New Book

Hello All,

I wanted to post an update. I just released a new book on Tuesday called Outlive (The Baggers Trilogy, #1)!

Also, The Academy Book 1 will be available for $0.99 for a short period of time as soon as the kindle countdown deal goes through.

Chad Leito

Final Donation

Here is the final $3,000 that I owed to MSF! I want to, again, thank everyone for all the support!

Chad Leito

Charity and Writing Update (Baggers Trilogy and The Academy)

Hello All,

I will attach two photos of donations to this post. After this, I will still owe Doctor's Without Borders $3,000 and will pay this as soon as I can get the funds transferred to the appropriate account.

I have been asked for an update on Book 3 of the Academy, both on my blog and via email. I want to start off by saying that it is extremely flattering to hear that readers are anxious for the next book in my series. I don't have a set date for when book 3 will be released, and I truly don't feel comfortable giving an estimate. At this time, I am taking a semi-break from the Academy books. What this means is that I am still gathering ideas and brainstorming, but I am working on a side project at this time and have put actively writing book 3 on hold.

This 'side project' is called "The Baggers Trilogy." As the word 'trilogy' suggests, :), this series will consist of three books. I would estimate that book one will be released on Amazon at some point in July of 2014 and that books two and three will both be released before the end of 2014. I want to stress that these are estimates :). I also estimate that I will recommence actively writing book 3 of the Academy as soon as I am finished writing the Baggers Trilogy (near the end of 2014). I'm still in the outlining phase of book 3, and as those who have read the Academy books know, the plots are intricate and I cannot be sure how much time book 3 will take to complete.

I'm very sorry to all of you who hoped for a quick turn-around between the Academy books, but I hope that you will hear me out when I say that I honestly believe that this short break from The Academy Series will result in higher quality for book 3 and 4 (at this time, I believe that the Academy will be four books long). I spent from April 2012 to February of 2014 working solely on The Academy, as far as writing. Though I love Charlotte, Asa, Robert King, the Davids, the Five Mountains, the Town, Conway, and Francine Black, I felt that I needed to work on a separate project for a few months so that I could become reenergized about the Academy and attack book 3 with a lot of excitement. I believe that writing The Baggers Trilogy will give me a healthy separation from the Academy so that when I begin writing the series again in late 2014 to early 2015, the plotlines, the setting, and the characters will be fresh and invigorating for me. 

I will leave you with the beautiful cover that Chelsey and Caitlin Bateson made for me for The Baggers Trilogy: Book 1.

Enjoy!

Chad Leito

Donation update

Hello all,

The time has come to catch up on my charity donations. After this, I will have completed all of my promised donations, unless my actual tax rate differs from my projected tax rate of 35%.

I think that a good place to start for these donations will be correcting for the projected taz rate of last year. Last year, I projected that I would pay 35% in taxes, when I actually paid 15%.

I’ve only paid through June of 2013, so my 2013 tax rate will only need to be adjusted for those amounts. Between January and June of 2013, my net profit was $3,910.32. In order to adjust the tax rate from 35% to 15%, I need to pay out 20% of $3,910.32, which comes out to $782.06.

Now, I need to pay from July 2013 to March of 2014. For 2013, I will withhold the actual 15% tax rate, but for donations in 2014, I will withhold 35% so that I don’t get into trouble if the amount I owe in taxes increases this year.

I will post the excel photos that go with these payments. Amazon has a new feature in which they list out the payments that you have received, however, being a new feature, these reports can only go back to November 2013. So for November 2013 on, I will use this new feature. This adds a quirk to the calculations, because of the fact that Amazon pays authors ninety days after a month in which they’ve accumulated $100 in sales. Because I did not meet this criteria in any currencies other than GBP or USD until November, I will leave the calculations of the royalties accumulated in those months in other currencies out of the equation to avoid double counting them.

July:

In the US, the books made $1,552.85.

In the UK, the books made 17.68 GBP, which converts to $29.70 USD

August:

US: $972.49

UK: 140.05 GBP which converts to $235.38

September:

US: $1058.47

UK: 312.62 GBP, which converts to $525.20

October:

US: $1831.11

UK: 380.57 GBP, which converts to $639.35

DE: 115.62 EUR, which converts to $156.09

November:

US: $2,675.64

UK: 266.94 GBP, which converts to $448.46

DE: 109.31 EUR, which converts to $147.56

December:

US: $3,338.72

UK: 198.75 GBP, which converts to $333.9

DE: 175.98 EUR, which converts to $237.57

January:

US: $4,040.38

UK: 152.05 GBP, which converts to $255.44

February:

US: $1,963.62

UK: 115.04 GBP, which converts to $193.26

DE:  100.74 EUR, which converts to $135.99

March 2014:

US: $1,779.33

UK: 1,072.99 GBP, which converts to $1,802.62

So, from July to March, the total adds up to be $21,014.41 USD

In my last post I donated $4,000, which brings this number to $17,014.41

Since I’m taking 35% off of that number for taxes, the profit is: $11,059.36.

Out of that number, then, I paid for the cover for Mungus Book 1 and the cover for The Academy Book 2, both of which cost $650. I also paid $500 total in that time for editing.

So, after subtracting 650 x 2 + 500, the number becomes: $9,259.37

But then I must add back the correction for last year’s taxes, which was $782.06, which makes the total that is currently owed to MSF: $10,048.43!

WOW! That’s incredible! Over $10,000 more dollars!

Due to different limits of different payment cards of mine, I will be paying this in increments of $1,500. Below I have posted the first of these installments and am moving money around so that I can post the next payment receipt in a few days.

Thanks to everyone who supported the charity,

Chad

Hello all,

I apologize for not updating the blog in a while. I've been very busy writing book 2 of the Academy (which I'm proud to say is complete! Now, I'm working on obtaining a cover and  editing). At this time, I owe a few months worth of donations to MSF. My PC's internet is not working right now, which makes it difficult to generate a detailed report as I have before. As the charity goes on, more factors need to be taken into account, such as foreign currency exchange, taxes, and I've purchased more book covers and paid for more book editing services. Nonetheless, I will be posting a detailed report, as before, when my PC can again connect to internet.  Today, I have made a  $4,000 donation to MSF and will be posting my internet receipt (I am writing this and made my donation via smartphone). $4,000 is approximately what is owed, currently. Though the charity ends at the end of March, I will not receive payment from amazon 60 days after that time (around June 1, 2014). At that time, I will make an itemized post in which all prior months' earnings are accounted for.


I'm very excited to see the final results of the charity,
Chad Leito


PS: I am hoping that book 2 will be ready for publication in early April!

Cover

Just an update on how the new cover effected my sales:

In the first twenty days of this month the Ebook, the Academy, made $400. This adds up to $20 per day. Since adding the new cover, the Academy has generated $190, meaning that the book is averaging $63 a day in profits, which are going to the support of Doctor's Without Boarders.

I'm very excited to see that the cover appears to have been a good investment.

Chelsey Bateson did a fantastic job, and I am very pleased.

Chad Leito

chadleito@yahoo.com

http://www.amazon.com/The-Academy-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00BT29504

May and June donations

Hello,

As you guys are aware, Amazon authors get paid 60 days after the last month of a month that they earn royalties. So, I have two months of donations to make today, May and June! These two months resulted in $2,922.21. As I've stated before, I'm going to withhold 35% of the earnings initially, to see what I have to pay for taxes. Whatever I don't have to pay the government for book royalties, I'm going to donate after the taxes are paid. So, 35% of $2,922.21 is $1,022.77, which leaves $1,899.44 that's going to the support of Doctor's without boarders!

Now, in August (which I haven't recieved a royalty check for), my books made a little shy of $1,000 in the US, which means that sales have dropped significantly. So, I've been thinking a lot about how I can combat this, in order to make more money for the charity. I've noticed that accross the board, books do better when they have a professional cover. I'm worried that my cover is limiting the amount of money this charity will be able to make. So, as part of this month's donation, I decided to invest some of the money back into the charity by paying for a new cover for the Academy, which cost $700, and was made by Chelsey Bateson, who made the incredible covers for Will Wight's books! So, in addition to posting a donation reciept below, and the sales reports for May and June, I'm posting the new cover!

I truly think that this cover will help the charity greater than its cost! This cover will help to bring a lot of support to Doctors Without Borders, by helping to gain more money for this charity!

Thank you all for your support!


I hope that everyone has a great day!
Chad Leito
wleito@yahoo.com