselman Do you mean for different journal subjects? Or titles like 'Starry Nights'? For subjects I can think of lots of things that could be used for a journal: travel, hiking, photography, garden, exercise, food, book club, bird-watching, astronomy, meal plans, general ideas, art inspiration...
Actually I'm thinking I should start a 'What I achieved today' journal. My 'to-do' list never seems to get any shorter even though I'm busy all the time and I feel as if I'm running to stand still so it would be nice to think I did actually make some progress!
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38663)
• Midland, Michigan
25 Apr
@just4him we can't afford it at present either.
I think he did pretty good for an unknown author for the books he sold in the first two months. Although he mostly sold to fellow employees and customers there.
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@just4him (306904)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
25 Apr
@MarshaMusselman That's still good. I'm glad he sold books to coworkers and customers.
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@just4him (306904)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
23 Apr
@MarshaMusselman I'm not on FB. I couldn't afford that.
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@LadyDuck (458976)
• Switzerland
23 Apr
@MarshaMusselman - I wish you a good success.
2 people like this
@MarshaMusselman (38663)
• Midland, Michigan
23 Apr
Yes, I so enjoy making these although I'm also going to make more than just a little too supplement my income if I live twenty or more years.
I also want to get back into writing stories again.
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@MarshaMusselman (38663)
• Midland, Michigan
25 Apr
@LadyDuck thanks. I'm sure I'll keep sharing of my progress.
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@MarshaMusselman (38663)
• Midland, Michigan
21 Apr
I like the image too. My friend picked out this one.
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@MarshaMusselman (38663)
• Midland, Michigan
22 Apr
@DianneN kind of yeah. I used my AI app to get an image with faeries but I didn't use that one for a book but rather have it to my friend that asked about it.
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@MarshaMusselman (38663)
• Midland, Michigan
23 Apr
I believe that God pointed me in this direction as I didn't even know this existed until I 'ran into' the concept one day last year.
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@MarshaMusselman (38663)
• Midland, Michigan
23 Apr
I've not watched them in Instagram but I've watched a few people on you tube.
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@MarshaMusselman (38663)
• Midland, Michigan
23 Apr
Thanks. I've sold a handful. I've not made much yet because the royalties are quite low but one person I subscribe to has made over 127,000.00 for one journal title. It's not as much as it sounds I've it's divided by the year it was published but then I realized he made more than one title.
@MarshaMusselman (38663)
• Midland, Michigan
21 Apr
Kdp is Kindle book publishing and they print on demand PB, HC and ebooks- digitally of course. Everything is sold on Amazon. I can buy stock and sell them to people I know or to bookstore etc, but I don't have the cash to do that yet. Maybe one day.
There are two sources I use for my graphics and interior templates mostly. One was a one time payment of 59.00usd. The main graphic sure I use has a yearly fee or a monthly fee but at the holidays they discounted their pricing and I paid for a year.
There's also a site I use to design my journals. I've shared a few of my covers here. That site is Canva. You can use it for free or pay for the pro for added features.
I use Canva to make my interiors and covers and save them to my computer to later upload them to kdp.
If you're interested in learning I can recommend a book and a you tube channel of people I learned from.
I recently bought a course to learn more of Canva.
Also this image and other I've used started with an AI app and then I use photoscape to edit it.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (29218)
• United Kingdom
22 Apr
@MarshaMusselman Gosh thanks for your detailed answer! It sounds like a good model and there's plenty of scope to try out different things without the fear of being stuck with lots of unsold stock. Good luck with it!
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@MarshaMusselman (38663)
• Midland, Michigan
27 Apr
@Fleura thanks. I like that about it too. I've day I might go around to stores or find out how to contact the vendors that supply to stores to see if my items can be sold that way too.
1 person likes this
@MarshaMusselman (38663)
• Midland, Michigan
23 Apr
I think the royalties will remain as they are. If I charged more per book I'd make more but then they might not sell at all.
2 people like this
