I know! It was supposed to be Friday, then Saturday. Instead, it’s today.
Every publishing task I did took longer than usual this time. Then, yesterday, it was time to get my accounts in order for the coming months…
I brought my sales spreadsheet up to date, balanced some accounts, and planned my spending for the next few months.
I’m a huge fan of YNAB, a handy little piece of budgeting software that I’ve been using for years (still on version 3 because it does what I need). It works really well with the writing lifestyle and lets me plan my spending months in advance to match incoming royalties. If you depend on your publishing income the way I do, you need to be able to plan months in advance for cash flow if you don’t want finances to stress you out. YNAB is particularly suited to the task and I love it. I don’t go overboard, and I use only 3 master categories: Payments and Bills (Mortgage, Insurance, Electricity, Internet & Phone, etc.), Savings Categories (Maintenance, Doctor, Gifts, Long-term Savings, a.k.a. stuff that’s needed to address the “not if, when” vagaries of life), and Flexible Spending (Food, Clothes, Entertainment, blah blah).
Now I’m all planned up through February and I can turn my attention back to other things. :)
Time to try to break my one day word count record again!
And format a paperback or two, finish some paperback covers, redo some images, make a few typo fixes in a couple of my previously published stories I recently read as research for my next book, and copy edit a story I finished back in October, make a cover for it, and publish the danged thing!
Whew. I have a lot to do.
I kind of wish it wasn’t already 1:42 in the afternoon. I have a feeling my goals today have gotten a little out of hand. :o