Out of curiosity, I checked Zillo recently to see how much homes were going for on Lookout Mountain here in Colorado. It wasn’t much of a surprise to see my dream home going for $3 million. At least the HOA fees were realistic at $42 per month.
It got me thinking, I wonder if there is any possible way I could afford something like that as an indie author. All I can say is that the odds are pretty freakin’ slim.
Still, you gotta have goals, right? Well, as long as you can make them realistic.
Do I really believe I can buy a $3 million home while being able to sustain the monthly payments for utilities and such? Not really. It’s one of those things that are fun to daydream about, but not realistic according to my current situation.
Nonetheless, let’s see what I would have to do to buy a home like that.
Why Worry About a $3 Million Home?
This bad boy is 9,779 square feet of awesomeness. That is just slightly four times the size of my current house. It is very spacious with some amazing rooms and carved wooden doors.
It even has a built-in wooden library! I mean, what author wouldn’t want that?
This house is so big, we could play a real-life version of Clue. Now that I think about it, that would be a fun murder-mystery game for Halloween.
Needless to say, this house strikes all of the chords for me just right. I know that I would have a better chance running into Stephen King while walking along the 16th Street Mall here in Denver than ever stepping foot in this house. But it is utterly beautiful.
Even the hot tub room is something out of a storybook. It even has a small waterfall pouring into the tub itself.
This room alone is enough for me to drop a down payment. But I’m pretty sure I would have to sell my house, my cars, my computer, a lung, a kidney, and part of my soul to even come close to the down payment on this place.
What Would it Take for Me to Buy a $3 Million Home?
So, for the fun of it, I decided to use Zillo’s payment calculator to see what I would have to come up with to buy the house. Using my current credit score and a $25,000 down payment (that’s what I put down on my current house), I would need to come up with $20,848 per month.
Keep in mind, that doesn’t include the utilities and maintenance of such a massive house. I wouldn’t even be able to fathom a guess as to how much the electricity would come up to.
Currently, it would take winning a relatively large lottery in order to buy and sustain such a huge chunk of property.
Or would it?
How Many Books Would I Have to Sell?
I’m sure there are plenty of authors out there who could probably pull in these kinds of numbers. But unless your name is Stephen King or J.K. Rowling, I’m not sure how feasible it is in reality.
Let’s crunch a few numbers, shall we?
Buying it Outright
My royalties from Amazon generate roughly $2.95 per copy sold. That’s because I try to keep costs down and make my books accessible to anyone while not overly screwing myself. I’m more interested in sharing a story than making money.
So, at $2.95 per copy, I would have to sell 1,016,950 books just to buy the house. Remember, we’re not including utilities, food, Internet, and anything else that is rolled into owning a home.
If I could get to a point where I sell at least 25 books per day, which seems to be an awful lot for most indie authors, it would take me 111.5 years to save up enough to buy a $3 million home.
But that is only if I stick to selling 25 books per day. It is possible that I could become quite a prolific writer over the years.
What if I wanted to set a 5-year deadline? I would need to sell 558 books per day.
Monthly Mortgage
What if I was able to stick to a $25,000 down payment and take on the $20,848 per month mortgage for my $3 million home?
I would only have to come up with 7,067 books sold per month. Or, roughly 236 books per day.
Now that I’ve done a bit of math, 236 books per day isn’t really outside of the realm of possibility. However, it would take a decent amount of successful marketing and a small library of books people want to read.
This is why mortgages exist. It’s easier to manage a monthly payment than the entire sum in one shot. Unfortunately, you could probably buy two and a half of these homes after you’re done paying it off…if not more.
Realistically Splitting the Monthly Income
My income doesn’t just center around books. I’m also a freelance writer, blogger, and YouTuber. But my dream is to focus on books, blogs, and videos. Until these three generate what I make as a freelancer, I’m kind of stuck where I am.
I’ve got bills to pay.
But what if I could generate enough to fulfill my dream of only working on books, blogs, and videos? If we split up the three, what would I need per month to afford a $3 million home?
First, let’s take the $20,848 per month and split it up into three – one for each project. Each one would need to bring in $6950 per month.
Books
I would need to sell 79 books per day. In the grand scheme of things, this is actually quite doable. That is as long as I could come up with a winning marketing strategy. And you can bet that if I did, I would surely let you know about it.
The Internet is full of “experts” who can show you how to sell 100 books per day. Unfortunately, a lot of them are kind of scammy, black-hat, or unrealistic for those who have a strict budget.
Still, it’s not impossible to generate that many sales, if not more.
Blogs
Currently, WriterSanctuary.com generates about $7.06 per 1000 visitors. For it to generate $6950 per month, I would need to have a minimum of 984,420 visitors to the site to maintain the ad revenue.
I could easily cut that down if I did a bit more for affiliate marketing, though. The problem is that I need to have confidence in a product before I endorse it. I won’t just use any affiliate sign-up link to peddle substandard products or services.
That’s how I talked myself out of a $1500 deal with Ezoic. I hated how their Basic platform worked, and I let my audience know.
Anyway, because writing isn’t necessarily a hot topic in search, I doubt I’ll hit one million visits per month. Well, at least not within the next five years, anyway.
YouTube
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to monetize the YouTube channel with ad revenue. I am still shy of the 4,000 hours of watch time in a 12-month period. But I’m getting extremely close.
In this case, I would have to assume the ad revenue payout from YouTube is similar to what it is for the blogs. After all, both systems are using a form of AdSense.
So, I would have to estimate I would need the same 984,420 views to generate $6950 per month.
Keep in mind that these views would be spread across all of my videos. For some YouTubers, this would be a single upload. As I said, though, writing isn’t an exceptionally popular niche. It would take some finesse for me to generate that kind of viewership.
As I said, though, this is an exceptionally rough estimate. Once the channel is monetized (hopefully before the end of the year), I can get a better idea of setting financial goals.
What Goals Would I Set for a $3 Million Home?
First off, I would spend a lot more time diving into marketing. Not just for the books, but for the blogs and YouTube channels as well.
No one is going to read or watch if they don’t know it exists. It doesn’t matter what you create if it’s hidden in the aether somewhere.
Second, I would put a lot more effort into the YouTube channel. YouTube has great potential, especially if you can secure a few brand deals here and there. In fact, I’ve generated a few book sales because of my videos.
I plan on doing more creative stuff soon, such as voice-overs, live-action book scenes, and live-action book trailers. So, there is more of a chance to hit that entertainment-only audience.
Tutorials and educational material for writing just don’t perform well on YouTube.
Third, I would probably dive a bit deeper into BookTok. I hate the idea of using TikTok, but the majority of indie authors I know swear how the platform has increased book sales.
In reality, I just don’t have a lot of time for extra social stuff. I barely have time to manage the things I have now, let alone record a video or two per day for a platform I don’t necessarily tolerate.
Lastly, I am going to put more effort into affiliate content for both the blog and YouTube channel. I’m sure there are some brands I wouldn’t mind working with to generate a few sales here and there.
In fact, I’m planning out a few affiliate-focused posts today to see if I can make a bit of extra cash before Christmas.
Will any of this give me instant riches? It’s highly doubtful. Most of my success has come from playing the long game. I’d rather build long-term sustainability over instant bursts of cash.
Dreams vs Reality
There’s nothing wrong with dreaming big. It’s how millions upon millions of people have become successful throughout history. However, it seems that more and more people are looking for the key to instant gratification. And thanks to the Internet and technology today, it’s easy to get sucked into delusions of grandeur.
Would I love to drop $3 million to live in my dream home? Absolutely. But I’m also realistic. The odds of me coming up with that much money and then being able to sustain myself month-to-month are exceptionally thin.
It would take some incredible writing and marketing to generate that kind of money as an indie author. I’m sure there are some out there, but from what I’ve seen and witnessed, it’s not a realistic expectation.
At least not without pushing yourself to the brink of burning out.
It’s OK to dream about such extravagances, but you also need to remember to keep your feet firmly planted on the ground. Otherwise, you run the risk of falling and smashing your face open on a brick while trying to reach those high places.
It’s all about keeping yourself mentally balanced and secure.
The Chances Are Never Zero
No, I’m not really looking at this $3 million home with the expectation of buying it soon. Even if everything hit perfectly across the books, blogs, and YouTube, the house would probably be sold by the time I came up with the down payment.
Still, I’ve been able to accomplish a few things that I would never have thought ten years ago.
Remember that the chances of you hitting a goal or acquiring something massive are never absolute zero. You might be surprised by what you can accomplish when you go all-in on something. Just remember to keep your vision realistic according to your ability and lifestyle.
Life isn’t about accumulating the most things. It’s about experiences and knowing that you’ve done your best to be a good person. Sometimes extravagances are presented, and sometimes they’re not. It’s not a reflection of who you are as a person.
What truly matters is how you feel about yourself at the end of the day.
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