2025 Author Year in Review: Did I make more or less than 2024?

Between releasing an alien romance, a royal love triangle, and pulling four books from shelves, it was a whirlwind. I did not expect the results of this wrap-up, at all.

Do you want to read how 2024 went first, to compare? Catch up with my last author income wrap-up.

Big Changes in My Personal Life 2024 vs 2025:

As an author and creative, art imitates life, either in my what I create or in how much I'm capable of creating.

This blog post starts as a bummer, but it doesn't end there, so keep reading.

2025 I have written less than I have in years. There were many big factors that contributed to that, so I want to give a brief summary of how it all felt. When art is part of who you are, you either excel or fall when times get hard. For me, when I'm sad I can write, but when I'm stressed and sad, it's armageddon to my creative faculties.

Speaking of armageddon, have you heard this song from aespa? I'll admit, being obsessed with KPop Demon Hunters and EJAE in 2025 has broadened my music tastes. This song was written in part by EJAE.

As a mom, our schedule and needs changed a lot in 2025. Me and Jack both have ADHD and have needed to learn how to work together differently as a family as he has gotten older. It's been hard not to compare with what worked for me and my husband and what has or hasn't worked for him, but we are figuring it out.

I don't talk about politics often, but this year had me checking the news and researching daily how certain things could impact our life. I haven't felt this much turmoil in our governing bodies since 2020, but at least this year I've gotten a handle on my doom scrolling,. In 2020 all I did was doom-scroll and play Animal Crossing, paralyzed what I could not control. (Blog post coming soon on how I've halved my screen-time.) Instead, in 2025 the turmoil helped motivate me to get more of our finances in order, so we could feel safer and have options.

My "day job" work evolved this year, to have less work/life balance then before, but I'm hopeful this will settle soon.

The biggest factor this year, however, has been a death in the family. It truly rocked us, and it's still evolving how we feel day-by-day. It felt so unexpected, and the grief has left gaping holes.

All together, the data supports how hard my creativity was hit by life. In 2024, I wrote over 185K words. In 2025, I wrote less than half at about 63K.

Not only that, but the energy to market also declined. I've written less newsletters, and posted less on social media. Somehow, I've maintained the same amount of blog posts. That was a surprise to me, because before I stopped to count, I would have swore I wrote less on my blogs this year.

Fiction Written in 2025:

• Content for the Lily Hills Creatures series: 36,016

• Content for the spin off series of LHC (not coming until around 2028 lol): 14,830

• Last push in completing The Courting of Kingdoms: 12,114

Total: 62,960 (less than half 2024)

Blog Posts Written in 2025:

• 14 on Substack (Since deleted, see why later on)

• 6 on rebeccaksampson.com

• 5 on rachelhdrake.com

• 4 on rksampson.com

Total: 29 (flat YoY)

More on my new fiction websites further down the post, as they are part of my 2026 goals.

Why I Unpublished Half of my Backlist in 2025

One of the biggest changes I made in 2025 as an indie author was using my "power" (as someone completely in charge of my career) to unpublish four books from my catalog.

In July, I took down the Creature Cravings series, with the intention to bring them back new and improved starting in 2026. This was a hard decision for me, but one I knew I should take for months, to bring the series in the direction I knew it would be best suited for.

The books themselves were gaining some loyal readers, but I also knew they were polarizing. Readers either loved or hated them, and after growing my skills and seeing reviews over the last few years, I knew exactly why.

My books weren't meeting the expectations I was sharing in marketing and what was common in the genre. It's as simple and complicated as that. While I still intend on keeping what is unique about my stories, I'm also adding in more lore to the books in this rewrite (that will be the backbone for the spin off series), as well as putting in more of what is expected in the genre, like dual POV.

I've made great headway with the first re-write and can't wait to bring it out into the world early this year. I feel confident in how this rewrite and rebrand project is coming together.

Total Books Published: 3

1. Saved By My Alien Husband by Rachel H. Drake

2. The Courting of Kingdoms by R. K. Sampson

3. Fate's Daughter: The Fated Tales Series Special Timeline Edition by R. K. Sampson (Kickstarter only)

These books were primarily written in 2024 and edited in 2025. SBMAH is a standalone, while TCOK will have a sequel... I wrote some of it in 2024, ironically. However, with what I have planned for 2026, that sequel for my fantasy brand likely won't be out until 2027.

Total Books Unpublished: 4

1. Haunt by Rachel H. Drake

2. Only by Rachel H. Drake

3. Blaze by Rachel H. Drake

4. Bite by Rachel H. Drake

The Creature Cravings series will return as Lily Hills Creatures, starting with the new version of Haunt, now up for preorder as A Lovely Haunt.

Sales by Format and Brand YoY: Did I meet my goal to increase physical book sales?

In 2024, I sold 70% in paranormal/sci-fi (Rachel) vs 30% in fantasy (R.K.), but in 2025 it was nearly even across my two brands with 44% vs 55%. It's funny, but we have 1% in nonfiction sales this year.

I don't promote my nonfiction at all (two personal development books), and while I occasionally have delusions and want to write more life advice, it honestly doesn't suit the vision I have for my life, so I don't plan on investing more there at this time. (As of now, we'll see. I change my mind a lot.)

My goal to increase my physical book sales (originally as part of direct sales, but now unofficially as just "more not-ebook sales") did come true, but I don't know if it will hold in 2026, as I also closed my direct store. Going from 92% digital sales in 2023 to 80% in 2025 is a big change.

For those not in the author industry (thanks for reading!), here is some background: An average digital sale will bring in, most of the time, $2 or less per author. A physical book sale is around $4 or more. This is for independent authors without a publisher, and based on my averages and that of my friends, and is based on fiction only. Nonficiton often has higher margins. It may be different for other authors, and is typically lower for those traditionally published.

These numbers get even more favorable when you have a direct store, because it takes out some of the fees typically in place by distributors, like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. You can increase your royalties by $2-10 per book, depending on the strategy and if it's a special edition.

Increasing my physical book sales to 20% is why my earnings are flat in 2025, even though my total sales are half that of 2024...

I don't give exact numbers, but half is significant difference. Part of that is my lack of marketing, the other is removing a chunk of my catalog from sale.

That's compelling math, and does help drive my goals for 2026.

Even Though Selling Direct is More Profitable Per Book, I Shut Down My Store

I loved learning about direct selling (selling the books in my own store and not just on retailers), it is such an art, and I see the value in other authors pursuing it. However, having my own online book store split too much of my attention, and I was not giving the store the effort it needed to succeed.

And, with all the concerns over tariffs, there was added complexity that I wasn't ready to tackle.

I would consider trying it again in a few years when I have a larger audience, but as a fledging author (even a few years down the line, I'm still a baby here), it took more away from my writing and too much of my mental spoons to attempt to run it. It's just not my time.

All my former stock from the store has been moved to this blog, and you can order my books for over 50% off while supplies last.

My hope is that my Foreshadow Special Edition projects (a very self-indulgent special edition for each book where I write behind the scenes essays on the making and foreshadowing of each book), will help drive value and keep my physical sales up in 2026. These special editions will be on retailers. That edition of The Courting of Kingdoms outsold the standard edition, even though it was a higher price.

I also want to call out why I left Substack. It's an amazing discovery platform, but at the end of the day, I want my own websites, where "I own the land," to do that discovery for me instead. I can control my websites and building that long term better suits my goals. Will it be slower? Maybe. But I'm okay with that.

There is also the future of AI search and book discoverability, and by creating this content on my own websites, I may have more ability to optimize search results for that. I'm really nerding out about this idea. While AI is a big topic in the author spaces, I feel hopeful about how it can help organic book sales.

I still plan on posting notes on Substack, but went back to using my own blogs (on my new fiction sites) and newsletter platform, to better get me where I want to be long term.

How I Increased My Audiobook Sales

This wasn't intentional, TBH. Increasing my audiobook sales was a surprise, given I did not release any audiobooks in 2025. This change is likely due to going wide with audio, by adding my books to Spotify and libraries.

For now, I don't intend on creating more audiobooks, as it takes a few years to recoup those costs with my current averages, even with this increase YoY.

Other random considerations - I have two hardbacks live currently. Do I want to delete them? Less than 1% of my sales each year are in hardcover. The two books that are in this format will not be getting any additional hardcover releases in the series, so I'm considering just removing them entirely so that people don't continue to buy content in sets that won't be concluded.

My Failures, Pivots, and Successes as an Indie Author in 2025

This post is already getting long, so I'll sum up how the year has felt, with all the data at play. Let me know any topics you want me to dive more into.

Failures:

• I wrote less than half the words I did in previous years. I was more stressed this year and couldn't do it, but not writing contributed to my overall mood, becoming a snake eating it's tail.

• I made another hardcover book, even though I said I wouldn't, and it didn't sell enough to justify the time and energy spent. I may unpublish this hardcover in 2026 since I don't plan on making another one for the sequel.

• I barely marketed my books, because of life stressors, and it took me too long to figure out this subconscious sabotage.

• Another year in the red, where I spent more than I earned. However, I feel like this a medium between failure and success, because the ratio is one I'm comfortable with for now, and have plans to see that improve this year. I don't currently report sales vs profit in these writeups, but I may in the future.

Successes:

• I've planned 2026 to be the opposite of that sabotaging failure, with what I learned this year.

• I published three books, one of which had a special edition that outsold the standard edition.

• I took down four books from my backlist, trusting my gut, and feel better for it. Even with this, I made the same YoY because of a focus on physical products.

• I tried direct sales, realized it wasn't for me, and closed shop rather than spending more effort on it. I didn't let myself sit in shame for it.

• My book expenses doubled, but for content that will pay me for years.

  • I invested in commissioned art that I will use for covers and other marketing. I'm only just getting started in this and can't wait to do more with the beautiful art I have from inkbykloe and EJ Songaling.

  • I am on a payment plan for the copyedits of my next seven books. Meaning, I'll finish paying off my editing before the books are out, rather than paying lump sums with each release. This helps my budget.

• I redesigned my websites and switched platforms. rachelhdrake.com and rksampson.com are now better suited to help me succeed. They cost me more monthly, but will serve what I aim to accomplish.

  
  

Things that I did not do on my own, but are highlights of the year:

• Being featured in the Just One More Chapter book club in Central Texas with Saved By My Alien Husband. So so grateful for @nottybookreview for believing in my books and recommending it to the club she was in and for the admins and leaders for approving it. Shout out to @loisjolinereads @mama.c.reads and @bookwraithb for being a big part of that (and for the pictures above!). I'll never forget it.

• Reading the excitement over the new Lily Hills Creatures series and people freaking out over the character art.

• Beta reading 17 different books for other authors, helping nurture them to publication!

What am I going to do now?

I love making these posts because reflecting on the data, especially while I work on planning the year, helps guide my decisions. I make these posts not only for me, but for nosey people like me that wondered how things went for people in creative industries. Knowledge is power.

You can't know where you are going, until you know where you've been.

My Indie Author Goals for 2026:

• Write between 220-260K words in fiction, more than I ever have before, through some habit changes. I want most of this to be in my books, but I am also tracking blog post words this year)

• Publish the first three books in the redone Lily Hills Creatures series. Join the waitlist to find out more as publication comes together.

• Create Foreshadow Special Editions for every book published, and backtrack to previous releases (one for SBMAH, one for TFTS as a whole as a redo of Fate's Daughter).

• Increase the frequency and potency of my organic marketing strategies, like my blogs, newsletters, and social media postings. Create content that AI can read, so it can help recommend my books organically to readers looking for books like mine.

• Foster habits that support the identities I want to live up to as a family and an author.

That's it! It's a lot, and a little. Most of my goals this year are habit focused, to build up to those results. Do you want more posts from me on how I'm building habits? I can't share all of them for privacy reasons, but I can for the fiction related habits.

Bonus Goals:

• Should I release new covers for the Fated Tales series and The Courting of Kingdoms, as additional character art covers? (Not to replace current covers.) I already have art commissioned, so the only cost would be the time needed for me to create and test copies. I plan on creating all the Foreshadow Special Editions for the Lily Hills Creatures series myself, so this can be more practice. Fun, but not required.

• Add my audiobooks to YouTube, with the goal to earn YouTube ad revenue, but to also show off the physical books on that channel as well. I'm curious if audio can be a loss leader to physical books.

If I don't reach these goals, it's okay. I want to hit them, of course, but I believe in the slow building strategies I'm working towards and think I've set myself up better for success than I ever have before. I can't wait to see how I feel in my 2026 write up.

How did 2025 feel for you? What are your plans for the year?

I hope you enjoyed this post and all the detail involved. I'll admit, it took my one business day to complete (across three days total), but if it's helpful to you and me, it's worth the time.

Happy new year.

Rebecca