Hi,
I’ll be honest, Q4 went by in a blur. What I do remember of it was that I planned to close out projects toward the end of 2025, and instead I ended up writing two new books that packed into my release calendar for 2026.
I also ended up, instead of slowing my schedule, starting a new publication (Frictionless Growth), with 100+ posts and a 5-day challenge, hosting a virtual conference, and running out of my mind busy for six weeks between November and mid-December.
The good news is that I set up a lot of things at the end of 2025 that should make 2026 easier. Those things are now launched and out into the world. For 2026, my plan is not commit to anything that doesn’t already exist. So, launching books I already wrote, writing for publications that exist, and working with existing clients, plus taking consulting clients, along with strengthening existing brands.
Basically, if it’s a brand I was working on in 2025 after I burned most of my life to the ground, I can keep doing it. Otherwise, I need to carefully consider my next moves. I’ve spent so long gathering the pieces, but now I have time, and need to think about how to deploy them effectively.
Before I dig into last quarter’s revenue, I wanted to remind you that since 2017, I’ve kept a pretty detailed income report of my expenses. It’s an almost unbroken chain reaching back to when I started making real money at Wannabe Press. You can find them all here.
Consulting - 17.6%
This is my biggest consulting quarter in a while, mainly because I took on a new client in September and spent the quarter onboarding them. I ran a virtual conference for them, and went to Author Nation to promote their brand. This should be something that consistently gives me a decent consulting boost, and I’m looking for a couple new clients, too. Otherwise, I had a few consulting calls, but no more than usual.
Crowdfunding - 29.5%
This is from the Publishing is Broken Kickstarter campaign I ran in September. It paid out through Q4 as the payment plans from a few pledges coming due. This campaign was smaller than I would have liked, but it did make fulfillment easier than I expected. So, that’s something right? I only have two campaigns I’m slated to run in 2026, and both for non-fiction properties. I have several I’m going to support, but I’m trying really hard to ONLY talk about Hapitalist stuff this year and see if I can build up a head of steam with it.
Publishing - 53.9%
Substack again brought in the majority of this bucket, and mainly from Hapitalist subscriptions which are $300/yr instead of the $20/yr average I have without it. I spent many years discounting my paid membership, but I stopped doing that in September.
It’s weird that both my subscriber base and my paid subs are shrinking and yet I’m growing my revenue. This was always the plan, to build a wide base of support and then focus on upgrading people, but it’s so weird to see it working. I need it to work about 10x faster in 2026 than it did in 2025, and that’s my main focus for the rest of the year. I’m not looking for scale until I can get this upgrade process working properly.
Thoughts
Q4 was about closing out projects so they didn’t follow me into 2026. I know it’s weird to think writing to books fits in that process, or starting a new publication, but my overall goal in the new year is to find as many inroads into Hapitalist as possible, while shimming down things that focus attention away from it. So, I think the 6FAE podcast is a great feeder into Hapitalist. I think Frictionless Growth is a great leadin. I think my new happiness book is a great leadin.
Meanwhile, The Author Stack wasn’t a great lead-in. A significant portion of people came expecting craft advice, not business strategy, so it wasn’t really aligned, which is why I converted the site into Hapitalist. Additionally, I heard A LOT is people confused about how to join Hapitalist, how to sign into their Hapitalist account, and a lot of people wondering how this kind of content has anything to do with writing a book, which is why I changed it.
I don’t like confusion, so I am trying to fix that confusion, and giving people better alignment.
Okay, now let’s get to the good stuff. If you’re not a paid member, you can sign up below.
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